This Saturday is Earth Hour, a worldwide grassroots movement for the environment which aims to inspire millions of people to take action for our planet and nature. At 8:30pm on Saturday 30th March people and organisations all over the world will switch off their lights in solidarity with global efforts to secure nature and our home. To show our support for Earth Hour, and to do our bit for our own local initiative Clean Green Rose Hill, this week we took on a task to improve the natural environment.

Meeting at East Oxford Community Centre, we welcomed our new runners Stephanie, Morgan, Bronwen, and Luke, before scooting off quickly in order to get to Rose Hill while there was still light in the sky. Putting our best feet forward we made great time along the 2 mile route to Rose Hill, even taking on a competitive Strava segment along the way. Well done to Stephanie for taking the Strava crown!

Arriving across the park to Rose Hill Community Centre (so nice to see it in daylight - last time we were here it was pitch black and the park was a little spooky!) we picked up 2 of the Rose Hill Runners, Trev and John, and met the team from Oxford Direct Services who were our task owner for the evening.

Rose Hill has a lovely green space, Rivermead Nature Park, which comprises a meadow, some woodland, and a pond, stretching down to the River Thames. It is a beautiful spot which many of us had never visited before, but sadly it is blighted by litter. Our task for the evening was to try and clear up some of the mess. Goodgymers like nothing more than a satisfying litter pick, and having discovered everything from pants to car number plates and a stage light on previous clean ups, we set out into the nature park with our eyes peeled for the weirdest litter possible. Our first route through the park didn't show up much by way of litter, but then the local knowledge kicked in, with Trev leading us to the worst grot spot edging the ring road. Car wing mirrors, a rusty bike frame, bike tyres, crisp packets, oil cans, and even a sink were collected up.

My personal favourite this week was a No Dumping of Rubbish sign - oh the irony - which had been thrown into the park, although it's a tough call between that and the sink.

Leaving our rubbish bags tucked away for collection the following morning, and waving goodbye to the Oxford Direct Services team, we took the meandering route back down through Iffley and along Meadow Lane. Of course, we had to sprint along the lamp-posts of Meadow Lane, because it's becoming a tradition. Just remember, that's the last week for run 1, jog 2; we'll be progressing to run 1, jog 1 next time we pass that way!

Good job on doing our bit for the natural environment this week. We're turning into plogging professionals.