On a lovely (Spring?!) Saturday in Ealing, Graham and Andy did a spot of gardening, then loaded and shifted crates of books to help Ms. B get things organised!

This mission was a landmark occasion for a couple of reasons: Firstly, this was the inaugural GoodGym Ealing mission (!!) But secondly (and relatedly) this was the first time Ealing resident and GoodGym regular Graham was able to run less than 10 miles to reach a GoodGym mission. The wave of GoodGym goodness reaches ever further!

While Ms B’s garden was looking lovely, some overgrown trees were becoming a challenge to maintain. Graham utilised his tall, sleak frame to prune the upper branches, whilst Andy got down to a bit of weeding amongst the strawberries. With our pruning techniques perfected and the strawberry situation markedly improved, Ms B pointed out a hole in the garden fence via which foxes had been secreting (and secreting) themselves. Graham set to work plugging the gap with a decorative arrangement of rocks.

The team then went full Monty Don and hammered in some wooden edging to mark out the garden borders. The hammering was hampered for want of a hammer, so we experimented with a brick, a crowbar and a trowel. If you’re to ever find yourself in this situation, we’d recommend using none of the above. We later discovered a brand new mallet, so Andy posed for a photo op.

Both GoodGymmers had completed parkruns that morning (Andy at Mile End, Graham at Gunnersbury) and made the mistake of attending a 1pm mission before eating lunch. So stomachs were rumbling as the end of the task seemed in sight. But Ms B had more in store! Fortunately, she cracked out the family selection pack of biscuits which were quickly devoured, then had us shift a couple of crates into the garden to create a bit more space indoors. Ms B was so pleased at how quickly the task was completed, she soon organised us into a human chain from the bookshelf to the packing crates, to pack crate after very heavy crate with books. A total of TWELVE crates later, we had a huge stack of crates outside and covered with a big tarpaulin, then polished off the biscuits and said our goodbyes.

Graham led a lovely run back through the green spaces of Ealing, which (he’s right) is indeed the Jewel of West London. And it’s got a very nice pizza place to boot!