A third task in 5 days at Blondin Park saw Steph, Mohamed and Sevan run from Ealing Broadway, followed by Jules, who joined us for her first task with GoodGym Ealing. Welcome Jules! 👏🎉 We look forward to seeing you at another task soon.

The team were supposed to be mulching the snips that were planted by volunteers over the weekend, including some of our own GoodGym members. While the threatened storm this evening had held off, the group were thwarted from their intended task by darkness. Task owner Linda thought it was too risky for the GoodGymers to hulk wheelbarrows between the fragile snips in the dark, so a substitute task was ready. They would be mulching trees at the entrance of the park to turn them into an attractive feature for park goers.

Blondin Park's ever present wood chip pile was waiting for the team. Wheelbarrows, shovels and a rake were at the ready and the barrows began whizzing between the wood chip pile and trees, with Steph and Mohamed creating a neat ring of mulch around each trunk. The mulching was finished in super quick time, so everyone moved on to wood chipping a nearby bed to round out the task.

After the big impact that they made in the park, as always, Linda offered everyone a warm space and a cup of hot chocolate along with updates on her big plans for the park. What a tasty way to prepare for the run home ☕.

Blondin Park, as one of the southernmost green spaces in Ealing Borough, can easily attract GoodGymers from other areas. At today's session, Kash welcomed Michelle from GoodGym Hounslow and Chris from GoodGym Richmond, who both cycled to Northfields. Blondin Nature Area features a community orchard, a wildflower meadow and a pond. It was the pond that was the site of today's GoodGymming. Was it swimming? Not quite.

Ranger Jon led the GoodGymers and other volunteers to the fenced area around the pond and explained the task. It was a pleasure to get comprehensive instructions and a demo from a ranger - everyone had a good understanding of the background information and planting technique - a luxury the GoodGymers don't always get on the nighttime sessions!

Today's task was to fill the gaps in previously planted native hedging surrounding the pond. Jon produced snips of trees like hawthorn, blackthorn, dog rose and beech and showed the team the fastest planting technique: notch planting. Before the trees could be planted, some areas had to be cleared of invasive brambles. Michelle chopped the bramble stems off to make digging the roots easier. Among the digging tools, there were two mattocks. Kash made sure to secure one of them to aid her destructive power. Chris was the only GoodGymer today to do some planting. His weapon of choice was a spade, so he prepared the soil and planted a number of trees inside and outside the fenced area. The last job to do was to cut back the height of the existing hedging. Michelle got her loppers to work and made sure no cheeky tree was taller than her!

A session at Blondin Park cannot be complete without Linda's complimentary hot chocolate at the Community Pavilion café. If you missed the fun and hot chocolate (and bonus biscuits!) today, not all is lost! There are two more sessions in the next few days at Blondin Park: more planting on Saturday and mulching the trees on Tuesday evening!

Gloomy and dark Tuesday evening : Steph Ducat was the lead runner today in absence of the usual suspects. Today welcomed Mohamed on his 1st run and community mission with Goodgym. As a duo, both runners set off in the city of light to reach the dark parks of Ealing. Welcome to the dark side : we reached Walpole Park and surprised that on the other side we could see the light at the end of the tunnel but we could not get out as they closed the gate, so a small run back to the next one, which was also locked. U Turn and over the fence as they were locked in :nevertheless the run carried on and reached Blondin Park on time to meet Beata who ran from her side and Augustin joined as he cycled from home. Linda welcomed us and we got the wheelbarrows, shovels, a broom or massive brush, a rack and some plastic bags. Mission in the dark was to clear the leaves off the main path so that the lights on the ground were visible. The 2nd task was to move wood chip from the pile that never seems to disappear to the side of the paths and cover the mud. Head torches on and the team scoped all the leaves and moved quite a lot of wood chip. At the end of the mission, they all went to the pavilion where Linda served nice hot chocolate drinks before disappearing in the darkness of Ealing. Welcome Mohamed to Goodgym.

The Brentford Festival, which the GoodGymers helped set up had ended on Sunday, but the festival gazebos that had partied very hard were now a bit lost in the aftermath. They were the last ones to leave the field by Blondin Park Community Pavillion and now had no idea how to get home. After two days of gazebos not returning to their container, the event manager, Linda, decided it was time for a GoodGym intervention.

Seven GoodGymers (and one GoodGymer-to-be?) ran, walked or cycled to Blondin Park to give the gazebos some comfort and gently pack them away into a cosy storage. Steph gave each gazebo a warm hug to prepare them for spending the upcoming months in the dark sleeping bags, just unfolded by Sevan. Before the tents could make it to the container, Claire and Lena moved festival tables inside first and stacked them neatly.

It was Lena's very first session and she already showed unparalleled enthusiasm for doing good while problem-solving and having fun. Welcome to GoodGym Lena!

With the tables sorted out, the whole team moved on to unfolding and folding back the six-legged gazebos (the monsters-size Gazebos which you should write with a capital G!) to adjust their frames and shake any water off the roofs. The latter looked like an attempt at a mini-storm simulation, with the canvas fluttering dramatically and raindrops sprinkling the faces of GoodGymers caught in a torrential downpour. Was it a prelude to the wet winter tasks outdoors? Hopefully not!

Martin and Gus specialised in compressing the Gazebos and squeezing them into the giant gym bags. One of those covers had a broken zip, and despite Gus' heroic attempts to make it work, the ultimate solution was to use the old-school bungee cord. Steph got caught up in Lena's ritual of wrapping the gazebo bag with the rope and almost ended up as an annual sacrifice to GoodGym gods. Luckily, with his running mastery, he managed to escape last minute!

Five gazebos, dressed in covers or not, made it safely to the container, where they were left to sleep and recover from the festival. It was then that Linda found a couple of rogue gazebo limbs outside! The GoodGymers couldn't tell which of the gazebos might have misplaced parts of their frame, so the spare legs were placed together with the rest of the festival tents to await their next big outing.

Speaking of outings, that Tuesday was a special night for GoodGym Ealing with a pub quiz as a reward for another fantastic month of doing good!

Next Tuesday we are visiting the Impact Theatre again to do prep for painting - sign up here!

If you cannot wait for a group task with us until next week, pop to Horsenden Farm for a task and social lunch with The Horsenden Loaf pizza!

Did you know that Pancake Day always coincides with GoodGym Ealing's group run? This time, Shrove Tuesday also happened to be a Hot Choc Day as we visited Blondin Pavilion, where Linda, the manager, offered us hot drinks again. But we got to work for them first!

The gang welcomed new joiner, Helene, who ran from Bodyline with the running group through Walpole, Lammas and Blondin Parks.

Eight eager GoodGymers showed up at the pavilion, which was a pretty good turnout for an outdoor task in February. Was it the mild weather, the location, the promise of hot chocolate or the task of putting up signs? Who knows! Because there were only four signs to attach, we split into two teams and drew a second job from Linda's deck of task cards. It was... the woodchip!

Team Runway Riot

The Riot team marched with big signs along the pathways in Blondin Park lit with dotted lines of small lights which made them look like an airport runway. Claire was ready to take off! The rioters protested against Blondin Park Pavilion not being sufficiently recognised. They attached the signs to two lampposts and two fences near entrances, using Liv's expert knowledge of the park and Mike's height. Madhan was in charge of trimming the cable ties, which has proven more difficult than putting up the signs!

Team Barrow Barbarians

The group woodchipping the waterlogged edge of a path to the pavilion kept rotating team members between three tasks: loading the wheelbarrows, transporting the woodchip and levelling the unloaded woodchip with a rake. Helene stuck most of the time to the barrow driving, Sevan was perfecting the surface of the woodchipped area and Christos and Kash discovered the quickest way of filling the wheelbarrow with two shovels. The secret was teamwork: breaking down the dense woodchip pile and filling the massive shovel with the help of the smaller one - much faster than shovelling individually!

Wrap-up

After all four signs were up, proudly announcing the presence of the community pavilion in the park, and the source woodchip pile was reduced to a woodchip plainland, the GoodGymers header to the pavilion for hot chocolate and tea. Due to half term, there was no Zumba class tonight, but the silence was quickly filled with chatter.

Next week we'll have a rare chance of an indoor task at Impact Theatre! Fancy a run plus an upper body workout while rubbing down walls before painting? Sign up now!

While the recent storms caused troubles across the country: cancelled flights, power cuts, delayed trains and flooding, GoodGym Ealing was lucky to fit their group run at a time of mild, calm weather. Maybe the perspective of further disruptions didn't encourage a large group of GoodGymers to attend tonight's session, but three runners and one walker stood up to the challenge.

This Tuesday's task had a lot to do with the storms. Linda from Blondin Park Community Pavilion had a few jobs in mind, but what bothered her the most was a large piece of tarp blown off the fencing in front of the pavilion's containers. The GoodGymers decided to let go of the easy-going prospect of woodchip shovelling which is a good workout for the body but not as good for the mind. Instead, they chose to help with Linda's main worry: the windshield. That required some good thinking, coordination, and experimentation.

First, the team detached all the hooks that still held the windshield in place and took the tarp down. The sheet was more than double the width needed to cover the fencing but not long enough to reach the ground when attached to the top of the fence. After exploring different ideas, the GoodGymers put the first layer flat against the fence.

Now the question came back: how to fold the rest of the sheet? Someone suggested that the second layer could make up for the missing length. Linda wouldn't mind cutting the tarp into two to make that happen but Sevan pointed out the material may start fraying at the edge. Another option was to fold the windshield. That required attaching the sheet to the fence where it was supposed to be folded. But there were no loops or hooks! The sheet underwent an operation and had four punctures done by Dr Kash with scissors. Madhan and Steph then locked the hooks of the second layer to the top of the fence while Sevan and Kash, following Steph's idea, used double cable ties to attach the bottom of the tarp to the base of the fence.

Throughout the task, Linda listened to the problem-solving discussions of GoodGymers. She was impressed with the final result and invited the volunteers for a hot chocolate and chat in the pavilion - a great perk of Blondin Pavilion tasks in the winter!

Next week we are running to Acton to do flyering for the upcoming Reduce and Recycle event at Acton Market. Sign up now!