A wet start to the day couldn’t stop three Goodgymers from joining the morning task to help out Friends of Grove Farm with their monthly conservation day, with Sevan braving the rain to run to the meeting point and Christos and Penny making their way with public transport.

After meeting with Mike, Anna and other members from Friends of Grove Farm, the group made their way to the area for today’s task - to clear the leftover cuttings, apparently also known as arisings, from the area after strimmers had been used to cut down the overgrown grass.

After a short safety briefing, mostly to make sure we all kept a close watch out for all the ant-mounds and giant holes in the ground, the team set to work, raking up all the leftover cuttings, dragging the chopped trees, and piling up all the waste into one corner.

With the ant-mounds making balance difficult as well as the rain continuing to come down, the team persevered with raking up and pitch-forking all the cuttings into bags to clear the area – estimated by the end to have cleared around "a-half-of-a-third" of the total area.

Hopefully all the ant-residents were not too disturbed by our activities!

Today's Grove Farm group was lower in numbers as some volunteers chose to attend the Restore Nature Now protest in the morning hours. Mike and Olena were on duty as early as 9 am, chopping away ivy, brambles and the wonkiest tree branches.

The GoodGym team didn't disappoint. Kash walked to lead the session from South Ealing, while our new starter, Bal, came from Hayes, where there is no GoodGym... yet! He showed great enthusiasm for GoodGyming: a dose of outdoor exercise, helping the community, meeting new people and getting some fresh air - much more fun than sitting on the sofa munching croissants! Bal even drafted his first report as soon as the mission registration email came up. That's the spirit!

"Spent a couple of hours gardening in Grove Farm - had a great time!" - Bal

Sevan came a bit later, running all the way from the Northfields train set task.

Today's job was to continue clearing the vegetation near the Whitton Avenue entrance to the park, this time on the left-hand side of the path. Mike was hopeful that would discourage local drinkers from hiding in the bushes and chugging on cheap beer. Loppers, trimmers, rakes and saws were in operation, complimented by some old-fashioned pulling young tree trunks by hand. Olena and Bal collected a number of beer cans, previously hidden in the thicket. Mike, Sevan and Bal piled up the trimmings to build a dead hedge that could serve as a habitat for insects and small mammals. At the end of the session, the area by the entrance looked far less wild. Hopefully, our work will improve the safety of Grove Farm visitors and prevent antisocial behaviours.

Missed today's session? Do not worry! There will be plenty of brambles and ivy to tackle in a month, so join us at the July Grove Farm session!

It's been two months since GoodGym visited Grove Farm and Madiha wore the glamourous 50 good deeds sash. This time the glittery accessory was worn for the second time - and the honour went to Christos.

Today's conservation day at Grove Farm was an excellent task to celebrate a milestone but also to join the GoodGym gang - that was the case for Gistan. He showed up already in the red t-shirt and enthusiasm for a workout with equipment offered by woodlands: heavy logs and branches to carry after chopping them down.

While the other Friends of Grove Farm lead, Anna, was hosting a pollinator survey nearby, Mike took charge of our team including the regulars: Bharti, Olena and Livio. We walked to the Southern entrance to the nature reserve, at Whitton Avenue, where our job was to increase the visitor experience. The first impression of the park resembled entering a wilderness - maybe too much of a wilderness for those worried about drinking or other anti-social behaviour concealed by the thick bushes. Before beginning the quest of destroying the drinkers' hideaways, Mike ensured us that the thicket had been thoroughly checked for the presence of birds, as it was nesting season.

Armed with shears, loppers and saws, we attacked tree branches growing downwards, octopus-like ivy clusters and nasty brambles. Hungry for more devastation, we started looking at the few fallen trees swallowed by ivy.

"If we cut away all the ivy and brambles from those trees, we will create new seats for the drinkers." - said Mike

There was an option to chop down the ivy and transfer some long bramble stems onto the tree trunks to make the potential sitting area not too comfortable. While we were about to do that, Steph Ducat and Sevan finally made it to Grove Farm after waiting for the train this morning - but it was not the train you may think about. To make the service running, they had to build rail tracks first!

Let's get back to Grove Farm: with the reinforcements, we dared to question the right of the fallen trees to lay at the entrance to the park and attract anti-social activity. The dead trees had to go!

We tore away the thick ivy, hacked the bark off the trunks and cut away the branches until the trees appeared less intimidating. Then we pushed, pulled and twisted them in any direction imaginable to tear them off the ground. Imagine a bad dentist wrestling with an uneven tooth root, that was us! Everyone survived the grappling session with the mighty trees, only Sevan fell back and scratched himself which didn't deter him at all.

The mud, rather than blood, tainted our red t-shirts but we didn't shun away the dirt and hard work. After all, that's where the black t-shirts come from - just like the one Christos earned today for the 50th good deed! Gistan had all reason to be proud of his dirt marks on the t-shirt at his first session - he worked hard and even stayed longer than the other GoodGymers to help Friends of Grove Farm.

"I like to finish the job." - Gistan
"There is quite a lot here to finish!" - Sevan, looking into the depth of the woods

The runners set off for the downhill fun run towards Ealing after climbing three hills to get to the location before. We do like the challenge of the hilly run to Grove Farm, don't we? If you are up for the upcoming session in charming woodlands (the run is not mandatory by any means!), sign up here!

Fancy fewer hills but an equally green area in the North of our borough? Join us next week at Horsenden Farm!

Spring is certainly here! Glorious sunshine and wood anemones (which GoodGymers protected from brambles a month ago) at Grove Farm were the signs of the season of nature blossoming all around.

This Saturday session had two big things to mention:

Madiha's long awaited 50th good deed 🥳 She got to wear the new, glittery golden sash!

and

Lydia's very first session 🐣

All four GoodGymers had a good workout making their way to the session, either walking or cycling up the Sudbury Hill. At the top of the hill, an equally vigorous activity awaited! Ron, the manager of today's project, asked Friends of Grove Farm, Mike and Anna, to arrange some muscle to do some spade, fork and mattock work by the entrance to the park.

We came to dig up trenches, turn soil from the old mounds, remove bramble roots and put aside the rich, clay soil. All of that work was done in preparation for seeding a wildflower meadow in April. We found old bricks, bramble roots and tree roots. Sevan dug out a spoon, and after trying to bend it, both using his arms and the power of his mind, he concluded it had been made of a very strong steel, so he decided to keep the bounty!

After a tea and crisps break, the GoodGymers left Friends of Grove Farm to discover more treasure in the trenches they dug!

Monthly drop-in session at Grove Farm : Would the team be able to make it on time and help Anna and Mike? Goodgymers were busy this morning at different park runs for Ealing Foodbank, then needed to make their way all the way from Hanwell back to Grove Farm. A few members who were not at park run started the mission with clearing the ivy as wood anemones started to come out and needed to ensure the sunlight reached the ground. A few runners then appeared in the woods from Hanwell and went to help clear the fences from the ivy along the path. Then, at last, the walkers arrived after a troublesome journey with delayed bus due to roadworks in the area. Then, the team cleared the ivy, picked up rubbish, and packed the tools. A mission that looked nearly impossible to reach became Mission Possible and accomplished. Another great collaboration between Goodgym and Friends of Grove Farm.

It's been a year since GoodGym's first at Grove Farm. Was it a déjà vu? Three GoodGymers (again!) joined Friends of Grove Farm: Mike, Anna, Livio and Olena in a bramble-bashing endeavour for the freedom of wood anemones (again!).

Today's GoodGym trio included:

• Cherian, who was a guest from GoodGym Barnet that came today to do a whopping four community missions in Ealing!
• Sevan, who ran 8km very fast to the task and felt very warm despite it being -1 degrees in the morning
• Kash, who walked 8km today and had been at Grove Farm a year ago but still couldn't pronounce wood anemones differently than wooden enemies

Do wood anemones have enemies? Oh yes, they do. If brambles grow tall and extensive, they block the sunlight for the wood anemones, which then cannot flower in the spring. Our job was to cut down the brambles while they were still young to prevent them from spreading, then rake them to the side to create a dead hedge.

The 90-minute session ended with tea and biscuits. There was plenty of refreshments for everyone - a real forest fete! Maybe Friends of Grove Farm were hoping for a larger group of volunteers?

Livio was going to visit Horsenden Farm in the afternoon where an ancient Anglo-Saxon ritual of wassailing was taking place. Livio told us about the tradition of blessing the fruit trees in hopes of good harvest later in the year. The ceremony involved singing and making noises like banging pots and pans. Maybe GoodGym can witness that next year!

Next Saturday we are going to visit Horsenden Farm for a volunteering day, and the week after GoodGymers can join Grove Farm at a monthly litter picking session.