A small-yet-mighty crew gathered on a very foggy December morning at the West Hendon Playing Field Car Park for a brave foray into the northern wilds of the Welsh Harp Reservoir. This rarely-visited part of the nature reserve is chock full of trash and, along the bank of the Silk Stream, some giant hogweed.

We spent a solid couple of hours plogging and raking up all kinds of waste: bottle, cans, canisters, balls, pens, containers, polystyrene, a nerf gun, make up, an inhaler, a car wheel, weird boxes and toys and more. Some stuff looked like it belonged in a museum, some like it had returned to the wilds and didn't want to leave.

Between us, we gathered around 30 sacks of rubbish, along with some large objects that didn't fit in the bags. Some stuff was too heavy to lug across the stream, like a mini-fridge fished from the water. Some of us also took turns going at the hogweed with a pitchfork, mostly just trying to put a dent in the growth of this invasive and dangerous plant.

By the end of the session, it was obvious there's so much more to do, so the Friends of the Welsh Harp will be back out every couple of months, maybe even with some waders to get into the water with.