It was so lovely to be back in Black Park for our ‘adopt a patch’ litter pick task. Though I might need to fess up to the fact that we didn’t do our patch but someone else’s! Shh.. just don’t tell them.

With the car park closing at 8pm we didn’t feel like we had enough time to run to our patch and back in time so we opted for a safer option of running around the lake then picking around the area we were in.

Great to see Ruth after a while, and introduce the beauty of Black Park to Nimi.

The park is so well maintained that we did struggle to find much litter but still enough to part fill 4 bags.

Did you know?

• Black Park gets its name from the trees Black Pine?;

• During WW1 it was the base for troops from the Canadian Forestry Regiment;

• In 1970 it became the first park in England to be designated as a Country Park;

• It is the filming location of the Hammer Horror Films; Bond films and Harry Potter!;

• The heathland houses a venomous adder!!!!

What did we find!

• Paper ( takes 2-6 weeks to decompose);

• Orange peels (takes 2 years to decompose);

• Chewing gum (takes 5 years!);

• Plastic wrappers (takes 5 years!);

• Cigarette butts (take 10 years);

• Plastic bags (takes 10-20 years);

• Wet wipes (takes 100 years!!);

• Cans (takes 200 years);

• Plastic bottles (takes 100-1000 years!)

Wow! So long yet a litter bit of effort from park users means so much!

We also found a hungry hippo (maybe he’s been eating all the litter?)

Great to see you all at the task.

Next week we are at Wexham Park Hospital doing a litter pick of their grounds.