At the nineteenth hour, of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 15 Richmond runners ran 6km in the moonlight to help out an 'old soldier' and sow remembrance poppies .

The warm up got us running in circles trying to keep up! #goodgym #richmond #runninggroup #volunteering #gooddeed #exercise #fitness #runningdrills pic.twitter.com/wpY0R9FyRJ

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) November 12, 2019

Recently rediscovered during the ongoing woodland conservation work at Petersham Common , our 'veteran' was a 500 years old Field Maple, one of Britain's Ancient Trees. Very elderly, it is in need of a bit of extra help in order to thrive, so Goodgym were on hand to help with 'haloing', clearing a circle around and underneath the old tree so that it no longer has to compete with quite so many other plants for water and nutrients.

We had a tree-o of tasks. One group set to work on the 'halo', wielding loppers to cut back ash saplings that were sprouting under the ancient maple. A second group used spades to disturb the ground ready for the final task of sowing thousands of poppy seeds.

Tree hugging, led by Kate, was definitely in order at the end. A really worthwhile evening of environmental work and a poignant task on Remembrance Day.

Find our amazing maple tree on the Woodland Trust Ancient Tree Inventory at: https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/tree-search/tree?treeid=187469&from=3523&v=1629481&ml=map&z=18&nwLat=51.44836903366834&nwLng=-0.3018287464918057&seLat=51.44670408446299&seLng=-0.2963355824293057#/

With thanks to Lenka for back marking and to Mark for Leadership and Photography. And congratulations to Ciara who completed the Richmond half- marathon recently as well as Cathy on her first park run in bushy, while Kate was hitting 50!!

Thanks Ken, our task owner as well for being so prepared for the task and all the knowledge he shared with us!

Next week we are at Vineyard for Christmas prep - see you then!