The first task after Christmas was surprisingly popular among Ealing GoodGymers. Was the Magnificent Seven, who showed up on Saturday morning, already bored with the "take-it-easy" approach to the festive end of December? The seemingly quiet air was growing tense with a silent "bring it on!" cry. A small crowd gathered near Walpole Park's cafe. Were they thirsty for a cup of coffee or for a challenge? Maybe both!

A suitable challenge awaited outside the walled garden gate: the remainder of a woodchip pile that the GoodGymers had attacked last week. All the Rickyard tool storage could offer the eager team was five wheelbarrows, four shovels and a few buckets. Oh, and - of course - the usual puzzle of opening the Fort Knox of gardening tools!

When Diana and Kash worked together to break the tool store security, Sevan spotted a new face to GoodGym Ealing. Roxy chose a perfect task for joining our crew for her first GoodGym session: a prominent location, a good crowd and a classic winter task: shovelling woodchip! Welcome to GoodGym, Roxy!

I attended my first volunteering session today, met some lovely people and we worked so well as a team to smash through the community mission! Can't wait to do more - Roxy

After picking up the tools, the team of four met the rest of the Magnificent Seven at the walled garden gate: Lena, Marta and Mohamed, who was bringing a wealth of experience from last week's session. Would the skilled shovellers, a larger team, more time for the task and Kash's constant promises of coffee make the woodchip pile disappear this time?

The eager shovels plunged into the heap, the woodchip flew into the sky, and the clangour of speeding metal wheelbarrows filled the air. The GoodGymers were on it, determined to finish off the job. There's a wealth of woodchip waiting in Ealing to be moved this winter, and the gang wouldn't have left the Walpole Park pile for yet another session! In about 40 minutes the woodchip heap was gone, and another compost bin was filled to the brim. All that was left was clearing the wheelbarrows (and shoes!) off woodchips.

With spare time earned thanks to teamwork, the gang headed for a coffee as the reward for helping the Walpole Park Ranger today.

Next Saturday morning we are heading to Horsenden Farm for the volunteering day, followed by a pizza lunch at the farm's bakery - sign up now!

Last month saw GoodGym Ealing and Ealing Greenwayers teaming up to hack their way through the overgrown jungle of brambles, nettles and fallen trees to the heart of Pear Tree Park. The goal was to create a riverside walkway for the visitors entering the park from the southeast corner.

Just like the Romans paved their way through Britain by laying roads made of stone, the GoodGymers created many paths in Ealing by spreading woodchip on walkways across the borough. Even though the GoodGym ways are not the ones to survive for generations, they do the job by letting you enjoy the parks without getting muddy shoes in the winter.

Today's session had a record number of volunteers, including a group of Walpole Park volunteer gardeners recruited by Richard, the Greenwayers' leader. GoodGymers came in strong too: a team of six with a guest from Greenwich Khay, a neighbour from Hounslow Gus and a new starter introduced to us by Richard.

With slashers and shears to raze any pesky nettles sticking out, shovels and barrows to transport the woodchip and rakes to make the path surface smooth, we used up all the material in less than 90 minutes to cover the walkway and bring civilisation into Pear Tree Park. Let the words of a dog walker passing by be the testimony of our joint achievement:

This is going to be revolutionary!

It's no secret that the wood-fired pizza from Horsenden Farm is a magnet for GoodGymers - so powerful that it pulls people from different areas to Ealing! Today the promise of the Horsenden Loaf speciality brought three guests from GoodGym Hounslow: Michelle, Kymm and Gus.

But there is no pizza without fire! And there is no fire without firewood.

This Saturday's task was to help the Horsenden baker Anthony stock up on firewood to feed all the hungry GoodGymers after the winter sessions at the farm - and the number of volunteers at the farm has grown rapidly in the last months, reaching 9 people in October. At today's session, we welcomed a new joiner, Diana, who met us at pumpkin carving at Northfield Allotments last week. Welcome to GoodGym Ealing, Diana!

Ijo, Steph, Sevan, Penny, Kash, Diana and the three Hounslow visitors grabbed wheelbarrows and loaded them with logs from a pile located higher up the hill. It was the opposite of our usual tasks at the farm: shovelling woodchip or compost into barrows and pushing them uphill. This time the heavy loads were going down the hill - but don't be fooled - it was hard work!

Not far from the pizza oven, Kymm was assembling a Jenga tower out of firewood pieces that kept coming in barrows in all shapes and sizes, so she had no way to apply any strategy to how best to arrange them. In the end, it turned out she did a nifty job! Next to Kymm, Gus found his happy place at a contraption he would love to get for Christmas: a log splitter. Before having a go at that apparatus, Gus received the safety training and protective goggles from Anthony.

"I'm the most hipster lumberjack!" - Gus said, admiring his new eyewear.

Splitting the logs required time and focus, so after the pile was transported downhill, Gus stayed at his post, accompanied by Michelle who swapped with Kymm on the wood tetris position. The rest of the team was made redundant and looked for other jobs at the farm. They were employed to build a highway between the veg patches out of old cartons and fresh woodchip. Penny, Diana and Ijo laid the cardboard foundations while Steph, Sevan, Kymm and Kash brought the material for the path surface - all of that to stop weeds from growing in spaces between the plots.

Two hours of the farm-style workout was concluded with the obligatory team lunch at Horsenden Loaf with pizza, coffee or craft beer from the local microbrewery. We are already looking forward to the session next month - save the date and sign up now!

The first Halloween-themed session of this season had a staggering turnout of six GoodGymers at Northfield Allotments! Was it the sunshine throughout the day, the lovely dog Rocket, Clare's marketing strategy for the Allotment tasks or everyone's craving for carving? We don't know!

The Pumpkin Trail organisers and the GoodGymers had 109 pumpkins ahead of them to carve - it was quite an intimidating number! Luckily, Rocket the dog put everyone at ease with his serene demeanour. For the moral support he provided, Rocket rightfully scored plenty of ear scratches and even a few treats from Michelle!

Michelle, the most seasoned GoodGymer at the session, showed everyone what efficiency is, without skimping on quality (everyone seeing Michelle perfecting her bats can attest to that). She probably carved most of the GoodGym pumpkins although she claimed she had never done that before. Well, some of us remembered that last year, she was able to even carve a pumpkin face with a hammer if needed. What a legend!

Apart from Clare, who had a go at the pumpkin craft the year before, each GoodGymer was a pumpkin-carving virgin about to turn into an artist. While others built confidence wielding the knives, Clare got into the business of gutting the pumpkins with a knife and an ice cream scoop - someone had to do it together with Martin (the allotment holder interested exclusively in pumpkin gutting rather than decorating them) to supply craftspeople with carving material. Clare reignited her artsy side at the end by carving her last pumpkin with an amazing flame pattern.

Roberta showed us the precision of a dental surgeon with her elaborate pumpkin teeth patterns. Her creativity, combined with some inspiration from the internet, produced pumpkins with precise cat and bat designs.

Alaa, being into arts and crafts, put a lot of meticulous knife work into her creations, unleashing her talent to come up with probably the most intricate pumpkin faces we have seen today. The number of pointy teeth in her last pumpkin would put a great white shark to shame!

Kash appreciated the sheets with pumpkin face templates at the tables, but eventually decided not to follow the rules and created her own avant-garde styles from creepy pumpkins with stitches in place of eyes to twisted half moons and stars.

Diana, who was about to find out today that deep inside she was a hidden GoodGymer, already must have known she had an inner artist. Her pumpkins went beyond the ragged mouths and ghoulish eyes. Diana's creations were full of subtle beauty, with their gorgeous smiles and hearts in place of their eyes - just as they came from a place where Halloween meet Valentines.

Welcome to your first GoodGym Diana!

By 6 pm all the pumpkins were dunked in bleach for protection from rotting and hidden under tarpaulin. We all keep our fingers crossed they will not suffer any attention from the foxes and slugs before Saturday! The allotment team was astonished at how quickly everyone managed to finish the job as a team.

"We would not have done it so quickly without GoodGym! We'd be carving them for three days!" - Christina.

The pumpkin carving is done, but there are still tasks at the allotments ahead of the big event - come along on Friday and Saturday for more fun decorating the site!