It was a blustery but dry Saturday morning as eleven cheerful GGers from four different areas gathered at the North gatehouse of Gunnersbury Park. The wide open spaces of the park were perfect for some doing good while social distancing, and also an ideal opportunity to bring along a few furry friends – the group was delighted to see Chester & Mabel had come along with Kate, and the absolutely gorgeous 4-month-old Watson was bounding around on his long lead.

After stowing bikes and bags and collecting tools and wheelbarrows from a double-locked storage area, Kate led us down to our place of work. As we walked along, those who had worked on clearing the park’s brambles warned the newbies that it was a big task, and this turned out to be an understatement as we were confronted by huge thickets of the prickly plants surrounding the bases of the trees.

Undaunted, everyone grabbed a pair of shears or loppers and spread out around the base of one of the largest bramble bushes any of us had ever seen. We set to work with the vigor and energy of GoodGymers suffering community mission withdrawal and started making inroads pretty quickly. After a short while, a couple of the group grabbed rakes and started to gather up the chopped pieces of bramble and fill the huge canvas refuse sacks.

The talk was of the next step in opening up after the lockdown, being able to go back to the pub, and how much everyone missed group runs and hoped a way would be found to get them going again as soon as possible. The work was very satisfying and made all the more enjoyable by the hilarious antics of our three canine friends playing games nearby and by Michelle’s offering of delicious home-made brownies to boost our energy. We even had a friendly visit from Adam, out for a run in the park.

Eventually Kate told us we needed to start wrapping up and everyone was surprised at how long we’d been working. We raked up the last of the cuttings and dragged the bags up to the path so they could be collected. We parted ways promising to catch up soon on the various community missions which have been listed, and plotting a further onslaught of the Gunnersbury brambles in the near future!