Having successfully just dodged the rain, tonight Jack led us on a 2.5km run along the river to the beautiful grounds of Ham and Petersham Sea Scouts. They've been working on a number of different projects on the areas surrounding their new Scout Hut and tonights task involved moving a huge pile of Hardcore to lay the foundations for a path and shooting range. It was a tough graft moving so much rubble from shovel to barrow to dirtpath and back again, but everyone got stuck in and we made a great dent in the workload in no time at all. Tonight was the second day of a four part project to support the Sea Scouts and we'll be back again this coming Monday and Saturday. After the task, Jack led us back along the river to the Tap Tavern and we called it a night.

Monday's group run for GoodGym Richmond included a visit to the Petersham and Ham Sea Scouts, one of our favourite organisations in the local area. We gathered outside the Tap Tavern and did some stretches before heading off on a direct run of about 2.5km over to the scouts' HQ on the banks of the river. It was properly dark along the towpath and even with headtorches it was difficult to dodge the puddles on the path, as our wet shoes testified on arrival.

We met with scout leader Russell and were briefed on the task at hand, which was to clear twig and branch debris from the grounds to allow for plant growth and collect firewood for the scouts' bonfires. We were kitted out with brand new red gardening gloves, wheelbarrows and mini floodlights and got to work. Jack and Kerry took on the clearing of the main lawn by the impressive new scout hut, while the rest of the group headed down the driveway towards the river.

What's brown and sticky? A stick.

The river had only recently been at high tide so the ground was soaked through on one side of the driveway, but we charged in fearlessly and were soon gathering bundles of sticks and filling the two barrows so fast they couldn't make drop offs at the wood store quickly enough. Then Russell pointed out that the other side of the drive needed clearing too and the river had not come up on that side so we switched across and the going was a lot easier.

We had arrived to a very sticky situation indeed, but it was satisfying to see it becoming progressively less sticky as the sticks were tidied up. As we began to wrap up we were joined by T and Chi who made a bonus appearance at the end of a cycling training session. Cue super smiley group photo and then a gentle jog back to Richmond, sticky situation resolved.

This evenings task was Goodgym all the way through - we were asked to help with some painting and decorating at Certitude, this was a new task for us and it was great to find out the task owner is also part of Goodgym, we're getting around!

The run was a fairly long 3.7km which the group absolutely smashed.

The task owner got us quickly to work, repainting the kitchen and an outside fence, luckily we brought some serious numbers. A solid job achieved by everyone we finished up and headed home.

Well done to everyone and looking forward to the next one.

Yes, at least three, or so it might appear in Richmond.

Winter gardening and an unexpected 'fishing trip' at the Three Pigeons Plot and The Arcade in Buccleuch Gardens, Richmond with Kerry, Jack, Sam, JP and Anita.

We started from the Tap Tavern with an easy 2km run to the Three Pigeons Plot led by Sam.

'Catch of the Day' consisted of 2 bicycles and a bike frame, silted and ghostly, revealed at low tide in the Thames next to The Three Pigeons Plot and hauled out by our intrepid GG team.

As well as retrieving (stolen?) property , it was also a really successful evening's gardening:

1. Lifting and splitting some of the more established Liriope Muscari at The Three Pigeons to create new stands in places where there are gaps.

2. Planting a Winter Savoury, a compact Marjoram and a Thyme* in the 'Gin Garden' herb corner of The Three Pigeons.

3. Planting 1 x Canary Palm, 3 x Sarcoccoca Confusa , 4 x Woodruff* and 3 x Creeping lemon Thyme* in and around The Arcade Rockery .

4. Sweeping up masses of leaves from on and around the Arcade Lawn and 'magic-carpeting' them away to our compost heap on an old trampoline mat.

5. 'Planting sticks' to try and deter people from walking across the flower beds, particularly important with all the bulbs we planted in December and with today's additions

*Donated by GoodGym members.