On a bright Saturday morning, 6 brave GoodGymers descended upon Danson Park, armed with gloves, loppers, and a healthy dose of enthusiasm. Our mission? To join forces with the Friends of Danson Park and take on the park’s most prickly residents – the brambles.

Now, these weren’t your average, polite little plants. Oh no. These brambles had clearly been training for battle – all spikes and attitude, stretching far and wide like they owned the place. But with teamwork, determination, and the occasional “ouch!” or “I think it’s got me again!”, we managed to clear quite a sizeable patch.

The cleared area will soon make way for new bushes and trees, giving that part of the park a well-deserved facelift (and perhaps a less pointy future).

A big thanks to the Friends of Danson Park for hosting us – and to our fearless team for proving once again that even the spikiest challenges can be overcome with a bit of teamwork and a lot of good humour! 🌳💪

This morning we gave the big conifer outside Danson House a proper makeover. First we battled through lots of very spiky plants, then spread a fresh circle of mulch all around the tree. It now looks brilliant – like it’s ready for a photo shoot!

We also collected a huge 29 bags of wilted grass, weeds and rubbish. The area looks so much tidier, and the tree is definitely the star of the show.

Well done team – spades, mulch and teamwork made the magic happen!

There was plenty to celebrate as we joined the Friends of Danson Park this morning.

It was Megan Maria's first GoodGym session 👏. Lovely to have you with us Megan!

It was Marianna's tenth good deed 🥳, paving the way to join our Task Force team, helping to run our amazing group.

Then it was Marianna's daughter, Veronica's birthday 🎈. There was high anticipation about the birthday cake awaiting her later in the day. Veronica took the lovely black and white photo of her mum and her brother on her new birthday-present camera 📷.

And Ashton, wearing his brand new black GG t-shirt marking 50 good deeds, arrived having completed his first ever parkrun 🏃‍♂️.

Hi fives all round 👐!

And what about the task? We had a lovely time in the sunny woodland area, laying woodchips along one of the paths. There was much shoveling, barrowing and raking to cover a long stretch of the path.

After returning all of the tools to their store we headed to The Stables for a cuppa and chat.

Combining this kind of activity with time outdoors and friendly people is a real mental pick-me-up. We'll be back there again on the second Saturday of June. Do come and join us, and new members are always welcome (feel free to bring a friend if you are nervous about taking that first step on your own).

If you're a parkrunner or parkwalker this task is just a stone's throw away from Danson parkrun. An ideal parkrun-GoodGym double-header!

What a lovely morning to be out at Danson Park! The sun was shining, the company was great, as we teamed up with Friends of Danson Park for a fun and satisfying litter pick.

We collected all sorts of rubbish, making the park cleaner and safer—especially for the adorable ducklings we spotted by the water!

Very proud to help keep their home plastic-free. Great way to start the day!

What a smashing morning with the Friends of Danson Park, laying wood chippings along the Woodland Walk 🌳.

With eight of us (plus a husband and two brilliant young helpers) working alongside the regular volunteers we got so much done. Shoveling chippings into wheelbarrows, ferrying them to the path, raking them out, going back for more. It was genuinely impressive seeing our dynamic GoodGym team in action.

Beth coined things beautifully in saying, 'This is the best kind of GoodGym task, when you get a great workout, and can see a real difference at the end.'

Great work everyone!

With the path finished we headed to Danson Stables (cafe, not horses) for hot drinks kindly provided by the manager, and biscuits provided by the Friends ☕️🍪.

We'll be back next month, getting busy again to keep Danson Park looking wonderful.

• And the title for this report? When Ashton told us someone called him Alvin, and we were ferrying the chippings around... nice punning Beth!

Shovel, barrow, rake, repeat.

We had a fun morning and a great workout with the regular volunteers from Friends of Danson Park at their monthly Saturday morning session.

The grey, drizzly weather meant there were fewer people than sometimes, but we still managed to lay fresh woodchips along a fair length of the Woodland Trail.

Afterwards we chatted over hot drinks at The Stables then it was time to head home.