On a crisp, clear and very chilly sunday morning, a group of Goodgymers met up by the banks of the Thames to tackle a persistent litter problem. Armed with pickers and trugs we collected microplastics, bottles, cans and even a lost croc shoe. A morning well spent!

The late October Sunday morning felt nice and dry compared to Saturday's soggy night. The clocks' change caught both Kash and the task owner, Elisabeth off guard, yet they showed up at the right time for the litterpick at Acton Gardens. So did Bet.

It was Bet's first session with the Acton Litter Collective. She found out that one of the LAGER Can volunteers helping keep Acton Gardens clean lived at the same street as her. It's a small world!

There were two choices of litterpicking locations for the GoodGymers today. Bet opted out for the little park she was fond of, the one behind Sainsbury's, Kash chose the East side of Bollo Bridge Road where she found a wealth of cans and bottles hiding in the bushes. Elisabeth gave the volunteers transparent bags for the recycling, so they could separate them from the general waste.

Nearly halfway through the task, the heavens opened and a downpour started. It was quite intense and some of the GoodGymers sought shelter under the trees to wait till the worst of the rain clouds would pass. The rain didn't stop the determined litter warriors though and Acton Gardens emerged from the rain much more free of soggy litter.

It was a holy satisfying task last night as we headed to a new task location - the Comboni centre for spirituality.

On the plus side, it was brilliant to finally be able to celebrate Florian reaching that first magic milestone -50 good deeds! A huge well done Florian, well done for all that Wednesday night hard graft and weekends spent planting, litter picking and helping out at parkrun. You're a GG hero!

On the less positive side, the rain that had been pelting down all afternoon was showing no signs of stopping, and it was set to be a very damp task. We united as a group at the centre, which is run by the Comboni order of nuns. It is a sacred quiet space in Chiswick which is open to all to experience prayer and to put love into action by reaching out to the poor and needy. We were met by the brilliant Sister Natalia, who greeted us with a very apt quote from their patron saint - ""Night and day, sun and rain, will find me equally and always ready to help in your spiritual needs".

Sister Natalia led us around the peaceful garden to let us know exactly what had to be done. There were plenty of weeds, but we were under strict instructions not to touch the rhubarb, as the Sisters enjoy it with custard.

The team got stuck in to all the various patches, soon filling up bag after bag of weeds. Meanwhile, I was hearing all about Sister Natalia's stints around the world in places like South Sudan, the DRC and Uganda, where she slept on the jungle floor and experienced civil war - pointing out that after all that she was not going to be put off by the increasingly heavy rain! She also invited all GGers to come to her special service on Sunday where she will celebrate 50 years in the order.

After a good session in the garden the rain was getting worse, so we decided to call it a night and head to the pub to celebrate Florian's 50th good deed with an absolutely amazing cake!