Nine GoodGym-ers assembled at the Crouch End Open Space on Sunday morning to help conservation charity CREOS on its monthly working party day.

It was a working party. So we worked, then we partied.

Mission chips

Abi, Tim, John and Prima ferried wheelbarrow loads of woodchip from the carpark to parts of the pathway we hadn’t woodchipped last time GoodGym visited, where they laid it out like pro’s much to the delight and occasional puzzlement of passing pooches. It was a decent hike from the pile to the path and they did a great job getting all that woodchip out there.

Rake it til you make it

Meanwhile Claire and Sophie trekked out to the opposite corner of the open space and engaged in some heavy duty raking action removing several layers of bedded in leaves from the paths. Their work was regularly inspected and approved by canine quality control.

Coppicing, capiche?

Steve, when he wasn’t being mistaken for Michael Palin, worked alongside CREOS volunteers to plant saplings and engage in what he describes as ‘a spot of heavy coppicing’. He then spent the rest of the day explaining what coppicing is to those of us less enlightened in the ways of the woods.

This laurel sure is hardy

Daniel and James were sent on a search and destroy mission to weed out toxic cherry laurel that had infiltrated the wood. They were on high alert for potentially poisonous splinters but came through unscathed and the cherry laurel branches they liberated are now habitat piles - great fodder for mosses, lichens, fungi and insects.

It's no picnic... except when it is

Amongst all this there was more sapling planting and no doubt there was role switching and even more achieved – yet we were all spread out over the whole of the Crouch End Open Space so it was only at the end that we reconvened in time for the picnic.

CREOS puts on a picnic for volunteers at its monthly working parties and what a treat it was. There was delicious home made cauliflower, leek and potato soup, cheese, bread, crisps, fruit and drinks. A lovely way to end a brilliant community mission - great work team!