Eight fab goodgymmers came together on a wet and windy Wednesday evening to collect litter and bring one of Richmond's popular parks - Old Deer Park back to its former glory.

At first it looked as though there wasn't much litter to collect but boy we were wrong! We soon got our eye(s) in and picked all manner of things, from the usual suspects - plastic bottles, cans, cigarette butts, tissues, food containers - to the more weird (not wonderful) dummies, sparkly baton, golf ball, toy foam bullets, condom wrappers (yuck!)...and even some coins!

Sadly it seemed many people had not read the memo circulating so many of our beautiful open spaces (especially in recent times) that our parks are not a bin or a toilet...!

We split in to groups to try to cover as much of the park as possible, paying particular attention to around the tennis courts, playground and benches where people most frequent, as well as the edge of the park, under tree cover and hedgerows which acted like a litter magnet! Even finding gaps in the fence to collect all the rubbish that had been thrown over. Out of sight??....not quite...it was no match for dream team Kate and Gavin who picked an awesome haul!

The rain came down and the wind picked up but it didn't dampen our spirits and once we had cleared up after the last party in the park we reconvened and gave each other a virtual pat on the back for a good job well done. We said our farewells not before taking a distant group selfie - litter picks and all!