Never have we ever seen sooooooooo many cans littered in one place - i think people have been sitting on the bench for years, having a drink or two and lobbing each empty can over the wall!

Ellie and Wilson hopped over the wall and starting lobbing them back again (Ellie had some good bush restraining techniques to allow easy access to the cans) This was much to Abby and Chris's delight - on the receiving end.... all they had to do was stomp on them and put them in a bin bag - sounds easy but there were 100's of them and they stank and were amongst other litter also being lobbed back over.

Jo joined us once she’d found the spot, and Ashleigh put in a few hill climbs on her bike before locating us. The extra hands were very welcome, as the bushes along the pavement also needed litter‑picking — as well as more can‑stomping. Chris had to mind his “dancing knees” and save enough energy to help haul Ellie back over the wall (it wasn’t that high, in fairness!). After an hour, we had collected five bags of cans and the same again in general litter. Ellie kindly (and perhaps a little crazily) offered to take the cans, as they’ll be donated to the Air Ambulance charity.

We were rewarded at the end with Cakey, in celebration of Abby’s birthday. 🍰

Ashleigh, Clare and her lovely partner (apologies as I have forgotten his name) and Stephanie popped along to assist in the set up for the fantastic Toes In The Water Art and Music festival. Clare was on hand early in the morning arriving at 7 am to assist the fabulous Rachel and team who run this wonderful community festival. It was an interesting exercise in picture hanging for us all. Still every day is a learning day! Luckily there is always some delicious cake and great music to enjoy once you have got the picture straight!

We all set off very excited for our first evening of toad patrol on Hensting Lane. All day we hoped for rainy, mild weather and we were lucky the rain set in as we were setting off. The first stretch of the lane Mike showed us the ponds to release the toads into and told us lots of information about the toads including how to identify male and female toads. Our first find was actually a newt! On the walk back up the lane all the toads had started to make their way to the road. In total 14 male toads, 5 females and 3 newts were helped to safety. Sadly two toads got run over so it goes to show how important the patrols are as it could have been a lot more without our helping hands. Now we just have to hope for some more mild and rainy evenings in February and March so we can go help again!