We were back helping HANGOT this morning at their Elthorne Triangle orchard, an area we know well as it's right next to the tool container that we use in Elthorne Park. Kash, Anuj and Sevan ran to the site in shorts and t-shirt as it was another warm, sunny day. They soon saw that the other volunteers were all wearing trousers as today's task was to clear hemlock, burdock and lots of nettles from around the trees.

The GoodGym trio took what they thought was the simplest task, to clear everything from around a heritage fruit tree that HANGOT had adopted and was believed to be over 100 years old! There was no need to decided what to cut, everything had to be cleared in a big ring around the tree.

When the got closer, they saw that there was a huge patch of nettles growing around the tree. Not great if you're in running shorts. The team bravely got stuck in to the task, helped by one of the HANGOT volunteers who cleared the way with a wickedly sharp scythe. They then raked and bagged the waste, adding it to a huge pile of cuttings to decompose.

With such a large group of volunteers, the session finished up early, allowing some to leave and enjoy today's Hanwell Hootie.

We'll have another session with HANGOT scheduled for one of their June events.

Kash and Sevan ran to Hanwell Community Library, one of the locations for this year's Hanwell Hootie, to help set the scene. They didn't know how to turn a library into a concert venue. All they'd been told was that it involved hessian.

When they arrived, they found the crew and volunteers already hard at work. The stage was being set up and the bookshelves were being covered in lengths of hessian to stop beery hands from reaching for the latest Richard Osman.

There wasn't too much left to do. They helped cover 2 long stretches of shelves with hessian by using some giant clips, then covered a library computer with a "Live Life Oud" sign, pointing out that someone had dropped an L. Surely in a library, that must be some sort of crime.

The last part of the Antiques Roadshow Planting Trilogy (featuring the Snail Blazers and Plantum Physics) had no plants left in the pots.

The non-GoodGym gardeners finished the planting over the week, but the last job the rangers needed from us was mulching. But when to do it?

On a sunny late Friday afternoon, Sevan and Kash finished the Hootie setup task at the library early and seized the moment. They ran to Walpole Park - not to catch the sun after work like most visitors that day - but to do some spontaneous GoodGymming.

They grabbed shovels and wheelbarrows from the Rickyard and raided local woodchip piles in broad daylight to collect mulch, which they spread around the newest additions to the plant family outside the Walled Garden. Finally, the perfect stage design was complete! Their actions caught some attention of passersby, so we are hoping for new GoodGym sign-ups! 😉

Did you know that Pitzhanger Manor in Walpole Park, along with the surrounding area, will soon be the filming location of the Antiques Roadshow? Because of that, the rangers and volunteers are carrying planting activities, turning the ordinary grass patches into elegant flowerbeds.

A small but effective team of GoodGymers had a go on the planting task one Saturday in April. Tonight, GoodGym was returning with some experience and twice as many people to try to finish off the planting. Was the work easier this time?

There are no great GoodGym adventures without challenges!

⏱️ We were tight on time! It was a group run, so we needed to adjust the timings to account for that (well done Ijo on keeping a steady pace! 🙌)!

🍕 We had a booking for a monthly pizza social! That meant time was even more precious! The planting team - including the newest addition to the team, Georgina, worked extra hard to complete the whole geranium patch - and we did it! We only managed to wrap up on time because we had Milly leading the group to the venue, and Steph staying to help with putting away the tools.

⛔ The code to the lockbox didn't work! Luckily, the ranger was on duty 🫡 and saved the day, answering the call. Otherwise, we might have gone straight home (or for the pizza 😋)!

🖍️ There were no markings on the ground this time! Luckily, Annabel kept her eyes wide open and figured out the exact planting location from the photos we had! Sevan's knowledge of the location from the previous task allowed us to start digging right away.

🌱 The soil was not prepared this time! We had to deal with removing a large patch of grass first. It was a blessing to have Claire on the team, with her gardening expertise and the brilliant idea to use forks, not just shovels, to quickly prepare the ground.

🧱 There were bricks in the soil! In some areas we used brute force, in others we worked around the bricks. The plants may not ended up evenly distributed, yet they made their way to the soil!

🍂 We had to do some mulching too! With a bigger team, not everyone could do the planting. Taskforce Mike, Milly and Steph knew the drill and volunteered right away to wheelbarrow the woodchip and distribute it gently between the existing plants.

Thank you, Amazing Team, for the incredible effort in such a short time! 🤩 You totally deserved the pizza prize after the task!

Next week we are finally back to St Andrew's Church to help create gravel paths in their Pocket Allotment. Sign up now!

The City Harvest van was nearly empty when Sevan and Kash showed up at the Salvation Army Hall a couple of minutes after 4 pm. Emma with the early ESK birds unloaded most of the crates, so the next job was to assemble 75 snack bags and 44 shopping bags for the vulnerable clients.

"Sevan, let's run a quality check on those bananas before we put them in a bag." - Matt, an ESK regular.

A significant part of the rescued bananas went squidgy and couldn't be given out to the clients, so the last few snack bags were short of the fruit portion.

The GoodGymers took out the donated clothes from the Cupboard of Doom™, secretly pleased about not being the ones who would later have to cram them back into the closet.

Unpacking men's deodorants to give out, and counting the takeaway boxes were the extra chores that the Boss Lady Emma could think about before it became apparent that there was nothing more to do around 5:30 pm. Sevan picked up the temporary DJ job and put some Red Hot Chili Peppers on the speakers, and all the volunteers enjoyed a relaxing break, even though chilli peppers wouldn't make up for the few missing bananas.

When Steph arrived ahead of time for the 2nd shift for his crowd control gig, Sevan and Kash disappeared, and the rock music at ESK went silent.