Warneford Hospital gave us all the picking tasks tonight: apple picking and litter picking!

The hospital has an orchard along the edge of the site. This year they are teaming up with Tiddly Poms to make a Warneford apple juice to sell. GoodGym received an SOS to help get the apples collected ready for pressing, and of course we love apple picking so we couldn't it turn down. As we are having such brilliant turn-outs of volunteers we were able to have a second team of GoodGymers breaking out the litter-pickers and bin bags to clear up litter too.

At first glance the orchard looked like it had already been pretty thoroughly apple-picked, but looks can be deceptive. We knew we had to be careful not to bruise the apples (unbruised apples make the best juice), and fortunately apple grabbing poles brought many of the apples on the highest branches within reach, and it was discovered that litter pickers actually make an excellent apple-picking tool. We are nothing if not resourceful! With a bit of foraging around for good apples on the ground, and a few shakes of branches to bring ripe fruit down, and we were surprised to find that we filled 2 large crates with apples.

The ploggers took to the Warneford Meadow and circled the Warneford hospital site, ferretting under benches, in the undergrowth and around the car parks for discarded litter. All the usual suspects were found - fast food containers, drinks containers, cigarette packets, masks, sweets and chocolate wrappers. Despite the frustration of finding litter, things have improved considerable since the start of summer, and it's always good to leave a place in a better situation than we found it.

Well done to Karen for completing your 10th GoodGym Good Deed! Also a big welcome to Rob who has joined us from Bath.

Good work, as ever, team!!