When a woodchip pile gets dropped somewhere in Ealing, there is a 56.74% chance GoodGymers will find out about it. In the winter the likelihood rises to 68.5%. Just a few days before the winter solstice, the woodchipping season was in full bloom! But spreading the woodchips for mulching or creating paths was not the objective for today.

Jon, the ranger of Walpole Park, contacted us about a heap of shredded ex-trees at the park gate, next to Soane's Kitchen. Although rangers were generally happy to have the woodchip delivered, they would very much prefer to have it inside compost bins. Here is where GoodGym Ealing gets involved.

Four keen GoodGymers met after dark on Tuesday at Bodyline Fitness to make their way to Walpole Park. Sevan and Sudha decided to walk to the task destination and they made it to the gate before Mohamed and Kash who opted for a 2 km run around outside Walpole Park. Well done, walking team! Next, the crew had to clear the obstacles to reach the tools Jon had left for them: two locked gates, a lockbox and a locked door.

"This is like an escape room!" - Sudha.

It turned out that despite diligent planning, the code to one of the padlocks was not working. Kash had to use a Phone-a-Ranger Lifeline, which saved the day. Having collected the tools, the team put some flood lights on the way between the woodchip pile and the compost bins. That prevented not only walking into the glass walls of Soane's Kitchen in the dark but also helped find accidentally dropped gloves and hats.

In less than an hour, the GoodGymers filled to the brim one of three compost bins and enjoyed a good workout to shake off the winter sloth: shovelling, wheelbarrowing and lifting. The only additional thing to shake off was the woodchips caught in various layers of clothing - but that was homework.

The team did a fantastic job. The woodchip pile is still not cleared yet, so watch this space for another adventure at Walpole Park! We are pausing the Tuesday group runs until January, but look out for December tasks on other days of the week. The group runs will resume on the 7th of January - sign up now for a session to support the Reduce & Recycle Hub in Acton.

A church clean-up task at St Mary's is to GoodGymers what Home Alone or Die Hard are to families watching TV - a Christmas classic! Only a brief run away from Ealing Broadway, St Mary's awaited our sweeping and decorating skills. Although we knew that GoodGym's good friend, Vicar Steve, wouldn't be at the church anymore with his indispensible words of encouragement, the new task owner, Brian, gave us an equally magical treatment.

Tonight's church clean-up and Christmas tree decoration session had a fantastic turnout of 13 GoodGymers, including three (yes, that's right!) new joiners. Makkiya, Raphael and Sudha brought us a lot of enthusiasm and good energy, and we are hoping to see them again soon at another task.

The team split into the dust busters who worked upstairs and the Christmas tree beauty specialists at the altar. If decorating the tree somehow didn't provide enough merriness for everyone, then Claire's Jingle Bells played on the piano did!

Having received praise from Brian on their work, the team headed to the Grove for more festivities to come: the Christmas crackers, buffet, quiz and Secret Santa!

Next Tuesday, we are staying close to Ealing Broadway and helping the ranger transport a pile of woodchip outside Walpole Park into the walled garden - sign up now!