Three GGers braved the mud to bundle pollarded withies on Chiswick eyot- and that is a series of words that can only be used in this niche context! Their efforts mean that the historic eyot will be protected from invasive crabs and will stay intact for hopefully years to come. Great work everybody! A special welcome to Pezhman who joined for his first session!

What's that coming over the hill, is it a monster, is it a monster? No! It's just GoodGym Hounslow ready for their Wednesday session in collaboration with #ThisGirlCan!

Creeping it real

Last night 16 of us met to raise awareness about lifting the barrier to women running after dark, to help out at a local school, and to do a spooktacular fitness session. We also got to welcome Ola and Klaudia along to their first session - give them a huge cheer!

Not only that, but we celebrated our lovely Beth's 300th good deed - that is an unbelievable amount of dedication to doing good! Huge congratulations and well done to Beth.

boo-tiful costumes

A lot of us chose to dress up for the occasion. There was Emily in her fabulous sparkly unicorn outfit, Lucy highlighting the terrors of social media in a brilliant mobile phone one piece, Eloise as an excellent light up cat (incredibly helpful for back marking), Beth doubling up cycling safety and Halloween chic in illuminated ghouls and Kash managing to complete the task and run in a terifying mask!

Back to our old haunt

After a warm up we went round the group to name a woman or women who inspire us to get active. Paula Radcliffe, Femke Bol, Kelly Holmes, Eilish McColgan, women who row, and Angela Merkel are just some of the names we look up to. So with the thought of these leading lights in our heads, we set off for our task for the evening.

Last night we were back at Strand-on-the-Green school, a local primary school where we often go to help. We had quite a few jobs to do, including removing ivy from a massive wall, cutting back a huge shrub, and finishing off the bench sanding. We quickly sorted ourselves into teams and got to work.

Ain't no body

We were a blur of activity, with Gus, Luis and Beth tackling the removal of the ivy which was threatening the integrity of the wall and roof, and Matt, Kash, Michelle, Alan and Kymm all cutting back the enormous shrub. Meanwhile Emily's dream team of Georgia, Florian, Ola, Klaudia, Eloise and Kash got to work on the benches so that they can be repainted.

The minutes flew by and it was soon time to down tools. But there was just time for a silly spooky session focusing on lower body. Suffice to say there was a small delay as I struggled with technology (thank you for your help Florian) and we had to deal with a speaker which went on to (maybe appropriately) die, but we got there in the end! We took on the Monster Mash challenge, before knocking out a SIX minute plank challenge with Thriller as our theme tune! Amazing.

There are a couple of missions this weekend, including this one to spread the word about Feltham's new foodcycle and lunchtime planting with Thames 21.

Next week you'll be in the very capable hands of Lucy as I'm away, so sign up for another great session at Chiswick House right here.

Since ancient times the phases of the moon have been associated with all sorts of mysterious things. There is a British superstition that if Christmas day falls on a dark Moon, the following year's harvest would be a bountiful one (useful for GoodGym tasks) and some people swear that by taking out all your spare coins of your pocket and putting them in the other pocket when you spot the month's first crescent moon for the month will ensure good luck for the next month. While not many of us carry coins any more and I'm not sure it'll work with Apple pay, last night's full moon certainly brought about some unusual behaviour...

Under the cover of darkness we made our way to Chiswick House, managing to avoid the security locking the gates on the way in but wondering if we would be able to make it out again after the task.

We carefully picked our way through the estate yard to find Sally, one of the gardeners, waiting for us at the entrance of the beautiful, and very dark, kitchen garden.

Luckily the light of the full moon appearing from between the clouds lit our way through the paths, where our job for the evening was to edge the woodchip back into place. We were also tasked with transporting more woodchip and pulling weeds. One lone runner lost in the depths of the park mysteriously appeared from nowhere to join us.

Shadowy figures moved through the garden, brandishing rakes and talking of ancient hills and cross country races in far away places such as Reigate, and Wimbledon Common.

Jobs done, the group made its way out of the park, just slipping through the giant iron gates before they were locked. The walkers set off for Turnham Green to join the runners for fitness session. The full moon fueled lunacy continued with the competitive session, which saw Gus and Emily invent an amazing new trance style move, and Lucy and Chris, Divya and Florian battle it out for victory.

But whatever happened to the walking group, who never turned up for fitness? Are they still out there somewhere, hypnotised by that full moon, wandering the streets of Chiswick?

Or did they head straight to the pub?

Join us next week as we head back to Chiswick allotment to find out, where everything will be, hopefully, back to normal....