An unexpected start to the evening as four members witnessed then helped with a traffic accident before handing over to police who arrived at the scene with blue lights on!

Thankfully the task itself was just around the corner where the rest of the group had already started digging holes to plant bluebells in the graveyard area that Ken has been working on.

After some careful digging in the dark, the group headed to the nearby Angel & Crown for a Taskforce catch-up, full of ideas and appreciation for what everyone does to make GG Richmond something special to be part of. ❤️

Four GGers arrived with a paw-sitive mindset for the monthly RFS task of making the yard look tidy.

Chris set about chopping back the ivy and using the trusty magnetic sweeper to remove any loose nails lying around.

Rosie and Monika meanwhile were weeding and clearing the greenery near the fence, while Adam, with his trusty litter picker cleared the litter.

This combined with the aid of a fury friend ensured the yard was looking nice and purr-fect.

No, Halloween hasn’t started early. We just used a plant fertiliser that had an interesting name! 4 Goodgymer’s spent a Monday evening task at the 3 Pigeons plot, where we cleared up autumnal leaves, did some weeding, cleared litter and sprinkled some fertiliser around the plot and in Buccleuch Gardens.

First time without our lovely Anita! We hope the move well!

A very pleasant Saturday morning saw 6 GGers make their way to the Ham Lands for our monthly mission helping to preserve the natural habitat for all the good plant life and beasties that live there.

We were back in the same spot as last month, working to clear the undergrowth and overgrown areas and tackling the many troublesome roots which were riddled through the soil.

We set to work with choppers and loppers and picks and mattocks. The sun started to shine and we were visited by some very friendly dogs, including Pickle who won everyone’s hearts as she wanted to play ball with us all.

After some hard, satisfying work we finally downed tools and went for a coffee (and some treats) at the Swiss Bakery 🙂

Next time at the Ham Lands will be Saturday 8th November: sign up here https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/helping-the-happy-ham-landers-5177c674-7330-4205-9be1-1294fa928609

A long-awaited return to Heatham House this evening, a vibrant youth club in Twickenham. This evening they wanted help moving large panels of plywood that had been used in the skate park but have now gone rotten. The group worked hard to handle them and get them into the massive skip container, using every muscle to carry, lift and shift!

My first mission took me the other side of Richmond to Barnes and the lovely Ms J.

Ms J started by proudly showing me the brilliant work she had already done with fellow Goodgymer Alan a couple of weeks ago, and how much she had valued his time getting her comfortable getting out in the garden. But her overgrown garden was continuing to cause her some anxiety.

We ended up doing some weeding down the side, including a big budlia that had snuck under the fence from next door, mixing some compost that had been sitting around and causing Ms J stress, and repotting and tidying up the pots that Ms J wanted to get back into taking care of. This included creating a herb pot of parsley, mint and oregano that were scattered in different areas, and repotting some fruit trees that Ms J had planted herself from seed a couple of years ago.

Ms J was really happy to have the compost mixed and ready to use, and enjoyed the worms and wildlife she was encouraging in her garden.