Mindset is everything, they say. And we can say that too. Why else would a group of five shun their cosy, dry homes and embark on a quest of shovelling wet woodchip with wet shovels into wet wheelbarrows to spread on a wet path during a wet night? A few of us had a tough day at work, others were fed up with sitting indoors for the whole day. A dose of healthy movement in the rain with our community in mind was exactly what we needed!

A pile of woodchip dropped near the Lammas Orchard (a.k.a. The Garden of Eden, according to our task owner, Trevor) was lying out there idly for weeks, not serving as a moisture absorber on the orchard's paths nor as mulch for the fruit trees. We secured tools for ourselves and came over to challenge the status quo. Half an hour of vigorous shovelling and some wheelbarrow runs after, we had a smooth, woodchipped path leading from the gate into the forest school area. We also ran out of coarse woodchip and switched tactics. Another fifteen minutes or so later, we used the unveiled compressed, decomposing woodchip as mulch, spreading it around most of the fruit trees in the garden.

Satisfied with the results, we closed our eyes for a while and indulged ourselves with a mental trip to a tropical beach. No holiday budget required, no CO2 emissions, but the feeling was there. Magical. Mindset is everything.

Sevan and Kash's last mission of the day was a return visit to Ms L scheduled for the 15:30-17:00 slot. The two were stretching the boundaries with the sunset expected at 16:50. With grey skies and persistent drizzle throughout the day, the daylight was precious.

Kash's previous mission for Ms L was a lot about reaching the sky with Steph climbing the ladder to remove the ivy. This week's task theme, on the contrary, was descending to the underground to remove the root of all evil. Kash was hell-bent on digging out the ivy and bramble roots with a big, trenching spade to prevent growth in the spring as much as possible.

Meanwhile, Sevan transcended to the opposite side of the front garden to attack the ivy where it's been neglected during the last three sessions for Ms L. Trying different cutting tools, he removed the vines from the fence and pulled as much ivy as possible from the branches of a dense snowberry bush. As per Ms L's request, he also dealt with faded plastic flowers and threw them into the bin.

Just before 16:50, the lights in the garden started glimmering with a faint, warm glow. They looked magical as the night set in, and were a sign for Sevan and Kash to wrap up. With the invasive species removed and the bulbs kept planted in the ground, Ms L, after saying goodbye to the fake plants, will enjoy the explosion of proper flowers in the spring!

Big changes had happened in the week since Mrs J's last GoodGym mission. Some plans had moved forward, like the electrician rewiring the house and painting had started in the bedrooms. Other plans had changed and the wardrobes that Sevan emptied of clothes last week were now going to be kept, not replaced by new units. The Swedish death cleaning had also proved to be too much to take on all at once, so some belongings were being moved to storage for now.

The 4 wardrobes now being kept were the main feature of today's mission as they had to be moved into another room across the landing. First, Kash and Sevan, helped by Mrs J's relative, pushed the existing furniture out of the way in the destination room to make space. They found out that the large corner sofa was a big jigsaw puzzle with interlocking pieces, meaning they could lighten it to shift it. They also learned that everything was interconnected. Moving one thing caused a domino effect, with other items toppling over, so they had to be very careful.

Once the destination room was ready, Sevan looked at the wardrobes and thought they wouldn't fit through the doors. Each of the 3 doors was tighter than the previous one, looking like matryoshka, and all but one of the wardrobes were too wide to pass on their back and too deep to pass sideways. That was a puzzler. While Kash and Sevan moved vintage furniture downstairs for donation and clothes upstairs to lighten the wardrobes, Mr J removed the tops of the wardrobes, making them much less deep and they also became much more floppy.

Kash and Sevan helped Mr J and his relative move some of the wardrobes on a trolley, guiding them through the narrow doors. They also moved wardrobes themselves. Those with clothes rails more or less held their shape. The one that didn't have a rail started to bow and disintegrate, taking a lot of care for Mr J to get it safely to its temporary new home.

With the wardrobes moved, it was time for some quick refreshments and to catch up on the next steps of Mrs J's treatment before Kash and Sevan ran off to their next mission.

"I need coffee because my body doesn't make it" - Mr J

Have you ever wondered what happens to the dead Christmas trees Ealing Council collects each January after the festive season's end? They are being sent to a cemetery. Literally.

Just as a year ago, the 2025 trees got minced into woodchip and dropped at the South Ealing Cemetery. We were going to use it to cover the side paths and disguise the sins of the last year: suspicious walkways. A year ago, the woodchip the cemetery received was rough and contained large, sharp pieces of timber, not really classifying as woodchip on which you could walk safely and comfortably. This year, having learnt lessons from 2025, the Council provided fine woodchip, mostly made of fragrant conifer needles. What a treat to shovel!

The rain might have scared off some of this morning's crew, but five GoodGymers showed up and joined Paul and two other volunteers from Ealing Parks Foundation for a 2-hour workout.

Sevan, Steph and Kash knew the drill: shovel the woodchip into a wheelbarrow, transport, tip on a path, and rake, rinse and repeat. Devi joined the shovel & wheelbarrow team with enthusiasm and grit. Despite the cemetery task being only her second session and the weather being a far cry from what we call a glorious day, Devi has proven to be a tenacious GoodGymer, enjoying an intense, non-stop activity outdoors. Great to see such a spirit!

Meanwhile, James found raking the paths thoroughly satisfying - so satisfying that he levelled every single barrow of woodchip dropped on all three paths we managed to do in the two hours allocated. Being a perfectionist and having a special connection to the green space must have helped. Great work, James!

Paul was both impressed and delighted by the number of paths woodchipped, and particularly happy to see a pathway to the Mausoleum being covered, as it was on the route of the cemetery's guided walk.

According to our data scientist Steph, each of the GoodGymers transporting the woodchip covered roughly 5km of walking with a wheelbarrow. That's not only plenty of the daily steps walked by midday, but also a fantastic impact on the calm, historic green space of South Ealing for everyone to enjoy.

Kash and Sevan made a return visit to Ms C's kitchen as part of her recent decluttering efforts. The kitchen table had been piled high with things on each of their visits and Ms C said that today was the day to tackle them. Kash and Sevan might even be able to convince Ms C to dispose of something... anything.

There was a whole variety of things on the table, including folders of paperwork. Ms C went to search for her shredder, followed by Kash. Sevan waited in the kitchen, and waited, and eventually the pair returned armed with some spinning blades. Everyone was now ready to get decluttering.

They worked through 1 item at a time which was slow going, finding:

• Expired medication (to be dropped off at the pharmacy)
• Old paperwork (shredded)
• Weekly tablet container (the only thing to be donated... then not)
• An ice cube tray (one of many Ms C has and another of her "fetishes")
• Other random bric-a-brac

Anything that was to be thrown away or recycled was put to one side and everything to keep or process later moved across to the hob, which turned into it's own pile of bric-a-brac. The fact that Ms C was letting things go at all was a little bit positive and even a couple of "good stuff" tins of shea butter made their way to the bin after failing the sniff test. A sign of good things to come, perhaps.

Other notable finds were a suede bra which had memories from her youth for Ms C and for some reason was sitting on the kitchen table. Kash found her passport too

"I think that's an old one" - Ms C
"No, that's your current passport. Valid to 2029"
"Best to put it somewhere safe" - Sevan

The passport too ended up on the big pile of stuff on the hob. Hopefully it won't go missing again.