Whether it the allure of a satisfying cleaning task, the blue skies above or the fact that holiday season in full swing, but last night we had a bumper turn out at GG Hounslow! If that wasn't good news enough, we had the pleasure of welcoming Mark and Caroline along to their first session - great to have you join us!

After a quick warm up it was off to Turnham Green to meet Abundance London, the organisation which created the beautiful mural under Turnham Green bridge that is so loved by local people. Every year since it was unveiled we've been back to give it a good wash. Goodbye graffiti and pigeon poo, hello squeaky clean sparkle!

After a quick safety briefing we grabbed our mops, squeegees and sponges and got to it. Encouraged by passers by we soon got a very efficient system in place, moving like a well oiled machine over the different sections.

After half an hour of hard work, the transformation was complete. It's amazing what a difference it made. I had a message from Abundance this morning saying

"I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of Abundance London for the great work the runners did last night. The Chiswick Timeline mural is now back to its sparkling best."

Job done, we hopped over to the back common for our fitness. Grouping into pairs we did a workout which featured burpees (sorry), reverse planks and walkouts, and with each interval we tried to beat our previous time. Great effort from everybody (even if some of the 'encouragement' from our partners sounded very like trying to put us off...)

Next week we're off to help a local school - hope to see you there!

We had perfect conditions for our return visit to Chiswick House last night, which was good news as we had a huge job to do!

The carriageway into the grounds is lined with beautiful plane trees. Fun fact - did you know London Planes can grow to 35 metres and live for several hundred years? Which means they need a bit of care and attention.

We were met with Chris, Chiswick House's gardener, who explained the job was to cut away the shoots from the trees' trunks. Or epicormic growth, if we're being fancy!

We cleared away the clippings and then got to work giving the trees a good pruning, able assisted by Chiswick House's excellent range of dog visitors.

There were some excellent techniques getting as much as humanely possible into the ton bags, and some very professional lopping on display too. Great work everybody!

Next week we're back to do one of our favourite tasks - washing the Turnham Green mural. Fingers crossed the weather is kind to us...

Today I was back helping Ms V with her beautiful garden. As I was more familiar this time I was able to get going with the tasks that Ms V talked me through. I started by chopping back a bit more of the huge fig tree to be able to access underneath it. Then I dug out a type of weed, the brambles, and the ivy. At the back of the garden was more weeding, as well as taking some of the home made compost and putting it around the bottom of the apple tree to help it grow. Once I had started working on the brambles I started to find more and more, and they were very thorny! Thankfully my gloves were mostly thorn proof. I used the shears to cut the long bits of the grass that I didn't manage to mow last time, and then finished off my cutting off the dead heads of the rose bush. All that was left to do was to deposit all the cuttings into the green bin out the front, and I was off on my way, with a very grateful Ms V thanking me for the help.

AJ and Emily arrived at the church and met the food bank volunteers who explained the jobs that needed doing and a bit about the service that is provided. Emily initially got stuck into carrying through the chairs from the church room to the reception area where people would be coming in to have a cup of tea and wait for their selection of food that would be brought to them. We set up lots of small tables with little table clothes and two or three chairs set around them in a cafe style so it would be welcoming and relaxing for people to spend some time there. Then the main job was setting up the back room where the donated food was being delivered to and unpacked. First we had to bring big tables through and set these up, and then we could arrange the food on them. The system was that there would be pickers with a list so that they could come and put together a bag of food and bring it out to the people it is for. AJ has helped in many food banks in the past so had a brilliant suggestion of turning the tins on their side with the labels up so that the pickers can easily see what they are grabbing, plus you could fit more in the crate that way. Another job was cutting some of the bigger loaves of bread that had been donated by Gail's into halves so that they could be distributed to more people. We donned our blue gloves and got to work - Emily cutting and AJ bagging them up individually. After this room was all set up and the empty crates stacked up ready to be taken away, we had finished the task. All the food bank volunteers made us feel very welcome and we left them well prepared.

Tonight we had people arriving by walking, cycling, and running, with Chris and Michelle leading us on the task. We were at one of our regular spots, Strand on the Green school, however tonight was a special occasion because it was Kymm's 50th good deed! Well done Kymm, you've made a huge difference to the local community in Hounslow and beyond, keep up the good work! Our mission was to cut back the overgrown bushes around the side of the school that were starting to obstruct the pavement, and give them a serious haircut. At first we were a bit reluctant because of their beautiful purple flowers, but then our hacking instincts took over and we attacked them with our usual vigour. We split the jobs of hacking and bagging up the offcuts and were done in good time. All in all a nice straightforward task successfully done!