When the clocks go back in October, who would say no to that extra hour in bed on Sunday morning?

GoodGymers!

Five of them have beaten the autumn-winter sloth and showed up bright and early in Northfields to help Kathy and her colleagues from Ealing Transition Beeshare tame the rampant ivy and brambles in the Walmer Gardens orchard.

I can honestly say that GoodGym is threatening to disrupt my normal weekend lie-in habits - Max.

Turning into an early bird wasn't the only risk at this morning's session. As the orchard served as the location for the bee co-op's hives, we couldn't be 100% sure that no one would get stung. Kathy showed us a dividing point (an old apple tree) beyond which there was no guarantee that the bees would accept our operations. At the end of the session, it turned out that the pollinators must have been pleased with our presence or hadn't got their coffee shot yet (despite Steph inadvertently leaving his cup around them). No bee stings reported!

The Beeshare team had been working on clearing the space of brambles earlier on and had left some old cuttings, which Max offered to collect and drop at the back of the orchard. Deepak and Sevan volunteered to free the fruit trees at the garden entrance from ivy and brambles. Steph Ducat and Kash chose to cut the blackberry shoots around the big apple tree marking the border of the hive territory. In the process, they stomped on numerous uncollected fallen apples - squish, squish! - and, luckily, didn't stomp on two frogs - ribbit, ribbit! - hiding in the brambles. Steph, to keep the amphibians safe, moved them closer to the pond. At least that's what he told Kash. Should she have trusted the French guy to deal with frogs?

Ninety minutes of productive lopping, pulling and wheelbarrowing left the orchard transformed and ready for the winter break. Four GoodGymers decided it wasn't enough goodgymming for the day and jogged to Walpole Park for their second task that morning.

This October, our usual third Saturday of the month, dedicated to Western Road Urban Garden, turned into a celebration of the end of the growing season. With the harvest already collected, all that was left was a tidy-up and throwing a party afterwards!

The atmosphere in Southall was buzzing with the upcoming Diwali festivities. It was a fantastic time to join GoodGym and Southall Community Alliance at a very special community day. Deepak decided to do exactly that. Welcome to the team, Deepak!

With eight GoodGymers to help the urban garden this Saturday, Janpal and Paul scrambled to provide them with a variety of light and heavier tasks. Steph Ducat, Ash, Afshin, Kash and Sevan, together with a good friend from previous WRUG sessions, Andre, and a new volunteer, Sangheeta, chose a tricky task of moving timber stacked alongside the polytunnel. The planks were not only heavy and long, but also packed with nails. Everyone was extra careful, resisting any temptation to show off, which resulted in a new stack of timber in a more appropriate spot and zero mishaps on the way! Sevan then joined Iram, A.B. and Deepak in meticulous weeding around the fruit trees in the orchard and wheelbarrowing the surprisingly large amounts of green waste to the compost heap.

It was not yet noon when our team and the new arrivals at WRUG slowly started gravitating towards the polytunnel to uncover its hidden treasures. This time, we don't mean okra, chillies or gourd, but a feast prepared by Janpal: samosas, chicken biryani, Indian sweets, hot and cold drinks and an abundance of fruit! The mid-session break was a great opportunity to chat with the familiar and the new faces and sample the flavours that are best found in Southall.

It might have been tempting to call it a day after such a pleasant interval - but not for the GoodGymers! The timber carriers team logged a new log-moving achievement in their portfolio. They migrated another pile of wood into the space created after removing the planks to build a timber wall with a double function: a border with neighbouring property and an enormous bug hotel.

That's not a hotel. It's a resort!"

When the main objectives, weeding the orchard and moving the wood, were done, the GoodGymers proactively asked about a bonus task - and Janpal responded! The recently cleared hedging and the bases of the orchard trees needed a thick layer of woodchip. With forks, wheelbarrows, buckets, and, of course, great teamwork, we completed that activity in no time. That was finally the time to call it a day (and the end of the season) - unless you were one of the GoodGymers with yet another session in store on Saturday!