My way or the hay-way

18 Goodgymers helped their local community in Ealing
Anita Carroll
Gabriela Moreno
Mairaj Hasan
StephDucat
Thaiza Pinto
Lucy Hill
Sevan
Kash
Augustin Lagarde
Kymm
Ashley
Anita Carroll
Tom Bailey
Bernadette Danklmayer
1 / 46
Ealing

Saturday 4th October

Credits
Mairaj Hasan
Mairaj Hasan

PHOTOGRAPHER

StephDucat
StephDucat

PHOTOGRAPHER

Sevan
Sevan

PHOTOGRAPHER

WELCOMER

Kash
Kash

SESSION ORGANISER

PHOTOGRAPHER

DOCUMENT CHECKER

REPORT WRITER

Find out about GoodGym TaskForce

Report written by Kash

Share the love

As Storm Amy approached Ealing, a whirlwind of West London GoodGymers landed at Horsenden Farm. A strong team of seventeen hasn't been seen in Ealing for a long time. It took the joint forces of Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond to build a do-good brigade so large that it surprised even the task owner, Elsa, who scrambled to find more tasks for them.

We welcomed two new joiners, Bernadette and Tom, who chose to kick off their GoodGym adventure dangerously close to the Gruffalo Trail at Horsenden Hill. With such an impressive team, the chances of being eaten by a Gruffalo were close to zero. At the same time, the odds of having fun with good company while getting active in nature before eating carb-heavy, cheesy goodness from a local bakery were very high!

Our regulars from the Hounslow group runs had a chance to welcome back the unstoppable Lucy after the break she had to take in the last couple of weeks. Great to see you again, Lucy!

Two of the tasks given by Elsa had a lot to do with the mysterious disappearance of Horsenden pigs. The first assignment, taken by Steph Ducat, Iram, Kymm and Gus, was to transfer hay from the broken-down hay bales to the former pig quarters and spread it on the ground. I chose to believe it was to secure the traces of a pignapping crime until the arrival of the forensics team. Steph described the effort as hay-way to hell as the gusts of wind kept blowing the hay out of the wheelbarrows. Kymm reported there were as many techniques to spread the hay as GoodGymers: from gleeful tossing, through grumpy kicking to methodical arranging.

Sevan and Bernadette had a task of clearing weeds, mostly nettles, near the Horsenden Loaf pizza oven. Sevan shared that they were setting the stage for the hog roast the following day. That shed some light on the disappearance of the pigs - they must have escaped when they heard about the whole hog roast enterprise!

The largest squad undertook a mammoth job of clearing brambles to expand a meadow where the farm cows could graze to help establish a grassland with plenty of wildlife on the slope of Horsenden Hill. Gaby, Ariane, Tom, Mairaj, Maxime, Afshin, Thaiza, Lucy and Kash were chopping, lopping or slashing the blackberry invaders while Anita and Ash raked away the cuttings.

The cherry on a cake was that all the activity was observed through the lens of photographer Laura, who did a great job of not interrupting our tasks while capturing the spirit of GoodGym and the beauty of Horsenden Hill. We are hoping our part-time modelling gig today will help spread the word about GoodGym in the coming months. It will probably also disclose our soft spot for Horsenden pizza!

Inspired by today's task? Join the Horsenden session next month! Sign up now!


This task supported

People who love and appreciate Horsenden Hill and want others to enjoy and celebrate this unique and wonderful location with us

See more

Discuss this report
Mairaj Hasan
Mairaj Hasan (He/him)

Sun 5th Oct at 12:15am

[This comment has been deleted]

Join us on our next session

Ealing

Muscles against food waste 🤜🍌🗑️ Early delivery 🌅 for South Ealing Community Food Cupboard
🗓Tomorrow 8:00am

Help make surplus food available to anyone and everyone from the local area

0 GoodGymers are going - 2 spaces left! 👀