Saturday - monthly volunteer work party at RSPB Rainham. Every time I go it looks different which is a bit disconcerting for someone as geographically challenged as me. "I'm sure there was a car park here last time....." sort of thing. Since last month an entire classroom complex, toilets and work canteen have been relocated 1/2 mile north, the boardwalk that used to come to an abrupt end in a muddy pond now extends right across and the whole site is now enclosed in a boundary moat. All this work is done by the Wednesday volunteers. They are a cut above us pleb Saturday types. They are allowed power tools and have cool day glo jackets and hard hats. They also get to ride the diggers! Us Saturday types get to do vital skilled hands on conservation work eg foreshore litter clearing ....oh well.

Litter picking on the Thames foreshore was quite a revelation. We left the wood (tons of ) but collected about 3 skip loads of junk including 4 dustbins, 20 flower pots, 3 plastic chairs, 4 tyres, plastic bottles by the thousand, about a dozen coconuts (def not a loverley bunch), 2 milk crates, 3 bread crates, seven hard hats and a chemical toilet. 2 of the hard hats had flowers growing in them like hanging baskets.

It became something of a competition to see who could drag in the biggest/most disgusting/most unlikely piece of junk, as well as could we get the hard hats into double figures? Maybe there's a market in 2nd hand hard hats like lake golf balls. You could paint them up with A Present from the Thames Foreshore, or plant them up with flowers..... actually maybe that's an idea! I also think there's a goldmine there for an imaginative wood carver or bespoke furniture maker - there was so much gorgeous wood there, all washed silky smooth. I could hardly bear to leave it.

No birds to speak of though unless you count the half dozen little egrets on the lagoon. But little egrets are quite passe in Essex now.....