Kash, Sevan and Steph ran from different sides of the borough to meet Clare at Northfield Allotments. This was the final task of the allotment's Halloween weekend... to exorcise the ghouls that had been plaguing the plots for the past few days.

As Clare led them into the allotments, past a dead body wrapped in crime scene tape, she pointed to the opposite side of the path. She matter of factly shared that police had dug up that plot for real in search of a real body 20 years ago, but nothing was found. Yikes.

Back to today's bodies, the GoodGym crew were sent out with a wheelbarrow to collect any spiders, skeletons or most scarily, bunting, which hadn't returned to the underworld after Saturday night's Halloween event. GoodGymers know that bunting can cause nightmares, so it was carefully removed from its stakes and neatly clothes-pegged together. Hopefully it won't cause any tangle tantrums at next year's setup.

Next, body parts and beasties were fished out of vats of water, spiders captured from their webs and Kash wrestled a snake out of a tree (check out the photo). Skeletons were put back into their cardboard coffins and moved to the "skeleton shed", with ghosts decanted into containment units. The team had to get particularly intimate with the old gardener skeleton as they needed to undress them before they were packed away 😳

With the allotments mostly back in order, Kash discovered the pumpkin graveyard where carefully crafted pumpkins had been placed on the compost heap. Was this a bad thing? Not if they were sacrificing their last days to feed the next generation of giant Northfield pumpkins.

Clare stayed a bit longer to wrap up the packing away. Kash, Sevan and Steph headed off to get some more exorcise, running onto their next jobs of the day.

Todays Mission brought GoodGymers to the drop-in session at the spooky Northfields Allotments, for final preparations and set up for the Halloween family event being held later in the day!

The day started bright and early with four GoodGymers on hand, Clare leading the charge for all the arrangements of the Halloween event, and with Kash, Sevan and Christos on litter picking duty along Radbourne Walk. Walking along the eerie entrance route of the event, the team picked up and disposed of bottles, wrappers and cans… and dug holes… clearing the path for visitors’ safety!

As the team made it halfway down the litter picking route, we welcomed some much-needed extra hands by Steph, Chris, Tish and later by A.B - now enough GoodGymers to divide and conquer the ghostly tasks at the Northfield Allotments, and spookify the Radbourne Way entrance route.

With Kash, Sevan and Steph continuing to make safe and clear out all the litter from their path, Christos, Chris and Tish were on hand with members from the Allotment community putting up decorated ropes and banners across the entrance route, swiftly carrying, connecting up the carabiners, and testing the batteries for the lights. But wait… this rope doesn’t fit across the walk… Some improvisation needed to rearrange the decorations and some creative problem solving with nearby trees to get all of the banners attached.

Lights checked and ready for the show!

What’s next on our list of tasks? Time to set up the tables and chairs in the main area of the event, with GoodGymers bringing out the Halloween-decorated table tops, attaching the legs and giving everything a spring clean before visitors arrive. Plastic chairs were carried out, as though appearing like ghosts from nowhere by Kash and the remaining group set to cleaning and wiping these down. Listening to the Halloween tunes played by A.B. helped to make quick work in setting up the chairs.

Some final odds and ends completed, and the Allotment was looking more ghoulish and terrifying! A parting comment by Clare for the completed tasks – “You really saved us today!”

Looking forward to seeing the incredible event!

Extra help was needed today at Northfields Allotments to continue setting up for the sold-out Halloween family event on Saturday! This was just the task for four GoodGymers on Friday afternoon, with Clare, Christos, Roberta and Kash joining to continue decorating and preparing the site for the event.

The invaluable guidance provided by Clare to help our decorating talents shine through for this Halloween event – “More is more!!”

And with that, the group were focused on decorating the inside of the food and drinks marquee whilst the rain was falling hard. Christos and Kash started out carefully tying up the Halloween-themed “Trick or Treat!” bunting to the inside of the marquee. But with more complex decorations, a simple tie was no longer an option. What to do now?

No issue at all when there is Gaffa tape on hand, quickly becoming the tool of choice to hold up all the decorations! Roberta ensured the eerie bat had a prime place looking down on us, and with balloons being blown up, this completed the Spooky-themed decorations in the marquee.

Still time for one last task… to set up half of the more than 100 pumpkins - that had been so impressively carved by the previous days’ GoodGymers - along the Pumpkin trail! The team made quick work spreading out the pumpkins across the trail in both directions, whilst admiring the ghostly, chilling, plots across the Allotments.

The task was finished up with a well-deserved tea and Jaffa cake, amongst the spooky decor!

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!

That is the question. At today's evening task, we contemplated the life and death of a hedge. Bee Coop from Northfield Allotments invited us to clear space around a tree to build a dead hedge - Frankenstein's monster among the hedges. The structure erected from lifeless branches was to give a new life - to an entire metropolis of insects!

One of our GoodGym teammates, Clare, was an insider at the Bee Coop and welcomed us to the plot and introduced us to the other beekeepers: Chloe and Kathy, the boss of tonight's task. At the back of the plot, we noticed the beehives behind the green netting.

Safety briefing ⛑️

"The bees should be calm at this time of the day, but be careful.
Do not lean on the green netting.
Do not touch the green netting.
Do not throw anything behind the green netting" - Clare

"Do not look at the green netting.
Do not speak about the green netting" - Kathy

Despite the fight club rules, some of us brought sharp blades to a fistfight - we could see you with that saw, Steph! 😱 Others sneaked in loppers and secateurs. With so many people in a small space with pointy branches, twigs and tools, we managed to - thanks to our excellent health and safety standards - not hurt anyone, except for the branches, which Ijo, Sevan, Madhan and Steph cut down into smaller pieces.

After Kash removed the nettles and weeds from the hedge construction site, Claire, Clare and Divya erected poles to support the structure, and then started laying foundations using thick logs. On top of those landed big branches, then smaller branches, followed by the tiniest twigs. In less than an hour, the hedge was ready to serve as home to the new generation of bugs to improve biodiversity in the area.

Luckily, no one got stung today - at least not by the bees! Claire and Kash couldn't say the same about nettles. We didn't taste any honey this evening, but Clare and Claire prepared another sweet surprise - birthday cupcakes for Madhan! Happy birthday! 🎂

We finished the task with a tour around the allotment, featuring attractions such as:

• Anderson shelter
• Claire's pro plot
• Fruit garden and Madhan's adapted plot

A big thank you to Madhan and Clare for organising today's task! 🤩

Next week we are helping Walpole Park tackle the bramble issue - sign up now! Oh, and look out for the social next week after the task 👀 it's coming soon!

Disclaimer

No Ealing bees have been smuggled to Hammersmith on a bike.

...Or were they?

Halloween 2023 brought another instalment of last year's popular task: spookifying the Northfield Allotment! The oldest allotments in Ealing were setting up their favoured Halloween family event - the Halloween Pumpkin Trail! GoodGym Ealing offered help decorating part of the spooky trail: putting up lights and pumpkins on Radbourne Walk!

Sevan and Kash were first to arrive, running a short distance to get to the allotment, where they met the task owner, Clare. They stood in the middle of the path, getting the brief, oblivious to the passers-by.

'Careful, a bike!' said Sevan.
'That's one of ours!' Kash noticed.
'Oh, that's Penny!'

Penny cycled to the community mission, just like Luis who came soon after her. Christos arrived running, and Michelle and Caroline even fitted the Gunnersbury parkrun into their pre-task routine.

The Steel Curtain

The access to the allotments was restricted by a metal fence. Only the holders of the keys had the freedom to go in and out. Clare abolished the unfair system and bestowed one of the keys upon Kash so the goodgymming class could enter the site.

Orange is the new blaze

The first task was to distribute 50 carved pumpkins along Radbourne Walk, the path running alongside the allotments. The requirements were as follows:

• 50 pumpkins need to cover the whole path
• pumpkins should be facing North
• two light-up tea lights go into each pumpkin
• the pumpkins should be put in places where they look cool

After letting all GoodGymers behind the fence, Clare revealed a group of carved pumpkins hidden under a tarpaulin. She gave us wheelbarrows and battery-powered tea lights. Soon, we faced those few small challenges that made all the fun!

Propaganda art

One pumpkin didn't have a face, so Michelle stepped in to massacre (I mean: decorate!) it. Her piece was a brutalist art manifesto, capturing GoodGym's sense of community, equality, simplicity and strength.

Switching factions

After the Steel Curtain was abolished and the pumpkins had the freedom to go out of the allotment, they evenly distributed themselves on both sides of Radbourne Walk. When a strimmer operator was cutting the overgrowth on the left side of Radbourne Walk, all the pumpkins suddenly decided to move right. After the radical Strimmer Reform and abolishing the reign of nettles, we convinced some pumpkins to return to the left and restore the balance of power.

Wealth redistribution

We discovered there were not enough working tea lights for all the pumpkins. We had to appoint two tax collectors to find the pumpkins who had accumulated all two lamps and collected a whopping 50% tax. Luis and Christos then gave a tea light to the poor pumpkins that didn't have a single lamp in them.

All strings attached

When Rohan joined us, we started the final task: putting up ropes with lights and spooky decorations across Radbourne Walk. We were at an advantage this time as the allotment crew had already assembled the strings. All we had to do was switch on the lights and fix the cables to hooks on one side of the path and trees or the fence on the other. We had plenty of hands to do that and a step ladder (however, Clare was very happy when she heard earlier that The tall guy from last year would come to the task. At some point, Kash and Sevan had to run East for their next mission, so there was a change of command. Caz, who got the keys and the hotline to Clare now, led the group, making sure all strings were in place for the event.

How strong is a piece of string?

After dusk, Sevan and Kash returned to Northfield Allotment to inspect whether the decorative strings held up till evening and whether every pumpkin on Radbourne Walk was glowing well with a single light in. As other GoodGymers, they got free entry to the event. The code word GoodGym, didn't seem to work at the entrance but the name Clare did the trick. The visiting GoodGymers could see all the effort their team and allotments' volunteers had put into the event. If Sevan and Kash were not terrified by the skeletons on the trail, they got a bit scared of the pouring rain that just started. Nevertheless, the event has gone well. When they encountered Clare, she mentioned 3000 visitors popping into the Pumpkin Trail so far.