On a chilly, overcast Thursday, 3 Goodgymers met to do some litter picking at Chapmans Pond. They say there are fish in the pond, but all we caught was one (intact!) tent. Other items of note included four dinner forks in mint condition. Satisfied with our haul, we retired to a nearby cafe to warm up with some tea and cake. We also ticked off a few January bingo squares - litter pick, good deed in daylight, selfie of getting fit whilst doing good, and popping along to Planet Food to nab more than one good deed in a day.

Today's task sounded like a nice thing to do on a sunny afternoon. When we arrived at the pond site, Anne, the task owner already had four sets consisting of a wheelbarrow, a rake and a fork arranged for us outside the storage container. We were asked to split up into pairs and start raking the semi-dry hay an pile it onto compost heaps. Laura and James went to rake close to the site entrance, Vicky and Barbara busied themselves around the space on the other side of the storage container and Ed and Amy went a little bit further up the path. Zinnie was running slightly late and when she arrived we both went to join Ed and Amy. When we arrived Ed just managed to escape a swarm of wasps. They followed him for good 20 metres as he unintentionally disturbed their nest while raking the cuttings along the meadow perimeter. Poor Ed was stung four times and left his fork near the nest. After a quick check that Ed is still fit and well to continue with the task we went to see if the fork could be retrieved. The wasps however were not giving it back and were swarming around it in large number. We decided to leave it to the first frost before coming back to retrieve it. This event sparked a conversation about wasps diet and we continued with the task.

After 40 minutes of raking and cuttings gathering we gathered back at the tools store for the group photo. Just before we left our location brave Zinnie retrieved the fork from the wasps possession. She cleverly used her rake to lift the fork by its handle while wasps weren't watching. Thanks to her feat we could happily say that no tool was left behind today.

We will be visiting Chapmans Pond in the near future, as there is more hay to rake and other tasks around the site that require completion before winter.

As the poor weather of the previous day improved and the sun came out we were in luck with a lovely evening for a bit of GGing.

We were met by 3 volunteers from Chapmans Pond who were ready with instructions and tools and soon put us up to work. Arriving out of breath Max was managed a quick sprint along the lake to get his stava to read a nice whole number and then his first contribution was to find a dead rat. Here Pete, Liz, Max and Paul were digging a path and filling with bark to enable access to the bird feeders - hoping that we didnt disturb the nesting tits too much...

Meanwhile Abi, Dom, Babs and Kieran were working hard to rake up cuttings that were being produced as fast as they could be raked into the "compost wall". Abi "ladybird whisperer" succeeded in saving some of the local wildlife which was appropriate as the areas being raked are destined as a butterfly area, willow arch and wildlife area.

Great work from everyone and we were treated to cake before departing our separate ways for food and customer reviews of local hostelries...

Four of us braced the cold to help the Friends of Chapman Pond to continue to rake and sow seeds along the edges of the paths and brush the paths along behind. Anne showed us how to use the brush properly and sang us her song to help us get the rhythm of the brushing. We were rewarded with lemon drizzle cake at the end.

This is the way we take the edges, Rake the edges, rake the edges, This is the way we rake the edges, On a a cold and frosty evening.

This is the way we sow the seeds, Sow the seeds, Sow the seeds, This is the way we sow the seeds, On a cold and frosty evening.

This is the way we sweep the path, Sweep the the path, sweep the path, This is the way we sweep the path, On a cold and frosty evening.

We were asked by the Friends of Chapmans Pond to help dig a path through the bird garden to improve access. There were assorted periphery tasks, and with the sun beaming down we set to.

With social distancing in mind, our household pairs started digging at either end of the path route carefully marked out by canes. Michael and Hannah had the beginning of the path, and rapidly commenced ground-breaking with enthusiasm. Hannah perfected the spade jump and balance, and carved pleasing bricks to load into the wheelbarrow, whilst Michael soon discovered it was too hot for multiple layers.

However they had it easy compared to the Paulsopps, who started at the end near the pond, and discovered the ground was 90% tree root. Despite best efforts, the far end was unconquerable, and much more rapid progress occurred when moving slightly up the hill. The stream of barrows that had to be bounced through the hole the Leadbetters had inconsiderately dug right in the way, attested to their success.

Katie and Debs were tasked with rationalising the bark chippings near the fence into one smaller habitat pile, leaving room for the soil that rapidly arrived from an impatient Michael. This was complicated by only having one specialist chippings fork, whilst Katie did a sterling job with a shovel-fork combo. When complete, there were barrowing duties as well as stick-picking to make the grassland more mowable, before joining the digging gangs.

Michael was redeployed onto pallet deconstruction, as the slats were the perfect depth-gauge-cum-edging material, whilst Hannah progressively unearthed most of a canteen of cutlery. Team far-end made quick work of their pleasingly winding section. What had seemed like an insurmountable task to begin soon began to take shape, and we were over half way through the digging when our hour came to an end, and it was time to make way and clean up ready for the B team to relieve us.

Today we have tried a staggered start mission for the first time since the end of the recent lockdown. The task was to create a path across the bird garden to improve access to the bird feeder.

Under the careful guidance of Moira (Bird Garden Project Manager) team 'Three PM' started with removing the top 5/6cm layer of top soil densely populated with various weeds and dismantling wooden pallets for path edging.

On arrival the leader of team ‘Four fifteen PM' was briefed by the ‘Three PM’ leader on the task requirements and went to wipe tool handles with disinfectant wipes provided by the task owner.

The brief was passed to the team and shortly after John, Maddy, Lauren and Kay were hacking at the hard to penetrate top layer of what was to become a barchchip path. John and Lauren started at one end with Maddy and Kay at the other to allow for sufficient social distancing. Michal went to dismantle two wooden pallets for more path edging and Mora joined in with the work to provide guidance.

While this was taking place John asked Anne to show Michal the effective broom technique that she demonstrated at the last community mission. Michal found out that the success of it depended on your vocal skill as singing was required for a proper rhythm.

Chatting and laughing was in abundance and barrow after barrow of soil-weed mix was being moved to the designated area. Mora was carefully fixing the wooden edging and the path was starting to look like one. After about 50 min of forking and spading both ends of the path have met at the centre. Mora decided that laying the membrane and barkchip will have to wait until another day. The tools have been put away and it was time for a team photo and a quick chat about bikes and cycling before heading our own ways home.