The first day of August brought a pretty solid team to Horsenden Farm, including a wave of new joiners: Rene, Laxmi, and Mairaj. Welcome to GoodGym Ealing - we hope you enjoyed your first task!

Worked on tasks, got along really well, supportive people all around, will attend more sessions. Very helpful and friendly team. - summarised Mairaj in his report

Elsa equipped us with wheelbarrows, shears, loppers, rakes, and even a slasher (which Steph Ducat quickly booked), then led us up Horsenden Hill to a place called Wells Meadows. The meadow was recently scythed, but it has not been raked yet. There was also a corner covered by a huge patch of brambles that, despite bearing delicious, ripe blackberries at that time of the year, were still considered undesirable plants. Our job was to clear the area so that Friends of Horsenden Hill could create a wildflower meadow.

Jamie’s and Gus’s cunning plan included cutting and eating their way to the most juicy blackberries. They found plenty of allies in their war against brambles: Ramona, Sevan, Steph, and, later on, Mairaj. Raking - which turned out to be more of a cardio workout than many may have expected - was handled mostly by Rene and Kash. Laxmi became a jack of all trades, raking, harvesting blackberries, and chopping brambles.

The session at Horsenden couldn’t be considered complete without bringing to life the slogan animals 🐮 + pizza 🍕 + craft beer 🍺. Even though we must admit that animals were hiding today, the GoodGymers didn’t have trouble finding the beer stall and the pizza oven.

What have the new GoodGymers learned today?

• GoodGymers can get quite competitive about the size of the brambles they pulled.
• Brambles produce blackberries.
• Brambles have thorns.
• Thorns scratch.
• Thick gloves protect you from thorns.
• Long trousers and sleeves also protect you from thorns (forget this one - even veteran GoodGymers never seem to learn that fact!).
• If you arrive late for the task, ask for the person with red hair.

We are back at Horsenden Farm next month, hoping for more animals, more new faces, and fewer scratches! Sign up now!

Another month and another awesome litter picking by the Goodgymers. All were running somewhere at the same time : a great combination of running and cleaning up. Harvey running in Sweden, Ramona running with a friend in Isleworth and Steph Ducat in Southall and Ealing near Northfields allotments. Ramona ran early with her friend and collection bottles after wards that were in the park. Steph Ducat did a litterpick in Southall as was on a mission in the rea then did a 2nd one near Northfields allotments on Radbourne walk which is "heaven" for litter pickers. A lot of cans today, probably due to the heat. Also found loads of family related cards. Harvey litter picked in Hanwell during the week before shooting off on his Park run adventures abroad

5 awesome GoodGymers turned out for HANGOT's regular pre-Hootie task, to give Elthorne Triangle's orchard a short back, sides and everything else ready for the summer. The fruit trees there had seen weeds and wildflowers shoot up over the past weeks meaning that they were having to fight for water and light, so HANGOT wanted to give the trees the best chance of producing fruit for the community.

Sun cream was broken out ahead of Steph, Kash, Ramona, Eman and Sevan helping the HANGOT volunteers to chop, rake and wheelbarrow the overgrowth away. Frank and Lydia from HANGOT also had scythes to clear larger areas, so everyone else made sure to keep their ankles away from the sweeping blades. Today was Ramona's first GoodGym task and she did an amazing job, getting stuck into lots of different tasks. Welcome Ramona 👋🎉! We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Together, the team freed the majority of fruit trees in the orchard, giving the pear, apple and cherry fruits the opportunity to grow juicy and strong this summer. The mature trees will have fruit ready for the public to forage in a few months 🍎🍐🍒.