On a night where heavy rain and strong winds were forecast, 9 brave souls laughed in the face of mother nature and turned up to make a difference in Ealing. This included three brand new goodgymers in Cat, Ben and Sara, a very big welcome to you all!

Tonight we made a return to the lovely Church St. Stephen's where we met church member and volunteer Sue to help do some planting and clearing in the garden. They have been creating outdoor areas to encourage wildlife and we are hoping that our work tonight will be a help in becoming a space to attract more bees!

We had a short 'commute' to the task this evening so it meant we had time to get lots of tasks done. We split into groups of planters and clearers and everyone got really stuck in, especially newcomer Ben who took on the solo task out the front of church cutting back the holly hedge. There was some great teamwork going on to get the planting done with some digging the holes and others preparing the soil and bone meal (not ideal for vegans says Sue!). I made good use of the headtorch I'd bought along with me and shuttled between the groups to shine a little light on proceedings!

We all came together at the end to sweep up all the fallen acorns and clear an extra patch of ground to be used for planting in the future. Micheal K definitely wins the award this week for longest root pulled up!

There's lots going on at St. Stephens in the coming year so we hope to be back again soon to help out again but with our work done for the night and rain closing in we jogged the short route back to base for a quick fitness session before releasing everyone home for their tea. We did some sprints with a HIIT drill in between each burst and I think everyone was suitably spent by the end. Ronan said he'd let me know if his legs ache for three days again like last night... apologies in advance if this is the case but at least you know you've worked really hard!

Thank you all for coming! You can sign up for next week here when we'll be doing to double the good for our flyering week.

See you next time, happy running!