The one with the Valentines’ lovin’…

As Erica declared in her email to our supporters announcing this month’s event: we love the Wandle so much that we even organised a Valentines’ Day cleanup for 14 February!

And sure enough, 60 volunteers braved the raw weather to give our bewitching little South London chalkstream some real Valentines’ lovin’…

 … and pull out a gorgeous great pile of rubbish to impress passers-by at the end:

Since our last visit to this particular stretch of the Wandle on either side of Lydden Road in King George’s Park, we’d spent many months flirting with other areas of the river, so it felt good to come back to Wandsworth and grapple with shopping trolleys…

… HGV tyres…

… mattresses…

… and even a line-marking machine which Abi reckoned had probably painted its last pitch, a call confirmed by the local Sunday league referee!

Thanks to Jo and Sally, coffee time featured a romantic Valentines’ theme of roses, chocolates and heart-shaped cookies…

… before the Wandle-lovers set off again in search of darker, more lucrative artefacts…

… and finally another date with the lamp-post from last August’s cleanup a little further downstream (can the Council get it on this time with our old flame and an oxyacetylene blowtorch? we wait with bated breath).

By the end of the afternoon, even our friendly driver formerly known as Twizzle Terry from Wandsworth Council was feeling the love when we offered him a cup of tea whilst Andy and Wayne took charge of loading his cage-lorry with…

… 22 tyres, 11 shopping trolleys (10 Sainsbury, 1 Tesco), 10 traffic cones, 6 carpets, 3 bicycles, 2 mattresses, 2 garden chairs, 2 car seats, 2 suitcases, 2 vacuum cleaners, 2 dustbins, 1 line marking machine, 1 length of chain link fence, 1 television, 1 armchair, 1 boiler, 1 beer keg, 1 rocking horse, 1 toy pistol, plus numerous lengths of lamp-post, plastic and metal pipe, and around 50 bags and barrows of other assorted rubbish…

… a solidly-packed 2 tonnes at least, before the seductive charms of a well-poured pint proved impossible for most of us to ignore!

Thanks to all our volunteers: Aaron, Abi, Andrew, Andy B, Andy P, Ann, Anna, Ben, Brendan, Carol, Carolyn, Charlie, Chris D, Chris E, Christopher, Daisy, Dave, Debbie, Diana H, Diana G, Diana M, Doug, Forrest, Gideon, Henry, James, Jane, Jessica, Jim, Jo L, Jo S, Keith, Louise, Marc-Philippe, Max, Meave, Mike H, Mike W, Natasha, Nick, Nico, Nuria, Olivia, Orla, Paul, Peter, Polina, Rakan, Roger, Rory, Ruth E, Ruth W, Sally, Sally Ann, Sue B, Sue V, Theo, Toby, Ulyana and Wayne