Snap, Crackle and Pick

Sevan and Kash thought that after the morning community mission at Mill Hill Park, they had done their share of litter picking today. In the afternoon, they ran to Hounslow, where Mrs P needed help with garden clean-up. Little did they know Mrs P's back garden was accessible from the street - that meant some unexpected objects waiting to be discovered there.

Mrs P and her daughter gave the GodGymers two mint-condition brooms and two equally new dustpans. They provided two rolls of bin bags too. When Sevan and Kash took a look at the garden, they knew they wouldn't need the tools offered, apart from one dustpan. They asked about a rake and shears instead.

The garden landscape unfolded into layers of complexity:

Big, bad brambles - There were not too many of them, but they were vicious and thorny. Sevan dealt with them ruthlessly, pulling them out with the roots. The provided shears simply didn't cut it.

Litter - Sevan spent a large part of the mission making crackling noises when putting plastic bottles, beer cans and chocolate wrappers into black bin bags. Were those left by passers-by who could not resist dropping rubbish into Mrs P's garden that they could access from the side?

Basketballs and tennis balls - was there a sports club nearby? The GoodGymers decided to leave the balls behind.

Sticks - Kash was collecting and snapping those. That triggered a memory. She was surprised to recall and recite something she had learned from a cassette tape with English nursery rhymes as a child. The rhyme had a GoodGymmy vibe:

One Two, put on my shoe!

Three four, knock at the door!

Five six, picking up sticks!

Weeds - weeds everywhere.

Carpets - under closer examination, the GoodGymers discovered that some weeds don't grow on soil but on a natural "carpet" that developed on paving. They decided that since it was a carpet they would just roll it.

During the carpet manoeuvres, the GoodGymers noticed a movement. A rat ran first to Sevan, then to Kash, and eventually disappeared in a drain pipe outside Mrs P's house. The duo never saw it again.

Almost halfway into the mission, the results of the work were not clearly visible. Sevan and Kash decided to change the strategy. They started raking everything: leaves, weeds, litter and packing it into the bin bags. The two green waste bags were full a long time ago, and it didn't seem that Mrs P could leave the garden waste for collection separately anyway.

The new approach worked, and the GoodGymers ended up with nine bags of waste after 1.5 hours of work - that's a filled bin bag after every ten minutes! Mrs P may need another round of GoodGym snapping, crackling and picking but today's team certainly made a difference.