Spooky and misty Saturday morning, but this didnt scare 4 Goodgymers to adventure into scary Grove Farm. Mike had several tasks for the team this morning with a small start of litter picking at the meeting point. Then James, Afshin and Steph Ducat followed Mike to no mans land for some heavy duty task. Maxime stayed with another volunteer and cleared the road leading to the top of the hill. We adventured in no mans land to find a massive sofa : was that Beavis and Butt-head sofa or "Friends" of Grove Farm. Or could it be Aladdin as we found his flying carpet which some tried to fly or surf with...didnt work. We then Santa's sleigh with full of litter/rubbish. Once all moved, we then went to rejoin the smaller group and tackle the newly made up vodka bar at the entrance which was behind he gym bar. Was this a secret bar?Fly tipping by the vodka bar : so we moved all the items near the bins for the council to collect. Apart from loads of paint tins, flower pots, toilet seat an rubbish we moved a mattress.

On a November morning, Ash, Sevan and Kash ran and walked up Sudbury Hill to bring some GoodGym red into Grove Farm, otherwise dominated by the LAGER Can blue hi-viz vests and rubbish sacks. It was the day of the regular monthly litter pick, and, as usual, the battle with rubbish at Grove Farm seemed never-ending!

Among the ubiquitous drinks cans and bottles, the volunteers found:

• Household flytips
• Construction site flytips
• Fake braid
• Bluetooth speaker
• Half a Halloween or Carnival mask

Today, LAGER Can was the subject of a film student's assignment, so Kash happened to make a cameo in a scene of picking a particularly disgusting Rubicon carton! Who knows what sludgy substance came out of it, but the young filmmaker reckoned it was fantastic material for his film!

Despite the joint LAGER Can & GoodGym team leaving the lane between Sudbury Hill station and David Lloyd spotless, Grove Farm still needs help to clear large flytips. We'll have the opportunity to help the local volunteers, Friends of Grove Farm, keep the place well-maintained at the next conservation day in two weeks. Sign up now!

Michelle and two members of The Friends of Grove Farm walked around the nature reserve armed with bags and pickers for litter-picking. Walking along the paths in the reserve, we were surprised to see just a few bits of rubbish. After collecting what we could, we walked out to the road and found much more interesting items littered. I found three packets of unopened pierogi and a strawberry milkshake- would have been great for a picnic in the reserve! We stopped for a water break, and took a few photos next to our litter haul. The Friends of Grove Farm members continued for a bit longer and Michelle headed off to enjoy the spring sunshine.

GoodGym met up with LAGER CAN members on the Grand Union Canal tow path, near Brunel's Three Bridges. At least, some of the GoodGym members met some LAGER CAN members as finding the start point was harder than it seemed, including for the task organiser, Cathy. Eventually, everyone was gathered and Easter litter picking commenced!

Some of the group walked far, with Cathy spearheading the charge towards Southall. Others only ventured a few metres from the start point, like Kash, who disappeared into a clump of bushes for 90 minutes, where she found enlightenment, inner peace and a Buddha statuette. She managed to fill 3 bags with litter too.

Michelle and Sevan stuck with the pack, finding other buds along the way. Plenty of Budweiser bottles, other beer cans, vapes and cigarette butts. The usual suspects.

A huge pile of bags of litter were collected. So big that no one bothered to count them and so big that everyone could see the impact that the group had had. Everyone was cheery. They headed off in their separate ways, looking forward to a good weekend following their morning's good deed.

Cold and windy Sunday morning, but 3 runners joined at The common near the canal in Southall. Liuba ran from home, Kash also ran but from a mission and Steph Ducat part took public transport and walked back from his morning London Winter 10km race in central London. The trio were welcomed by a very friendly and slimmer Garfield. Kash then just decided not to do anything else but sit down and play with the cat while Liuba and Steph started their litter pick 😂. In fact Kash had to sort out the next session as not going ahead anymore as last minute cancellation due to a few of sick. The common is known by the litter pickers as always something to do here. Seems that a party happened last night : Saturday night booze party!! Like all parties a lot of alcohol, food, litter, romance and some chaos as cleaning up to be done. Yes, we collected 3 bags with loads of alcohol and non alcoholic cans/bottles, food waste with empty bags/wrapping and condoms as love seemed to be in the air too. We also collected some items from the water like empty bottles but also coconuts(used for the cocktails?). Some clothes also collected : really hot last night!! Cinderalla must have been part of the party but had to run away before midnight as we found one of her slippers!!We also retrieved other weird items(check pictures). We did not know that this party had organised toilets : will spare you with the details especially that landmines for our trainers and litter pickers!!! In the meantime, slim Garfield stayed with us and its a shame he could not pick litter with us, so think he was being the on site foreman or forecat ?!After the session the trio, dropped the bags near the bins in the park and went for some hot Indian lunch food nearby in Southall before getting ready for another mission.

The thermometers were showing -5 degrees on Saturday morning and Grove Farm looked stunning under a thin layer of frost, glittering in the sunlight. The frosty cover hid not only the beauty of nature, but also mysteries.

The Friends of Grove Farm: Mike, Anna, Olena and other volunteers, together with Cathy from LAGER Can, were about to perform their investigations as a flytip was found at the end of the lane leading to David Lloyd sports centre. To be extra thorough, five GoodGymers joined the survey of the entire lane: Christos, Diana, Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash.

At the flytip site, the detectives discovered plenty of metal pieces: nuts, bolts, washers, elements for connecting scaffolding parts and stuff they were not sure what was for. The metal was collected into two strong fabric bags and loaded onto a trolley. The team spied some incriminating correspondence, giving away the identity and address of the suspected flytipper. They may get justice even if they haven't been caught red-handed!

Speaking of hands and temperature, probably the biggest challenge for the volunteers today was operating the litterpickers with half-frozen fingers. Some precautious GoodGymers fought the cold with double gloves. But the cold must have held some benefits!

"It's to keep us young." - Diana

Why spend a fortune on cryogenic therapy to reverse aging when you have winter sessions at Grove Farm? If you missed the first one this year - not all is lost! Meet us for the conservation day in two weeks and help remove invasive plants from the woodland - sign up here.