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.