How did a rosy start of the mission go down the toilet?

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, Sevan and Kash rolled their slightly battered bodies from Ealing to West Kensington. After a 9km run, none of them had fallen apart, which was a good sign, especially for Kash, who hadn’t done that distance in one go since late June.

Mrs J had two types of gardening tasks for GoodGymers: one at high altitude and another at ground level. Sevan, who took the first kind of the job as the taller person, was unsure how he was going to reach the rose bushes - or should I say trees - to deadhead them, four metres or so above the ground. Mrs J had an answer for that: a long-reach telescopic pruner, which she couldn’t wield herself. Kash, on the other hand, started spot weeding flower beds, then moved onto quite a peculiar task of kneading forget-me-nots. According to Mrs J, the carpet of forget-me-not plants kept a little fence around the beds up and kept the neighbours’ cats away from the flower beds. It made sense to Kash that soil obscured by creeping greenery wouldn’t resemble a litter tray anymore. That was a first hint of the toilet coming later into the picture.

After the first round of deadheading roses in the sky, Sevan swapped with Kash and helped her locate more flowers to prune. They worked just like a spotter and a sniper, taking down one rose after another. Quickly, they moved into trimming a tree, whose branches ventured into the neighbour’s territory despite a very tall fence. Kash, usually averse to precision work in a garden, enjoyed long-distance pruning so much she didn’t notice when Sevan cleared all the remaining weeds she had left behind and started bagging the trimmings.

Just when almost all the green waste was packed up, Mrs J surprised the GoodGymers with a question:

Would you be able to install a toilet seat?

The query was primarily aimed at Sevan, as Mrs J seemed to associate masculinity with the loo know-how. Sevan accepted the challenge and learned about Mrs J’s reckless relative after whose visit the toilet seat lost its structural integrity. While Kash entertained herself by stroking Mrs J’s cat and viewing the photos of Mrs J’s late beloved dog, Sevan quickly swapped the old, broken seat with a new one. Mrs J was very grateful for all the help in the garden and restroom.

Thank you so much for your help today - Mrs J
You can think about us while sitting comfortably on the new seat! - Sevan

Today's session for HANGOT had a surprisingly good start. There were 10 GoodGymers registered for the task, which was amazing in itself, including Will who made this is first GoodGym session. Welcome 👋🥳! Everyone also made it to HANGOT's secret undercover base on time and without getting lost. Amazing!

Once assembled, they walked to BlackBerry Corner, one of HANGOT's earliest orchards, with 20 apple trees and a long history of brambles, hence the name. As it was coming to the end of the growing season - for fruit and weeds - it was time to tidy up the orchard. Today's priorities were to:

1. Clear a ring around each apple tree to be free of weeds
2. Remove brambles and nettles from the paths
3. For completeness, cut down the open spaces too

The goal was to starve the ground of nutrients year after year to stunt and then eventually stop the weeds from growing back.

Work was divided up between the team with everyone grabbing a tool for their task. Shears, rakes, wheelbarrows, a pitchfork and a slasher were passed around. Working together, they made quick work of the most important jobs around the paths and trees.

At the same time, some of HANGOT's team were scything the open spaces, leaving lots to be raked up and moved to the distant compost heap. Will did a great job of raking throughout the task, which gave him a solid workout at his first session. A few others felt the fatigue in their muscles too by the end from chopping and slashing.

HANGOT were incredibly grateful that the huge GoodGym turnout had helped them complete all of the planned work. Their compost heap had also gone from zero to humongous, which will be really useful next year. There was even time for some to see their first quince tree fruiting and taking a chance on eating what they'd hand picked.

It's been a whole four months since Ealing Repair Cafe teamed up with GoodGym Ealing in June. After the summer break, Mary and Lone had a busy September, running events during Ealing Green Week. They were proud to share that they had been giving out the famous T-shirt drawstring bags with mini sewing kits attached, encouraging people to mend their clothes. Now, it was time to head to the hall of St Mary's Church in Acton to make new drawstring bags!

Tonight's session in numbers:

1st session for our newest addition to the team, Yulia, who was the bravest one and volunteered to tame the beast, the electric sewing machine, to sew new drawstring bags.
2 GoodGymers - Gaby and Maria - worked on a banner for ReActon, a new reuse and repair site in Acton, arranging letters made of ties on a massive piece of fabric, and then hand-sewing them to it.
3 other GoodGymers - Harvey, Steph and Kash - worked on a production line, cutting the fabric for bags, and threading yarn through them, basically everything to give everyone else their chance to sew.
5 runners coming from Ealing Broadway to Acton: Harvey, Maria, Sevan, Steph and Kash.
5 running t-shirts donated by Steph towards the drawstring bag effort - will his race t-shirt supply ever end? We don't think so!
10th collab session by Ealing Repair Cafe and GoodGym Ealing, marked by consumption of cakes and doughnuts brought by Mary and Lone.
17 letters traced and cut out by Sevan to create a banner advertising "Free school uniforms" - all made from... donated school uniforms beyond repair.
23 colourful drawstring bags, including one with Cher pattern, were the result of today's efforts, most likely going to be donated to the Northfields Community Library.

And, finally, a whole...
750 good deeds by Steph! Time flew by - we saw it coming, but Steph doesn't cease to surprise us with how much GoodGymming he's doing each month. Congratulations Steph!

Next week, we are running to St Mary's Church - this time in South Ealing - for an Autumn garden tidy-up. There will be a walking session from Ealing Broadway too - so sign up now!