Three Pigeons Post: Small group Session Sunday 9 August: Topping Out

According to Wikipedia The practice of "topping out" a new building can be traced to the ancient Scandinavian religious rite of placing a tree atop a new building to appease the tree-dwelling spirits displaced in its construction. Long an important component of timber frame building, it migrated initially to England and Northern Europe, thence to the Americas. A tree or leafy branch is placed on the topmost wood or iron beam, often with flags and streamers tied to it. A toast is usually drunk and sometimes workers are treated to a meal. In masonry construction the rite celebrates the bedding of the last block or brick.

Today’s small group session was literally headline-grabbing as we completed the new slate roof of the Insect Hotel and carried it, coffin like, down the Thames path, to it’s new position atop The Three Pigeons Insect Hotel.

Whilst finishing and placing the roof was the dramatic highlight of this week’s Three Pigeon’s Community Mission, there was plenty of other work done to maintain and improve the plot:

We welcomed new GoodGym member Rositsa who immediately got to work cutting canes to size to fill empty plastic BOL salad pots. These will be slotted into the Insect Hotel to provide homes and ‘nurseries’ for insects such as solitary bees.

Harry removed the temporary roof, put the final touches to the construction of the new roof and secured it in place. He also supervised the levelling of the whole Hotel, where pre-cut blocks were inserted underneath the bottom pallet along the front edge, compensating for the slope of the plot.

Sam, who is covering today’s activities for Richmond’s online newspaper Nub News, painted the inside of the roof and the top with white masonry paint. https://richmond.nub.news

JP spread slow release plant food across the whole bed and watered it in to activate the granules. The Pro-Grow used was donated by Veolia and is an organic ‘recycled’ fertilizer created from garden waste collected from household gardens and public. A holey bucket hampered the watering but many hands came to help at the end to make light work of completing the task.

Jane and Salwa took up scissors and secateurs, creating additional ‘carpet coils’ for the Insect Hotel and then did a great job of deadheading the Sweet William.

Monika added the final coat of red paint to the GoodGym Chair. It is looking great. We just need to figure out what to do with it.

Anita photographed, weeded and collected stones from across the bed, filing plastic plant pots, which will be buried to create more ‘soak away’ points next to key plants.

And although completion of the new slate roof was an incredible achievement, it was Richmond GoodGymer John who stole the show, passing by on his way to play Bicycle Polo in Ham, kilt-clad and atop a Penny Farthing.

The morning was not as swelteringly hot as many had feared as we gathered beside Riverside Drive for our monthly session with the Friends of Ham Lands. This time it was litter picking, and we had an excellent turnout despite the task not perhaps being as fun as balsam bashing.

Everyone grabbed a litter picker and a bag, and we split off into small groups to head into wooded areas and hunt down rubbish. As usual, we found plenty to collect, with the increased outdoor socialising during summer and lockdown providing plenty of cans, bottles and other trash to remove.

The highlight of the task was undoubtedly the unearthing of two very rusted bicycles and assorted bike parts, which must have remained hidden for many years such was their condition. We dragged them back to the start point and took silly photos, of course.

The task was followed by drinks and nibbles at Tide Tables. It was great to see some lesser-spotted faces back amongst us, and we hope to see more of them soon!

It was a bumper evening of celebration for GoodGym Richmond, as not one, not two, but THREE of our fantastic members were reaching milestones... T had reached her 50 good deeds on Saturday, and was joined on that number by Adam this evening. And Salwa got her wings, reaching 100 good deeds with tonight's community mission!

In scenes reminiscent of the Beforetimes, Monika, Salwa, Jane and JP met up on Richmond Green for a light warm-up and then ran to the mission, picking up T along the way. It felt great to be running with others again, and was a reminder of what we've been missing as social distancing measures have made running in large groups impossible during lockdown :-(

The evening's mission involved meeting our friend Ken at the Petersham Farm Stables for a spot of arboriculture - cutting down unwanted trees in the wooded areas between Petersham Road and Star & Garter Hill. Before we got going we congratulated our 50 and 100 heroes, with T starting the evening with the 50 Deeds sash (later handed over to Adam) and Salwa donning a very fetching pair of gold angel wings.

Ken took us through a short lesson in maple identification to make sure we knew the right kind of trees to remove: the Norway ("NO WAY") Maple and Sycamore were our enemies (while the Field Maple to grow) - and then showed us to the open boot of his car where he had proudly stacked a range of loppers and pocket-saws, all brand new.

This task was very much a case of "less is (Syca)more" as these trees grow rapidly and block out the light needed by other species, very much doing (Syca)more harm than good - they are no Sycamore Mr Nice Guy that's for sure. At first we were worried we might have bitten off (Syca)more than we could chew, but out came the good old GoodGym spirit, and without (Syca)more ado, we got stuck in. Ahem, sorry.

The differences between the species were actually quite subtle so it took a while to be sure we were picking the right trees, but the very useful PictureThis app was a major help and soon (Syca)more were coming down than you could shake a stick at (sorry). We picked our way through bramble-ridden undergrowth, hunting down our prey and then bringing them down with our trusty loppers or, when the trunk was thicker than a thumb, sawing them down with the pocket-saws. In some places, Norway Maples had been treated with chemical herbicides, so we went in to clear them away.

Eventually we made our way up to the Star & Garter driveway, and felt pretty pleased with the job we had done. We arranged ourselves in social distancing formation on some steps for a group photo with our heroes front and centre, then jogged/walked/cycled back to town for a pre-arranged gathering at the White Cross to celebrate those achievements once again. While numbers on the mission had been restricted, it was "the (Syca)more the merrier at the pub (sorry, last one, promise), and we were over the moon to see some faces we hadn't seen in a while, with guest appearances from Mark & Jenna and Jay, among plenty of others who came along to hang out in the sunshine.

To sum up, a great community mission, with great achievements and a whole load of great people :-)

As we convened on the towpath this morning, Mark sent a message to let us know it was 4 years to the day since GoodGym Richmond was launched, and the first ever task was... balsam bashing! Although it's bashing season this was still a bit of a lucky coincidence, as today's task was a "top up" from the first round of bashing last weekend.

This task is a popular one and so it proved today, with a huge bunch of GGers present from Richmond, Hounslow and Wandsworth, matching the size of last week's group. As usual, newbies to pulling up the giant plants quickly found out how enjoyable it is, and they definitely weren't "bashful", soon "pulling their weight" (literally) with "balsamic vigour" [thanks Laura - got your 3 puns into one sentence ;-)].

Last week we cleared a good chunk of a large area beside the towpath, and Sufiyo had invited us back to finish the job. And we did it in style, steadily tearing down the hordes of stalks with only the occasional yelp from a brush with a stinging nettle - luckily Doctor Sam, dock leaf spotter, was on hand to provide leaves to soothe the stings. As the morning wore on, the sun started getting hotter, and a few people sought shelter in the shaded areas where they could carry on working in the cool.

Shortly before finishing up, we discovered that Himalayan Balsam makes for an excellent javelin (provided you don't break it as you pull it up) and amused ourselves hurling them across the area we were working. Eventually, we pulled up the last of the balsam in our space and gathered in the middle for a socially-distanced group photo before heading back to the towpath to applause from the Friends of Ham Lands volunteers as thanks for all our efforts and congratulations on our 4th birthday.

To cap off a lovely morning, we then ran / cycled / walked back to Richmond bridge for a well-earned rest and coffee & treat from Tide Tables to finish the birthday bash. Well done to everyone on a fantastic task this morning, and to all involved with Richmond GoodGym (members and visitors) on 4 fabulous years - here's to the next 4!

8 Good Gymer's enjoyed an evening at the Marble Hill Adventure Playground. It was a sunny evening and we got to work quickly to clear the playground patches to make the playground ready for action for the community to use.

This playground is unique as it has big wooden play structures and offers children a large open space to engage with others and participate in various activities.

Thankfully the grass and weeds were easy to pull out of the ground and we definitely got a handful of grass and soil on our hands! But many hands made light work and we cleared the area fairly efficiently and with a final jump photo, we were off to enjoy the remainder of the evening.