The first Grove Farm litterpick of 2024 brought a surprisingly large group of volunteers, despite only one degree above zero in the morning. Anna from Friends of Grove Farm was a solo leader of the session, not sharing the responsibilities with Mike who couldn't make it. She proved she had everything under control and seemed to be everywhere at once!

Miriam was the first to show up at the task, while Runners Sevan and Kash covered an 8 km uphill run. Lizzy came a long way for her first-ever litter-picking session, already sporting her bright red GoodGym top! She made a wise decision and grabbed a hot drink from David Lloyd. The rest of the GoodGymers were freezing their fingers despite wearing double gloves, brrr! ❄️

The clean-up covered mainly the lane between Sudbury Hill station and David Lloyd car park. We occasionally ventured into the bushes to pick up hidden bottles and cans. We had a good reason to do our best to dig them out of there - Anna brought bags for recycling she had from LAGER Can. The nasty brambles were trying to stop us at every step. We are planning a revenge in two weeks. Come and join us!

Sunny morning, quiet streets.
Is it time for litter picks?
3k run for Sev and Kash,
6k for Steph to find some trash.
Acton Gardens needs a hand,
So we joined the residents' band.
Aga and the volunteers
Could have burst into tears,
Seeing a fly-tipping deed,
But she chose to take the lead,
Show GoodGymers all that mess,
They will sort it with no stress!
Collab time with LAGER Can?
With a team much more gets done!
Smiling faces, lots of fun,
Exercise for everyone!
If you had quite shortish legs,
You could have done 3k steps*!
After an hour with the litter,
Coffee made our morning sweeter.

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* Disclaimer: You could do 3k steps if you were Kash 😉 Steph and Sevan with their long legs did 2.5k steps - but every GoodGymer did 2 km of walking on the litter pick alone. What a great, active start to the day!

It's been a while since the Ealing GoodGymers ran along Grand Union Canal further than Bixley Allotments to get to a task in Southall. Sevan and Kash were surprised at how much muddier the towpath got just after the allotment. Steph Ducat always runs from the other side, so he knew exactly what to expect: not only puddles but lots of fly-tipped rubbish too! Michelle opted for a brisk walk to the task through the streets, so she missed the muddy bits but was ready to face a different kind of mess: the litter!

Cathy from LAGER Can, organiser of the litter removal events, brought rolls of blue waste bags and 21 litterpickers for the volunteers today! Armed with the borrowed equipment, the GoodGymers joined Jess, Keith and 27 members of yet another group to make a big difference in the landscape of the canal around N Hyde Bridge.

Who was the other group? We met Gurdeep and other volunteers from Shah Satnam Ji Green ” S ” Welfare Force Wing - or Green S Welfare UK for short - an organisation founded in India, with 60 million registered members worldwide. That's a real force! Their service to the community includes: cleaning common spaces, planting trees, donating blood and serving food. Speaking of food, Green S Welfare UK brought hot fresh samosas, chai and biscuits for other volunteers and made sure that everyone was offered refreshments!

Interesting findings:

• Diya lamps
• Lego bricks
• Spaghetti spoon
• Spanner
• Lingerie
• Car battery
• Makeup kit
• Hello Kitty handbag
• Some hardly used, soggy trainers

Interesting events:

• Delivery driver dropping excess food for the birds in the canal
• Swans getting physical

We are not sure whether those swans were making love or war, but we are certain that the large group of volunteers made a huge difference today. The whole event gathered 60 bags of litter and 70 of unbaggable rubbish. Many hands make light work!

If you can't see the photos inline, try this link instead

GoodGym were once again on hand to help clean up Grove Farm, with this being their last litterpick before Xmas. The grey morning weather may have put off some, but Kash and Sevan tried their best to dodge the puddles on their way to meet Mike and Anna.

"You're going to need a towel and a canoe 😵"" - Mike

Alas, the GoodGymers didn't find a canoe and Mike didn't supply one, so they needed to find their own transport. As Mike led them into the woodland, they collected more and more litter with Kash getting into the Xmas spirit as Litter Claus. The lesser known relative of Santa Claus is known for delivering empty cans of fizz and chocolate wrappers to badly behaved children.

As the ground underfoot got muddier, Mike continued onwards, promising ~~Kash~~ Litter Claus that there was transport ahead that would carry her around Ealing borough on Xmas Eve. Eventually, they arrived at a mattress in the woods. It was no ordinary mattress claimed Mike, it was actually a magic sleigh 🛷

The sleigh was pulled out from the tree cover onto one of the muddy paths, where Litter Claus and Mike loaded it up with waste bags and took the controls. It slid down the slope, but didn't take off. That was a bit of a blow for Litter Claus. It must've run low on magic while sitting in the field, which meant that all of the litter collections and gifting would need to be done on foot this year.

Mike, Anna, Sevan and Litter Claus spent the next hour walking along the main route into Grove Farm, finding the best cans, used wet wipes and lumps of flytipped rubble for the naughty children of Ealing. Maybe some of them are the ones who dumped the litter in the first place 🤔! Some desirable gifts were found too, like a mini Mini and a suitcase ready to head off on an exotic break.

By the end of the session, Grove Farm was a much cleaner place for the local residents to enjoy. As an extra bonus, Litter Claus had built up a good stock of blue sacks which she has squirrelled away, ready for the big day 🎄

Team GoodGym split to tackle today's Grove Farm tasks on their litter picking day. Kash had an unexpected date with her favourite tool, while Christos and Sevan chose the (apparently) easier task of litter picking the old tennis courts.

Karmat's Gonna Get You

Christos and Sevan headed to the tennis courts with Anna and Olena from Grove Farm to find a pile of flytipped litter in the middle of the tarmac. Everyone was on the look out for disposable vapes too as a local shop now has a recycling scheme for them 🙌

Anna and Olena started at the perimeter while the GoodGymers worked on the litter pile, finding bits from cars and the odd shoe. Karma should catch up with those car mat dumpers.

As they worked outwards from the pile to the edges, Christos and Sevan found a cluster of trees where people had been drinking. Picking through the trees and brambles, a lot of the usual beer cans and bottles were collected, with a few unexpected finds. Another solo shoe, some partly decomposed clothes (one looked like a gilet without the outer shell), a car seat cover and 2 jars of Dolmio were the oddest finds. Odd or not, they all made their way into blue LAGER Can bags.

Underpants are the worst. They just disintegrate into threads - Anna

At the end of the task, everything was moved to the collection point with 12 blue bags filled in total.

Conan the Agrarian

Meanwhile, Mike wanted to make a dent in the brambles clearance ahead of the monthly conservation day) in two weeks, and he was looking to employ a couple of volunteers to come with him to the Brambleland. Kash was very eager to use her favourite weapon of destruction, a hedge trimmer, so she teamed up with Mike. Together, they channelled their inner explorers into chopping the thorny plants alongside the lane leading from Sudbury Hill to David Lloyd to uncover cans and bottles for Olena to collect later.

Mike was a bramble-bashing virtuoso switching between rakes, hedge trimmer and loppers as needed. Mostly he raked whatever Kash has trimmed on both sides of the barrier by the road. Whenever Mike got stuck with raking, Kash was jumping into action (and across the barrier) to slash the stubborn brambles and release the rake.

Conan the Barbarian would enjoy that! - Mike

The two met members of LAGER Can: Ian and Sue. The latter joined just for an hour to not miss the beaver walk at Paradise Fields today. Another visitor was the regular volunteer, Versha who came just to say hi and drop off some sweets as she was preparing to celebrate Diwali with her family.

Next Up At Grove Farm

We'll be back in 2 weeks for the next Conservation Day at Grove Farm, helping Mike and Anna to keep the paths and plants in check.

The late October Sunday morning felt nice and dry compared to Saturday's soggy night. The clocks' change caught both Kash and the task owner, Elisabeth off guard, yet they showed up at the right time for the litterpick at Acton Gardens. So did Bet.

It was Bet's first session with the Acton Litter Collective. She found out that one of the LAGER Can volunteers helping keep Acton Gardens clean lived at the same street as her. It's a small world!

There were two choices of litterpicking locations for the GoodGymers today. Bet opted out for the little park she was fond of, the one behind Sainsbury's, Kash chose the East side of Bollo Bridge Road where she found a wealth of cans and bottles hiding in the bushes. Elisabeth gave the volunteers transparent bags for the recycling, so they could separate them from the general waste.

Nearly halfway through the task, the heavens opened and a downpour started. It was quite intense and some of the GoodGymers sought shelter under the trees to wait till the worst of the rain clouds would pass. The rain didn't stop the determined litter warriors though and Acton Gardens emerged from the rain much more free of soggy litter.