Another week at Berryland's Nature Reserve helping Andrew and his volunteers get rid of Himalayan Balsam. It's an invasive plant that can decimate local wildlife areas with its shallow roots and prolific ability to reseed. Each plant can produce about 100 new plants every year so it has enormous destructive potential. We love Berryland's Nature Reserve - it's such a hidden gem for wildlife and plant species so we really want to support their initiative to help keep on top of it.

Rachel, Emma, Tom and Julie met at the Quaker Centre and ran 3km to the meeting point where we met with Tara - we haven't seen her for ages so it was great to have a catch up. We got straight into it and carried on with the area we worked on last week. We found a massive area that contained lots of Balsam. It was a bit tricky to get to as there were brambles and nettles - thankfully we wore leggings and long sleeves to help protect ourselves but even still Rachel did get a bramble in her face. Thankfully Tara's medical training came to the rescue and she declared her fit to carry on working - no sick note here!

After an hour we had cleared a good area and it was time to leave. We had quite the journey to get back to the road as the pathways were quite overgrown and a willow tree branch had fallen over the path. We took out turns limbo-ing under to get out. On the run back we bumped into a group of Morris Dancers practising their moves outside the Albion pub! Unexpected but fun to watch nevertheless.

Well done to Julie on her 10th mission! Great achievement.

What a rubbish way to waste some time. Not really! As a group we covered a large area to pick up cans, bottles, sweet wrappers and other random things discarded on our local streets and parks.

Jassy and her hubby went to Green Lane Rec in New Malden and filled 2 bags of rubbish discarded in the bushes and along the pathways. Kash and Sevan hit the streets of Acton and filled 4 bags of litter - in the dark, no less! What legends. Dave walked home from the park after a fitness session and picked up a bags worth of rubbish. Rachel and Liz went to Elm Park in Kingston and filled two bags worth. Well done on attending your first task, Liz! We are glad you joined in to help.

Well done to all that battled the horrible weather and got out to make a difference. It really does have a positive effect on your local community.

Please send any more photos to rachelwhite@goodgym.org with a short description of where you went and what you found and I'll upload it to this run report.

Certainly a fresh evening on our group run night but thankfully no rain this week. Back to Vine Close where we have been several times before clearing branches and sticks. I went to the Quaker Centre starting point but it was a solo mission up to the task as everyone had arranged to meet there and there no unexpected runners.

When I arrived, Emily, Tara, Laurel and Elliot were waiting for me. We said a quick hello before heading into the community garden to see what tasks needed to be done. Henry arrived in time for Elliot's introduction and we were handed loppers and choppers to carry on with our task of clearing the site.

Emily grabbed the broom and cleared the path to reduce the trip risk if the older residents wanted to visit the site. Tara, Henry, Laurel and I went to the compost area and started dragging out the waste that needed to be removed. We soon filled two large waste bags with sticks, brambles and twigs, and had moved the larger branches to the wood pile.

Laurel mentioned she had discovered a lizard on the road and had taken it home to care for it before releasing it back into the wild. After photo evidence, Elliot confirmed it was a newt and said that they were hibernating much later as it had been so warm this last few months. He also showed photos of a bat he had fostered as it had sadly got injured when it was caught in a window. Hopefully both creatures will be enjoying the community garden - let's hope we can get it sorted for them in time for Spring.

Our 2nd trip back to Vine Close had us tackling the huge piles of branches that have been heaped up. We'd made some progress on our first trip there but the rain had prevented us from really taking a look around. Tonight we had reasonable weather so we could have a proper look - well, there's certainly lots to do! Four massive piles of branches need to be cleared and other jobs besides.

We split into two groups and cracked on. Dave and Caroline bravely had a go at the prickly pile whilst the rest of us shifted through the seemingly never-ending pile of conifer branches.

Halfway through the task, Councillor Anita Schaper popped by to say hello and check on progress. She was thrilled that this area was going to be restored to its former glory and she explained that the pond (yes, there's definitely a pond under there somewhere) used to be part of a big house's estate and was glorious in its hey-day in the 70s.

Hopefully with GoodGym's help, we can help restore it and save it as a wildlife haven. We chatted with Elliot about his plans here and promised to come back on a monthly basis to help with the heavy tasks. Watch this space!

After the past two weeks soggy and wet missions it was exciting to be back GoodGyming in dry and early Autumnal conditions again. This week we were off to our newly newly, adopted bed in Canbury Gardens. After a consultation with Glendale about our previously adopted bed, we were advised to change locations. So although the team had previously been though the original bed and done a marvellous job at weeding it, we needed to start from scratch again on this new area. Smaller in size but perhaps better located and more manageable, it will hopefully be a wise move.

After a short sharp 2.5km run/cycle there, and a visit to the tool shed, we briefly discussed the initial plan of this abandoned area - get rid of the weeds and save any nice-looking plants, especially the pretty ones still flowering. Jassy came armed with a soil testing kit and will hopefully have the results for us in a few weeks. Rachel was identifying the different plants and the 2 trees on the plot (a Magnolia and Cypress something or other...) Everyone else was doing a grand job at digging, pulling, raking and shovelling weeds and old rots, into the bag in order to clear the bed and make it look like a well-maintained area.

After 45 mins the bed was transformed, from overgrown weed filled patch to a clear neat and tidy looking well managed bed. Now all we need is the bug hotel and a name for the plaque... suggestions in the group chat please.