On a sunny Saturday like this, what could have been better than spending the morning amongst the lush green wilderness of Horsenden Hill? A recent report by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) found that spending 20 minutes in nature each day can brings incredible benefits to our mental health like reducing stress and anxiety and improving mood, self-esteem and confidence.

Members of WWF UK, Annie, Emma, Kat and Ferozah, visited Horsenden Farm as a part of their Prescription for Nature campaign to experience a GoodGym-style workout outdoors and encourage communities across the UK to do the same.

Not everyone has equal opportunities to enjoy physical activity in nature. For some communities being outdoors is not considered the norm, for others, barriers may involve access to transport or living in a nature-deprived area. Our special guest at today's session, Haroon Mota, the founder of Active Inclusion Network CIC and the Muslim Hikers group, actively works to empower the underrepresented communities to engage in the great outdoors.

The guests and nine GoodGym regulars met Elsa, a Friend of Horsenden Hill, who prepared a unique activity: a conservation-type task! Our job was to clear ash trees and brambles in the woodland area. How cutting back vegetation is supposed to help nature, you may ask. The benefits were twofold. Firstly, clearing the area of overgrowth was aimed at promoting the growth of grasses which would become habitats for various species, increasing the biodiversity of the hill. Secondly, we were making the feed for the Horsenden cows out of ash trees.

"The cows are going to eat wood? No way!"

Challenge accepted! We served lunch to the cows, a bull and a three-week-old calf by throwing the trimmings over the fence. And how they munched on those branches! Just like us on the pizza from Horsenden Loaf we treated ourselves to after the session!

Elsa was impressed to see how much space we cleared in 90 minutes, thanks to the power of teamwork. The session in the woods gave everyone a boost for the rest of the day. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with nature, meet new people and do something good.

If you want to join us next time at Horsenden Farm, sign up here!

It was not brambles, ivy or litter that were the main nuisance at Grove Farm today. Friends of Grove Farm had another problem to fix: a leaking pond! A pool of water at the bottom of the park's hill was surrounded by clay borders and one of the walls was reinforced with a fallen willow. Unfortunately, the dead tree fortified by clay was not doing its job to keep the water in. We don't know if the Paradise Fields beaver engineers were consulted about building a dam, but the GoodGym Ealing plumbing team got there first!

Three Friends of Grove Farm: Anna, Mike and Olena were joined on Saturday by a strong team of six GoodGymers. The job was to excavate some clay, and then fill the gaps that were causing the leak. We had an archaeologist and an engineer (a network engineer to be specific) on the team, which boosted our confidence about digging and constructing things. One team: Sevan, Simon, Mehmet and Mike were sent to mine for clay at the other part of the park, while the rest stayed at the pond. Gaby and Kash were digging the clay locally, eroding the top of existing walls that did not have to be as high, and Eliz, Anna and Olena did most of the construction work, patching the leaky pond barrier.

To make sure that the clay is properly compacted, our builders were performing a flagship GoodGym exercise - muddy mountain climbers (see how Eliz did it!). That routine was not only a perfect workout for the legs and core but also for nature. Which other gym has that on their offer?

The last ten minutes of the task was spent on cleaning the tools, followed by a short excursion to the wood anemone location. Cutting back all the brambles in that area in the winter paid off - we were dazzled by a wonderful carpet of white flowers against the greenery of the woodlands!

Wood anemones will be still flowering in the next two weeks, so if you are keen to see their beauty, join Friends of Grove Farm for creating habitats for slow worms next week or the conservation day in April.

Five GoodGymers who volunteered at Acton junior parkrun in the morning, couldn't have enough fresh air on a sunny Sunday and decided on another session in South Ealing. After their usual post-parkrun coffee break, Michelle cycled 3.5 km to the next destination while Harvey, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash raced her on foot. The runners' route took them through South Ealing Cemetery, which had a surprising number of roundabouts! At one of the roundabouts, the team met Gaby and Simon - the latter on his official first session - although he had been familiar with GoodGym for a while! Everyone, including Beata, who walked to the task, eventually made it to the cemetery chapel and met Paul from the Ealing Parks Foundation.

Today's job was a continuation of last month's task to spread the Christmas joy over the cemetery. In other words, we were laying (very coarse) woodchip made of last year's Christmas trees over the cemetery's side paths. Our impressive team of eight split between three paths, and our smallest unit joined two local volunteers, David and Keith, with whom we exchanged experiences about interesting community projects in Ealing we had worked on. We joked about finding minced Christmas lights among the woodchip piles. In fact, one of us discovered a Christmas decoration piece resembling a diamond!

Speaking of precious goods, today wheelbarrows were worth a million as we had only two of them to share. One of our smaller teams used a tonne bag for woodchip transport instead - those GoodGymers had the best full-body workouts! Fantastic teamwork (despite Harvey's two right gloves) allowed us to complete all three paths before noon when we decided to call it a day. The retired Christmas trees could now rest in pieces at the necropolis.

The best reward for our volunteering efforts was spending the morning outdoors, in the sun, surrounded by the tranquil atmosphere of early spring. The blossoms on the trees made the South Ealing Cemetery resemble a magical park.

"Maybe that's weird, but I like cemeteries. I am not scared of them. They are so quiet and peaceful." - said Gaby.

Gaby was not the only one appreciating the unique serenity of graveyards. The Ealing Parks Foundation's project, which we supported today, aims for South Ealing Cemetery to retain its charm and dignity while transforming it into a welcoming green space for everyone to relax. If you are local to the area and are looking for a quiet space to go for a walk and clear your mind, visit the cemetery and be delighted by its calming atmosphere!