Ock Valley Walk, 2nd March 2019

By Andrew -
For this morning’s session we were doing our bit for Helen Flynn’s AbiBinIt! Big Spring Clean litter pick. Eleanor was leading the session in which we were to take a two-pronged attack from both the town and Tesco ends of the Ock river path.

Eight of us, including Eleanor, gathered at the Tesco end, where we set up camp beneath the trees. At the town end, James gathered with six further members, the aim to sweep up the path and meet us at camp for tea break.

We spread out in ones, twos and threes, brandishing pick-up tools, blue bags for landfill and clear bags for recycling. In addition to the path itself, we went along the road from the Esso garage to Tesco and beyond, and also up the Ock river where it veers off through the fields towards the mill. Much progress was made and by tea break Kevin accurately remarked that we should be able to bank this sort of community service against future minor misdeeds. Wouldn’t it be good if we could pay off a parking fine with our litter picking efforts!

A little later than usual, due to the length of the path, we were joined by James’ team for our tea, biscuits and a delicious coffee cake made by Eleanor. By this time the sun was glinting through the trees, making the Morello cherries on the cake shine like rubies.

Due to the late tea break and our concerted efforts of the morning, it was decided that we could finish the session half an hour early. At the final count there were nine blue bags and five clear bags at the Tesco end and six blue bags and five clear bags, plus assorted broken chairs and other sundry items, at the town end, totalling 15 blue and 10 clear bags of litter! All in all a very satisfying morning in the spring sunshine and time well spent.
-Joanna



Photos by Joanna (1-9), Eleanor (10) and Ursula (11-13):















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