We had a nice turn up for the last official group session of the year, despite the drizzly and dark night!

We all congregated at the Wanstead House, welcoming Sibel to her first session - Well done Sibel and great to have you on board!

Whilst we waited for everyone, we made sure that we had all the gloves and litter picks out and ready and then finally we made our way out.

The nice thing about relaxing litter picking sessions is that it gives folks a chance to catch-up and put the world to right. As usual we covered all kind of array of topics from silly to serious to outrageous! but what happens at the session, stays at the session;)

We did a nice loop around the hood and collected three full bags! We made our way back to Wanstead house, taking a nice group photo with the bin right in the middle - no expense spared here!

A lovely way to wrap up the year but of course we have some parkrun volunteering and foodbank sessions coming up to keep us all engaged in December!

Perhaps a day early, but it felt just right to add a little Halloween to the Monday evening group session.... or was it just an excuse to dress up?

Sign-up numbers ran into double figures, perhaps down to the suggestion of a little social at the pub afterwards 😉

A few had to unfortunately pull out for various reasons, leaving 9 brave souls to venture out in the dark & misty world, searching for litter.

Linda took Helen & Sharon on a walk down the High Street, while Cedric took the running group to a quiet corner freshly mowed to clear some litter there before the group went round to the usual stretch along the A12.

A few bags and a jog round Leyton Flats later the crew reunited back at base, before strolling down the road to the local pub for a well earned drink.

P.S.... thanks to Elegia for the creative face painting!

James, Linda and John arrived at Wanstead House and had a little wait for the new member. As is often the way with first timers they were a no show so we gathered our kit and set off on a litter pick. Surprisingly we got half a bagful from just outside the door to our meeting room. Staff there told us people have been hanging around there at weekends and evenings leaving food and drink packaging behind.

We moved on from there to one of our regular areas where pickings are usually plentiful and found...well...very little for much of the way. It seemed someone had gone before us. About 3/4 of the way down the path we began to see stuff so literally picked up where the others had left off.

In the end a respectable bag and a half was collected and left by the litter bin. After which we walked back, with the talk all being about food as we looked forward to our long awaited dinners.

I ran to the task, and joined by another member of the public, where the task was litter picking and painting signs, we stopped for a break about halfway and got some custard creams from the park ranger. After finishing off the task, I walked home.

Now the paintings I did, I need ratings so pick your scale and then the value i.e. from walking to ultra marathon, and the value is 10km race or generic 1-10.

Finishing a hot day with a hot litter pick!

We all met at Fairlop Waters at the Boathouse and were very much relieved that a cooling breeze was already in the air - made our walk & litter pick rather enjoyable!

We decided to focus on the 'off the beaten path' areas where the rangers don't tend to go and litter pick so ignored the rubbish at the Boathouse and went behind it walking around the perimeter through smaller paths picking up all sorts of things, including a few socks!!! As usual lots of plastic and glass bottles, bags of rubbish, small plastic bits and a few doggy poo bags....

We started the walk with a good old moan about the state of the council, community and litter pickers! Once that was off our chest we just chatted as usual:)

An enjoyable evening out and it was Sharon's 50th good deed, which is fantastic - well done Sharon!

Until next week when we will be in Wanstead helping Marian with odd jobs for Wanstead Gardeneres group:)

A productive hour to help make my local community nicer to live in!

Taking advantage of my Power Hour for StreetTag I did a long loop to collect the tags and walk through the local Farm Shop to get some flowers for the planters at Hainault station courtesy of the StreetTag prize pot that 8 of us are now pursuing again! Must admit it's getting me to walk and cycle more and I try and keep my competitiveness at bay!

Using a loyalty discount I managed to get 12 plants for £4! Sadly they didn't have our favourite petunias but Impatients were the closest to them in structure so I decided to give them a go.

Once I got to the station I used our own key that was kindly provided by the station manager to us so that we can have access to water. With our watering paraphernelia in place, I - using James' technique of minimum spillage - I made many (many!) trips to water every single planter thoroughly as we've been having such a hot weather.

When everything was watered and litter was picked out, I got onto planting. The flowers have really spruced each planter well straight away especially the ones under the bridge where things struggle to grow. When planting I discovered that even though I watered everything twice the soil was still dry an inch in! So off I went to do a few more rounds of watering (rolls her eyes)!

Took me ages (not as fast without my fellow GG buddies!!!) but it was a satisfying job and the planters are looking super healthy with our visits in the last month - Sharon's wildflowers are looking good, the plants we planted starting to flower and the seeds I put in are coming out!

Will be back again tomorrow and this weekend as the sun is relentless!