This evening we took our Wednesday club (aka the Maidenhead GoodGym group run) to the Mencap Society's Wednesday club to help with some gardening.

We met up at our home from home, the Maidenhead Community Centre, which is only a short walk from Highview Centre, the home of not only Mencap, but also the Alzheimer's Society and other community organisations.

Sheila led the majority of the group, who were walking, and I was joined by runners Adam and Jess. We did a warm up and a lap of Kidwells before chasing after the walkers. With tired legs following Endure 24 I'm sorry to say we didn't catch them!

When we arrived at Highview Centre the walkers had already been greeted by task owner Colin and members of the Wednesday Club and they were getting stuck into the task - cutting back overgrown shrubs, pulling up weeds and battling brambles in the back garden.

I nipped out to find Ben, who had opted to meet us at the task, and even in the short time I was out the gardeners made great progress.

Ben joined Adam working in the front garden and they did an amazing job cutting things back and clearing weeds, including loads of bindweed.

This was the first time we've helped at Highview during a Mencap Wednesday club session and it was lovely to see the venue in use and to meet some of the members. There was a real buzz in the room as the members played games, did crafts and enjoyed a disco.

It was a lovely sociable evening, catching up with old friends and welcoming back newer members Caroline and Viv. While we worked we were treated to delicious home made Victoria sponge and cups of tea. We will be sure to return soon, as we have been invited to help paint 6 benches. Can't wait!

This evening was our second week battling Himalayan Balsam, which threatens native biodiversity if left to flower and explode it's seeds all over the place. Last week we were at Ockwells Park but this week we headed to Battlemead Common.

There were very few GoodGymers signed up when I checked earlier in the day, and the rain was hammering down, so I was pleasantly surprised when there was a flurry of last minute sign ups and the weather turned pleasant.

We had a lovely, leafy walk along the Thames Path to the what 3 words location shared by task owner Ranger Tom: gently.cotton.chair. Kudos to Gillian for running loops around the rest of us while we walked.

Scarlett and Matthew chose to make their own way to the task and their scenic route took a bit longer than ours. We concluded that it's better to follow TomTom than Mattnav.

The task location was a peaceful spot filled with nettles and Himalayan Balsam. You would be forgiven for thinking the evil plant here was the nettles, and we did get quite a few stings, but the pretty balsam was our target.

Balsam doesn't directly hurt, even if you bash each other over the head with it. Nicola and Matthew can confirm that it is in fact quite a pleasing thing to do, creating a nice hollow sound...

Thankfully balsam is easy to pull up. It's little pink roots mostly come up with a satisfying pop. We were instructed to pull them up and discard them at our feet, so it was easy to work our way along, leaving the right kind of destruction in our wake.

It was difficult to drag everyone away from this satisfying and addictive task, but we had another lovely walk along the tow path back to our start location and I'm sure we'll be back for more soon. Watch this space!

Congratulations to Roberta on completing 50 GoodGym good deeds! Roberta, I hope you feel proud of all the brilliant things you've done to help our local community. From wildflower gardening at Kidwells Park, to planting globe artichokes - we love having you on the team.

Thank you also for giving us a reason to have some yummy cake this evening, and big thanks to Jess for her excellent baking skills! If anyone knows a good technique for getting sprinkles on the side of a cake, then let us know...

We earned our cake this evening with a walk or run 2km up the hill to Maidenhead community allotment, by doing allott of gardening and with a walk or run back.

There is always plenty to do at the allotment and it ment allot to our task owners that we were there. We too were very grateful to them for coming out to meet us after they'd had a busy day at a health and wellbeing fayre at the library.

This evening Georgeta, Jenni, Scarlett, Matthew and Gillian did a tree-mendous job planting three fig trees and three other fruit trees (apples?) on the other side of the car park. We really dig planting trees, so this was a very enjoyable task.

Adam and Caroline were a great pear shifting the compost bins around to make space for a pear tree behind the big shed. They also did lots of digging but alas the ground had other ideas, so the pear tree remains in the shed for now. They still helped a lot by working with Roberta to shift compost into the artichoke bed, which Roberta then artfully planted. No choke, she's our expert in that field!

We turfed Jess and Juli out to the other side of the allotment where they carefully removed turf from a raised bed and then made the bed all neat.

A warm welcome to Chris, who joined us for the first time this evening, having met Sheila at the aforementioned library event. He was kept busy covering a large frame with netting, which will protect veggies from the birds. Sara was at a loose end, so I suggested she join him and tie knots to keep the netting in place. This was a fiddly task, but they really showed us their net worth!

Great work everyone!

Remember next Wednesday evening we won't be starting at the Community Centre as usual. Instead we meet at the Co-op on Wessex Way in Cox Green, and we will be helping Wessex Primary School. Full details and click the blue sign up button here. Hope to see you there!

Thanks to everyone who joined in our group run yesterday evening to help Nature's Haven, and a very warm welcome to newcomer Caroline. Big thanks to Tony for this evening;s report:

A small Windsor and Maidenhead council grant to the Nature's Haven and the Community Centre on Marlow Road is being used to plant a dwarf orchard and enhance the front of the building.

Before work got underway to clear the area for planting the Good Gym crew were able to start the evening with some fiitness first. With so many Good Gymers we used the Zebra crossing to access the Cresent, this resulted in an instant Google map worthy traffic jam, red of course.

With Amy leading from the other side of the road there was much leg waving, arm flinging, and some runs up the hill, dim street lighting ensured that personal best times were won by not necessarily getting to the top.

Then the digging and cutting started most people got bushed by the bushes, and stuck in the ivy, unfortunately the ‘wild boar rent a digging app’ was down so we had to do all the work not just MBWA. Eventually the triffids size stumps were overcome to leave vast creators of good planting soil.

Soon it was time to enjoy some fire pit moments with hot drinks and giant marshmallows so big that they caught fire really easily. Skill and pan ash was needed to stop them being charcoaled.

We understand that the Community Centre are currently looking for a press and some barrels...

MBWA (Management by Walking About )