Four GoodGymers joined volunteers at the Ringway Community Centre in Grove Park to help clear pathways in the woodland behind the centre.

After a lovely warm welcome from Kay, we got busy - raking ivy from the overgrown paths, digging up roots and cutting back overhanging branches. It was great to see the progress we made in just a couple of hours.

Congratulations to Matilde on completing your first GoodGym task.

There's plenty still to be done and GG will be going back over the next few weekends. The regular volunteers were so friendly and very grateful for the extra pairs of hands, so do sign up to help!

And if you need an added incentive, the woodland used to be the garden of the house where author E Nesbit lived. The railway line running at the bottom of the garden - which you can hear as you're working - is said to have inspired her most famous novel, The Railway Children. Cue quotations:

“The 9.15 up was called the Green Dragon. The 10.07 down was the Worm of Wantley.”

“I say," Phyllis suggested, "let's all wave to the Green Dragon as it goes by. If it's a magic dragon, it'll understand and take our loves to Father. And if it isn't, three waves aren't much. We shall never miss them.”

See you there next time!