On a Sunday when the clocks had sprung forward (stealing an hour of our lives) and the clouds were gathering, there was only one thing for five hardy GoodGymmers to do — get out and litter pick.

Today we joined a session organised by the Friends of Sefton Park, who regularly care for this large and much-loved park. We received a warm welcome and set off just as the rain began to fall.

Bekah, never one to be unprepared, had brought a brolly and somehow managed to walk along — umbrella aloft — while litter picking at the same time. The rest of us simply embraced the rain and let ourselves get soaked.

Litter, of course, knows no boundaries. Before long, there was plenty of stretching and reaching to retrieve crisp packets, biscuit wrappers, and drinks bottles lying tantalisingly out of reach in the bushes. Liam, being the tallest of the group, had a definite advantage — effortlessly grabbing a napkin I’d been trying (and failing) to angle towards for what felt like ages.

As we moved along the stream, we all fished out bits of litter bobbing in the water, clearing the way for the ducks to swim freely again. Some pieces had drifted further out, but undeterred, Bekah reached in while I anchored her so she could stretch that little bit further — a very trusting moment! Clara ever the documentarian, whipped out her phone to capture both the action and the replay… though the ducks she tried to photograph quickly swam off in their newly cleaned stream.

As our time came to an end, we had to retrieve Aatefa, who was completely in the zone — hood up, focused, and not at all ready to stop without some serious persuasion.

We returned to add our haul to the impressive pile collected by other volunteers. In total, 34 people turned out today, and the park is noticeably cleaner as a result.

To top it all off, the park café kindly provided a free hot drink for all volunteers. Sitting there in the warmth, I couldn’t help but regret mocking Bekah and her brolly earlier — she was perfectly dry. In fact, perhaps I should have let go when she was reaching into the stream… now that really would have been a splash for trash.

*A sunny Monday evening saw the return of the group run to Liverpool! *

9 Goodgym stalwarts met on Hope Street with varying levels of excitement/nervousness about the 3km ahead. (For some of us this was not only our first group run in a while... )

Shout out to Sallyann for completing her first group run

After a welcome by new area activator Ema and a quick warm up we were all raring to go and the run up to Sefton park went by in a flash! Bit thanks go to our back markers Pauline and Jo

In the meantimeMatthew and the walking group met in the park and were able to get a good idea of where the best areas to focus the litter pick were.

Thankfully the park was relatively tidy and out main focus seemed to be cigarette butts, although the odd barbeque did make an appearance.

After a half hour pick we left the park a much nicer place to be and much safer for birds and small animals! Well done to everyone who joined!

Before we knew it we we back on Hope Street, cooling down in the evening sun, already excitedly discussing what the next group run will hold.

For the fourth times in as many Sunday's, GoodGym Liverpool joined the Friends of Sefton Park to tidy around one of South Liverpool's largest and most used Parks.

The effort of the last month is beginning to show as our intrepid pickers had to travel further out into the park to fill their bags this week, including to the mysterious Victorian era, cave grotto!

On a very cold, very misty morning, 10 GoodGymers met at Sefton Park for the weekly little pick.

All our hard work in the previous weekends meant the park was actually pretty clean and tidy, so a group of us ventured a little way out of the park to litter pick along the road around the park. We encountered a lot of rubbish there including some that looked a fossilised layer in someone's fromt garden.

Special shout outs to Tim, John and Pauline for achieving the amazing 50, 100 and 200 good deeds respectively!

It was a cold and windy Sunday, but GoodGym returned to Sefton Park in force with another 9 runners for the park's weekly litter pick.

As it's the January Challenge (we're 3rd btw), for most of us this was the second good deed of the day (but we cannily recharged from the chilly mission earlier in the morning with a tasty breakfast at Greenbank's Watering Can cafe).

Friends of Sefton Park were thrilled to see so many of us again, and once again, we found some unusual rubbish littered about the park, like ski goggles, a dollar bill, a mini cricket bat and a giant comb.

After filling our bin bags, we were rewarded with a free hot drink at the park's cafe.

We'll be back at the park next week for more unusual finds.

We rounded off a very successful first weekend of the January Challenge with 9 GoodGymers helping Friends of Sefton Park with their weekly litter pick.

Although the park was cleaner than normal, we still managed to fill several bin bags with rubbish including some unusual items like a bike pump, a single baby's shoe and a fibreglass pig(!)

We'll be back next week to continue to clean up this popular park.