A trio of GoodGymers, Lisa, Sol and Jack, teamed up with Ian and the Friends of Maidenhead Waterways to help clear the stream in Widbrook Common! Friends of Maidenhead Waterways clear the water regularly during the Spring and Autumn to ensure the flow to the town remains as unobstructed as possible.

After meeting up at a local lay-by, we 'streamed' ahead by carrying our pallets, rakes and equipment over the Common towards the water. We quickly set to work pulling reeds and other biomass out of the river, either from bankside or getting stuck in (literally) into the river bed with our fetching waders (available at all good fashion shops near you).

Ian very kindly supplied coffee, fig rolls and caramel wafers, which went down a storm. We returned to our task, clearing a healthy ~ 25% of the river on that side of the common! We returned to the car, carrying all our equipment back over the common again (and essentially earning our Bronze DofE awards doing so).

Keep an eye out for future tasks with FoMW, a great group who are always looking for more volunteers!

This evening's sunny session had 3 distinct parts:

Part 1 - Greet and Retreat

The first part was our run or walk, where I had everyone going round and back and down and up the hills of Boyn Grove Park in our meet and retreat session. I very much enjoyed seeing GoodGymers head towards each other and pause to greet each other with squats or side bends before turning heel and running away again. It looked like the start of a flash mob and I would love to know what other park users made of it. It was also a great workout!

Part 2 - Back to the Cutting Hedge

We then got stuck into our task for the evening - a return to the corner of Courthouse Road and Bath Road to do battle with an over-enthusiastic hedge. Last Summer this hedge completely overwhelmed the pavement, making the route unsafe for pedestrians, particularly families on the school run. Back in the Autumn, GoodGym helped task owner Lydia and other local residents to recover the pavement, and today's aim was to maintain that good work. Armed with secateurs, we quickly made our attack and in about 45 minutes the job was done.

Lydia described us as like a trail of destruction. We'll take it as a compliment!

Part 3 - 🎉 Celebrating Kanika's 100th Good Deed

Then onto the part we had all been waiting for: celebrating Kanika's 100th GoodGym good deed. Whoop whoop! As is now customary for the 100 milestone, we celebrated with cake (thank you Diya!), a home made medal and a poem:

100 good deeds by Kanika!

This GoodGymer is one awesome chica.

Skilled with a paintbrush, a spade or rake,

And she doesn’t fuss when she can’t have the cake.

She’s always smiling, thoughtful and calm

An animal lover, who would do no harm.

Her capacity for good knows no limits,

She even bought us all baby Guinness.

She cycles here and there on her Carrera

Even the Brighton 50km didn’t scare her!

She walks a lot too and even parkruns

She inspires others to get off their bums.

As a Taskforce member she goes beyond and above

She helps me share the GoodGym love.

She has lead on over 30 a session

And she fits this all in around her other obsession...

You think I mean Diya, but that’s not it!

I’m talking about a team with a red and white kit

Thank you Arsenal for bringing Kanika to the UK!

And now there’s only one thing left to say…

We love you Kanika, we do

We love you Kanika, we do

We love you Kanika, we do

Oh Kanika, we love you!

We welcomed first time GoodGymers Liz and Dave to Braywick Nature Reserve where Ranger Tom let us try the freshly grown peas…. yum. Amy, Anita and Amanda got to work grasping the nettle(s) whilst Jack got a twig(gle) on chopping back the high branches. It was lovely and peas and quiet by the bird watching hide so Liz and Amy didn’t mess about clearing the path so people could enjoy watching nature again without getting stung by the nettles.

The team worked so quickly we then moved on to sorting out the overgrown steps. Dave cut it vine clearing the path and Nick did his good weed for the day tearing back the brambles from the hand rail so people can safely use them to cut across the park.

This work was just the thicket to put everyone in a great mood for the rest of the day. Well done team and we hope to see Dave and Liz back with us again soon.

Well done to the awesome foursome who joined this week's group run. It was a glorious evening and the Great Park looked stunning in the evening sun as we enjoyed a pre-task run and walk among the majestic oaks.

We also enjoyed hearing about Steve's childhood cross country runs in the area (leaping the streams and dodging bullets from the firing range!) and trainee doctor Jack's more recent experience helping an elderly lady, who had fallen in the street in Maidenhead. We were lucky the paramedics came in time for Jack to join our session.

After our lovely run/walk we headed to the expansive and beautiful Windsor Cemetery, locally known as 'Spital Cemetery' and met our task owner Councillor Karen Davies. Karen has been working with local residents to give the cemetery some TLC. She explained that gentle tidying was needed, stressing the importance of balancing the need to make graves accessible with the promotion of biodiversity. We then got stuck in, making use of the impressive collection of secateurs Karen and Steve had gathered.

We cut back bushes and tackled graves that were being smothered by Ivy, whilst taking care not to damage the stone. Karen showed us an amazing hollow dome-like structure further into the cemetery created by Ivy completely overwhelming a grave, and the idea was to stop more graves being lost in this way. We met a few friendly spiders, soaked up the peaceful setting, and amassed a big pile of cuttings. We made a noticeable change in the patch where we focussed our efforts.

Thanks to Karen for welcoming us and showing us the ropes and well done team for a great evening! We hope to return soon.