Do you know how many hidden gems are waiting to be discovered in Ealing? Some of them are hidden right in plain sight in the heart of the town! Four new Ealing GoodGymers who joined in the last two weeks uncovered one such place during our Tuesday evening session in August.

We welcomed Sasha, who joined us for her very first GoodGym experience, and Dora, who had actually got involved with us unofficially a few weeks ago. Both of them opted for a short run led by Sevan to pick up the tools from Walpole Park. Conor, Steph Ducat and Kash also met at the Ealing Broadway station for the run.

Alana and Janet, who returned for more GoodGymming after kicking off the adventure at last Wednesday's session, walked to the park together to meet the runners, the cyclists Maria and Amy, and Freya, who made her way directly to the task.

The next stop, after the tool pickup, was the Lammas Community Orchard and Wild Play Area, also known by other names.

"Welcome to the Garden of Eden!" - said Trevor from Ealing Transition, the host of today's task.

Trevor told everyone the story about the orchard, which used to be one of the tennis courts in the Lammas Enclosure between Lammas and Walpole Parks. In 2011, local children planted fruit trees on the tennis hard court surface - and it worked!

"Nature is very resilient." - Trevor.

Today's task was orchard maintenance, including cutting back brambles and pruning the fruit trees. The important part was to recycle the cuttings as material to fill the gaps in the orchard's outer fence, and to make the space safe, but not too manicured.

"Nature doesn't like neatness." - Trevor.

Although we clearly had a preference for rewilded space over sports grounds, the surviving tennis facilities have proven very useful. Janet and Maria were able to source the water for their cans from the tennis club and top up the wildlife pond.

The unexpected attractions in the orchard were a branch with desiccated plums, praised for its beauty, and a crab apple tree - a perfect background for the group photo as it had the most fruit.

"It has so much fruit because no one likes them. They are very bitter." - Trevor.

The evening tasks aren’t over yet! This Thursday, we’re heading to Southall for a walking task. There’ll be no running involved on the night itself, but we’ll be spreading the word about a new beginners’ running programme and helping local people discover a new way to get active - sign up now!

Next Tuesday's session will be led by Steph, who will take us for a short run or walk to St Mary's Church to help remove the weeds from the churchyard garden - register here!

Since last year's cutback session at Hobbayne's Half Acre Woodland, the GoodGymers doubled in numbers, while the brambles, nettles, hawthorn and other nasties encroaching the public paths seemed to weaken. Our task owner, Dee, believed the drought was the reason and that a bit of rain would make the overgrowth explode as it had in the previous years.

Six GoodGym runners met in front of Ealing Broadway station for a 3.5km run to Hanwell and the same distance back. Among them was a new joiner, Kristian, who had thought the 7km would be a good challenge for him. While running in a group with Steph Ducat, Conor, Sevan, Chris and Kash, the distance turned out not to be such a challenge after all - Kristian kept a good, consistent pace all the way. Welcome, Kristian, and congratulations on your first GoodGym run!

Maria, Scott and Amy cycled, and Harvey walked to meet Dee and the runners under the Wharncliffe Viaduct near the Hanwell station. You may not know that the viaduct is quite a big thing in British industrial history - constructed in 1837, it was the first major design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the engineer responsible for the rest of the Great Western Railway and the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.

I couldn't resist that bridge tangent. Let's get back to Hanwell.

After a short ice-cream themed icebreaker, Dee handed the GoodGymers shears and suggested the best section of the path to tackle would be the tarmac way closest to Station Road. Doomed were all the brambles, nettles, hawthorns, ivy, and, surprisingly, bamboo plants that dared to grow through or over the fence. The most ambitious GoodGymers even cut tree branches with shears (and some solid willpower) alone! A sackful of rubbish was uncovered while cutting back the unruly plants, bagged, and diligently binned before the end of the session.

Shortly after 8pm, most of the team disbanded to make their way home. Conor, Kristian, Sevan and Kash decided to run back to Ealing Broadway. Little did they know, they were racing the Elizabeth line, which Chris decided to take. And they won! Was it a testament to GoodGymers' prowess, Hanwell station being underserved, or Lizzy's unreliability? I'll let you decide.

Next week, we are off for a similar route to reach the Stables in Brent Lodge Park and help sort the festival equipment after the Hanwell Hootie fever finally settled down. Sign up now to join us!

Are four GoodGymers enough to let 400 Acton households know about a free community day on The Mount in July in an hour? Certainly! But let's start with some context. Action West London received funding to bring local people together, raise awareness of community safety, and connect residents with organisations that can support their wellbeing. To do so, they organised the community day and needed GoodGym's help to spread the word by posting leaflets through letterboxes.

A group of flyering experts, Conor, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash, met in Acton near the famed Pokopia Garden to beat the odds and distribute all the leaflets they had received — in 60 minutes or less. Steph and Kash ran from Ealing Broadway, Conor walked to the session, and Sevan even squeezed in an extra evening mission ahead of the group task. What a legend!

For all four, the 3km walking task was exactly what they needed after their workdays to clear their minds. GoodGym took them into a magical world of adventures where, to complete their quest, they had to face a variety of beasts: invisible dogs barking suddenly behind doors, foxes and cats of varying levels of wildness, including tigers and lions. Check the photos if you don't believe me!

The GoodGymers even ventured into space, where Steph handed over leaflets to alien children who were super excited about the prospect of face painting and a bouncy castle at the upcoming event — again, the proof is in the pictures! One hour was enough to get the job done and dusted, and the residents of Derwentwater Rd, Stuart Rd, Newburgh Rd, Chaucer Rd, Spencer Rd, Woodhurst Rd, Shakespeare Rd and Myrtle Rd were informed about the community day — at least those without a "No junk mail" sign on their letterboxes!

If you fancy coming along for a task in Acton on another date, check out one of the fortnightly sessions at the Pokopia Garden. Next Tuesday, we're venturing to Hanger Hill for an evening of citizen science — it's really easy, and anyone can get involved. Check out the session details here.

When the golden evening sun casts long shadows of GoodGymers arriving at Elthorne Park armed with spades, you know exactly what time of year it is: burdock-hunting season.

While burdock is a useful food source for pollinators, it is also extremely invasive. A single burdock can produce up to 15,000 seeds, allowing it to spread rapidly across green spaces. Left unchecked, it can grow to an impressive 10 feet tall, competing with other plants for sunlight, water, and nutrients. Its large leaves can block the sunlight from reaching surrounding vegetation. Apart from making it harder for a variety of plants to survive, burdock produces spiky seed heads called burrs later in the year, which easily stick to dogs, wild animals, and people's clothing, helping the plant spread even further.

The Ealing Parks Rangers asked for our help in tackling this botanical giant by digging out its deep taproots wherever possible or cutting plants as close to the ground as we could. Six GoodGymers answered the call. Richard, Yonas, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash ran 3.5 km from Ealing Broadway through West Ealing and Hanwell to meet Conor at Elthorne Park.

Armed with spades and determination, these Aces of Spades set to work clearing burdock along the path leading to Elthorne Terraces Orchard. Before long, they reached a true burdock stronghold and spent the rest of the evening removing as many plants as possible before they had the chance to develop burrs and disperse their thousands of seeds.

It was a rewarding session that made a difference to protecting the biodiversity of this much-loved Hanwell park. However, having discovered such a significant burdock colony, our work is far from over. We'll need to return before the end of the month to stay ahead of the invasion.

Fancy joining the fight against the burdock army? Come along to our session on 30th June!