On a hot, sunny Saturday, the June edition of the HANGOT workday took us to Elthorne Terraces Orchard (or the one "by the Bambi") to deal with unfair competition against fruit trees. Hemlock, brambles, nettles, burdock - we didn't want to see any of that around the orchard tree trunks. Another problem was caused by the fruit trees themselves - tree suckers and self-seeded saplings were stealing nutrients from the originally planted trees and had to be removed.

Six regulars from the HANGOT crew: Mirjam, Clive, Hilary, Magda, Chris and Brian were joined by four GoodGymers, making the team size a decent, round number! The towpath was a lovely route to get to the task. Penny walked to the session while Christos, Steph Ducat and Kash ran different distances to reach the orchard. Steph arrived early, as usual, and Mirjam put him on his favourite watering duty to keep him busy before others showed up.

Walking down the canal path towards Brentford, the GoodGymers saw a pair of swans with five cygnets. Clive said the bird couple had been trying to have babies for a long time, facing challenges like a flooded nest and soggy eggs, and, finally, was lucky to glide upstream with a line of their little ones between them. What a sight it was!

At Elthorne Terraces we saw more examples of nature thriving, such as a quince tree producing plenty of fruit! They weren't ripe yet, of course, but we learned where the quince spot was - a handy knowledge when the foraging season comes! Life does not always prevail - at Elthorne Terraces, we found out that one of the fruit trees had died, and we have been chosen to help it with its last journey. Christos sawed the tree, and Kash chucked its trunk into the bushes like a javelin. Farewell tree! May the circle of life make good use of your remains!

The summer is looking fantastic, and we want to take advantage of long days in June to help HANGOT more than once a month! Join us on Monday in a week's time for a work evening at the canalside orchards - sign up here!