Looping the Limehouse Loop

I haven't cycled to Limehouse (Lea Naviagation, Old Ford, Bow, Three Mills the Limehouse Cut) and back (Regents Canal, Hertford Union and back on the Navigation) since last winter. They were doing work on the Bow stretch until the July, and I like doing the loop, and then was cycling in the opposite direction to pick blackberries.

I used to have to come off the towpath and cross the road under the Bow flyover, making a run for it when there was a gap in the cars coming off the roundabout. There is now a bridge (which a cyclable slope up and down) that takes one across the river and then along it under the road. Fantasic!

I nearly didn't go as for this long ride I usually like really nice weather and this morning was overcast and breezy, but I am glad I went

rag rugs rather ragged

On Sunday I had a rag rug session for Transition Leytonstone. Only four of us,as that is all I can fit round my dining room table. (The table is second hand, if slimmer and longer it would fit much better in my dining room and fit 6 crafters around it, but that is the problem of second hand, what you find is often not ideal, especially if you don't have a car so everything large has to be sourced locally.)

One person didn't turn up, and one came, but, as she hadn't sourced any material to mend the rug she wanted to mend, didn't stay for long. So that left RoseMarie and me.

Here's how far I have got!

And RoseMarie was making a toothbrush rug (named after the hook used).

Though both us found it useful to have an "appointment" to start our rugs, we won't be having other rag rug sessions together.

Problems with commenting so writing this message instead

Dear Peter
Don't want you to think I am ignoring you, but have been unable to comment on your comment on my blog or to comment on your blog. Hope it'll all work out on the work computer after work tomorrow.

Can't remmber your name, and your photo is too small to help. How did we know each other in Leyton?

I used to have an allotment but gave it up when I got the house. I didn't like the trekking to and fro, and getting half way home and realising I'd forgotten to pick any chives, again!

Newt rescue! And frog news

Cycling this morning in the Lea Valley between a stream and a ditch (after the cattle creep at the bottom of Coppermill Lane), I stopped to rescue a worm wriggling at great pace towards the middle of the path. Then I saw a tiny newt on the path - about 3 inches long. It was almost dead, but I put it in the damp grass out of the way of passing cyclists to give it a chance.

When I was young I always missed the nature study class on newts, coming back to school after illness to see the pictures of them on the wall - infant school and 2 junior schools. I didn't see my first newt until I was adult, in the pond of a garden that was open, and I haven't seen once since until this morning.

I also saw a frog in my pond this morning. The woman with the 17/20/30 (depending on which neighbour one spoke to) cats has moved, so he has a chance. In previous years I often had 5 poking their heads out of the water. My pond is covered with duck weed which I don't try to get rid of, as it gives the frogs some protection from the cats until the (non) flowering rush has grown (and this year I didn't have much rush at all).

The duck weed used to be killed off in the winter and grow again in the spring. The lsst 2 winters though, it has reduced drastically but never completely disappeared.

Red Admirals in the sun

This morning there were 2 red admiral butterflies sunning themselves at the end of my garden. I think these are the first red admirals I've seen in my garden this year.

Only now do I think I should have taken a photo to put on blog here. Can't rush out now as I am waiting for a fridge to be delivered and the door between the kitchen and conservatory is blocked by the trolley loaded with all the stuff that had been in the old fridge.

My vegetable patch this year

The purpose of this second postis to try to insert a photograph. I have managed to upload a picture of myself - very unflattering, taken by me holding up the camera. So let's see if this time (third attempt at this) I can manage it.

Doesn't look good - a load of gibberish above this, which I hope will translate into a photo when I "publish" it.

This was a fairly typical day's picking from the vegetable patch (and I didn't harvest every day). Luckily I live on my own and have a good lunch at work.

Autumn has come!

This morning my north facing, single-glazed bathroom window had condensation. My north-facing double-glazed bedroom window was steamed up, but my other windows were fine (forgot to check the conservatory windows).

I left on my bike at 9am in a long-sleeved top in a thick material, but was glad I had put my winter bike jacket in my saddle bag, as I soon stopped to put that on, plus the gloves in the pocket. Back by 10.30, and, although much warmer, I didn't feel hot.

My garden at 8 am looked as if there had been a heavy dew. By the time I got to the Lea Valley, along by the west side of the old Essex filter beds, the grass in places was white. The Navigation was steaming - so the water was presumably warmer than the air. There didn't seem much rubbish in the water. Denis at my kayak club claims it sinks in cold weather, and I suspect he is right,

I went down the Navigation, half way along the Hertford Union, round the east of Victoria Park and back, a route I haven't done since the Spring.

The leaves are beginning to turn, but no real autumn colour yet.

Price of logs generally high, not just mine!

Out with friends today, and one, Tina who live in Sudbury, Suffolk, also has a wood burning stove. She got a load of logs for £125 this year, much more expensive than last year. So my £195 - also much more expensive than last year - is probably only the usual London price.

Hopefully as more and more people have wood burning stoves installed, the managed woodland providing the wood also increases - we can't rely on tree surgeons!

I've got visitors next Sunday and plan to have the stove lit for the first time this winter then. Nice in the sunshine in the middle of the day, but chilly mornings - I'll be waiting for the water to run hot for my morning wash from now on! Light frost on the edge of London (Chingford) this morning.

Green connections

Went to a Transition Leytonstone evening on "your money or your life". This was a follow-up to the talk by the blogger Stoneleigh where I had been very depressed by her predictions of a depression worse than the 1930s because of the housing bubble. As someone without sellable practical skills and savings the outlook if she is right isn't good at all!

Yesterday did not cheer me up ref the financial situation, but I have got an application form so I can join the local Credit Union (as a depositer), I met Sarah and we discussed our vegetable plots, and she told me about a very sweet plant and the name of the nursery I can get it from. I was able to get some advice about the replacing of my window where the seal on the double glazing has gone (don't bother with triple glazing). And I met and chatted with several other people I know from Transition Leytonstone and other green events.

Solar powered flats

The two blocks of 3 storey flats behind my house are having solar panels fitted. One is having them on the south roof, the other on the west roof. I haven't gone round to check, but from the scaffolding it looks as if the flats with the panels on the west roof are not having them on the east roof to catch the morning sun.

Logs for stove arrive

Last 2 years it has taken me 2 hours to take logs through house and stack them.

Today I had to take the logs through the house and leave them to go for a boden session (which I didn't make due to the Victoria line being suspended - and they think signal failure is not going to happen during the Olympics?!). This took me an hour. Then when I got back it took me 2 hours to stack. The pile looks bigger than usual, but I think this is because the logs are much more of a mixed size, so the pile is not so neat.

In my hammock in October

Both yesterday and today (Sunday) I have spent time in my hammock, in the shade under my neighbours' overhanging ash tree. And in a short-sleeved t-shirt too.

It is said the greenest thing to do is often to do nothing, so I have been very green!