Six goodGymers met in Desborough Park on a warm summer evening. The ground had been baked solid so the task had changed from digging a garden bed to cutting ivy and litter picking. The task owner was suddenly taken ill so couldn't make it. There we were, clueless and directionless but in true GoodGym fashion, we made something out of nothing!

Angela and Viv got started on litter picking, accompanied by the very clever Flora (the way she persisted to find that tennis ball inside the dense bush was applause worthy!). Jess, Kanika and Diya got started on trimming the ivy around the community centre building. Joanne from Wild Maidenhead and Councillor Jack advised we cut the stems 1.5mt from the ground and the tops would just wither and fall off. Jack and Joanne then proceeded to water the beds at the top of the park.

Kanika set high standards with an impressive, clear line where she had cut the ivy. Jess promptly followed in her footsteps creating an admirable line. Diya definitely came last in this neatness category!

Ivy trimming was hard work - dry, dusty, not easily accessible but we made a fair go at it. Viv and Angela joined us after a round of litter picking and relieved our tired arms.

It might not look like much but we got there in the end!

High fives for the great group who got up early on Sunday for some sociable hedge trimming.

Our job was to cut back overgrowth to improve visibility from marshal points 2 to 4 at junior parkrun. When we started it was more a case of visibili-tree than visibility.

Kudos to Liv for running 7miles to the task and still having energy to marshal at parkrun afterwards.

Phil and Sheila made an early start to look out for nesting birds and focussed on the Eastern end of the path.

On the Western front we took turns standing in the marshal spots to help us find the right bits to cut back.

We made great progress but concluded at the end that perfect line of sight is not possible without digging up some of the trees and hedges completely.

Marshals at point 4 will need to take a couple of steps back to wave at their buddies at point 3.

That's fewer steps than they would have needed last week though!

Ten of us joined fellow GGer and task owner Nivi at Ray Mill Island on a perfect summer evening. Our task was to paint some murals on the paths to make them pop!

Some got going with cleaning the path for the artwork, while others chose what they wanted to draw from various drawings that Nivi had chosen. Chalks and paints in hand, the more skilled ones drew out the murals, some tested their drawings for accuracy (see the hopscotch-ers), and then everyone joined in with paints and brushes.

Universally hailed as the most fun task in a long time, it was hard to pull people away from it. Some stayed back a bit longer to finish their handiwork.