"Thist-le be great as our first community mission" we thought when the flyer advertising The National Trust's first Petersham Meadow Thistle Pull came through - so we rallied up the troops and signed up for some prickly wrestling with thistles. Note: this was pre-heatwave, so perhaps the idea of donning the recommended long-sleeved tops and trousers would have been slightly less threatening at that time.

We rocked up in true Red Thunder force, covering a plethora of transportation modes: walking, cycling, long-runs there & bus back (thank you GG for giving my weekly long-run motivation) and, drum roll please as this is likely to be a GG first... a running & ferry across from Marble Hill House to Ham House combination - now that’s how to travel to a mission in style, eh Holly & Jon! After umming and ahhing, we decided to risk the scratches and stings in our shorts and T-shirts - except Kate H who turned up with genius gear of transformable shorts-to-trousers and the amazing long-sleeved "running bolero".

Following a task briefing, we set to work on yanking the thistles from the ground and like true Good Gymmers, enthusiastically got stuck in - only to very quickly learn that these were prickly creatures in a league of their own, piercing through our gloves. Fear not, The National Trust were at hand to provide some gauntlet-esque gloves where needed, with Kate M attired as if she was ready to have a falcon land on her forearm.

When we looked back at our allocated patch, we felt a big sense of achievement to see the area cleared of the prickly imposters. Note #2: we had been decidedly selective with our area and avoided taking on what can only be described as a thistle field - wise move, team GG!

We commenced a couple of impromptu games of "finding a pair of gloves in a thistle stack" and trying to locate an abandoned bag, before enjoying some well-earned water, telling other volunteers all about Good Gym and claiming our volunteer badges. Then there was only one thing to do: a trip to the beautiful Ham House to reap the volunteer discount in the cafe...