For goodness’ rake

Since ancient times the phases of the moon have been associated with all sorts of mysterious things. There is a British superstition that if Christmas day falls on a dark Moon, the following year's harvest would be a bountiful one (useful for GoodGym tasks) and some people swear that by taking out all your spare coins of your pocket and putting them in the other pocket when you spot the month's first crescent moon for the month will ensure good luck for the next month. While not many of us carry coins any more and I'm not sure it'll work with Apple pay, last night's full moon certainly brought about some unusual behaviour...

Under the cover of darkness we made our way to Chiswick House, managing to avoid the security locking the gates on the way in but wondering if we would be able to make it out again after the task.

We carefully picked our way through the estate yard to find Sally, one of the gardeners, waiting for us at the entrance of the beautiful, and very dark, kitchen garden.

Luckily the light of the full moon appearing from between the clouds lit our way through the paths, where our job for the evening was to edge the woodchip back into place. We were also tasked with transporting more woodchip and pulling weeds. One lone runner lost in the depths of the park mysteriously appeared from nowhere to join us.

Shadowy figures moved through the garden, brandishing rakes and talking of ancient hills and cross country races in far away places such as Reigate, and Wimbledon Common.

Jobs done, the group made its way out of the park, just slipping through the giant iron gates before they were locked. The walkers set off for Turnham Green to join the runners for fitness session. The full moon fueled lunacy continued with the competitive session, which saw Gus and Emily invent an amazing new trance style move, and Lucy and Chris, Divya and Florian battle it out for victory.

But whatever happened to the walking group, who never turned up for fitness? Are they still out there somewhere, hypnotised by that full moon, wandering the streets of Chiswick?

Or did they head straight to the pub?

Join us next week as we head back to Chiswick allotment to find out, where everything will be, hopefully, back to normal....