It's been two months since GoodGym visited Grove Farm and Madiha wore the glamourous 50 good deeds sash. This time the glittery accessory was worn for the second time - and the honour went to Christos.

Today's conservation day at Grove Farm was an excellent task to celebrate a milestone but also to join the GoodGym gang - that was the case for Gistan. He showed up already in the red t-shirt and enthusiasm for a workout with equipment offered by woodlands: heavy logs and branches to carry after chopping them down.

While the other Friends of Grove Farm lead, Anna, was hosting a pollinator survey nearby, Mike took charge of our team including the regulars: Bharti, Olena and Livio. We walked to the Southern entrance to the nature reserve, at Whitton Avenue, where our job was to increase the visitor experience. The first impression of the park resembled entering a wilderness - maybe too much of a wilderness for those worried about drinking or other anti-social behaviour concealed by the thick bushes. Before beginning the quest of destroying the drinkers' hideaways, Mike ensured us that the thicket had been thoroughly checked for the presence of birds, as it was nesting season.

Armed with shears, loppers and saws, we attacked tree branches growing downwards, octopus-like ivy clusters and nasty brambles. Hungry for more devastation, we started looking at the few fallen trees swallowed by ivy.

"If we cut away all the ivy and brambles from those trees, we will create new seats for the drinkers." - said Mike

There was an option to chop down the ivy and transfer some long bramble stems onto the tree trunks to make the potential sitting area not too comfortable. While we were about to do that, Steph Ducat and Sevan finally made it to Grove Farm after waiting for the train this morning - but it was not the train you may think about. To make the service running, they had to build rail tracks first!

Let's get back to Grove Farm: with the reinforcements, we dared to question the right of the fallen trees to lay at the entrance to the park and attract anti-social activity. The dead trees had to go!

We tore away the thick ivy, hacked the bark off the trunks and cut away the branches until the trees appeared less intimidating. Then we pushed, pulled and twisted them in any direction imaginable to tear them off the ground. Imagine a bad dentist wrestling with an uneven tooth root, that was us! Everyone survived the grappling session with the mighty trees, only Sevan fell back and scratched himself which didn't deter him at all.

The mud, rather than blood, tainted our red t-shirts but we didn't shun away the dirt and hard work. After all, that's where the black t-shirts come from - just like the one Christos earned today for the 50th good deed! Gistan had all reason to be proud of his dirt marks on the t-shirt at his first session - he worked hard and even stayed longer than the other GoodGymers to help Friends of Grove Farm.

"I like to finish the job." - Gistan
"There is quite a lot here to finish!" - Sevan, looking into the depth of the woods

The runners set off for the downhill fun run towards Ealing after climbing three hills to get to the location before. We do like the challenge of the hilly run to Grove Farm, don't we? If you are up for the upcoming session in charming woodlands (the run is not mandatory by any means!), sign up here!

Fancy fewer hills but an equally green area in the North of our borough? Join us next week at Horsenden Farm!