Wood You Believe It? A Busy Evening at Strand on the Green! 🌳🪚🎨

What a fantastic evening we had last night at Strand on the Green School, where our mission was to protect some of the school’s outdoor wooden structures with a fresh coat of wood preserver and to tame the overgrowth that had taken over parts of the car park!

We kicked things off with a warm welcome to Sara ** – benvenuta! 🌟 So lovely to have you join us for your very first GoodGym session – we hope it’s the first of many.

There was plenty to cheer about before we got stuck in: 👏 Steph completed an ultra at the weekend – massive congratulations! 💪 And Eloise is gearing up for a half iron(wo)man this coming weekend – sending all the luck and power your way!

Armed with brushes, gloves, and secateurs, we split into teams and got straight to work. One group got busy painting and preserving the wooden structures, while the other tackled the overgrown bushes that were creeping into the car park. The transformation was impressive – big impact in a short time!

Once the task was complete, we rounded off the evening with a fitness session in the school grounds. It was a spicy mix of cardio and conditioning, with Emily, our reigning Queen of Planks, showing us all how it’s done! 🏋️‍♀️🔥

Looking ahead, we’ve got a fun mission coming up – we’ll be helping to marshal for the West London Queer Project’s 10km charity walk. It promises to be a joyous event.

Thanks to everyone who came along. Next week, Michelle will be leading the group at the Comboni Centre for some peaceful and mindful gardening. Don’t miss it!

A Berry Good Morning in Battersea 🌿🌞

What better way to kick off the weekend than with a GoodGym community mission that had a huge impact!

A brilliant group of GGers came together on Saturday morning, answering the call to help out at a thriving community garden in the heart of Battersea. This huge green space is a vital hub for local residents—a place to grow, connect, and learn. We're really happy to visit regularly to help keep it flourishing.

It was especially lovely to welcome some first-time GoodGymers—great to meet you Abadesi, Pranav, Adrian and Shreyasi and thanks for getting so stuck in!

There was certainly no shortage of jobs to tackle, and we going straight away. Tasks ranged from planting raspberry canes to clearing an overgrown area, de bind-weeding around a goji bush, and yes—digging not one, not two, but THREE holes to plant a beautiful new bay tree. There was weeding a-plenty, pruning, trimming and composting and a few mystery pipes to contend with, but it was nothing we couldn’t handle.

The energy was high, there was plenty of teamwork strong and even more laughs. It’s always amazing to see how much can get done when a group of motivated people come together. By the end of the morning, the garden was looking better than ever and Malissa was really pleased with all we got done.

We wrapped up the mission in the best possible way—with a trip to a local café for some well-earned tasty drinks and snacks. A perfect reward. Nice work everybody!

On a gloriously sunny spring evening, Team GoodGym Hounslow gathered to get active, do some good and also celebrate a special occasion – Tish’s birthday! 🎉 What better way to mark the day than with a good deed, some hard graft, and brutal core workout?

Our task last night took us to Chiswick Allotments, where we were back helping the brilliant team at Wild Chiswick – a local community organisation focused on boosting biodiversity in Chiswick. They work to protect and promote wildlife habitats, educate locals about urban nature, and create spaces where pollinators, birds, and all manner of creatures can thrive in an urban environment.

On a golden evening, we set to work on a variety of tasks. The raspberry cane bed was cleared with care, persistent weeds were dug up, and an overgrown area was tamed – though not without a disclaimer to the task owner that a few non-weeds might be collateral damage in our efforts. 🌱

Meanwhile, Georgia gave the thirsty rhubarb a proper soaking – working up a serious arm workout in the process – while Steph and Maxime undertook the massive task of filling a giant water butt one can at a time. An endurance event in its own right!

As we toiled away, we became aware we were being watched. Not just by the other plot holders but by a curious fox and her cubs. With the job done and tools down, we ran (and cycled) back to Turnham Green for Tish’s Birthday Core Blast. It involved a relentless series of core exercises that were sure to give us abs of iron.

A good stretch followed (with various levels of flexibility judging by the pics - I couldn't be any further away from my toes while most of you are reaching them with the ease of a professional gymnast!), and then a stroll to the pub where cake and celebrations awaited. Happy birthday, Tish – and well done, team!

If you fancy an hour or two on the eyot in the sun this weekend, there is another session weaving branches coming up on Saturday.

Due to some last minute changes, for our regular trip to Chiswick House last night we were to be unsupervised for our task - but thankfully left with plenty of instructions, a map, and some tools.

We're generally a well behaved bunch (except for when photoshop is involved!) so we followed our directive to the letter and set off into the grounds of the house and garden.

At first glance there wasn't much litter to be found, but when we started looking a bit closer there was plenty to keep us busy. Around each bench there were dozens of cig butts to collect (these take 60 years to decompose and the particles get into our waterways...grim) and some more interesting finds including abandoned frisbees and a dog harness.

After a good stint we downed tools and headed to an unsuitable location for our fitness session - not sure why I selected there when we had the whole park at our disposal! Still, we cracked on with three different exercises for three different areas - legs, arms and cardio. The moves made for some excellent photos!

Next week we're off to help Wild Chiswick - hope to see you there!

With the beautiful camelias of Chiswick House blooming in GoodGym red, it must have been time for our visit back to help out with jobs in the garden!

This week we were met by George with an emergency job - GoodGymers assemble! The Kitchen Garden is due to open today but the team has just discovered that there is a dangerous lintel by the normal entrance which means the public can't use it for the time being. There is an alternative pathway in, but it has been neglected over the winter and become clogged with weeds. That's where we came in!

Our task for the evening was to clear the path of weeds, grass and other undesirables. We were given a demonstration on the various roles.and told that it was imperative that rakers take the lead and must stay ahead of the pack. they were followed by hoers and forkers. The choreography was everything.

With the light rapidly dropping we worked worked hard, fueled by discussions of books, travel and weekend races. A massive well done to Michelle, Florian, Alan, Steph and Matt for taking on the Queen of the Suburbs in tough conditions and for some epic running!

After 45 minutes of effort we had reached the end of the road. You can see what the path looked like before our hard work, but I wish I had a decent after shot to show you. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was path perfection!

Next week Michelle will be leading the group to help with the new season of planting for Hounslow Foodbox at Chiswick allotments. You can find the details here and sign up. We also have anice litter picking task at Baron's ponds this Saturday if you're ale to help out.