Fun task this morning as a bunch of goodgymer's and other volunteer groups combined to do a mass litter pick across Petersham common. Led by our unfortunately injured, but local resident outdoors man Ken - we set about combing the area clean of garbage. There was a lot but we smashed through it, and felt good for having done our bit! Coffee and a stroll past the 3 pigeons plot (another goodgym managed site) to admire the lovely flowers and we were done!

On to the next one... Monday ... "we go again! We do not let this slip!" :-)

A warm welcome to Honor this evening who joined us for the first time to run from the Tap in Richmond out to Petersham Common. There task owner and member, Ken, met us to explain the tasks needed to work on the last section of traditional hedgerow down Star & Garter hill that we started last winter. This included fence post carrying, fence post bashing and binding between posts, hawthorn planting and some surrounding litter picking. The team set straight to work including another first time GoodGymmer, Emily 😍

When it came to the time to run back, Ken plied us with fortifying chocolates as the group headed back up to Richmond High Street for a well-deserved rest and warm up!

Hats off to run leader/group activator Liz and stalwart GoodGymers Victoria, Chris, Monika, JP, Ken and Anita who all braved a cold and wet February Monday night to complete an awesome array of tasks that will help GoodGym Richmond's sponsored plots in Buccleuch Gardens look fabulous come the spring:

Leaves on the Line: The grooves of the sliding shutters were deep-cleaned, with all the autumn leaf-mould brushed out to allow clean running.

Turn Again: The compost heap was turned and twigs and bulky items chopped-up to aid decomposition.

Arcadia: The Arcade was swept, cleaned and given a mini-makeover .

Plantasia: The square brick planters integral to the front of the Arcade were weeded, topped-up with homemade compost and top-dressed with stones.

Scrape Moss: Moss was scrapped off the tarmac and added to the compost heap.

On the Pull: Plantains were pulled, spot-weeded out of the lawn with the dextrous use of cutlery knives.

New Shoots: And afterwards in the the Tap Tavern, where Richmond GG’s Monday night Group Runs always start, new ideas for developing and funding more GoodGym work in Buccleuch Gardens were discussed.

Use-by dates. Not always applied at home, provided something passes the sniff test or hasn’t gone green, but an important factor at Kingsgate Student Pantry.

Much of this fun task involved a brilliant turn out of GoodGym members going through the various items donated to the student food bank.

Ken, Marcos, Rachel, Jana, Jacqui and Ana all got stuck in straining their eyes on packets to make sure everything was safe to consume. Dave used some elbow grease to clean the freezer while Claire and Julie did the same in the kitchen.

Luke and Tom, meanwhile, very nearly consigned 50kg of lentils to the dustbin when nearly mistaking the date they were packed for the use-by. Mistake amended, they were reassigned to smaller packets, with the bag sealer getting a thorough outing.

A fun task and a warm welcome from the Kingsgate team before we reconvened at the Albion