It was a hand-some Saturday morning on Richmond Green as our dedicated squad of GoodGymers rolled up our sleeves for a rather delicate mission! While brooms are great for hard surfaces, the tiny, stubborn litter tucked into the grass and gravel around the benches requires a much more personal touch.

There was no sweeping this under the rug—we had to get right down into the details, hand-picking every last cigarette butt and microscopic piece of rubbish that usually gets missed.

Armed with gloves, sharp eyes, and ultimate patience, we combed the ground around the benches finding rogue cigarette butts everywhere, but we made sure to nip every single one in the butt! From tiny bits of plastic wrap to microscopic debris, our fingers did all the heavy lifting. We left no stone—or bench slat—unturned in our quest for a spotless green. After a thorough session of bending, stretching, and precision picking, the perimeter around every bench was left looking immaculate and pristine.

It was a seat-sational team effort, proving once again that many hands make light work (and clean greens!). Massive thanks to everyone who lent a hand—we really cleaned up our act down to the very last cigarette butt!

Monday night and all the roads lead to ...The Purple Elephant Project. Runners, walkers and cyclists chased to sun through the streets of Richmond to meet Maggie at the the project. Task was planting bulbs and putting together some furniture. As the runners zoomed and reached the location early, Maggie welcomed them inside as said that we would focus on the furniture as it was darker than she anticipated outside for the bulb planting. As Goodgymers don't go undeafeated, we said we will get our head torches out when the full team has arrived to get the bulbs planted and have zero losses.

Four boxes were waiting for the Knights. The whole team was in place and we teamed up on unpacking and building the various furniture. Some of us felt strong and brought the older furniture down and out of the building. We had a whole symphony of sounds during the building of the furniture : screw-diculous sounds!! Instruction-page sighting due to missing parts or was it with the other team? Allen-key scraping, clanking screws and wood tapping.

Some parts took longer to build, but then some Goodgymers disappeared outside with their head torches to plant the bulbs that Maggie had for us. Mission accomplished in the dark like proper ninjas.

The brave furniture knights conquered the Flat Box Kingdom .

As the long summer of 2026 keeps on going, 8 GoodGymers gathered (after some location clarifications) at the adventure playground in Marble Hill Park for our Saturday morning mission. Brand new to the group was Andrew (Andy), while Khin was joining for the second time after Monday's long run to the mission at INS.

We were welcomed by task owner Steph (and her daughter Sophie) who explained the jobs needing to be done - weeding, litter picking, woodchip - and sand-raking and clearing up the mud kitchen.

We divvied up the tasks and got going, enjoying the unexpected warmth and sunshine for the time of year. Little Sophie kept up our spirits with her regular distribution of fruits including raspberries and blackberries.

Before long we had completed our various jobs and gathered for a group photo before heading off to enjoy a coffee.

In the past we have done a couple of missions on the Ham Lands which involved clearing tree suckers, the new growth which sprouts up from the root system around the base of a tree.

(Ordinarily, a tree will always seek to create a balance between its growth above ground and its root system below ground. Suckers are essentially a tree’s attempt to produce more above-ground growth when that balance is disrupted, for example when the tree itself is damaged or has constrained growth.)

Both of the previous missions were written up with the title “So long, suckers” (the second one maybe accompanied by a “2”). And let’s be honest, there is no better title - so out it comes again for this new report.

The task itself was enjoyable and satisfying, with a nice big clump of suckers to remove which the 5 of us tackled with gusto, some clipping the suckers away at the base and others loading up the big sack to carry the waste off to dump in the woods. We then got to work on some brambles with mattocks - seeking in their case to get the whole roots out.

After an hour of quite vigorous work we headed to the Swiss Bakery for delicious coffee and a nice chat. It was great to have Harry back amongst us after a spell, and we look forward to another task in October - sign up here: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/helping-the-happy-ham-landers-7d9e7187-09f0-4535-a025-40b37c6e0552