This week we headed back to the beautiful grounds of Chiswick House, where we visit regularly to keep this historic green space looking its best. It helps keep the gardens and grounds free for everyone to enjoy, and it is always rewarding to know that an hour or so of work has a lasting impact on a community space.

A special welcome to Emma, who joined us for her very first GoodGym Hounslow session! Great to have you join us.

After a warm up and a quick run, we met up with the rest of the group, grabbed our tools and got straight to work on two important conservation tasks.

Our first job was tackling epicormic growth—the shoots that sprout from the trunks and lower branches of trees. While these shoots are a natural response to stress, they divert energy away from the healthy canopy and can affect the tree's long-term health. Removing them helps put energy where it's needed most.

Our second task was trimming back the browse line—the lower branches that create a neat line beneath the tree canopy. The name comes from the height at which deer naturally browse leaves in woodland. Maintaining this browse line improves visibility and allows more light to reach the ground, supporting a greater variety of plants and wildlife.

As always, there was plenty of conversation while we worked. Topics ranged from upcoming races and ambitious cycling adventures to remarkable hospital coincidences and plenty of plans for future events. Time flies when you're catching up with good company!

With an impressive number of trees tended to, we headed over to the estate yard for fitness. Tonight it was Tabata - a high-intensity interval workout consisting of short bursts of hard work followed by brief recovery periods. It's fast, energetic and efficient. There were plenty of laughs, lots of determination, and some truly impressive squats on display!

Next week we're off to help at a local school. Hope to see lots of you there! Sign up here for all the details

Ms N has previously had help from a couple of Goodgymers but this time I was the only sign up. Her back garden is overgrown and though Ms N has some nifty tools, the lawn mower can’t handle the rough ground.

So I did what I could to clear the long grass, nettles and brambles so Ms N can get to the plum tree and collect the plums once they start to ripen very soon.

Breda and Michelle stayed behind to help the Friends of Watermans Park pack everything away, after the third concert of the summer series had finished.

The gazebos came down without too much trouble, the deck chairs and cushions were stacked away in the storage unit, and, most impressively of all, the bunting was retrieved with minimal fuss. Breda’s pre- event negotiations over where it should be hung paid off handsomely, saving multiple trips up the ladder and proving that a little strategic planning really does go a long way.

Another successful concert packed away, ready for the Friends of Watermans park to do it all again next Saturday, for one last time this summer.

Five GoodGymers were on hand to help set up the third of four free summer events at Watermans Park.

Kai, Kash, Michelle and Breda took on the now-familiar challenge of erecting three gazebos. By this point, you’d think we’d have cracked it. Not quite, but Philippe came to the rescue and normal service was resumed.

Next came the bunting. As we discovered the last two saturday's there seemed to be enough of it to decorate the Thames towpath all the way to Kew. Before a single flag was tied, Breda opened early negotiations with Sevan and Kash over the optimal bunting locations, with one eye firmly on making the evening pack down as painless as possible… more on whether that strategy paid off later!

With gazebos standing, bunting fluttering and the bandstand looking suitably festive, the whole set-up was wrapped up in around half an hour. That left plenty of time for what is now becoming a Watermans tradition: the pre-performance pilgrimage in search of ice lollies.

Goods secured, we had our hydration break before Kai Sevan and Kash headed back closer to home and Breda and I returned to the park to watch the local acts.

Mr T is unable to leave his flat due to a multitude of health conditions, and unfortunately a side effect of this is being unable to take out the recycling to the bins downstairs.
Cycling to recycling, I arrived at Mr T’s and was greeted by 6 bags full of paper and card and plastic bottles of all shapes and sizes. Mr T was extremely grateful for the help, and informed me that he actually had more bags in side that needed taking out. Obviously I said I would that them too, so off I went with the first lot and returned to 7 more bags full of recyclable goods! Back down again, everything separated out and into the correct recycling container they went. A task so simple yet made such a bin-credible difference to Mr T.

On a warm Thursday afternoon, Thaty and JP met at Mrs P’s home to help her with two tasks.

First was the changing of a light bulb, which took 30 seconds. Then we did a full tutorial on how to set up YouTube on the TV. This was complicated by all Google’s latest tech barriers (including trying to make a QR code work on a 2010s iPhone) but eventually the second light bulb of the afternoon appeared and we were in business!