St Mary's churchyard had undergone big changes since GoodGym's last visit 3 weeks ago. Human power to remove weeds [last time] had been replaced with the electric power of a hedge trimmer that task owner Cliff was using like a strimmer, at ground level. There was still plenty left for today's GoodGym group to help out with and they weren't being replaced by power tools just yet.

Some GoodGymers had been expecting to be battling nettles, so wore leggings or running tights. The main job for today turned out to be covering the cleared area with wood chip to stop the weeds from springing back, so in the warm weather, the shorts wearing duo had chosen well.

The wood chip piles to relocate had been left in front of the vicar's house, so tidying that space would put Cliff - and GoodGym - in the new vicar's good books. Andrew, Michelle, Kash and Sevan got shovelling, ferrying wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow into the churchyard and tipping them out to cover the areas that had been cleared of weeds. Andrew in particular was having great fun powerfully flipping his wheelbarrow over to empty it.

While the group worked away, they kept themselves amused talking about holidays, imposter syndrome and the "Ealing Feeling" that was wafting over from one of the churchyard's visitors. Meanwhile, Cliff was continuing to cut away at anything green that shouldn't be in the garden. By the end of the session, there was great coverage of wood chip and a whole new area to be cleared. There were more weeds to be wiped out too in other parts of the garden, so keep an eye out for another session later this month.

This Sunday morning task at Cuckoo Park was the last of this May's Wildlife Surveys in Ealing Tiny Forests. Steph and Kash introduced Andrew and his girlfriend Debbie to the nitty-gritty of scouring the area for insects, and then everyone launched into... deep focus.

🦋 Debbie, not discouraged by the stories of previous butterfly surveys' findings, spent 15 minutes with her eyes peeled for the colourful wings, yet the final butterfly count this year remained zero!
🐜 Steph taught Andrew the ways of the underworld - in other words: the world of ground dwellers. The duo spotted plenty of ants and larvae under the biodiversity tiles. Interestingly, two of the tiles seemed to be misplaced. Foxes?
🐝 Kash found a small patch of flowers at the edge of the Tiny Forest and observed it closely - as a result, she recorded two bumblebees and a fly in her pollinator survey.
🚮 Steph, always ready for a spontaneous litter pick, at the sight of rubbish at the Tiny Forest, pulled out his foldable picker and a rubbish bag, then did a litter blitz around the site. It looks like the wooden benches in the "classroom" area attract not only the lovers of nature but the fans of Coors beer as well!

The community mission concluded the Wildlife Survey this season. We will return to Cuckoo Park in the future to see how the biodiversity develops over time. In the meantime, we'll surely pop in with measuring tapes to help scientists calculate Tiny Forest's trees' capacity to store carbon.

Four explorers Kash, Sevan, Harvey and Steph Ducat set off and jogged after a coffee break to meet Professor Richard from Ealing Greenwayers in Greenford near the Jungle of Gurnell. Explorer Andrew was already there and we also had another French explorer Maxime who decided to adventure outside of his borough. The explorers braved the jungle of Gurnell in search of the fabled land Professor Richard mentioned at the beginning of the meeting: Eldorado aka the Balsam Field. The field was a treasure for the explorers, but it could not be seen from the trail path. Was this just a myth or would the intrepid explorers find their way to the holy Balsam Field? Armed with loppers, shears and slashers the adventurers battled their way through the impenetrable jungle to find their first treasure...a lime bike!! The jungle opened up to an open space with rocks, flowing water of the river and the famous Balsam Field that Professor Richard notoriously spoke about to the GG explorers. While part of the explorers kept clearing the highway to Eldorado, the others started removing the Balsam from the field. Another successful expedition for Professor Richard and his explorers - welcome to Eldorado!! Impact was gi-ga-normous : words from Richard