Not a task for the faint-hearted this evening as we headed to Lynde House Care Home to brush the windows free of any cobwebs and spider nest sacs, ready for lots of visitors over the Easter break!

We met at Tap Tavern ready for action with both a running group and walking group setting off over the river to the home. Feather dusters and brooms were the tools for the night, as well as some good creeping shoes for treading lightly around the residents' windows as they settled in their rooms! We worked around the whole of the outside of the building, finding some very active spider spots on the way before a suitably silly photoshoot with the feather dusters!

A final run and walk back to the Tap Tavern completed the group run for the week with a Taskforce meeting straight after to catch up on some fun ideas for GoodGym Richmond this summer and beyond!

A Christmas cracker of a task for us this evening, visiting one of our favourite spots, the lovely Lynde House Care Home. Made all the more special as we celebrated Sarah Jane reaching a milestone 50 Good Deeds! Congratulations Sarah 👏🏽

The journey there is almost all river path, which is always a treat in Richmond, but particularly special when there are twinkly lights reflecting in the river. A lovely sight for us as we ran towards the home. Our arrival there was just as delightful, with a warm welcome from task owner Gitana. The indoors had already been lovingly decorated with Christmas decorations but we were asked to help get the outdoor lights up and bring some joy to their beautiful gardens. There was some untangling to be done, as is always the way with fairy lights, but soon we had adorned the pine tree and bushes outside with lights to rival anything we had seen at the riverside!

The task finished off with a quick photoshoot in the dark and a final run back to Richmond, via a picture with The Ivy bear 🐻

We have the GoodGym Richmond Christmas lunch on Sunday, it truly is the season to be jolly. Let the festivities begin!

Meeting at Tap Tavern for an early evening run to Twickenham, the group dusted off the cobwebs of sitting at desks with some key stretches while Liz did the intro. A warm welcome was offered to Nina who was joining for her first task. Both a running and walking group then set off across Richmond Green, treated to some flashes of action from across the spiderverse as the sunset blazed through the sky above the river.

A run that is mostly beside the river is always a treat and one of many reasons why we look forward to visiting Lynde House Care Home. There is always a happy welcome for us too as we run down the quiet back streets to the home. In the past we have helped prep and paint garden furniture, build raised sleeper beds and treat bird tables. This evening though we were handed feather dusters and paint brushes to tackle the spiders who were trying to get in on some of the lovely care at the home too, around the windows and doorframes.

There are a lot of windows on the building and it worked well to have a good sized team on the case. Eight arms would definitely not have been enough! The spiders were clearly very comfortable and there were egg sacks in every crevice. We spun our way around the building, being careful not to disturb residents who were settling in for the evening.

As spiders know well, many hands make light work and the team managed to reconvene by reception ready for some suitably Halloween-style photos by headtorch before completing a neat 5km run by heading back to the Tap.

There were quite a few reasons to celebrate this particular Goodgym session -

• It was actually sunny for the whole day
• Jp and Chris celebrating their 400th and 200th session respectively
• Getting fit by doing good!

We met up at the Tap Tavern as usual, it was great to see a mixture of new faces and regulars, shout out to all the Goodgym tourists who came to see what Richmond is all about! After a quick chat and a warm up, jumping Jack led a running group along the Thames while Cathy led the walkers.

Goodgym Richmond has helped Lynde House Care Home many times before, one of our missions involved sanding down benches and this time we were back to paint them. Always a popular task, three benches were painted and judged fairly by our resident bench experts.

Finally to celebrate the achievement milestones our one and only Salwa had baked some delicious brownies. Stocked up we all headed back home.

Well done everyone and thanks for a great Goodgym session, if you'd like to join us again we will be helping the Ham Landers on Saturday - more info here.

For the last task of the month, both a running and walking group set off from Tap Tavern in the centre of Richmond to cross the bridge and run along the north bank river path to Lynde House Care Home. A very special welcome to both Beth and Sunny who joined the walking group for their first ever task.

We haven't been there for some time but Jp and Salwa were so excited to see that a raised bed they had helped to make on a previous visit was in good order and full of bulbs just starting to grow!

For this evening's task we set about sanding three bird feeders and two benches, an aerobic workout that should never be underestimated!

It was dark, but headtorch inspections suggested we had done a thorough job before we ran/walked back off into the night!

It was a cool summer evening in East Twickenham as 5 GoodGymers gathered at the Lynde House Care Home to help out in a place we've done plenty of good before.

The task was fantastic. Task owner Gitana, who works at the care home, had some blue plastic boxes that weren't being used and had the bright idea of building a raised flower bed in the garden for the residents to enjoy. The plan is to plant flowers for the end of the summer and then some vegetables in the spring. What's more, all the materials we needed were available and there was a toolshed full of all the tools we needed.

We divvied up like a streamlined team with Michelle, Monika and Salwa working on securing the main structure of the plastic boxes and adding drainage holes (cue plenty of fun poses with the drill) while Chris and JP got to work measuring and cutting fencing boards to build the walls to cover the boxes.

Soon enough the whole team were focused on measuring, cutting and sawing (with Chris working as site foreman and shed boy) and the side panels started to take shape - all the while being measured and checked for the right length to fit on the frame. We had just enough boards to cover all four walls and place a piece across the top each end to finish the look.

The final job was to fill the top boxes with compost, of which Gitana had acquired plenty, and once the plastic boxes were covered we stood back and admired our handiwork, before running / cycling off for the evening feeling pleased as (planter's) punch.