It was our first outing of 2019 at GoodGym Waltham Forest tonight and on what could accurately be described as a jolly cold night it was fantastic to welcome such a big group of hardy souls to our base at Mirth, Marvel and Maud. Fourteen altogether including new to the crew Katie Moore as well as a hat-full of our regular stalwarts and old friends making a welcome return. We were also celebrating a fantastic fifty, yes FIFTY good deeds by all round good egg, Francis Bradley. To celebrate this milestone Francis supplied generous quantities of cake. Sadly, that had to wait until our return as there was important work to be done.

The Run My personal favourite of our regular task outings. Admittedly better in the summer but nonetheless a pleasant outing as the hurly-burly of the metropolitan world gives way to the semi-countryside via the yeast infused scent of an industrial estate dominated by a Kingsmill Bakery - I'm not really selling this, am I?

The Task Arriving warm and ready to get stuck in we armed ourselves with bags, gloves and litter pickers. I had planned to split the group into a litter picking section and a running section but after such a long run, we decided to just get stuck in. However, the plunging temperature soon took its toll on our fingers and toes. There was also slim picking on the litter front. To get the blood flowing again we headed to a different section of the pathway and struck gold, or more to the point struck crap with a veritable dumpsite of detritus languishing in the rough. The team wasted no time in filling their bags with wellington boots, flattened cans, pie dishes and all manner of single-use plastic containers. Sadly time was short and lips were turning blue so we had to leave the litter to be picked another day and get back on the road.

The Cake Picking up the pace impressively we were soon warm again as we headed home and back to the boozer to celebrate with Francis and a trio of yummy cakes.

The Future Next week we are keeping it local as we head back to St Mary's to fill the planters (wot we builded) with the compost (wot we dug) so if you have been involved in any of these projects before, or if you haven't, don't miss out as we are coming full circle with this. Sign-up here.

Also, and sorry I forgot to mention this but do sign-up to the starter run on Saturday 19th January at the charming Willow Brook Primary School

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