Wandle cleanup: September 2009: Merton

The one with the cones, the caddis and the cook book…

On a grey September Sunday, our enthusiastic band of volunteers descended on the Wandle where it runs in a deep channel alongside Autumn Close in Merton – joining the Friends of Garfield Recreation Ground who were clearly relishing the chance to get stuck into their local stretch of river.

Right under the footbridge, a scooter opened the scoreline, and Rigby volunteered to wheel it to the dumping site…

rigby-with-scooter

… while the rest of us worked our way upstream into a wonderful jungle of fallen willow sweepers: Large Woody Debris adding much-needed habitat to this stretch of river:

willow-sweepers

Maybe it was the interesting currents these branches created… but when we retrieved most of a nearby cross-training machine, its one remaining pedal housed a horde of pollution-sensitive caseless caddis, at least one per compartment (so we carefully detached the pedal and put it back again!)

caddis-pedal1

Coffee time saw the launch of the new Wandle Trust cook book, with special signings from the authors, Sally and Jo…

jo-and-sally-book-signing-2

Back on the bankside, girl power continued as Ann, Yolanda, Sarah, Abi and Erica showed a waterlogged carpet no mercy:

girl-power-with-carpet

For about half a second, Toby hoped he’d found a secret wireless broadband hotspot at the North Road bridge…

toby-with-laptop

 … but to no avail, and the laptop joined our largest-ever haul of traffic cones (24 of ’em) …

cones-and-trolleys

 … while everyone in our final team photo agreed that this had probably been a far better workout than anything available in the gym on the other side of the fence!

group-photo

Thanks to all our volunteers: Abi, Andy, Ann, Ben, Forrest, Helen, Ian, James, Jane, Jo, Kevin, Mike, Paul, Peter, Rigby, Rory, Sally, Sarah, Steven, Sue, Theo, Toby and Yolanda… and of course to Merton Council for clearing away all the rubbish for us afterwards!

One thought on “Wandle cleanup: September 2009: Merton

  1. Andy Pritchard

    I almost wish I lived down near the Wandle, with so much going on and so many willing volunteers.

    Simply put, FANTASTIC WORK, well done to all.

    Andy (Colne)

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