The Autumn season of GoodGymming is certainly open! On an October Sunday morning, it brought us rain, mud and a kaleidoscopic display of leaves in Pear Tree Park. Three GoodGymers: Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash met Greenwayers: Richard, Sue and Phillip to plunge into the depths of the park's overgrowth. The group had the pleasure of entering Pear Tree Park using the new path they had created in August.

At the safety briefing, Richard treated us to a new three-letter acronym, rather than recycling EYE he had taught us in June. The new acronym spelled AHA:

A-bove - watch out for overhanging branches
H-ernia - don't lift ridiculously heavy things
A-ss over tits - you'll end up in this configuration if you won't look for trip hazards

Today's objective was to create another path - alongside River Brent. Apart from the usual brambles and nettles to chop down, the obstacles included trees. For those specimens, we needed a larger calibre - what about a saw? Richard and Sevan wielded those comfortably, while Steph and Kash found their happy place in hacking the stingy and prickly plants with slashers. Sue did a bit of litter picking and lopping at the start, then uncovered her calling: hauling the cut-down tree branches (or shall I say: logs!) to the side of the path. Phillip, the new Greenwayers recruit, made the pathway spotless by collecting all the litter found under the summer growth.

Two hours of sawing, lopping, slashing and rolling the chunkiest logs aside made a stunning difference. The 70 metres (according to Richard and Phillip's estimations) of the overgrown track has been restored to a stage where it resembles a path again.

Richard and Ben from Clean Up River Brent have grand plans to restore the riverside trail to its former glory and ordered woodchip to spread on the path. We will be back to Pear Tree Park again next month to woodchip the new path with the Greenwayers.