It was not brambles, ivy or litter that were the main nuisance at Grove Farm today. Friends of Grove Farm had another problem to fix: a leaking pond! A pool of water at the bottom of the park's hill was surrounded by clay borders and one of the walls was reinforced with a fallen willow. Unfortunately, the dead tree fortified by clay was not doing its job to keep the water in. We don't know if the Paradise Fields beaver engineers were consulted about building a dam, but the GoodGym Ealing plumbing team got there first!

Three Friends of Grove Farm: Anna, Mike and Olena were joined on Saturday by a strong team of six GoodGymers. The job was to excavate some clay, and then fill the gaps that were causing the leak. We had an archaeologist and an engineer (a network engineer to be specific) on the team, which boosted our confidence about digging and constructing things. One team: Sevan, Simon, Mehmet and Mike were sent to mine for clay at the other part of the park, while the rest stayed at the pond. Gaby and Kash were digging the clay locally, eroding the top of existing walls that did not have to be as high, and Eliz, Anna and Olena did most of the construction work, patching the leaky pond barrier.

To make sure that the clay is properly compacted, our builders were performing a flagship GoodGym exercise - muddy mountain climbers (see how Eliz did it!). That routine was not only a perfect workout for the legs and core but also for nature. Which other gym has that on their offer?

The last ten minutes of the task was spent on cleaning the tools, followed by a short excursion to the wood anemone location. Cutting back all the brambles in that area in the winter paid off - we were dazzled by a wonderful carpet of white flowers against the greenery of the woodlands!

Wood anemones will be still flowering in the next two weeks, so if you are keen to see their beauty, join Friends of Grove Farm for creating habitats for slow worms next week or the conservation day in April.

At Pitshanger Junior parkrun today, Gaby took on a new role handing out finish tokens. She's become really keen to help at an event that's so close to home for her. Today she paired up with an experienced volunteer and they had a good chat while recording each runner's finishing position.

Elsewhere, there were a lot of volunteers present. So many that Steph, Kash and Sevan were assigned to a single marshal post, number 7. They decided that Sevan would clap, while Steph and Kash would take on high-fiving duties. Kash was in her element. Is there a job where giving high fives is the main skill?

All of the children were happy with the vocal support and almost all took Kash or Steph's hand when offered. Some runners even zigzagged across the path to collect power boosts from all 3 GoodGymers. Conversely, some runners were totally freaked out by the outstretched hands, trying to make themselves as small as possible to squeeze through the gap between Kash and Steph. Hopefully they aren't traumatised by the experience.