The January conservation day at Grove Farm started with blue skies and bird song above the volunteers' heads - a setting that felt like a perfect day to start an adventure with GoodGym!

Maria took advantage of such a beautiful morning to come to her first session at Greenford's nature reserve for an environment-friendly workout with GoodGymers Sevan, Kash and Liuba.

Mike, who was leading one of the Grove Farm teams today, took the GoodGym four to the lower part of the area where wood anemones bloom in the Spring. The white flowers come out only if the space is cleared of brambles that otherwise block the sunlight for other plants. You might have guessed by now what our task was: a bramble bash! Mike gave us instructions and listed the safety risks (including slippery ground and Kash swinging her hedge trimmer), then left for a short time to fetch two new Grove Farm volunteers.

Liuba and Maria were meticulously cutting the brambles with loppers while Kash harnessed the power of Mike's power tool to clear big expanses of invasive plants. Sevan was the only person with the rake and it was his job to move all the trimmings away from the path and build a dead hedge. In case you are curious, a dead hedge is a fence-like construction made of cut logs, branches, sticks, stems, etc. that slowly decomposes and makes a fantastic habitat for insects and small mammals - it becomes a hub for biodiversity!

By the time Mike came back with reinforcements, the GoodGym team made great progress. After two extra volunteers joined with loppers and a rake, the slope above the lower woodland path was rapidly cleared. The team took a break to savour tea and biscuits Anna brought for everyone, then Maria and Liuba stayed for an extended session with the Friends of Grove Farm and Sevan and Kash ran off to be on time for their next sessions.

If bramble bash in ancient woodland plus tea and biscuits sounds like your thing, why not join next month's session? Sign up now!

The thermometers were showing -5 degrees on Saturday morning and Grove Farm looked stunning under a thin layer of frost, glittering in the sunlight. The frosty cover hid not only the beauty of nature, but also mysteries.

The Friends of Grove Farm: Mike, Anna, Olena and other volunteers, together with Cathy from LAGER Can, were about to perform their investigations as a flytip was found at the end of the lane leading to David Lloyd sports centre. To be extra thorough, five GoodGymers joined the survey of the entire lane: Christos, Diana, Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash.

At the flytip site, the detectives discovered plenty of metal pieces: nuts, bolts, washers, elements for connecting scaffolding parts and stuff they were not sure what was for. The metal was collected into two strong fabric bags and loaded onto a trolley. The team spied some incriminating correspondence, giving away the identity and address of the suspected flytipper. They may get justice even if they haven't been caught red-handed!

Speaking of hands and temperature, probably the biggest challenge for the volunteers today was operating the litterpickers with half-frozen fingers. Some precautious GoodGymers fought the cold with double gloves. But the cold must have held some benefits!

"It's to keep us young." - Diana

Why spend a fortune on cryogenic therapy to reverse aging when you have winter sessions at Grove Farm? If you missed the first one this year - not all is lost! Meet us for the conservation day in two weeks and help remove invasive plants from the woodland - sign up here.

Some may think that winter sessions at Grove Farm are only for the toughest kind, double-gloved and oblivious to the elements. Nothing further from the truth! Although some of us felt slightly chilly this morning, the session was a heartwarming experience - a perfect task leading onto Christmas.

The first element that made the community mission so gratifying was teamwork - just like at last month's session. Christos paired Livio and Penny with Kash to form the trimmer-rake duos to remove invasive brambles in the area where the wood anemones would grow in the sprint. With the lack of a third hedge trimmer, Sevan and Mike both took on more precise work: cutting the brambles with shears around ferns. Anna did a litter-picking round, then started carrying the trimmings with Christos deeper into the woods to build a dead hedge.

The second joyful thing about the session was the sunshine we had been waiting for two weeks - and it lasted longer than two seconds!

The third comforting piece was the break we had and the tea Anna brought for everyone. It was such a nice feeling to warm our hands by holding a steamy cup of a hot beverage.

The fourth component was a surprise birthday cake for Sevan. The treat was as tough as the birthday person himself and resisted Anna's and Kash's combined efforts to put a candle in it! Sevan managed to cut it into pieces and everyone enjoyed a slice of Biscoff-flavoured goodness.

Finally, the Fifth Element was the reward of knowing we were working behind the scenes to make the wood anemone display in 2025 a beautiful experience for all park visitors in the Spring!

Next month, we are back to the regular schedule at Grove Farm - sign up to join us on the fourth Saturday of January!

The November conservation day at Grove Farm meant resuming the everlasting war on brambles to allow the wood anemones to flower in spring. The landscape of the usual blackberry-anemone battlefield looked somewhat different than in previous years, with seemingly new vegetation sprouting.

Sevan: "Stupid question: Have those trees been here before?"
Anna: "Yes. We coppiced them 3 years ago, and now they got more bushy."

Sevan and Kash ran 8.5 km to Grove Farm from their earlier mission in Acton, stopped only by a cup of coffee in Ealing, while Penny took a combination of public transport and walking through the foresty parts of Sudbuty Hill. The GoodGymers met Anna, Mike and Olena - Friends of Grove Farm, and Sue and Fred - members of several other volunteer groups.

Penny decided on the more demanding way to cut brambles: manually, using the shears, while Sevan paired with Mike and Kash with Olena. In each of the duos one person had a hedge trimmer and the other a rake. The pairs worked in absolute harmony, the rake pulling the brambles away and the trimmer cutting through them effortlessly.

The results of the work of the entire team were excellent. A couple of similar sessions in the winter months should keep the brambles at bay and let the wood anemones bloom when the spring comes.

After meeting the Friends of Grove Farm and LAGER Can members at the usual meeting spot, Anna was on hand to provide litter pickers and some bags for the rubbish and litter collection. The group divided into two teams to work along the different paths through Grove Farm, picking up the leftover rubbish. Working along the main road, it was definitely clear that someone had a Bounty craving, with many wrappers found along the same area!

Working our way into the fields of Grove Farm to clear more rubbish dropped in the sides of paths, the team all ended up at the front entrance of the site, to help clearing the fly tipped rubbish.

After bagging up the large items and collecting additional litter around the area and at the sides of the main road, the team wrapped up for the photo… And with a total of 32 bags collected, another great achievement by the team!

Todays Mission brought four GoodGymers out in the cold, but gloriously sunny morning to help out the team from Friends of Grove Farm with their monthly conservation day. Christos, Kash, Sevan and Penny joined Mike, Anna and others from the Friends of Grove Farm community at the north entrance of the park, to create more open space and visibility in the area.

After a short briefing, the team divided to conquer the 3 tasks on hand. First off, Penny and Christos took hold of loppers to get cutting and chopping away at the brambles and foliage in front of the hedge, and opening out the area for it to be more easily mowed.

Secondly, and a favourite for Kash, was an opportunity to take charge of the hedge trimmers and dutifully reduce the large hedge down to hip height for better visibility.

And if this wasn’t enough already, Sevan was also on hand to help on a third task, clearing the fly-tipped garden waste at the opening of the park. The waste and all the cuttings from the brambles and hedge were masterfully weaved and threaded with branches, to help holding the dead hedge all together.

A lot of hard work and a very noticeable change across the area by the end of the session!