A lovely morning on the Ham Lands saw 8 happy GGers join the FOHL for our monthly session of habitat management.

We were back in the same spot as the last 2 sessions, working on the patches of wild clematis where the plants had been cleared away but the roots threatened to spring back to life if not tackled.

We got to work armed with various kinds of pick and scoopy-pick-thing and soon started to make progress. The challenge was chasing the roots up from the ground - many of them ran a long way through the earth like electrical wiring - but our patience paid off as we dug channels to get them free.

With 8 of us making a big effort we got a lot of the roots out of the ground and Sharon rewarded us with a lovely cuppa and biscuits.

Next time back at the Ham Lands will be the last of the year - hope to see lots of people there!

On Saturday morning 4 GGers from Richmond arrived at Homemead Residential Care home ready to get stuck in to tidying and sprucing up the garden.

However, the changes had been rung at Homemead as new resident Eric had appointed himself Head Gardener and had done a lot of work getting the garden into good shape.

We were introduced to Eric who made it clear in no uncertain terms that our services would be neither required nor welcome… in fact we would be “booted out” in future! He was actually hilarious and a lovely chap…we think 😆

This evening we headed to our sponsored riverside plot at the Three Pigeons. We go every month but this one was different as we were saying goodbye to a very special GoodGym Richmond member: Anita

Anita has been a member since 2017, was the first Richmond member to hit 500 good deeds and is already 150 beyond that. Beyond how much Anita has done for the community, she has been instrumental in the taking on, designing, leveling up and maintaining of our riverside plot. On task nights that means instructions with military precision but behind the scenes there has been even more work, liasing with the council, getting plant donations, planning task nights to make the most of them, and single-handedly looking after the area through drought periods and special events.

Although there is sadness at Anita's leaving as she heads off to an exciting new chapter in Swansea, the evening was a celebration of all that Anita has done - including her signature tasks: watering from the river and weeding with table knives! You can see more of what we got up to here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOX_wlTCBPT/?igsh=cDYxanUzbm43eXJ5

❤️Thank you so much Anita, from all of us and everyone who has walked past the arcade and Three Pigeons ans enjoyed the results of her hard work. ❤️

Off to one of our favourite locations tonight where manager Danielle always has good plans to make best use of GoodGym!

This evening we were helping to clean and put away the camping equipment from a trip to the New Forest. It's a more in-tents workout than you might imagine, getting into a collapsed tent to sweep up and then working as a team to roll the giant tent into a bag! Watch us in action here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNgluPNI-NJ/?igsh=MXZhYXNjZWJ2ZnpyNw==

More tent cleaning, some leaflet cutting and some happy group photos before running back off into the darkening evening!