An amazing 6 Goodgymmers turned up at Nature's Haven to continue the good work started at Wednesday night's session, alongside other volunteers. Peter, Matthew and Scarlett took on the tricky task of digging out the roots of the shrubs that had been established there for many years. Luckily Peter had been practising in his own garden for just such an opportunity, so was able to bring a wealth of experience And Matthew and Scarlett had been at the Wednesday session, so the task was in capable hands. Meanwhile, Rachel, Clara and Sheila did a final dig over the area soon to be planted with fruit trees, pulling out any bits of old root as they went. We were hoping to plant some trees in this session, but we weren't quite ready - maybe next week. Taskowners Claire and Aleks were extremely grateful for the Goodgym help and delighted by how much had been achieved. We look forward to seeing the fruits (literally!) of our labour very soon!

Dominic, Clara, Peter, Sol , Kacey and Sheila gathered at Ockwell's Park for our first tree-planting season of the season. After arming ourselves with spades, we met up with Ranger Tom and set off for the planting site. The ground was extrememy wet and boggy, so we had to tread carefully. Once we got to the site, Tom explained what needed doing - the whips were heeled into the ground waiting for us, and our task was to plant them around the inside perimeter of the fence, securing guards round them supported by canes. . There were several different species to plant - hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, dog rose and dogwood. Tom left us to it, to go to his next task. No sooner had we set to work, and I had just commented that we were lucky tht the rain had stopped, when the heavens opened and we all got a good soaking. Luckily we were all dressed, to be prepared for the rain. The weather soon dried up, though. Planting was easy as the ground was so soft, and we completed planting along one side of the square, and started on the next. By the end of the session we had planted about 150 whips, used all of the tree guards, and re-purposed some old ones. We also cleared some of the existing tree guards of grass which had grown up the inside, and was competing with the trees. It was great to see so many of the trees planted in previous years, thriving. As we made our way back, Sol commented what a good tree-planting day it had been, and I think we all agreed! Looking forward to an equally successful second session tomorrow

Round two of the weekend of plastic-blitzing the Thames and it's tributaries. This time Peter, Clara, Sol, Sara and Kanika joined Claire and Julian from Wild Eton Wick to continue the task from Saturday.

We began with a lesson in water testing and identifying tiny creatures in a small sample from a tributary of the Thames. Claire, the fountain of interesting information, turned six adults into little squealing children trying to pick out the little critters in the water!

Then we set off on the "litter pick with a twist". We split into teams to pick litter along the river, but not just bag it. We had to carefully identify and record each piece of trash on a double-sided sheet full of categories in tiny font. Never have we ever spent so long looking closely at garbage and getting to the bottom of it's inception! Slow but important work as it helps identify and plan for the types of interventions required in the area.

It felt like slow going but Claire was happy, so we were too. As always, we came away with new knowledge and experience from a task with Wild Eton Wick.

Georgeta, Kanika and Sheila cycled along the Jubilee River to join Clara, Peter, Julian and Jen at St John's church in Eton Wick, where we met with taskowner Claire from Wild Eton Wick. Claire had two tasks for us today. We started off by searching for any bat activity inside the church. We knew from previous surveys that bats fly around the churchyard. But could we find any evidence of bats roosting? We were looking for droppings, insect wings , urine stains or even bats themselves. We spread out throughout the church, armed with torches, and were given permission to have a good rummage in all the nooks and crannies we could find. We found plenty of dead insects and cobwebs, and Jen even found a mouse (of the toy variety), but we couldn't find any direct evidence of bats. Disappointingly we didn't have the key to go up the bell turret and steeple, as we felt this may have been our best chance of finding evidence of bats We then moved outside to enjoy the sunshine and see whether we could see any butterflies in the churchyard. Whilst on butterfly watch some of us had a bit of a contemplate about the stories that may lie behind the gravestones, a very peaceful place. A few butterflies were spotted - some of them whizzed by very quickly, but Georgeta managed to get a picture of a common blue. In all, 9 butterflies were recorded - other species seen were a meadow brown, a gatekeeper, and a holly blue. We were all agreed that the churchyard could be improved to make it more attractive to butterflies and perhaps that will be an eventual outcome from this survey! We made the most of the weather and all took the scenic route home again. Thanks to Claire for hosting us, and we look forward to helping out again soon.