Every community has its own traditions to celebrate festive times. GoodGym Ealing is no different. Our Christmas tradition since 2018 (with some breaks) has been kicking off the season by decorating the Christmas tree at St Mary’s in South Ealing to get the church ready for the Christmas services.

Eleven GoodGymers and one new GoodGymer-to-be were welcomed at the church by Wei Hei, Revd. Joy French and her husband, Clynt. It was a great opportunity to meet the vicar, who, although new to Ealing, showed a familiar warmth and - pun not intended - joy. We’ve been treated to some Christmas tunes, mulled wine, and minced pies, yum!

We had a Geordie Santa, The True Santa, and a bunch of helpful elves on our team. Not all the elves had expected to be following a Christmas dress code, but Thaiza got them covered! She brought all sorts of festive headwear, making everyone a bit more sparkly.

Some elves got busy decorating the tree, and others headed to the gallery for a work at height: a little bit of dusting. The good news was that our earlier session in September hadn’t left us with much dust to bust.

With Joy very pleased with the outcome of using our Christmastifying skills, the team headed to the New Inn across the road for more festivities: Christmas crackers, quiz time, and Secret Santa!

Tonight GG Ealing were back in St Mary's churchyard for the first time since their new vicar had taken up residence and since the mammoth churchyard tidy that led up to it. With autumn in full swing, it was time for a last round of weed removal before everything goes into hibernation over the winter.

As well as some Ealing regulars, Sarah, who'd ventured across London on the Elizabeth Line from Greenwich, joined the group of runners and took some atmospheric photos to boot! At the church, tools were taken from storage, head torches were turned on and the team were ready to go. At that moment, a runner came around the corner and was scared that they'd be impaled on Steph's fork!

"Oh, that's dangerous!" - Runner

Forking averted, it was time to start the hunt for brambles and nettles. On one side of the churchyard, there was a path with a few specimens that were dug out or pulled. As they worked their way further along and between the Victorian graves, a plot full of nettles was found, which kept everyone busy for the rest of the session as they were dug out by the roots.

As is the way at St Mary's, one wheelbarrow full of cuttings was stacked around a trunk to compost down and feed the tree, while the rest were left on other conveniently placed compost piles. Next Tuesday, join us to move compost into the Walled Garden in Walpole Park, which'll be a great workout.

St Mary’s Church of South Ealing is well-known to GoodGymers, whether through the weekly food cupboard sessions on Mondays, the gardening tasks in the churchyard, or the annual Christmas tree decoration. Tonight's task was a unique one. The local community was preparing for the first service to mark the start of the ministry of their new vicar, Revd. Joy French. Renowned for their Christmas tidy-up expertise, our team was asked to clean the gallery and tackle cobwebs in the church.

A team of runners and a cyclist arrived at the church to meet the member of the community, Brian, who handed them the tools: a few brushes, a dustpan, and two very long brushes - the cobweb busters. Freya and Kash, excited about getting the extra range, grabbed the super brushes and stayed on the ground floor to clean under the gallery. Iram, Chris, and Sevan, armed with brushes, wipes, and a dustpan, headed upstairs to handle the dust in the gallery.

While dusting, the upstairs team learned that their favourite church tower, an attraction to visit after each Christmas clean-up, was no longer accessible due to safety concerns. Meanwhile, the cobweb vanquishers downstairs discovered a bust of a biblical prophet with two left hands! We completed the job in just an hour and are hoping now that the community will be proud of their dust-free church while welcoming Reverend Joy.

Next week, we are staying in Ealing Broadway for the Tuesday evening session and tackling thistles and brambles in Walpole Park - sign up now to join us!.

If you want to visit St Mary’s during the day, sign up for one (or more) of the weekly sessions at the church’s food cupboard here.

It wasn’t a long time ago since Ealing GoodGymers engaged in intense gardening in the sepulchral surroundings of South Ealing. Only two days after building stumperies at South Ealing Cemetery, the gang was back in the neighbourhood, this time at St Mary’s churchyard, where the task owner Cliff took on a huge task of getting the garden and the graveyard in shape ahead of the arrival of the new vicar.

It was the fourth session with Cliff of the year, after three Thursday evening tasks this summer. Sevan and Harvey set off from Bodyline for a picturesque run through Walpole Park and alongside Lammas Park. Steph Ducat and Kash left Ealing Broadway as the walking group. For Steph, it was a weighted walk as he was carrying a heavy switch in his rucksack. That was quite literally taking the work home! Ash and Sajeel met at the task - the latter visiting the church for the third time.

After finishing off bits and bobs at the crescent surrounding the church - the location of the previous task at St Mary’s, the team moved to the back of the graveyard to clear the monuments of bindweed, brambles, nettles, alkanet, and holly.

Between graves, we found diamonds, marbles, and other treasures (such as glass milk bottles from the previous century). We wouldn’t dare to steal from the dead and bring their anger towards all the GoodGym Ealing, so we left the precious goods where we found them - or rather, put them in the bin.

Harvey shared with us an interesting story about a tour that his Tube stations running group had received at the London Necropolis Railway station. We learned about a cemetery in Surrey, developed in the 19th century in response to the growing population of London and the overcrowded condition of existing cemeteries. The London Necropolis Railway was built to transport corpses away from the city, all the way to Surrey.

After less than an hour of serious weeding, Cliff was happy to say we got the back of the church under control now, ready for the vicar’s arrival.

Next week, we are heading West to help the ranger clear burdock in Elthorne Park - sign up now!

Our now regular visits to St Mary's churchyard always bring new challenges to tackle and today was no different. There were 2 choices offered by Cliff, our task owner. Either removing nettles from between old graves (the "monuments") or weeding the crescent shaped flower bed near the church. Sevan chose the crescent to have a different type of task and also because the danger level was lower. There was a smaller chance of being stung by nettles in the flowerbed.

Cliff asked the team to pull and dig weeds from the bed. Mostly long, dried grasses, brambles and thistles. One plant that the GoodGymers were specifically asked to keep were the geraniums, so everyone was extra careful with those. Ariane was in her element, having become a gardening expert in her short time with GoodGym. Over time, Cliff's advice changed to allow more of the earth to be cleared:

"If in doubt, pull it out" - Cliff

That covered a lot of vegetation. Mostly growing, some already dead. Cliff pointed out something that was dead. A tree trunk that was at the wrong angle. With a bit of weight, the roots gave out and it tumbled to the ground. Cliff wasn't sure about the other trunk of the tree, but it also looked dead to the GoodGym gardeners. Steph and Sevan gave Cliff a hand and geronimooooo! It hit the deck too.

Cliff decided that everything growing around the ex-tree could go too, so Sajeel got stuck in to remove them, doing a great job. In all, more than half the crescent was cleared in an hour. Well, we had to leave Cliff with work to do until our next visit, which will be coming soon...

St Mary's churchyard had undergone big changes since GoodGym's last visit 3 weeks ago. Human power to remove weeds [last time] had been replaced with the electric power of a hedge trimmer that task owner Cliff was using like a strimmer, at ground level. There was still plenty left for today's GoodGym group to help out with and they weren't being replaced by power tools just yet.

Some GoodGymers had been expecting to be battling nettles, so wore leggings or running tights. The main job for today turned out to be covering the cleared area with wood chip to stop the weeds from springing back, so in the warm weather, the shorts wearing duo had chosen well.

The wood chip piles to relocate had been left in front of the vicar's house, so tidying that space would put Cliff - and GoodGym - in the new vicar's good books. Andrew, Michelle, Kash and Sevan got shovelling, ferrying wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow into the churchyard and tipping them out to cover the areas that had been cleared of weeds. Andrew in particular was having great fun powerfully flipping his wheelbarrow over to empty it.

While the group worked away, they kept themselves amused talking about holidays, imposter syndrome and the "Ealing Feeling" that was wafting over from one of the churchyard's visitors. Meanwhile, Cliff was continuing to cut away at anything green that shouldn't be in the garden. By the end of the session, there was great coverage of wood chip and a whole new area to be cleared. There were more weeds to be wiped out too in other parts of the garden, so keep an eye out for another session later this month.