(apologies to Buddy Holly)

The weatherman didn't say clear today, He didn't know that we wanted to say, "Please don't be raining, Raining in the park."

The sun's not out, The sky's not blue, So many clouds right over you, It was raining, Raining in the park.

Oh littery, littery. And it was the first time for Lee. 🌧️ We get our hoops and off we go, We’re picking litter as you know , It’s still raining, raining in the park. 🌧️ We keep on going, in the rain, Soaked to the skin but don’t complain. It was raining, raining in the park .

This week's group run saw us: 👋🏼 Welcome Fanual and Biruk to first sessions 🏃🏿‍♂️ Run to Wardown Park 🪵 Collect some wood chip 🏃🏼 Run further down the road 🌳 Mulch trees we planted previously 🏃🏻‍♂️Run back to the park 🪜 Do a stair climb workout 🏃🏼‍♀️Run back into town

A great workout for a misty Wednesday evening!

On Sunday morning I joined the local residents for their first litter pick of the year in the area. A lot of the litter was at its worse around the riverbank edges which required some precarious balancing to as not to topple in and become part of the problem!

Despite the icey start to the day and the cancellation of ParkRun - a little bit of chilly weather was not enough to put off our two intrepid GoodGymers this morning. This was a plogging task, with a good run out to Warden Hills nature reserve - where David had promised there would be lots to do. And he didn't disappoint. This beautiful area had obviously been host to Party Central, as there was a fire pit and littered around it all sorts of empty drinks cans and snack packets. Running with a litter hoop had been interesting, but we were glad of them and David's new fold up litter pickers which he magically produced from his back pack. And we were all set for some serious litter picking. So much so that we each filled three bags with cans, bottles and all sorts. It was good to see the impact we made on the area, before carrying our swag bags down the hill. Thank goodness we weren't expected to run with them back to the park, but left them ready for collection by the Council next week.

7 of GG Luton's finest braved the elements this week to help the Friends of Leagrave Park volunteers with their monthly litterpick. The weather was grim but you can't dampen our spirits. Great effort everyone 👏 👍🏻 👌

This week's Group Run took us on a 4km journey out of town to the Stony Hill nature reserve.

But first we welcomed Zainab and Daneal to their first session warmed up and made sure everyone had lights before we headed out into the dark night.

On arrival at Stony Hill we split up into three groups and spread out around the small nature reserve, just big enough to lose sight of eachother between the trees. We collected up nine bags full of litter from the field, the hedgerow and among the trees. Just as we finished we all assembled accidentally under an apple tree, with its red fruits still hanging on leafless branches and shining out in the darkness 🍎 so we took a moment to enjoy a fresh, cold and sweet apple each to restore our energy for the return run back into town.