Ultimately, it was two Teams on either end of the Church grounds making a small difference. One mission was to clean up the war memorial and the other, involved two sections where we had to lift up some of the turf a few inches off the ground.

Thanks to the tools we had available. This included a post basher, a tape measure, a string for the border, some wooden posts and a small shovel. It was pretty evident that the surrounding lawn around the Church was steeped in history so we took note of that from the beginning. The two areas in question was pretty close to a previous trench that Goodgym previously got involved back in 2024, where we also spotted the sow that reaped its rewards with full flower.

We took a section of the lawn at the back of the church (or depending which way you look at it) and started digging. We found no artifacts, perhaps some dust from previous stone diminished.

Shortly afterwards, we completed our mission. The vicar invited us in for some refreshments afterwards. It's pretty amazing when a team comes together!

In preparation for Remembrance Day, we met at the listed war memorial monument at St Mary Magdelene Church in Richmond town centre. Jobs included weeding around the flower bed, clearing any rubbish that had blown in, scraping up grass and moss between the paving slabs and making sure the area is appropriately ready to pay respects to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

An unexpected Canada Day celebration this evening when task owner Ken sprung out with a flag, maple syrup and waffles!

But that's getting ahead of ourselves as the evening started with a run session at Richmond Green, welcoming first timer Steve for a warm-up and then five laps around the green. Those who wanted to added in two short sprint sections and those who didn't went for a steady pace that kept everyone pretty much together.

A very short walk from the green, we met Ken at the St Mary Magdalene war memorial for some weeding around the monument and a few dodgy looks from the pigeons who have built nests at the top!

On completion, Ken went full Canada and served up the snacks, followed by a few seconds stroll to the nearest pub! A relaxed evening altogether, just the way the Canadians are! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

We were re-wilding St Mary Magdalene churchyard and burial grounds. These burial grounds have been decommissioned a long time ago, but Ken still gave us diggers a warning, that it is unknown how many graves are still in the ground! Thankfully we didn't need to dig too deep and it was just a small patch, where seeds were strewn across. We will need to see how this patch will look like in the next month. Also, a big welcome to Olivia, who joined us for the first time!

It was the second task of the day for much of the group, who had been lopping and raking their way round Ham Lands in the morning, so we were very grateful when the vicar asked if we’d like a cup of tea while we worked.

We didn’t quite beat the kettle, but it was a fairly quick task planting geraniums at the base of the war memorial and weeding the paths to leave it all looking much tidier for the Remembrance Sunday services the following day.

When the tea arrived, we were almost finished but it was just the boost we needed to get us to the end as the weather got increasingly chilly. And of course, the biscuits were a very welcome bonus.

Three GoodGymers and one member of the St Mary Magdalene Church congregation turned up in light rain on Sunday morning to deadhead the cyclamen flowers planted around the Great War Memorial outside the Church. As the organ played in the church Ken showed us the technique to twist the spent flowers to the corm base of the cyclamen. After 1 hour and 15 minutes we had deadheaded all 250 plants and swept up the surrounding York stone and sang out last hymn for the day.

In a few weeks’ time we will enjoy another flush of our brilliant floral display which was all planted by the GoodGym on 1 October.