Well done to the 12 GoodGymers who braved the cold this morning to plant over 130 trees. This session was part of an ongoing project run by Alistair Will from Groundwork South in partnership with RBWM, to grow the New Thrift Wood - bridging the gap between the ancient woodland of Little Thrift Wood and the nearby SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest no less!) on private land. The aim is for this area of planting to mature in the next couple of centuries or so, creating a beautiful, carbon-sinking, haven for biodiverse flora and fauna.

The session got off to a fantastic start before we had even left the car park with delicious CAKE! A huge thank you to Tara and Sheila, who brought this along to celebrate my 150th good deed with GoodGym - thank you for making me feel very special!

It was great to welcome newcomer Kevin, who travelled all the way from Fleet having seen the project on the Future Forest Network. He brought his dog and reported that "Fearne loved running around the trees and the lovely people who were working so hard to plant trees for future generations".

It was also brilliant to see GoodGymers like Claire and Kelley, who have been involved in this project for as long as GoodGym has. Claire, for example, was part of the team who helped harvest acorns from the park in August 2020 - acorns that our task owner, Groundwork South's Alistair Will, has carefully nurtured into saplings, and which we were planting out today.

Claire and Alistair alike expressed a real emotional attachment to these little oaks, so it was only right that we gave them the full star treatment - a full 2m social distance from any other sapling, and a sturdy stake and guard to fend off even the most determined rabbit. Many saplings were also given blessings and names as they were carefully pressed into their new homes. Groot, Slanty, Kelley, Georgeta the First, Erin and Patrick were amongst the more memorable names.

In under an hour over 50 oak saplings had been planted and we moved onto planting whips including Alder, Willow and Hazel, which were protected with garden canes and smaller rabbit coils.

As we walked back to the car park many of us were left wanting more, which is just as well because there are hundreds more trees waiting to be planted this Winter - not just at the New Thrift Wood site, but also on the other side of Little Thrift Wood, to shield the park from the motorway and to extend this corridor of woodland even further. Keep an eye on the listings for more tree planting sessions.