The first day of August brought a pretty solid team to Horsenden Farm, including a wave of new joiners: Rene, Laxmi, and Mairaj. Welcome to GoodGym Ealing - we hope you enjoyed your first task!

Worked on tasks, got along really well, supportive people all around, will attend more sessions. Very helpful and friendly team. - summarised Mairaj in his report

Elsa equipped us with wheelbarrows, shears, loppers, rakes, and even a slasher (which Steph Ducat quickly booked), then led us up Horsenden Hill to a place called Wells Meadows. The meadow was recently scythed, but it has not been raked yet. There was also a corner covered by a huge patch of brambles that, despite bearing delicious, ripe blackberries at that time of the year, were still considered undesirable plants. Our job was to clear the area so that Friends of Horsenden Hill could create a wildflower meadow.

Jamie’s and Gus’s cunning plan included cutting and eating their way to the most juicy blackberries. They found plenty of allies in their war against brambles: Ramona, Sevan, Steph, and, later on, Mairaj. Raking - which turned out to be more of a cardio workout than many may have expected - was handled mostly by Rene and Kash. Laxmi became a jack of all trades, raking, harvesting blackberries, and chopping brambles.

The session at Horsenden couldn’t be considered complete without bringing to life the slogan animals 🐮 + pizza 🍕 + craft beer 🍺. Even though we must admit that animals were hiding today, the GoodGymers didn’t have trouble finding the beer stall and the pizza oven.

What have the new GoodGymers learned today?

• GoodGymers can get quite competitive about the size of the brambles they pulled.
• Brambles produce blackberries.
• Brambles have thorns.
• Thorns scratch.
• Thick gloves protect you from thorns.
• Long trousers and sleeves also protect you from thorns (forget this one - even veteran GoodGymers never seem to learn that fact!).
• If you arrive late for the task, ask for the person with red hair.

We are back at Horsenden Farm next month, hoping for more animals, more new faces, and fewer scratches! Sign up now!