GoodGymers traveled on foot, on two wheels, and even accompanied by four legs to the historic Gunnersbury Park Estate last night. The centenary celebration of the creation of the estate is coming up, so we joined the group of residents to help with a tidy up ahead of the big birthday event.

One by one we arrived to be greeted by a welcoming committee spearheaded by Rosie the dog and fellow GoodGymer Stephen. After treats had been dispensed, we learned there were two separate tasks to be completed. The first was a big gardening job on the green, and the second a paving challenge at the entrance to the estate. So while master masons Chris, Remy and Kash began mixing cement and digging trenches, the rest of the group headed down to the green space.

Led by Tony, we divided up to tackle the extremely spiky trimmings cut down by the tree surgeon, chopping them up into manageable sizes. There was also litter picking to be done, sweeping, clearing and a general tidy up.

We worked until night fell, and headed back up to admire the job done by the paving team. Impressively, in just 45 minutes they had managed to mix cement, dig channels for the paving stones and relay them in prime position. Great work everybody. There was even time to leave the inaugural paw print in the wet cement (just don't tell Rosie).

Next week we will be back for our regular visit to Chiswick House when you will have a treat as Hounslow's newest (almost) qualified run leader will be leading the session....who is it to be? Come along to find out!

With the unpredictable weather we're having at the moment four optimistic Goodgymers met on Turnham Green in Chiswick to help rake the meadow.

Goodgym has been helping The Friends of Turnham Green with the meadow for several years. During that time we've had a variety of tools including today's tool of choice - scarifiers and the humble rake.

Goodgym hero John joined myself, Luis and Stephen (and Rosie the dog) with raking up the leftover "hay" aka the weeds and grass left behind by the council mower. Jan explained that this was not just a case of clearing the meadow but also letting the green shoots and seedlings get some much needed daylight. Who doesn't need more vitamin D as we enter the change of season!

Hopefully today's power hour of raking will help the remaining seeds grow and the meadow will once again flourish.

As ever several passers by stopped to say thank you and share how much they'd enjoyed seeing the meadow in all it's spring and summer glory.

Before long it started raining and Rosie gave us the nod it was time to pack away. Three damp haystacks were combined, ready to be cleared. We were so busy raking we didn't have chance for the usual before and after photos today.

Stephen (and Rosie) along with the community volunteers in Gunnersbury Estate will be hosting one of our upcoming wednesday night group sessions, and you can sign up here: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/tidy-up-gunnersbury-garden-estate

Tish and I met Stephen and members of the Gunnersbury Park Estate (plus Rosie the dog) to clear weeds, dig up unwanted roots and tidy the Triangle ahead of the Estate's centenary.

The residents are working on various plans to maintain the local green spaces including the Triangle we helped to tidy today.

If you happened to be walking through the underpass at Hogarth's roundabout on a dark, rainy night yesterday, you might have wondered exactly what was going on when a big group of damp people met somebody holding a large cardboard box. Something wild, you may have thought...

Well, you'd be right! Last night we ran to meet Jo from Wild Chiswick, who had asked us to come and help spread the word about the work they're doing for local swifts.

These lovely little birds are on the red list, which means they are vulnerable to extinction. They've been spotted in the local area, so Wild Chiswick have leaped into action to help protect them. They want to install as many swift nesting boxes across Chiswick as possible, but they need suitable places to put them. Our job was to put as many leaflets through as many doors in a certain area as we possibly could in a bid to get people to offer them a home.

So after splitting into two groups, those who opted for running and those who'd prefer to walk, we grabbed our piles of information leaflets and carefully highlighted maps, and got started.

There is something quite satisfying about efficient leaflet delivering, and as we worked though our pile in our well practiced method, we only paused to admire some beautiful local cats and one well preserved mural that was created in celebration of Charles and Diana's wedding (which makes it older than some of our members!).

Before long the two groups converged again, having successfully spread the word about the importance of saving the swifts far and wide. Well done everybody!

Don't forget about our new weekly task helping out at Hounslow FoodBox. See you all next week for some more doing good and keeping active!