On a lovely Sunday morning two Goodgymers made their way to the Welsh Harp Enviromental Education Centre at Brent Reservoir to join other (ir)regular volunteers and a group of scouts to help in some conservation work, with David running 10 miles and Peter driving on his way back to the other side of town. After a warm welcome and the obligatory safety briefing, Billy & Debbie from Thames21 took us into the nearby foresty area to go and plant some hazel, a mere 50 waiting to find a spot in the ground. With the scouts eagerly getting stuck in under expert tuition from Billy, the others soon moved on with Debbie to clearing all sorts of growth from around two nearby ponds, where David & Peter had their first skirmish with a prickly opponent – black thorn. It quickly showed why it was called a thorn, with sizeable spikes seemingly aiming for any unprotected skin. A little break from the spikes and balancing on the edge of the pond included moving a huge stack of rubber mats, meant for a play ground at some point, but now blocking access to a store room needed for a newly arriving washing machine. Clearing out the store room resulted in all sorts of surprises for Debbie and a clean space ready to be used. Returning to the ponds the battle with the black thorn really got going, with load after load being cut down & dragged off, skipping a lunch break to keep going till our home time.

A final chat with Billy brought up some interesting future plans where Goodgym definitely can get involved with, plus a possible link with Thames21 in/near other Goodgym areas could be on the cards as well.

All in all a morning well spent , with no doubt more repeat visits to Welsh Harp in the future to continue the work done sofar, so keep an eye on the upcoming missions!