Five GoodGymers who volunteered at Acton junior parkrun in the morning, couldn't have enough fresh air on a sunny Sunday and decided on another session in South Ealing. After their usual post-parkrun coffee break, Michelle cycled 3.5 km to the next destination while Harvey, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash raced her on foot. The runners' route took them through South Ealing Cemetery, which had a surprising number of roundabouts! At one of the roundabouts, the team met Gaby and Simon - the latter on his official first session - although he had been familiar with GoodGym for a while! Everyone, including Beata, who walked to the task, eventually made it to the cemetery chapel and met Paul from the Ealing Parks Foundation.

Today's job was a continuation of last month's task to spread the Christmas joy over the cemetery. In other words, we were laying (very coarse) woodchip made of last year's Christmas trees over the cemetery's side paths. Our impressive team of eight split between three paths, and our smallest unit joined two local volunteers, David and Keith, with whom we exchanged experiences about interesting community projects in Ealing we had worked on. We joked about finding minced Christmas lights among the woodchip piles. In fact, one of us discovered a Christmas decoration piece resembling a diamond!

Speaking of precious goods, today wheelbarrows were worth a million as we had only two of them to share. One of our smaller teams used a tonne bag for woodchip transport instead - those GoodGymers had the best full-body workouts! Fantastic teamwork (despite Harvey's two right gloves) allowed us to complete all three paths before noon when we decided to call it a day. The retired Christmas trees could now rest in pieces at the necropolis.

The best reward for our volunteering efforts was spending the morning outdoors, in the sun, surrounded by the tranquil atmosphere of early spring. The blossoms on the trees made the South Ealing Cemetery resemble a magical park.

"Maybe that's weird, but I like cemeteries. I am not scared of them. They are so quiet and peaceful." - said Gaby.

Gaby was not the only one appreciating the unique serenity of graveyards. The Ealing Parks Foundation's project, which we supported today, aims for South Ealing Cemetery to retain its charm and dignity while transforming it into a welcoming green space for everyone to relax. If you are local to the area and are looking for a quiet space to go for a walk and clear your mind, visit the cemetery and be delighted by its calming atmosphere!