Another Wednesday, another threatening grey sky over Hanwell. Despite this, Steph and Sevan joined 3 volunteers from the Katherine Buchan Meadow Trust to finish sanding the meadow's benches to protect the wood through the coming autumn and winter.

All five spread across the meadow to get sanding, with Steph and Sevan focused on the smaller bench that curved around a tree. The group sanded sanded so hard that sawdust flew and heat rose from the benches and sanding pads, creating a localised high pressure system, dispersing the rain clouds for the whole session.

When all the sand had flowed to the bottom of the GoodGym hourglass (i.e. their hour was up), both benches were ready for oiling and as a bonus, so was the meadow's notice board. That's all the help that task owner Amanda needed from GoodGym and she and the other Meadow volunteers will finish oiling the benches at the weekend.

Katherine Buchan Meadow welcomed 4 people tonight who hung around for longer than usual in the green pocket in Hanwell. They were gathered around a long bench that had fallen victim to graffiti over the last year and then began a frenzied attack on the bench. The 4 weren't a local mob. No, they were volunteers working to prepare and protect the 14 metre long bench for winter.

The meadow was initiated in 2016 by task owner Amanda and other local residents. Having seen the space fall into disuse by all except local dogs who left "gifts" and people up to no good, a proposal was approved to open up the space and make it welcoming for the local community. Part of that initiative was the installation of 2 sculptural benches, one encircling a tree trunk and the other wavy, running the length of the meadow.

Kash and Sevan, along with task owner Amanda and trustee Jenny, took on the challenge of sanding down each slat of wavy bench, in 60 minutes. They each took a stretch of bench and got stuck in, sanding quickly and whipping up a cloud of dust. Each individual piece felt like slow going, but the chat amongst the volunteers about the meadow's history and current usage kept them motivated.

Once they took a step back they were all impressed at how much they'd actually achieved. Most of the long bench was complete and Amanda started to apply teak oil to protect the wood.

As Kash and Sevan were leaving, Kash asked whether anyone would sit on the bench before the oil dried.

"Oh, maybe I should put up a sign" - Amanda

And maybe that sign would say, "Just Stop, Oil!"

If this sounds like fun to you, sign up for the second session here.

4 festive GoodGymers with 1 mission, make the meadow sparkle with Christmas joy!

Myself, Jenni, Alex and Elizabeth met on a chilly Sunday afternoon to help the Katherine Buchan Meadow get ready for their Christmas carols service and grand unveiling of the new notice board.

At the heart of Old Hanwell, The Katherine Buchan Meadow was once a small neglected green but with the enthusiasm and hard work of local residents and volunteers the mission was to bring it back to life.

We were tasked with making the venue as christmassy as possible and to use as many lights as we could to bring it to life for the evening and that we did!

We were rewarded for our efforts with mince pies, mulled wine and homemade sausage rolls. We'll definitely be back to help for future events!