Seven GoodGymmers gathered on Raymill Island for a double‑mission evening of watering and repainting.

We were welcomed by Nivi and Shoshan from the Friends of Raymill Island, and wasted no time getting stuck in. First up: helping Shoshan haul a few stray logs out of the stream — an early warm‑up before the main tasks began.

With the logs sorted, the group split into two teams. Sol and Jess took on the watering challenge, ferrying bucket after bucket from the stream to thirsty flower beds and planters. It turned into a full‑body workout!

Meanwhile, Meggie, Katie and Nicola breathed new life into the Ladybird Hopscotch, carefully repainting each cheerful bug. Mike tackled the rainbow, restoring every colour so it shone brightly once again.

By the end, the whole area looked refreshed and revived. Passers‑by stopped to thank us and commented on how much better the space looked — always lovely to hear.

A job well done, and we’ll be back next week to help Shoshan tether the logs so they stay put and don’t end up in the stream again!

Our group of dozen of Goodgymers and first time Wednesday session leader Anne-Laure were happily participating in refreshing the beautiful drawings on the ground of Ray Mill Island. Organised by our lovely Nivi, the painting involved finding the right colours to match the drawings made last year by the same Goodgymers. The weather was lovely, the vibe was great, the quest to find the perfect red colour unfortunately failed. But it didn't stop everyone to recreate the beautiful letters, drawings and games. The rainbow ended up very personalised.

The evening finished with not just one but two celebrations! Roberta celebrated her 100th good deed and Rachel her (unofficial) 250th. Well done to them! Rachel spoilt us (again) with her amazing skills of baking and her creative poem writing.

A successful session, 2 amazing cakes and beautiful colours on the island! The good gymmers have spread a little bit more of joy in Maidenhead!

Goodgym duty today was continuing to weed the winter heliotrope from the main bed and rockery without stepping foot on the rockery.

There was plenty of it encroaching onto the path to tackle and it was very therapeutic listening to the water from the fountain trickling and the geese and ducks quacking.

Anne Laure and Jen were tasked with clearing all the 'woody bits' from the dry hedge zone, adding them to the dry hedge and finishing off by adding the teasles for decoration.

Meanwhile Nivi supervised the work going on in the nursery area by the DofE volunteers and captured everyone's efforts for social media.

Sheila and I were outnumbered by non GG volunteer Friends of Ray Mill Island today. Whilst Sheila got stuck in to sorting the donated plants by type, I joined a small team moving wooden boards from the paddleboarders round to the nursery.

Next we all relocated to the kiosk and rockery areas where Shoshan had placed plants in pots ready for us to plant them in the ground and water them. With a bit of weeding the Heliotrope it was a very green fingered session.

Our 5 merry Goodgymers went on planting trees on this nice and sunny Saturday afternoon. Trees needed to be moved and planted elsewhere. Wheelbarrows were moved, dirt was dug,water was poured and weed was removed : a very efficient session on this island.

But it wasn't without counting on the current drama happening on the island: female duck being courted by 3 suitors (or 2,maybe only 1 and the others were there for the fight, it wasn't really clear). A story we didn't have the end of. Hopefully on the next episode/session, things will have calm down on the island for the wildlife.

A beautiful spring afternoon saw Nivi, Rachel, Christine, Anne-Laure and Sheila join the weekly work party at Ray Mill Island. Anne-Laure was keen to do raking of leaves to help expose the grass, and Nivi helped another volunteer paint tree signs. Meanwhile the others tackled the enormous Phormium plant which needs removing from the new nursery area.The team last week had done a good job of starting to dig it out, so our task was to try and finish the job. Armed with spades, loppers, a half-moon cutter and a pruning saw, we started attacking the plant. Some side shoots of the plant were saved for planting up to generate new plants. It was a tough old job, but we kept at it and eventually we were victorious, severing the plant from the earth.