Some may think that winter sessions at Grove Farm are only for the toughest kind, double-gloved and oblivious to the elements. Nothing further from the truth! Although some of us felt slightly chilly this morning, the session was a heartwarming experience - a perfect task leading onto Christmas.

The first element that made the community mission so gratifying was teamwork - just like at last month's session. Christos paired Livio and Penny with Kash to form the trimmer-rake duos to remove invasive brambles in the area where the wood anemones would grow in the sprint. With the lack of a third hedge trimmer, Sevan and Mike both took on more precise work: cutting the brambles with shears around ferns. Anna did a litter-picking round, then started carrying the trimmings with Christos deeper into the woods to build a dead hedge.

The second joyful thing about the session was the sunshine we had been waiting for two weeks - and it lasted longer than two seconds!

The third comforting piece was the break we had and the tea Anna brought for everyone. It was such a nice feeling to warm our hands by holding a steamy cup of a hot beverage.

The fourth component was a surprise birthday cake for Sevan. The treat was as tough as the birthday person himself and resisted Anna's and Kash's combined efforts to put a candle in it! Sevan managed to cut it into pieces and everyone enjoyed a slice of Biscoff-flavoured goodness.

Finally, the Fifth Element was the reward of knowing we were working behind the scenes to make the wood anemone display in 2025 a beautiful experience for all park visitors in the Spring!

Next month, we are back to the regular schedule at Grove Farm - sign up to join us on the fourth Saturday of January!

The November conservation day at Grove Farm meant resuming the everlasting war on brambles to allow the wood anemones to flower in spring. The landscape of the usual blackberry-anemone battlefield looked somewhat different than in previous years, with seemingly new vegetation sprouting.

Sevan: "Stupid question: Have those trees been here before?"
Anna: "Yes. We coppiced them 3 years ago, and now they got more bushy."

Sevan and Kash ran 8.5 km to Grove Farm from their earlier mission in Acton, stopped only by a cup of coffee in Ealing, while Penny took a combination of public transport and walking through the foresty parts of Sudbuty Hill. The GoodGymers met Anna, Mike and Olena - Friends of Grove Farm, and Sue and Fred - members of several other volunteer groups.

Penny decided on the more demanding way to cut brambles: manually, using the shears, while Sevan paired with Mike and Kash with Olena. In each of the duos one person had a hedge trimmer and the other a rake. The pairs worked in absolute harmony, the rake pulling the brambles away and the trimmer cutting through them effortlessly.

The results of the work of the entire team were excellent. A couple of similar sessions in the winter months should keep the brambles at bay and let the wood anemones bloom when the spring comes.

It's no secret that the wood-fired pizza from Horsenden Farm is a magnet for GoodGymers - so powerful that it pulls people from different areas to Ealing! Today the promise of the Horsenden Loaf speciality brought three guests from GoodGym Hounslow: Michelle, Kymm and Gus.

But there is no pizza without fire! And there is no fire without firewood.

This Saturday's task was to help the Horsenden baker Anthony stock up on firewood to feed all the hungry GoodGymers after the winter sessions at the farm - and the number of volunteers at the farm has grown rapidly in the last months, reaching 9 people in October. At today's session, we welcomed a new joiner, Diana, who met us at pumpkin carving at Northfield Allotments last week. Welcome to GoodGym Ealing, Diana!

Ijo, Steph, Sevan, Penny, Kash, Diana and the three Hounslow visitors grabbed wheelbarrows and loaded them with logs from a pile located higher up the hill. It was the opposite of our usual tasks at the farm: shovelling woodchip or compost into barrows and pushing them uphill. This time the heavy loads were going down the hill - but don't be fooled - it was hard work!

Not far from the pizza oven, Kymm was assembling a Jenga tower out of firewood pieces that kept coming in barrows in all shapes and sizes, so she had no way to apply any strategy to how best to arrange them. In the end, it turned out she did a nifty job! Next to Kymm, Gus found his happy place at a contraption he would love to get for Christmas: a log splitter. Before having a go at that apparatus, Gus received the safety training and protective goggles from Anthony.

"I'm the most hipster lumberjack!" - Gus said, admiring his new eyewear.

Splitting the logs required time and focus, so after the pile was transported downhill, Gus stayed at his post, accompanied by Michelle who swapped with Kymm on the wood tetris position. The rest of the team was made redundant and looked for other jobs at the farm. They were employed to build a highway between the veg patches out of old cartons and fresh woodchip. Penny, Diana and Ijo laid the cardboard foundations while Steph, Sevan, Kymm and Kash brought the material for the path surface - all of that to stop weeds from growing in spaces between the plots.

Two hours of the farm-style workout was concluded with the obligatory team lunch at Horsenden Loaf with pizza, coffee or craft beer from the local microbrewery. We are already looking forward to the session next month - save the date and sign up now!

The 2024 GoodGym edition of the cheer station at the Ealing Half Marathon occupied the same bus stop in front of the council building as last year's event, with the usual speaker with motivational music and the obligatory 30-minute break to grab a coffee between the waves of the runners.

Two major enhancements to the station were: Sevan's cable tie construction to hold the GoodGym flag in place and Bagel the Dog, brought by Milly looking after Liv's pup. The crowd loved Bagel, but Bagel had to take breaks from the crowd so as not to get too agitated. The rest of the cheer crew: Ijo, Jags, Penny and Kash were more than allowed to get hyper - they clapped tirelessly at the sight of any runner (not only GoodGymers) till their palms got numb and the tarmac of Uxbridge Road in front of them started to resemble a flowing stream of lava. What an intense cheering it was.

Among the cheered friends were GoodGymers: Alan, Annabel, Beth, Dave, Caz, Chris, Florian, Harvey, Liv, Michelle, Mike, Raj and Steph. An equally tenacious applause was earned by seafood and street food: a bunch of running lobsters and a hotdog suspiciously resembling a familiar run director. After the race, it was time for the unwavering runners to give their legs some rest and for the relentless supporters to relax their palms.

Todays Mission brought four GoodGymers out in the cold, but gloriously sunny morning to help out the team from Friends of Grove Farm with their monthly conservation day. Christos, Kash, Sevan and Penny joined Mike, Anna and others from the Friends of Grove Farm community at the north entrance of the park, to create more open space and visibility in the area.

After a short briefing, the team divided to conquer the 3 tasks on hand. First off, Penny and Christos took hold of loppers to get cutting and chopping away at the brambles and foliage in front of the hedge, and opening out the area for it to be more easily mowed.

Secondly, and a favourite for Kash, was an opportunity to take charge of the hedge trimmers and dutifully reduce the large hedge down to hip height for better visibility.

And if this wasn’t enough already, Sevan was also on hand to help on a third task, clearing the fly-tipped garden waste at the opening of the park. The waste and all the cuttings from the brambles and hedge were masterfully weaved and threaded with branches, to help holding the dead hedge all together.

A lot of hard work and a very noticeable change across the area by the end of the session!