Charleston

Yippee! At last able to visit Charleston again, with a lift from a friend from Balham station, a two hour journey to meet friends of hers in Lewes before travelling on to Charleston.

A house next to a farm in the South Downs might not seem a good subject for a blog called "green and country in the city", but, I see no reason why much of that lifestyle that so appeals to me can't also be done in the city.

One could live in a city house full of paintings by oneself and ones friends and relations, and of them too. With books by them as well. With pottery lampshades made by one of the family, and a table lap made of a painted bit of telegraph pole and the lamp shade of an old skirt. And instead of buying wallpaper one could paint the walls instead. And the furniture! And evenings/days/weekends spent creating and talking.

Bliss!

Thermal curtain linings

This evening I've been using my new sewing machine to sew my blackout thermal linings for my spare bedroom curtains. I've just got the hems to do which I will pin while watching TV tonight.

Sewing machine for curtain linings

I haven't had a working sewing machine for years, but I have two thermal curtain linings to turn in at the sides, hem, and sewing tape onto which would take ages and ages of TV-watching to get sewn. I also need to clear up. I have a meeting in the dining room on 4 June, the boiler being replaced in the bedroom on 7 & 8 June, and the wood burning stove being checked and the chimney swept in the sitting room on the 7 June. Two curtains and two thermal linings are taking a lot of room on the spare room bed which I need for stuff from the bedroom so the plumber can move!

So today I bought a small (fuchsia-coloured!) sewing machine for £59 from John Lewis.

I only trimmed the late summer canes of the autumn raspberries to get an early crop, and picked my first this morning!

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Making space in my conservatory

I can keep amaryllis going for years. Some years they don't flower, but unless the bulbs have really shrunk, I keep them going for another year (or 2) and they can usually be coaxed back into flower.  Then they start producing bulblets attached to the bulb which get bigger and bigger until they can be broken off, potted up, and brought into flower, sometimes, but not usually, the same year.

This meant that last year I had 14 amaryllis, 13 flowering, in my conservatory and little space for seed trays, etc.

As they are in a north facing, unheated conservatory I have stopped trying to start them off in January but wait til Easter or until the first one shows a tip of a leaf, whichever is the sooner. Last year I put in wooden plant holders into the pots noting the colours of the ones I wanted to keep.  This year any of the other pots that showed a bud coming, I have brought into work and given away. I have found good homes for 7.

Ants in compost heap

I was pleased to see ants in my compost bin yesterday.  It means I will have to take compost out very early in the year before they are active, but from past experience they do sieve the compost, and mine doesn't rot down well so everything is of help.

Cherries

Yesterday morning standing at the outside tap waiting for my watering can to fill I looked properly at the tree in a neighbour's garden (about 6 doors down) and realised it was a cherry. "Oh," I thought, "that's where the birds get the cherries whose stones they drop in my garden." 

Whilst I was watching a pigeon, a crow and a magpie all disappeared into the tree, one after the other.

Yesterday evening I found a cherry stone with a bit of uneaten cherry in my garden. I thought it a bit early for cherries, so I checked my "Fresh all year round" cookbook and found cherries are in season in July!

So, presumably they are cherries.

Thermal lined curtains and the worm and the caterpillar

I replaced my old door with a solid wood one. I wish I hadn't. The panels have split leaving space you can see daylight through! My handyman said he could fill the gaps, but it could be as little as a fortnight before the wood moves and I have the same problem.

So delighted when Transition Leytonstone put on a workshop for putting thermal linings in curtains. This afternoon I made a separate lining (that you hook on to the curtain). As the old curtain I use as a door curtain had only a thing strip allowing only one row of hooks, I have started putting curtain tape on that.

We were using old hand sewing machines that Roger from Forest Recycling Project renovates. It reminded me of my childhood where when my mother was sewing sheets sides to middle,  I would be turning the handle while my mother guided the sheets.

I also brought blackout, thermal linings for the spare bedroom curtains.

This morning when I emptied an old pot into a raised bed so I could fill it with fresh soil and plant a tomato in it. I found it the soil a worm in a knot. I carefully untangled it and put it on some damp soil. It was very flabby so I hope it had enough strength the feed.

I told this story to Jan Ashford who was leading the curtain lining workshop. She said she once had some empty window boxes on her windowsill fill with water. She found a little caterpillar marooned in the window box, so she rescued it to put it on the nearest plant, a russian vine. The little thing was so hungry it started eating before it left her finger!

Elderflower champagne

On my bike ride this mornign I picked some elderflower heads for elderflower champagne. Some of the comfrey at the foot of the bush was flattened so I don't think I was the first doing this.

5 or 6 elderflower heads
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2lb white sugar
8 pints cold water
4 pints hot water
2 lemons (juice and cut-up rind)

In a large container (eg plastic bucket) dissolve sugar in hot water, add other ingredients. Cover with cloth, stir occasionally.

After 3 days pour through muslin into strong bottles leaving plenty of space. Have a tight fitting cap (I am using some olive oil bottles and lemonade bottles which have the caps held on by wire).

I was in the middle of mixing everything in the bucket when I realised I normally do half quantities - hope I've got enough bottles!

caterpillars, parsley and poppies

On the lime trees in the road round the corner are long caterpillars who rest stretched out amongst the leaves like a brown stick. I have googled lime tree caterpillar and then found a couple of butterflies, then more googling to find a picture of the caterpillar, but no luck, so presumably my caterpillars don't just feed on lime trees.

I sowed some carrots in a trough with some parsley down the middle. The carrots germinated a little while a go, but parsley has just started showing too. Parsley is recognised as a slow germinator - it is supposed to go to the devil and back 7 times before it germinates.

There are poppies in full bloom on some roadsides and roundabouts.

Getting rid of stuff and a new boiler

Three things put on Freegle and safely collected. The person who responded to my email about the 4th thing - a metal fence post holder - hasn't responded to my email offering it to her.  Bit of a pain as I had today off and took some things to the PDSA shop and that could have gone too, but am keeping it for a few more days in case she responds.

My boiler is 14 1/2 years old and my handyman who does the maintenance has said it could last a few more years or could break down at any time.  Safest to get it replaced while it is still working, so had the plumber who replaced a friend's boiler visit to give me a quote.

I was worried about condensing boilers as a colleague has one and the pipe kept freezing in the cold weather. The plumber said some installers keep the outlet pipe at the first narrow size instead of changing to a large size, and some boilers dribble condensation all the time (I am paraphrasing here) but the Valiant boiler he will quote me for is a German make where winters are colder so they have thought of this. The condensation collects and is vented about a 1/4 pint at a time. It doesn't guarantee the outlet pipe will never freeze but makes it unlikely. Plan to have the work done in June. Expensive, but should be more economical to run.

Olympic(?) clearup removing wildlife cover

They have been clearing all the undergrowth along the towpath. In places very welcome as it will make it easier turning corners on the bike.

Not sure whether it is connected with the Olympics but they have also been clearing undergrowth along Orient Way and in places putting down turf. With this dry spring the turf has not taken well, and a lot is straw-coloured. They've been watering it, which makes me grimace when we could be very short of water this summer.

This morning on my bike ride I found they have started clearing the undergrowth between a foot/cycle path and Orient Way leaving just the young trees. 

All this is wildlife cover and also proving food for wildlife - pollen, nectar and berries.

Other matters:
Suddenly the elder is in flower! Must check my recipe for Elderflower champagne so I have all the ingredients ready for next week!

Came back from my cycle ride and found I had a slug on my shoe! I have enough in my garden without importing more!

We had some showers yesterday morning and overnight. Very welcome, but I checked the soil in the vegetable patch this morning and the damp is only on the surface. I'd like it dry on Tuesday as a handyman is mending the outside tap, but if it could rain for a while after that?

Found a home for spare flower pots

I am always surprised with the frequently seen money saving tip of turning yogurt pots etc into flower pots. Unless you grow everything in your garden/allotment from seed you soon collect an awful lot of particularly small flower pots.

I knew someone who used to bring pots of plants to sell on the local green party stall and the local organic gardeners stall at events, so I eagerly offered her my spare pots. She had just taken over a shed with loads of pots in so declined my kind offer!

Some on Freegle asked for pots, as the charity she works/volunteers for sell plants to raise funds; so I have got rid of 3 carrier bags of them.

I have some things to put on Freegle, but not looking forward to it.

What doesn't get done in the garden

On the Telegraph website I read an article by Anne Wareham on "Why I hate gardening" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/8479689/Anne-Wareham-Why-I-hate-gardening.html

What I like is the list of things she doesn't do which I don't do either:
Turn my compost heap
Wash my pots
Clean my garden tools
Edge the grass, and how list of other things to do to a lawn (thoughI don't have a lawn!)
Dig up plants and divide them
Put out slug traps
Graft
Dig
Lime
Clean the greenhouse (I don't have a greenhouse, but I don't clean the conservatory which counts as the equivalent)
Remove any leaves from borders
Label plants
Mulch at some particular time of year

I do, however, grow my own vegetables.

Her garden in the picture looks very attractive. She loves the garden, not the gardening!

ducklings, coot chicks, door curtain, potting soil

Yesterday kayaked to Limehouse Basin and back. Have seen no ducklings or coot chicks this year, but yesterday I saw a family of quite big ducklings and several coot families including one where the coot chicks had lost their red head feathers and got their white throats.

I've put myself down for a workshop for lining curtains with insulated lining later this month. Plan to start with my door curtain as the wood of the door has shrunk leaving slits you can see light through! This is a second hand curtain I've had up for 15 years, so decided to wash it. It survived the wash but shrunk in the process. Luckily it has a deep hem, so I've unpicked it and will lengthen it.

Need some potting soil so went to Homebase and they had only 50 litre bags, far too heavy for me to lift and they would kill my shopping trolley. Went to B&Q today to see if I could find 20l there but got there just as they shut. I also need some copper tape to put round pots to stop slugs, but see the Wriggly Wrigglers catalogue have these.