Coming straight from marshaling at Lesnes Abbey junior parkrun we swapped our giant high-five foam hands for gardening gloves to join the monthly conservation session run by Marc from the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods.

With a barrow-ful of loppers and saws we headed across the park and into the woods, picking up some odds and sods of litter as we went. (Just how did a broken mug handle end up there?!?)

If you know this area you'll know the only way is up, and it was a bracing uphill walk to a big patch of holly growing alongside the path.

Marc explained how invasive holly is, and how cutting it back encourages biodiversity as new plants, insects and other wildlife will move in to make the cleared area their home.

Although just five of us today, we got stuck in and you can see the transformation in the photos: Holly gone, and the cuttings piled up a short distance away, ready to be collected by the Park Ranger in due course.

As if to inspect our work, a robin appeared and flitted across the area, giving us the nod to say 'Nice work!' Then a bright green grasshopper came out and played around our feet. Sadly they were too quick for photos, so we humans took a few pics of ourselves and called it a day.

Until next month...

11 volunteers collected over 15 bags of litter in Lesnes Abbey today.

Walking in and round the area, including Knee Hill and all the way to the top of woodland way.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as expected, so hopefully it will remain litter free over the next few months.

A good day for the environment, Friends of Lesnes and Goodgym.

Cheers everyone!

We joined the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods for their monthly conservation session.

The group's work each month is guided by the parks manager who this time had asked us to clear litter at the far side of the woods, before heading to The Heath to work on restoring the natural vegetation there.

So we loaded litter pickers, bin bags and loppers into two wheelbarrows and headed off to the litter troublespot. If you have been to Lesnes Abbey Woods you'll know there are some very steep climbs, and pushing the wheelbarrows up them was a good workout! We were rewarded with glorious patches of bluebells all around.

When we got to the appointed spot the cow parsley was so tall that despite our best efforts we struggled to find any rubbish 👀. Most likely a job for another day when the plants have died back.

We made our way through the woods - litterpicking as we went, and loads more bluebells en route - to The Heath where we set about cutting back holly, bracken and other plants to let the heather thrive. It was lovely getting busy in the sunshine.

We'll be back again next month. Perhaps we'll see you there?

Ashton got busy at the monthly litter pick with the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods.

As Ashton says, while we all hate litter, tidying it up brings people together and what a difference community-minded people can make working as a team!

Bravo everyone!

We joined the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods for their monthly litter-pick.

Today's star find was a Dracula Pez dispenser!

Aside from this it was rather slim-pickings on the route we took, but we had some laughs as we looked out for rubbish along the woodland paths and around the abbey ruins.

We'll be back in a couple of weeks for the Friends' conservation session. We'd love to see you there!

Our monthly conservation session with the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods saw us working in the heathland area, clearing the brambles and holly to allow the original heather and gorse to re-establish themselves.

After the long climb up through the woods - a good workout pushing the wheelbarrows of tools - we emerged into the sunshine and got to work cutting back the prickly invaders.

There were a couple of saplings that had to be cut down too, as heathland shouldn't have many trees blocking the light.

Along with the regular volunteers we cleared a large patch then it was time to head back down to the Chestnuts kiosk for a nice cup of tea.

We'll be back again on the first Sunday in March. Hope to see you there!