The heat may have been huge, but the desire to GoodGym on a Monday eve is bigger!

Starting with a warm up in Richmond, we headed across the green and down to the river to run across the lock and back along the river on the north bank into East Twickenham, turning in to St Christopher's Fellowship.

We are very familiar with the garden there and get on with weeding, litter picking, cutting back and sorting out without needing instruction! The brambles had been weaving their way around everything and weeds were clearly loving the heavy rain followed by sunshine, until we turned up!

45 minutes later the large garden felt more under control again, even if our own temperatures were not so much!

We are back there next month to keep on top of the summer growth.

Today’s GoodGym adventure took us to the beautiful church in central Richmond, where we rolled up our sleeves for a hands-on task: building a rustic wooden rail for the new “scented trail” project. Our goal was to create a sturdy, natural boundary using chunky timber and a lot of teamwork.

As someone with dyslexia, I had a moment where I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to follow the horse or the hose—Ken’s directions definitely kept me on my toes, but it gave me a laugh either way! (Spoiler: no horses, and only a bit of hose.)

We got stuck in with lifting, sawing, and setting the wooden rails in place, working alongside Ken, who shared plenty of tips and good humour throughout the morning. It was a physical but rewarding session, and seeing the rails take shape bit by bit was a real treat.

No worries—I really enjoyed it, and I’d love to come back when it’s on again!

Five GoodGymers came out to St Mary Magdelene Parish Church in the centre of Richmond to build some hurdles. We welcomed 2 new GoodGymers on their first mission with the same name: Jamie. Anita was at the War Memorial getting the beds ready for planting and Ken was on the other side struggling with some new sticks to make them into hurdles around the wildflower area. Jamie (both) got stuck into cutting sticks and sharpening the ends while Emily set about making holes on the posts for the sticks to go through. It was a hot day and while we made good progress finishing some bits off there will be more stick work on Monday as the task was not completed but a good effort was made.

A very warm Saturday morning saw 3 Richmond GGers gather at the Power Station youth club to support youth leader Danielle.

Today’s task was more lamination of recipe cards for the kids to use during the summer programme. We quickly assumed roles, sharing out the duties of folding the inserts, putting them into plastic sleeves and passing them through the laminators.

Modest disaster struck when it was realised that the instructions for the chocolate cornflake cakes involved 500g of beef mince (triggering a short reminiscence of an episode of Friends), but these misprinted cards were quickly discarded and we carried on.

Danielle handed over the guillotine to Rosie to trim the edges off the papers, and we had a smooth production line going, finishing the last card just inside an hour.

We finished off the morning with coffees at a very pleasant cafe nearby and then set off for the rest of our weekend activities.

Two GoodGymers turned up to make some rustic knee rails for the wildflower patches at St Mary Magdelene Church. They quickly got to work and were knocking posts and cutting rails in unison until they ran out of posts! Ken got on his bike to get more and finish the task.

We are back there this Friday to finish the task if you can join!

After the heatwave broke, it was time to get a second coat on!

Temperatures hadn't plumetted that much in reality but our task this evening was the complete the task we started three weeks ago: protecting the boathouse doors for the scouts. This evening we headed out to put the second coat of teak oil on.

Starting with a good stretch in the sunshine on Richmond Green, half the group started walking to the river while the other half did interval sprints around the green, getting six sprints in before jogging off to the riverside.

Armed with brushes and oil, the doors were soon looking well-fed and happy, giving us time to go and get well-watered at the busy pub next door before sunset!