Friend of GoodGym and LDN Tube Runner, Claire, is taking on the infamous Comrades Marathon in South Africa. As well as taking on this huge challenge, Claire's taking a bag of pre-loved running shoes with life left in them to donate to local runners from disadvantaged communities. Some of these folk can do 400km/month run-commuting because they can't afford public transport.

And this is where GoodGym comes in! Four of our runners who might possibly have more running shoes than are strictly required hunted through their shoe boxes!

Harvey collected the shoes, making use of old packaging, and met up with Claire for the official handover. Coffee may have been involved.

Claire will now transport our old shoes to the southern hemisphere, where they'll be cleaned up, and make sure they find new owners who'll get many more miles out of them!

Kash and Sevan were back at Mr R's for some fast flipping. After turning his medical mattress over in September, it was now time to do a back flip and put the original side back on top. Mr R had stripped the bedding off, so 3 minutes after they'd entered, they were wishing Mr R well and running off to their next mission.

On another toasty mission, there were many smaller tasks that Mrs M needed help with in her back garden. Jobs that she used to do herself and more recently couldn't as she was too tired or unsteady on her feet.

First, Mrs M asked for 2 dead plants to be removed from their pots, some daffodils that hadn't flowered this year to be cut back and to trim and tie back and overgrown shrub. These 3 items were quickly completed, so was there anything else to do?

There were 2 roses to dispose of and some weeds and invasive plants to pull out. Again, Kash and Sevan worked through these too. Was there anything else?

"There is one non-gardening job that I need help with"
"Did you see the For Sale sign outside the house?"
"An estate agent put it up early this morning"
"I'm very angry. My house is not for sale" - Mrs M

Sevan grabbed some secateurs and snipped the fake sign's cable ties, wrapping up today's tasks.

Another unusually hot weekend in May, another trip to Southall for GoodGym Ealing - this time to Western Road Urban Garden to help Southall Community Alliance with planting exotic crops ahead of the season.

The garden was visited not only by six GoodGymers but also, unexpectedly, by three police officers on patrol. While the GoodGym team started preparing the veg beds and erecting trellises for beans and gourds, the hosts Janpal and Ash gave the officers on duty a comprehensive tour of the food-growing space. And there were novelties since our team last visited the garden - a new beehive had been built behind the polytunnel, with dozens of stingy pollinators already getting busy around it!

On such a hot day, many would choose an indoor task in the shade, rather than digging weeds and shovelling compost in full sun. It wasn't the case at WRUG, where the only place that counted as indoors was the polytunnel. While the early arrivals, Maxime, Sevan and Kash were responsible for preparing the outside raised beds, Ash was assigned to help Janpal construct trellises. After almost an hour (with breaks, of course!) of roasting in the 44°C "oven", he developed such an engineering skill in trellis building that his capabilities were sought for outdoors, at the raised beds, freshly weeded and topped with compost. Ash swapped with Kash and Sevan, who, together with Lena, entered the polytunnel for the planting phase. Meanwhile, Ash taught Harvey and Maxime all his trellis know-how, and all three got to planting in the raised beds.

It was a special session for Ash, as he not only survived the polytunnel sweat challenge and spread the construction knowledge, but also hit a milestone of 25 good deeds - halfway to the black T-shirt!

The crops planted today, including many South Asian staples, were:

• Snake gourd
• Bottle gourd
• Kerala
• Pumpkin
• Melon
• Tomato
• Red bell pepper

As usual, Janpal prepared a feast for the volunteers, with plenty of ice cold water to keep us hydrated, bananas, strawberries, tangerines, giant blueberries, and staple samosas. Breaks in the shade with refreshments in reach definitely helped the team keep going!

We should see the fruit ready for harvest in a couple of months! Meanwhile, we are planning another community day at WRUG in June to prepare space for additional water storage at the garden. Sign up now!