On a lovely sunny, but chilly afternoon, Jess, Sol and Sheila joined other volunteers at Ray Mill Island for one of their weekly sessions. Jess was tasked with painting some signs on wood to direct people to the bird trail, several bird names and asking people to keep off the dry hedging. An excellent job she made of it, too! Meanwhile Sheila glued some pre-cut lettering onto some wood to acknowledge the contribution to the trail by the Craft Coop. She then moved on to helping Sol and others who were practicing the art of coppicing Sol was right in her element, using her forestry skills learnt in her childhood. The cut branches were sawed into lengths - the longest ones will be used as stakes for the dry hedging and the thinner ones will be used to weave in and out between the stakes. We can't wait to build the dry hedging, once the ground has unfrozen. An excellent afternoon's session on a beautiful day

Sol, Melissa, Nivi and Sheila joined other volunteers at the Friends of Ray Mill Island session. We were continuing to work on the Nature Area. Sol and Sheila starting hacking back the box honeysuckle to create a through-route while Melissa loaded all the cuttings into a barrow and disposed of it in the compost area. Nivi worked with others , developing the stepping stone area. Sol moved on to cutting back ivy from the trees while Sheila dug up the shrub roots. The team was really pleased with the progress. As we left, Sol spotted a Robin harvesting some juicy worms from the disturbed ground. Glad to be of service!

Jess, Sheila and Nivi went to help other volunteers with the Friends of Ray Mill Island clearing a rockery of very well-established and deep-rooted winter heliotrope. The aim was to get every little bit of root out. Easier said than done! We dug, scraped and pulled, moving stones to find whole bundles of roots underneath. By the end of the session we had cleared a large area and revealed the feet of the 'Vintage Boys' sculpture

Thought I'd start this report with a tongue twister.

Wow! What an awesome task to celebrate my 500th Goodgym good deed.

My favourite type of task: outdoors, lots of digging, with the sound of water nearby and kneeling and sitting on earth. We moved tree stumps, cut back hedges, uprooted ivy, I even managed to use my secateurs as a trowel....although as I said on several occasions I was missing my trowel.

Once over the shock of Amy turning up with my favourite cake baked by the amazing Georgeta, I was absolutely delighted with my unique hand decorated trowel medal...it is the most apt, and best medal I have ever received.

There is so much work to do supporting Friends of Ray Mill Island in transforming this beautiful spot by the River Thames so keep an eye out for future listings.

Thank you to everyone involved in planning my 'surprise' celebration and in particular to Georgeta and Amy.

10 Goodgymmers ran, walked and cycled their way to the beautiful Ray Mill Island on the shores of the Thames to help the Friends of Ray Mill Island sand picnic benches.

This fantastic new community group have taken on the task of looking after Ray Mill Island to help provide a more welcoming area for visitors. Goodgym have previsouly helped to paint the toilet block so a new mural can be painted to cheer the area up. Tonight the group were tasked with sanding the picnic benches to prepare them for a coat of varnish. This will help to maintain them and ensure they last for longer for people to enjoy.

We met task owner Nivi and other members of the Friends of Ray Mill Island group including new Goodgym recruit Dionne! (Welcome!. We were handed sandpaper and blocks and set to work. Although this sounds a simple task, it was no picnic. A great arm workout was in store and the benches began to spring into life.

After and hour of sanding and chatting 9 benches were ready for a new coat of varnish.

A Goodgym task would not be complete without a little fitness session. Tara had joined us and led us through a standing yoga session. This was a calming end to the evening in a quiet corner of Maidenhead.

No man is an island…but Ray Mill is one! We were excited to head to an arty task for our Wednesday night session this week, supporting newly-formed community project Friends of Ray Mill Island.

Our mission was to help volunteers from the project to paint the back wall of the island’s toilet block white. This provides a blank canvas for artist Virginie Colin, who will be creating a beautiful mural celebrating the diverse wildlife in the surrounding area.

In the glorious evening sunshine we were soon on a roll-er, and we enjoyed hearing more about the Friends’ plans for the island. As well as the painters, Diya, Kanika and Sara got to work on sanding down some benches that were in need of a bit of TLC. And a big shout out to Adam and Nivi, who arrived early and did some hedge trimming too.

A warm welcome to Julie, who joined us for the first time this evening and did a great job as part of the painting team.

If you’d like to find out more about what the Friends have planned, there is a Community Open Day on the island from 3-7pm on Sunday 23 June.

We can’t wait to see Virginie’s amazing artwork unveiled and follow the progress of this project.