Lovely stroll around the Rec this morning.

Lots of the usual drinks cans and sweet wrappers. As always, an item of clothing. This time, a solitary sock which I will put down to the high winds we've been having.

A few thanks from dog walkers always helps warm the cold toes!!

The recent storms have created a wall of seaweed on Tipner shore, and with it lots of plastics, rope, fishing line, lumps of wood and rusty metal.

Well done to Dave, Sam, Katie L and her crew for tackling the rubbish after Junior Parkrun (and before another GG Mission for Dave!)

3 bags full collected.

After warming up with a coffee after parkrun, we headed out along the lake path to see what we could clear.

Inspired by my socks, we introduced Andy and Nene to some exclusive Pompey vocabulary - there was talk of dinlos, squinnying and chufty badges, amongst some other slightly ruder expressions! We then moved on to languages, and Andy impressed us with his Welsh!

We didn't find many of the usual litter pick bingo finds, but Dave did find a delightful bow tie! There was also some death-defying stunts to retrieve litter from the reeds - fortunately nobody added a cold-water swim to their morning.

What started as a quick litterpick turned into a full-on treasure hunt! Among the more unusual finds was a lost trainer, a toy bottle and a plastic Christmas decoration that had taken refuge under a tree that it resembled.

We were also very pleased to discover a popcorn bush in the park!

The four of us cleared this green area in super-quick time but it's getting dangerous out there; we met a grumpy one-legged Gringe and a minecraft Rambo hiding in the grass!

After parkrun we made our way along the tree line collecting litter.

A few stray golf balls were found and 2 bags filled.

As we went to put them in the bin we also found chairs and a mystery bag which turned out to be empty, in true GG style we upcycled this to carry our found recycling!