The lovely people at the Friends of Ham Lands reached out to GoodGym to let us know that, while their nature walks and clearance work to improve wildlife habitats are currently on hold, they are committed to finding ways though for the community to safely connect and carry on making a difference to Ham Lands. They asked for help with a litter pick - and we had a fantastic response with 8 people coming down to enjoy the experience of doing good together again.

The weather was definitely on our side as the sun was shining at 10am when we met Sufiyo and co. on the corner of Croft Way and Riverside Drive. There we collected plastic bags and litter-pickers, and headed off in small groups to hunt down litter on the green areas.

For most this was the first community mission done in a while, and for many it was one of the first get-togethers with more than 1 other person, so there were a lot of happy faces and excited chatter as we walked slowly down the paths and searched under trees for litter - it was a real "pick me up"!

As for the litter task itself, there was not a huge amount of it about but we did manage to fill a few bags of discarded crisp packets, food containers, bottles, cigarette butts and a surprising number of cleaning wipes. We even managed to drag out a horrible musty old blanket that had been left covering an area of undergrowth.

Back at the starting point, there was time for a socially distant group picture and then we headed off in various directions, promising to be back in a month for some balsam bashing with the Friends of Ham Lands!