Frost yesterday forsythia today

Yesterday we had a heavy frost. On the train to Brighton with a friend and there were diagonal frost bands on the house roofs where the chimney stacks had shaded the frost from the sun.

This morning very wet for my visit to friends in Chingford, but dry this afternoon so out finishing sawing up a pallet for wood for the wood burning stove.  I spotted a tiny bit of yellow in the forsythia bush just over the fence in my neighbour's garden. I checked, and yes it was a forsythia flower. No sign of any others!

It looks as if I took the photo in the dark - no, it was just a winter afternoon.

Christmas eve walk

The thing I miss about the country is not having to make a journey before taking a walk. I was brought up on the edge of a hamlet. For a walk I could go through the gate at the top of the garden then down the track to the fields, or over the "gate" at the bottom of the garden, down the bank, across the boggy bit and then over the fields to Malpas. A short walk through the village and it was the path by the river to Tresillian or, at low tide, a scramble through some woods and then along the river edge to Malpas.

Yesterday I went for a walk round Hollow Ponds, and it took half an hour walk to get there, half an hour to walk back and less than half an hour to walk round in the middle. And it poured with rain on the way home!

It looks remote, but I could hear the traffic along the Whipps Cross Road.

The results of recent heavy rain were everywhere.

And I love the old trees with twisted roots or branches. The remind me of the forest described at the beginning of the Czech folk tale "Higgedly Piggedly Man, which I told at the annual "Carols and Pies" at work this year.

Helping the hibernators

Every year people complain about the council not getting the leaves swept up quickly enough. They have listened this year.

This means I've had a problem getting leaves to put on my tiny front garden flower bed to give extra protection for insects, etc, hibernating there. When I have time to go down the road with my bucket in the evening, the leaves have been swept up during the day!

This afternoon on the way to the shops I passed a few plane trees whose leaves haven't been swept up so, once back, I got my bucket and my leaf-picker-uppers, and got several bucketfuls. In good time for the cold night we are likely to have tonight.

Once this load of leaves has settled hope to have another go, if the timing of the sweepers allow me.

Beautiful sunny morning, enjoyed my kayaking, though my feet got cold despite thermal socks. Saw a kingfisher up ahead on the old River Lea between Tottenham and Waltham Forest. Also a kestrel hovering.

And here are the pictures of the log seats!

Well, I've discovered I can upload more than one photo if I upload them all at once!

Longing for logs

On my bike ride today I cycled down the old river lea between Leabridge Road and Ruckholt Road. There had obviously been some cleaning up after the storm. Looked enviously at the logs - would even have the space to store them the rate I am getting through the offcuts my carpenter neighbour gave me.

But was pleased to find some seats made out of slices of tree, not everything would be going to waste. I can't seem to upload more than one picture to a blog post, so will blog again.

Chimney sweep or not to chimney sweep a flue liner?

I usually get Abbots Stoves of Standstead Abbots to come for the annual maintenance of my clearview stove - which they supplied and installed.

This year I left it rather late in the season to ring up and, as they come from a distance and like to combine visits in the area, I missed my chance. As I don't use my stove every day, and last winter didn't have heating at all quite a lot of the time, I thought I would manage without.

A builder told a friend of mine that you don't need to sweep a chimney with a flue liner - which I have - and risk damaging the flue liner if you do. As I have never watched what the man from Abbots Stoves does, it is possible he maintains the stove and doesn't sweep. His visits don't take long!

Then another builder told my friend, yes, you definitely do have to sweep!

So I got "The log book: Getting the best from you woodburning stove" by Will Rolls which arrived today. I eagerly looked up "sweeping the chimney". "According to most chimney sweeps you should have your chimney swept at least once very six months". Well, they would say that, wouldn't they!

I think I will have to ring up Abbots Stoves early next year and watch what the guy does. If the flue is not being swept then in future years I can someone local to maintain the stove. Likely to be cheaper and very much easier to fix a mutually convenient time.

Fungi foray

Lucky with the weather today as there was a heavy shower between getting up and leaving the house, and then more rain mid afternoon after I had finished a spot of gardening.

In the morning there were 20 of us being led around Bush Wood, Wanstead. We met at the Quaker Meeting House, which is a 40 minute walk from home for me. We found such a lot of fungi we didn't get as far as we might have done. I found white jelly fungus, dead man's fingers and candle snuffer fungus (all names from my memory so might not be completely accurate).

These were, from memory again, cluster fairy bonnet.

I was also hoping to upload a picture of a giant polypore, but the computer won't co-operate!

Our guide had some laminated identification sheets where one follows a route answering questions to end up, hopefully, with the right identification. I hope to get one of these - nice and light to carry when out on an autumn walk.

Found - stockist of washing soda!

Another weird excitement of trying to be green - finding a local stockist of washing soda!

Years ago I could get it at Tescos who then stopped doing. Every now and then I've found it in a supermarket, even for a short while back again at Tescos. Then there is a little general store near Clapham Common (other end of London, but I got there with a friend to the cinema sometimes).

I find washing soda great for several things, but particularly added to the washing up bowl. It gets the grease off the plates, including the ridges underneath. It stops my pans going black and, slowly, slowly is getting rid of the black on the pans I was using before I started using washing soda when washing up.

There is a Pound Store in the Leytonstone High Road that occasionally has its 15 minutes of fame as, in nearly as big letters as the store name, is the sign saying most things are 95p. I've seen the shop's photo in Time Out and elsewhere. I suddenly thought, maybe they have washing soda. I went in on Saturday and to my delight they did! Much easier getting it home in the shopping trolley than having to lug a couple of bag backs on the tube and walk from Clapham.

How to get to know the neighbours

Suzanne at work has spent 3 weekends painting her front garden fence (luckily finished before last weekend!). One weekend getting the flaky paint off. One painting it with "one coat" paint. Then one painting it again because one coat wasn't really enough. This was for a tiny front garden in front of a house only 13 foot wide.

But she did chat to a lot of neighbours, several of whom she hadn't even spoken to before.

I do get to chat to people when I am in my tiny front garden, but so far only to people I know enough to at least say "hello" to.

One of the advantages of urban, terraced living with small front gardens, and people not always taking the car or, if the are, having to walk to where it is parked.

sweet potatoes a disappointment

This year I experimented with sweet potatoes.

I got them as slips (they are not tubers like ordinary potatoes), and they were potted up into small pots for 3 weeks and then out by mid June (which was this year when it was just about safe to do so). I had 4 in pots and 3 in the ground.

I dug them up a few days ago, and was very disappointed by the number and, in particular, the size of the sweet potatoes:

There is nothing to show scale in this picture - but they are small, maximum 3 inches (7cm) long and mainly skinny.

I had some with lunch today and also had beans, swiss chard and a bay leaf from the garden.

Very wet this morning, so didn't have a bike ride but did have a walk round the block this afternoon to get my back moving. As I came home there were two parakeets flying overhead. Nearest I've seen them before was on the Lea Navigation near the old Middlesex Filter Beds.

Wood burning stove lit last night

I didn't really need it, but it was raining and I fancied it. So last night I lit the wood burning stove for the first time since the spring.

The cats enjoyed it together for a short while, and then seemed to be taking turns;

This year I didn't have a log delivery as my carpenter neighbour has given me even more of-cuts than normal, as his store roof had a leak in it and he had to empty it out. He is also having his roof done, so I got 3 bags of off-cuts from that.

Off cuts burn more quickly than logs so I have to remember to check it more frequently if I am watching something on iplayer in the dining room.

Wet washing whiff

When I open the front door when I get home I smell a damp, wet washing smell.

It's not warm enough for the clothes, including my kayak gear, to dry quickly. It's too mild to have heating on. So everything is taking ages to dry.

Even having a window open these last few mild nights hasn't helped - the damp night air might be damper than the air inside the house!

A colleague with 2 children is having his radiators on just to dry the clothing. I think if I didn't live on my own I would have to get a washer/dryer however ungreen that would be.

And the stuff that needs to be hand washed is building up, because there is rarely a gap on the rack over the bath between one lot of kayak gear going and the next arriving. It's a very narrow bath so the tent shaped rack won't stay up, I have just have it folded flat across the bath, so it doesn't fit much. And there is limited space to put that stuff that doesn't need to be over the bath but is still damp.

I might have said this on this blog before: my teenage self would have been amazed if she had realised how much time I would spend worrying about getting clothes dry!

Dangerous toothpaste!

For years I have been using Sarakan toothpaste which is wonderful for controlling tartar/plaque. It's also vegan and doesn't have fluoride, parabens or lauryl sulphates.

It seems to have disappeared from the health food shops so i got a Jason "Power smile" toothpaste.

I use several Jason products, as they don't use parabens, lauryl sulphates, or animal byproducts. It is American, so there are air miles involved.

However, it seems this toothpaste is more dangerous than it might at first appear!  On the box: "If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional assistance or contact Poison Control Center immediately"!

Rare breed cows

And here is the photo of the painting from the underpass (see previous post) of one of the rare breed cows that craze a section of the marshes.

They are used to keep down vegetation to allow the survival of a nondescript but very rate (only known from one other location) plant.

When I was young living in a hamlet in Cornwall, my brothers and I would go into the field next door and lie down. The curious cows would come up and lick our faces (their tongues are wet and rasping). Can't get near the cows on the marshes.

Painting the underpass country

On my cycle ride north of Leabridge Road, after I have ridden up between the Leyton marshes and the riding stable, I have to go under the railway line.

Artists have been decorating the concrete sides of the underpass with images of animals from the marshes:



Foxes.

Also swans,cormorants, rare breed cattle - photos of which the computer is not allowing me to upload. I enjoy looking at the paintings as I cycle past.

liqueur a little too late!

Not knowing last weekend how much I had to pick to get 1 lb of elderberries for my catsup, I ended up picking far too many.

On Tuesday I put what I didn't need into the garden to rot down and then started speaking to Piers, my neighbour, over the fence. Piers told me of another neighbour, Len, who has a simple recipe for a fruit liqueur - one part fruit, 2 parts sugar, 3 parts spirit. We agreed that an elderberry liqueur would likely be very nice. Shame I'd just chucked so many berries away!

Weather forecast good for this weekend, so will see if I can get a few more elderberries and make a little. I will also try.to get some blackberries for a last crumble before the devil pisses on them, which is reputed to do at the end of the month!

Not very (ecologically) green green tomato chutney

I am having trouble with slugs and snails eating my tomatoes. I did try picking just before they were ripe, but then they started eating those!

So, Tuesday, on my day off, I picked 2lbs of green tomatoes and made green tomato chutney. It involves 2 1/2 hours simmering, so using up a lot of gas!

It smells nice, and the scrapings of the pan tasted nice - though not spicy but that will happen in the 3 months I have to wait.

I have 3 jars of chutney which should be ready for Christmas.

What is catsup?

What is catsup?

In a year plus time I will need to know, because I've just made some elderberry catsup. The recipe says "strain before using".

Am I straining out the elderberry-flavoured vinegar? Or straining out the onions and the spices?

An internet search has not been helpful - it seems to be a regional name for ketchup. There is no mention of processing it in my recipe, thereby combining the ingredients, which is just as well as I don't use a food processor because I hate the idea of having to wash one.

Inner tube irritations

I have six inner tubes awaiting puncture repair and I had a go at mending them all this evening.

Three inner tubes were pumped up, and are still at the end of the evening nicely pumped up, but  I could find no bubbles indicating a leak.

One inner tube deflated quite a bit in the journey of a few feet from the pump to the bowl of water, but I couldn't find a leak in that either!

I did find a leak in the last two but, presumably because of the age of the puncture repair kit, the patches didn't stick on properly.

There's a bike shop on the way to yoga so I will try to remember to pop in and get a new puncture repair kit there. All I need is the patches, as I have glue and emery paper from 3 old puncture repair kits, but I am pretty sure, in this modern age, I have to buy a complete kit.

The foot pump I am using is a newish one that can blow up an inner tube beautifully - except when it is inside a tyre. How does that (not) work?

Elderberry cheer

Gary at work who lives in Walthamstow went on to the marshes last week with his family and picked lots of elderberries which they made into a tonic. He gave me a little jar with instructions to take a spoonful a day to prepare me for winter.

I am really pleased with this present but have only taken it twice so far as I keep forgetting!

Camley Street Nature Reserve

This month's lunch time walk was a return visit to Camley Street Nature Reserve, which runs alongside the canal just north of Kings Cross Station.

Not much sign of wildlife - a pair of mallards and a coot - but nice to sit chatting while we looked out at the canal, and then have a little walk around the park before setting off back to the office.

You can tell that autumn is coming by all the berries, blackberries, hawthorn, sloes, rowan. And ivy was coming into flower, ready to feed any insects at the tail end of the year.

Country in the city - in the country!

Weekend trip with the kayak club to Bude.

Loved the bit late on Friday night driving along a very narrow lane, reminding me of coming home from a trip when I was a child.

Kayaked at Widemouth Bay - a proper beach with sand, not like Brighton and Hastings with their pebbles!

Also a walk to the top of Rough Tor. The climbing bit took me ages, reached the top way after everyone else!

Shown how to fire rushes: Pick a thick rush. Take off its flower. Spilt the thick end in half, then peel about 3 inches of the skin of one side. Put pointed end on one shoulder. Rest the thick end of the ring made by the forefinger and thumb. with the peeled-off skin hanging down through the loop. With the other hand pull the loop hard! It can go 6/to 8 feet.

Didn't hear any Cornish accents, and speaking to someone today who said you rarely hear a Norfolk accent in Norfolk now either. But you hear London accents in London all the time.

Country living should be seasonal!

What distinguishes country living from urban living? Especially country living in the city?

One thing is the seasons. Eating seasonally, dressing seasonally, seasonal celebrations, events, public and family rituals.

I get "Country Living" magazine most months and today, 28 August, have just got the October issue!

Still wearing summer clothes and doing summer things and I am reading a magazine full of stuff about autumn!

Another puncture!

Went to go blackberrying today and found my front tyre flat. So went on my folding bike instead.

This is my third puncture in about 5 weeks (not as bad as 3 in 15 days which I had soon after I got the bike). It is in my front tyre again, so I am thankful for small mercies!

Tomatoes - tasteless raw, falvour when cooked

I had my first tomato on Thursday and it tasted of nothing.

I was not surprised, as the tag on them when I brought them at Homebase made no mention of taste - always a bad sign. Only variety available so I got them.

I put them in with pasta (and runner and french beans, courgettes, and bayleaves from the garden) and there was some flavour, especially in the stock.

Missing, presumed fallen and eaten by wildlife, my plum!

My one and only plum was on the tree on Thursday, but not there, and no sign of it beneath the tree, today (Sunday)!

Presume it must have fallen off and some wildlife - mice? fox? bird? - ate it.

Herbs to chase away the coughing

I have now been coughing for 3 weeks, with a cold a few days before that. There are occasional coughing fits when it seems I'll never stop coughing and my eyes water so much it looks as if I have been crying! But when I go for a walk, cycle or kayak, then I only cough occasionally.

As it was still not getting better I thought I ought to have it checked out and went to my herbalist on Thursday.

She has given me some liquid to take in warm water 4 times a day before food (but I'm not to take the last one too close to bedtime). It is an expectorant and antimicrobial containing:goldenrod, mallow root, elecampane root, thyme, wild indigo and hyssop.

She also recommended putting honey on cut-up onions and leaving for 12 hours then having the honey. I am having a spoonful 2 or 3 times a day. Oniony honey is surprisingly nice!

Also herb tea. She mentioned several and fennel is the tea I had, but I've only had it once. I am not a tea drinker and find waiting for tea to cool down a faff - and sometimes forget it and only remember when it's gone cold!

Also a steam bath (bowl of hot water with a towel over my head). Just hot water would be good but she recommended some herbs to add. Lavender from my garden was the only one I had that so I gave it a go earlier. Though my nose doesn't feel blocked up (but my ears do!) I couldn't smell a thing and it doesn't seem to have had much effect.

So I'll stick to the medicine and the onion honey.

Big, juicy blackberries

I've been leaning over the fence this week and picking a handful of blackberries from a bramble in my neighbour's overgrown garden. I've had these with my cereal for breakfast.

After kayaking today I did a detour up past the riding stables and under the railway bridge and filled my soya dessert container with large, juicy blackberries. This recent rain has done its stuff!

So I've made a crumble and have had the first helping hot. Lovely!

I saw a kestrel over Marsh Lane Fields on my way to kayaking this morning.

Eggs and egg box in the garden

A fox once left an egg half buried in my old compost heap.

A neighbour had a fox bury an egg in her window box and couldn't work out how it balanced to achieve this.

Yesterday I found a ripped egg box and broken egg shells in the garden. Presumably someone threw out the egg box with the eggs. The fox took the box with the eggs and got it (which would have meant some leaping) into my garden to eat the spoils. I hope it enjoyed them and didn't get stomach problems due to bad eggs.

Zero Waste Home

After reading an article about the book I bought a copy of "Zero Waste Home: The ultimate guide to simplifying your life by reducing your waste" by Bea Johnson.

Although I know some things I don't expect to give up until they no longer exist or I can't afford them (eg paper tissues and paper kitchen roll) and the book is American so some things would not be the same over here, I was hoping for some inspiration to reduce my consumption.

Unfortunately not. Particularly as I don't have the store where I can take bottles and refill in bulk (and I don't have a car to transport everything even if I did).

She has recycling, which a lot of "greens" have their main contribution to the environment, as fourth out of five. And I think her order of priorities and the importance she places on not getting stuff in the first place correct.

Bea's list:
1. Refuse (what we do not need)
2.Reduce (what we do not need and cannot refuse)
3. Reuse (what we consume and cannot refuse or reduce)
4. Recycle (what we cannot refuse, reduce, or reuse)
5. Rot (compost the rest)

But I will try harder in reducing what comes into the house and increase the stuff  get rid of.

I've got a plum! And a baby frog!

Today, lying in my hammock I spotted a plum on one of my two potted plum trees.

Last spring I had one tree covered in blossom and the other with not one flower, so no chance of cross fertilisation.

This year both trees were in full flower just as the late frosts hit. The blossom seemed to survive but I thought there had been no insects to pollinate the flowers. But there was one!

I usually only eat plums cooked (by someone else) but this one will have to be eaten raw. I hope I will recognise the right moment for the ceremonial picking!

And yesterday morning beside the pond was a little frog. I didn't see any frog spawn but there must have been some.

So a runny nose and a cough that won't go away don't seem so bad when I have a plum and a frog,

springwatch butterfly special

I watched Friday's "Springwatch butterfly special" last night.

It seems the little blue butterfly that moves so fast I have no hope of catching any distinguishing features to work out what it is from the butterfly book is likely to be a holly blue.

It also seems that the comma butterflies I get in my garden are more likely there due to my neighbour's hops than any of my nectar plants!

I must get a hawthorn bush for the brimstones and peacocks, and sweet william as good nectar plants (but careful some sold are sterile and no good).

I don't bother with ordinary Springwatch programmes - I can't stand the rehearsed banter. But the programmes about a specialist subject tend to treat the listener as if they had a modicum of intelligence.

My garden beginning to look a bit dull. I might have to make a trip to the diy store in the hope of finding something colourful that is good food for butterflies and bumble bees. The wisteria is having a second flush of flower, which is nice.

Second summer cold in 25 years this week

This week I had a summer cold, only the second proper summer cold I've had for over 25 years.

Being vegan has really helped with colds - getting fewer of them and often mild ones.

I was sent home early on Wednesday and was in bed at 5 pm with a hot water bottle against my aching back. I was hoping to get sweaty and sweat the toxins out, but it didn't really work. Maybe I was so hot that a hot water bottle didn't make me much hotter! I did feel the need for a shower and hair wash in the morning though.

I've been having plenty of sleep and lots of water, some herbal teas - sage tea for my throat, elderflower tea for the temperature, and even one for bad throats I got at Planet Organic Friday lunch time. Used once at work and then left behind.

I am also taking the nettle and apricot tonic I made a few months ago - two teaspoons twice a day.

My nose was runny last night, but stopped so I was able to kayak (kayaking is not an activity that goes well with having to blow one's nose!) and is running again now.

The Lea Navigation below Tottenham Lock is still very bad after the heavy rain meant they released a load of sewerage into the river, depriving the water of oxygen so killing a load of fish. It was also worrying seeing birds - coots, swans, geese, moorhens - feeding. I hope they don't get ill as a result (seagulls do from feeding off our waste dumps).

Charity shops ungreen for the weak-willed

Charity shops are very ungreen for the weak-willed like me.

If I had, for instance, only china I'd brought in a department store, I would have a day-to-day set and a set for guests plus a few bits and pieces.

Because I get my china for charity shops, where the china is affordable and if I go away and think about it it could be sold to someone else, I have lots of china. I have pretty, flowery china, earthenware pottery, blue and white china, green with white inside denby, plus lots of bits and pieces. And rather unbalanced sets as well.

I'm a single woman who doesn't entertain often!

My mother was up for a long weekend, so she ate off a different plate for every meal. We had raspberry soya dessert and home-made chocolate pudding out of little blue and white, which was definitely the first time I had used them!

Cows know nothing about the weather

Yesterday I went on a quick bike ride. It was hazy with a cool breeze. The swallows were flying low (about a foot off the ground) over Leyton marshes. The rare breed cattle on the bottom end of Walthamstow Marsh were lying down which memory made me think they thought it was going to rain.

I checked on the intranet, and found:
http://www.theweatherclub.org.uk/features/article/behind-the-folklore-cows-lying-down

As it turned into a hot day it seems that is not a helpful bit of weather lore!

I hadn't been that way (peddling north of the Leabridge Road) for a while so had forgotten to take a heavy plastic bag and a couple of trowels, so I missed 3 lots of horse dung for my compost heap!

Carried away with caraway

On Friday I was out of bread and at last got round to the recipe from Making Magazine and made caraway flat breads.

The recipe said cook for 5 mins at gas mark 4 till crisp though still pale. After 5 minutes they didn't look crisp so they had another 5 minutes, another 3 minutes, another 5 minutes....  They were probably in the oven for about 20 minutes, which seems more likely - jam tarts for instance would take that time.

I was pleased with the result and will certainly use the recipe again if I need something bread-like in a hurry.

And I will try growing caraway next year for the seeds the following year. I've just checked Wikipedia, and it is a member of the carrot family with small pink of white flowers in umbels so likely to be good for insects. Food and wildlife, so 2 of the 3 things I look for (the 3rd is colour).

I had a red admiral on my washing yesterday. First I've seen in my garden for years.

Bird of paradise plant in flower in my conservatory

As I seem to be able to post photographs again, I thought I would show off the flower of the bird of paradise plant in my unheated conservatory.

I had a flower 2 years ago as well. I might not get another one as the plant is already too big for its pot, with its roots bursting through the bottom. I would have problem repotting it and don't have room in my small conservatory for a bigger pot anyway.

And while I am at it, here are the amaryllis, also grown in the unheated conservatory. In my flat I used to start them off in January. In an unheated, northish-facing conservatory I start them off when the first leaf shows, usually before Easter, This year it was several weeks after Easter.

As well as keeping a bulb going for years, I get side bulbs growing and, once they are big enough, they can be pulled off and potted up in a pot of their own.

That's a pink geranium over to the right.

New log store: getting ready for winter!

Had today off so my log store could be delivered and put up.

The log store arrived at 9.05 and my handyman at 10 am (he is semi retired and always has a swim first, so that's his normal arrival time).

As promised, it took only half an hour to put up.  It is looking very smart. and I have started filling it with all the offcuts. As the offcuts are mainly little bits, I am keeping them in bags so they take up more room than stacked, so I won't be getting any logs this year.

Great, I don't know what I did differently from last time, but I have managed to upload a photo on to this blog again!

Black currant jelly? No, crumble

I picked the blackcurrants off my 3 bushes yesterday.

I was thinking of making some jelly, but short of time getting ready for a visit by my handyman on Tuesday (with my log store being delivered - yippee!) and my mother's visit for a long weekend. So I made a crumble instead. The blackcurrants nearly filled the dish, so I made only 6oz crumble (3 oz oats, 3 oz flour, 3 oz margarine, a couple of hand fulls of sugar).

Have had a big bowl full hot, and will have the rest cold.

My mother hates blackcurrants as one summer during the war my grandmother fed her lots of them as they were very good for her. She won't have them in any shape or form now!

Zero waste home

There was an article in Metro (London morning free paper) yesterday about a family in American whose waste for the year was one large jar-full.

Their mantra is refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, rot and in that order. They started by trying not even to have stuff to recycle but realised that was going too far and not practicable.

They have got a very simple home, which is easy to keep clean. But if I was able to get rid of the stuff that was cluttering up my home I probably wouldn't be me!

However, I have ordered the book* and look forward to reading it for tips.

*Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying our Life (Particular Books)

A Guide to Garden Wildlife

Just listened on i-player to BBC Radio 4's "A guide to garden wildlife" (Radio 4 Monday 9.30 am).

I have always hoped that the pile of cuttings I have rotting away under my wisteria is a good refuge toads and insects in winter. It seems that it could be particularly good for hibernating queen bumblebees. And hellebores are a good food source for them when they come out of hibernation, and I have several of them.

(I like hellebores, as they flower for ages!)

They were also talking about providing a home for red mason bees (whoops, didn't write down their name straight away so might not have got that right) as they are very good pollinating insects at the beginning of the season. I saved the stalks of the fennel when I cut it down in the spring and could use these to make nests next spring. Needs to be put in a sunny position, which severely limits its location in my garden in the springtime!

There was a comma butterfly in my garden this morning. Cycling back from helping out at the after school club at the kayak club, I passed the short grass near the ice skating rink where there were two green woodpeckers sitting in the grass. I've seen them flying before, but never still like that,

Valerian getting a haircut

My valerian, both the red and the white kind, was going to seed. I don't want to be overrun with valerian, especially as it has a tough root, and I want a second flush of flowers. So this evening I went out with the secateurs and cut it right back.

End of May and beginning of June is when my garden is at its best, colour wise, and best for insects too. This period is later this year by about 3 weeks. But from now on I am doing everything I can to have food for the insects that the earlier flowers have encouraged.

Lazing in a hammock on a lovely sunny Sunday

My old hammock stand rusted so I got a new one which I put up last night. No instructions came with it so I had to go by the pictures on the website. It is supposed to be easy to put up and take down, but I don't think it easy enough to take down every time rain is forecast - but I will take it down and put it away for the winter.

It is under the overhang of my neighbours' ash tree and I spent some time today lying in my hammock reading and watching the swifts, and the occasional pigeon flying overhead.

I also put out the wooden slatted deckchair. I don't mind this getting caught in a shower but not to get wet too often, so put it out only when the weather forecast for several days is good. I sat in it this morning eating my breakfast (my own strawberries and loganberries on cereal) watching a dozen swifts - maybe more, they were flying so fast!

There is a theory that being green often involves not doing very much, so I have been quite green today!

first strawberries!

Usually I get my first strawberries around 13 June (my grandmother's birthday when traditionally we always had a home-grown strawberry tea).

Today I picked my first strawberries - 3 - which I had on my breakfast cereal.

Still waiting for the first loganberry to ripen.

Patience exhausted with ecological radios

I've had 3 solar powered, wind-up radios.

If the first one sat in a sunny window all day it meant I very rarely had to plug it into the mains in good weather in summer. Thirty seconds of winding was supposed to produce 30 minutes of listening. Instead 30 seconds of winding produced a minute of listening. I dropped it and it was never the same again.

The second one didn't have a plug in option. It charged well in sunshine (with a light to show you when it was being charged, which was always satisfying to see). One minute's winding produced about 20 minutes listening. Then the knob broke and I couldn't turn it off..

The last one also didn't have a plug in option. It didn't seem to charge well in the window. One minute's winding produced about 12 minutes listening, but the only indication it needed rewinding was when it stopped completely.

I got a cheap plug in /battery radio at the weekend, though I don't plan to use batteries. I can have it on the floor if I want and I can hear it. I have to choose my moment to take it downstairs between getting washed and dressed and having my breakfast, but listening to the radio is now not a chore in the mornings.

I've never met anyone who has had Baylis wind-up radio. I wouldn't mind paying for the green option if I didn't feel I was punishing myself for being green!

Elderflowers and horse shit!

Despite the weather forecast it was luckily dry this morning so was able to pick 6 elderflower heads to make elderflower champagne. Someone else had obviously been picking them too, the grass had been trampled round the bush and most of those within easy reach taken.

There was also some horse dung on the path nearby, but a lot of joggers passing at that time so I felt too shy to start picking it up. A little further along I found some more and no one passing just then so I was able to start with two trowels shovelling into into a strong plastic bag. Strange, but once I've started I'm OK about being seen doing it!

I then did my usual circuit then started round again, stopped and picked the dung I'd missed earlier then took the path round the stable paddocks.

Elderflower champagne - use 4 pints hot water to dissolve 2 pounds of sugar, add 6 elderflower heads, juice of 2 lemons and 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar. I was supposed to use the rinds of the lemons as well but they weren't unwaxed so I couldn't.

Now I stir night and morning for 3 days before bottling in bottles with strong tops, leaving plenty of room, then leave for several weeks. It makes a lovely drink for summer.

Horse dung or horse shit? Can't make up my mind which expression to use!

Weather forecast: want it right for tonight and wrong for the rest of the weekend!

I still have some potash left over from the winter and wanted to try it round my beans to see if it would help keep the snails and slugs at bay.

Yesterday it was windy. Not so windy tonight and forecast for some rain so hopefully that is accurate as it will damp the ash down a bit so it won't blow away.

And then nice weather for the weekend, good for kayaking, and I can get the courgettes in and some other chores done in the garden.

And I got sugar and lemons for elderflower champagne at lunch time, and I need to pick the blossom when it is dry.

Fingers crossed!

Snails and vegan guilt

Yesterday before my trip out to Saffron Walden I put my climbing french beans out. Out of 10 beans planted only 4 had grown (I think I over-watered).

Yesterday evening after it was dark I went out to check for snails. As it had been raining I found lots, including one eating a leaf of one of the runner beans.

This morning out checking again I found two tiny snails crawling round the rim of a slug collar, the bit that is supposed to be a barrier, but they are so small it didn't work.

As a vegan I always feel guilty about killing snails and slugs. They are just trying to live their lives as they are intended to. In my front garden I leave them alone and put in only plants I think that can survive slugs and snails (and don't need watering). But I grow vegetables, and even now salad vegetables are impossible to grow.

When I had the allotment there were less slugs and snails and I used to put them into my sieve and take them off site into some waste ground. It would be a long way to go to find my nearest waste ground now and not practical when in damp weather in summer I am checking twice a day.

I cut them in half, which is a quick death for them and harms no birds. But I still feel guilty. I did hear about laying down bran which, when I first read about sounded if it killed them, which sounds a horrid death. However, something I read recently made it sound as if it filled them up.......

Grateful for London Transport

Yesterday I had a day off and went to Saffron Walden for a visit to the Fry Gallery to look at the Edward Bawden pictures.

This meant getting to Tottenham Hale to get the Cambridge train (two trains an hour), getting off at Audley End. At first sight the list of buses on the poster at the bus stop at the station looked very promising. However, looking more closely, most of the buses run very infrequenhtly eg only Tuesdays, or only during the school term. So I suppose it was lucky I had only a 25 minute wait. It was a large mini bus I caught with a cheerful, friendly driver, which was nice.

After visiting the gallery and 3 charity shops, not finding a vegetarian cafe (I'm vegan) or a pub that would do basic pub food (so I could have something like chips) I then waited for a bus back to the station. There was a bus that ran once a day during school term, but that didn't turn up. The once-an-hour bus turned up 10 minutes late so I waited 50 minutes for the bus and just missed a train.

It took me 2 1/2 hours to get there and 2 3/4 hours to get back.

I enjoyed my day off, but am glad that I can get round London so easily and don't need a car.

Chilly June Sunday

There were very cool mornings this week, but today there has been a almost chilly wind keeping the temperature down all day (it's now 4 pm). I went on a bike ride but, instead of going all the way to Limehouse as planned, kept it short.

Peddling back along the Leabridge Road I did see an egret wading in the overflow channel that runs underneath. I've seen one before, flying over me when I was kayaking down the old River Lea between Stonebridge and Tottenham, but it was still exciting. I am told you can often see them on the reservoirs.

I wanted to put out my climbing french beans (the 4 that have germinated!) and my courgettes but decided it would be too much of a shock for them.

I planned to put together my hammock stand, but as it wasn't nice enough to then test it out couldn't summon the energy.

Starting the woodpile for next winter

My carpenter neighbour has left 5 bags of offcuts on the doorstep this week. I will have to chuck out the bits with paint and varnish on (bad for the flue and bad for the plants I use the wood ash on). But I expect to get 3 bags out of it. Then where to store it until the log store is delivered and built.

water butts empty!

Both water butts are now empty. Very grateful for an outside tap.

By turning on the stop cock in the outside lavatory before using the washing machine (which is in the conservatory) and closing it afterwards through the winter has meant the pipe outside hasn't bust. Nuisance doing it but ultimately worth the effort.

3 June - May at last!

Yesterday I put out my runner beans and tomatoes into the garden - jobs I normally do in May.

Usually the love-in-the-mist grows like a weed in my garden, this year I had very few, and most of those were where the beans were to go, so up they came! Also very few swiss chard came up, and only one ruby chard which was on the edge of the runner bean bed. I tore off some leaves so they didn't provide a route for snails to reach the beans and hope, by keeping an eye on it, that I can keep it to goes to seed.

I haven't been able to use the metal and bean wigwams I bought as the ground was too dry. Next year I will have to try in late winter when hopefully the ground will be soft enough for me to press the centre stakes into the earth.

I used the green plastic slug collars round each of the beans. It is always a worry that I have trapped a snail, or more likely a slug inside the collar with the bean. This morning only two bean plants had nibbled leaves. One had the culprit - a snail - crawling on the slug collar!

I put some tomatillo seedlings into the seed pots the beans had come out of. And next weekend I will put out the climbing french beans.

This morning I had extra watering to do, but am looking forward to all the vegetables in a few months time!

Wildflower bonanza

Beautiful day today, and I cycled to Victoria Park. First time this year in short-sleeves (though I think the man sunbathing in Victoria Park in just a pair of skimpy trunks was showing off, it wasn't that warm!).

Natural stretches of wildflowers were mainly comfrey and sweet cicely. The long swathes of new wild flower meadow in Victoria Park were mainly red campion with some jack in the hedge.

There is a lot of giant hogweed about this year.

ash key carpet forecasts lots of weeding next year

The two ash trees at the bottom of my neighbours garden have lots of large bunches of ash keys.

I already have a carpet of them on the bottom half of the garden even though there are still masses still hanging from the trees.

I forecast next March and April I will be pulling up thousands and thousands of ash key seedlings!

Scavenging nettles and horse shit

Yesterday after getting the last bit of bedding on the rotary dryer I set off on my bike for my Sunday ride.

The last time I had been up near the riding stable I had passed some horse dung on the path and, remembering my father rushing out with his bucket and shovel every time he saw a horse pass the gate, felt it was rather a waste to ride on by. Yesterday I had thought to put in a strong plastic bag and a trowel in a saddlebag - just in case. To my surprise I found a heap of almost dry dung so shovelled it into the bag, not feeling too self conscious as walkers and cyclists passed.

This morning, again setting off late as I had taken some rugs to the laundrette, I had headed the same way as yesterday as the bit of the tow path on this route is wide and set back from the Navigation so not as affected by late morning crowds as the route to Victoria Park or Limehouse, Again I found some dung - fresher this time, so damper, heavier and smellier!

Near the car park at the end of Coppermill Lane is a long stretch of nettles. Not sure what is giving them the nourishment. It is possible that they cleared the stream running alongside the bottom of Coppermill Lane and dumped the dredgings there. Yesterday I picked the nettle tops (gardening gloves turned out not to be easy to use!) and filled my soya desert tub.

I then went to the Farmers Market in Walthamstow High Street and got some bread, sour dough white and medieval white, getting the stall holder to put them in my pannier (not the pannier with the horse shit in!). Usually I then go home by road, but felt as it was so late the roads would be busy and unpleasant so retraced my route to the cattle creep and then went across to the Navigation and headed home.

At home I cut up dried apricots and half filled a jar, adding plenty of nettles and then filling with half vodka and half water to make a tonic (this from "A year with James Wong" the book of the second series of "Grow your own drugs"). It will be ready in 2 weeks and will keep in the fridge for 6 months, so will not keep to be an early spring tonic next year.

I also tidied the shed and gave the "chelsea chop" to the geranium. Today has been busy too, so it feels a nice long time since I left work on Friday evening - I like that feeling!

Bedtime now summertime!

As today looked set to be a nice, dry day, I took the opportunity to strip the bed right down to the mattress.

In the past I have had to do the annual washing of the bedding over several days, but my new washing machine has a 20 minute quick wash for stuff that is not soiled, so I thought I could get it all over and done with in one day.

In my machine I had to wash in relays:
1. the duvet cover
2. both mattress toppers (one the original one, one the padded one I got when the springs of my old mattress started making themselves felt)
3. the memory foam mattress topper cover (which is still ever so slightly damp so not yet put back - I am not looking forward to this task!)
4. the fleecy underblanket

I took the duvet inside and the sleeping bag  I have spread out under the fleecy underblanket* to the laundrette; the duvet overflowing the shopping trolley and the sleeping bag balanced on top.

We have fewer laundrettes than we used to. I am lucky, my nearest laundrette is round the corner - except it was closed! So I had to come back for an internet search to find the next nearest was in the High Road.

Then everything was put on the rotary dryer for the sun and breeze to work their magic.

I still have the coverlet to do, but very pleased to get this job almost done for this year.

* In winter I don't add anything on top of me, I add it all underneath me.

Finding space for sweet potatoes

A box of sweet potato "slips" from the Organic Gardening catalogue arrived at work this week. I had forgotten I had ordered them last autumn!

I have to grow them in pots for a few weeks before planting them out by mid June (so they've arrived just in time!). They seem to be fairly slug resistant which will be a good thing in my garden!

Sweet potatoes last longer in the larder than potatoes do, and add a lovely flavour to a stew.

Sunday in the garden

Yesterday I had a long session in the garden. It was dry and breezy. Excellent day for getting my winter bedding washed and dry. Unfortunately the evening before I had checked accuweather website for the weather forecast which was predicting a lot of rain between Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon!

The ground on the flower bed where I dug 2 holes to put in my scabious plants was very dry despite the rain we have had the last fortnight or so.

There was a crow in my neighbour Dorothy's buddleia bush breaking off twigs for a nest. A little while later the crow and its mate where in my other neighbour's ash tree screaming at a cat climbing. The cat retreated, coming backwards down the treet The leaves are still young in that ash tree, and the one beside it, so not a great deal of cover, and I can't see any sign of a nest so don't know what the crows were trying to protect!

Nigella (love-in-the-mist) seeds in bread

If I am early at Kings Cross I take a detour to St Pancras before walking to my osteopath in Caledonian Road. There is a stall which sells lovely bread. This morning I got one with potato flour which also had nigella (love-in-the-mist) seeds in it. If you can have poppy seeds in bread and cakes, why not nigella?

I usually have masses of love-in-the-mist but this year, perhaps due to the long winter, I don't have much in the garden at all, so won't have spare to try in a loaf. Not too disappointed, as I can't taste the seeds in the bread so would only be using them as seeds are good nutritionally.

Rain stops play (gardening)

I did a bit of weeding late this afternoon, and put my runner bean seeds and courgette seeds in pots before rain drive me indoors.

I've done my usual trick of ordering far more vegetable seeds than I have room for, and will start squeezing in a row of this and a patch of that tomorrow, if the rain holds off.

Weather or foxes tipping things over in the garden?

This morning I found what had been a full can of water on its side. I suspect foxes. One of the plum tree pots was also on its side. I suspect wind.

This morning in the office I nearly put a coat on mid-morning as I was feeling a little chilly!

Not very long ago they were forecasting a dry May, now they are forecasting a wet one!

Last weekend I was planning this weekend to get a load of bedding washed. The duvet and the sleeping bag (I have it opened under the bottom sheet) at the laundrette, the duvet cover, the fleecy under blanket, the mattress topper and the blanket that goes on top on the topper in the washing machine. All dried in the sun before being put back on the bed in the evening. That is going to have to wait a while!

Marigolds for whitefly

Spent the day with my friend in south London. We went to the county fair in Morden - a very suburban county fair (not like the Royal Cornwall of my childhood!) but nice in the sunshine and the demonstration with suffolk punches (horses) was interesting. From over 300,000 before the first world war their numbers plummeted over the decades, but recently have built up to over 500. They are as rare as pandas!

To the garden centre on the way back and I got some marigolds for the conservatory to ward off white fly.

I also got a pot of bidens. This is a yellow trailing plant. Some years ago I got a pink metal watering can which had a slight leak. I've just got round to drilling some holes in it to use as a pot and wanted something trailing. I wasn't able to find a trailing tomato.

Lower Leyton Lammas Lands: beating the bounds

Today I went to help beat the bounds of the Leyton Lammas Lands. I did the first bit, the southern section. This is usually done second, so I hadn't done it before. It is the most accessible section for pushchairs, people relying on walking sticks, etc, so they decided to do it first this year. Others went on to do the upper section which would involve fence climbing.

Large group of us ambling along in the sunshine, learning a bit of history, bumping the heads of two youngsters at strategic points. A lot of people there that I know slightly.

One section, that used to be a pitch and putt, that was used for camping over the Olympics, is going to be closed off and the Lea Valley Authority are going to build holiday cabins there. The Authority has allowed lots of bits of encrouchment over the years - which is why these annual walks are so important. At the end of the walk we were asked to use our local open spaces - use it or lose it!

I did have a photo. Recently I couldn't get a photo from my computer to my blog. I can't get this photo from my camera to the computer! I might have another go later.

Hammock stands: from metal to bamboo

When I went to lie in my hammock recently I nearly fell out as the metal frame had started to rust and one angle had nearly rusted through. I left the metal bits out on the path Tuesday evening and they had been taken away when I came home from work this evening (Friday).

I ordered a new frame where the struts are bamboo. This is supposed to be easy to take up and down so I can bring it in when rain is forecast and during the winter so hopefully it will last and last. It arrived at work today and I got one of the metal bases home. It came in two parcels, the long, thin and very heavy one I haven't opened yet. I am hoping there are more than 2 long bits in it, as half the weight of the parcel will be too heavy for me to get home on the tube, especially the bits between work and the tube, between the tube and the bus station, and between the bus stop and home.

This time of year it is nice to lie out on in on a warm evening. Later in the year when my neighbours' ash tree is in leaf I can have an early afternoon nap in the shade.

Sometimes thre greenest thing is to do next to nothing, and reading and napping in a hammock is a nice way to do that. A nap on the bed with the cats beside me is nice too; except cats aren't very green!

Town communities/city communities

I had a day out to Lewes in Suffolk today, seeing lambs in the fields on the way down by train (country in the country, rather than country in the city!).

I went to take in a doll and two teddy bears to be cleaned and mended at the shop in the high street - www.suepearson.co.uk. It seems White Ted will emerge much cleaner than he is now, but not his original white. So he is probably destined for the bin when I die, but I'll enjoy him in his improved state in the meantime. Ugly (my father's choice of name reflecting his opinion of his looks and I, too young to know the meaning of the word, liked the sound of it) similarly will be much improved but not great. So not really being green, as I wouldn't be buying replacements, but it has been something I've been meaning to do for a while. And I am helping local craftspeople, even if not local to me!

It was interesting to see the number of notices for local events everywhere, several shops would have half a dozen or more. Here in Leyton there is just a notice or two in the newsagent, and the bookshop in the mall in Walthamstow High Street has a few, but there is not that feel of local community activity here in the city that I sensed in Lewes.

Friendly fox follows me round the garden

Yesterday afternoon I was weeding in the garden and a fox kept me company.

She often came as close as 4 feet away from me, and several times sat and watched me from about 10 feet away. Most of the cats who visit my garden are more timid than she was.

We didn't get the rain forecast for this morning, so I watered the pots and where I have sown stuff this evening.

Still getting a little frost in the mornings, so putting off sowing anything else for a week or two.

Community hub people

There are some people who are community hub people. My friends Bill and Maureen Measure are two of these. If I meet someone in the borough and we are trying to work out where we have met before, then I ask them if they know Bill and Maureen. Often the answer is yes, and it is at one of their parties we have met.

I first met Bill and Maureen through the local Green Party, but more often now I meet them at meetings that the local history group that Bill set up has organised.

At Bill's birthday party yesterday, I met Steve and Jean from the local Green Party, Laurie, who I meet at various public meetings, Dee-anna (spelling?) whom I met for the first time at a workshop the day before, Vi whom I've met at local history club events, and several people I met (again) at their Christmas/New Year party. And this was a small party as Bill and Maureen had been away. Normally I meet more people I know at their house.

They are special people.

Buying tomato plants taste blind

This morning I was at B&Q Leytonstone High Road to buy some tomato plants. The "Heritage Tomato" "Tigerella" is, according to the label: "heavy cropping variety produces small red and yellow striped early ripening fruits throughout the summer""

Spot the important bit of information missing: what the tomatoes taste of! Which I'd have loved to have known before I brought them. But then it was the only variety on display, so I didn't have any choice!

We are fobbed off with tasteless vegetables in the supermarket, and now in nurseries and garden centres, etc.

Two years ago I was at a garden centre hoping to buy strawberries and there was a selection of 5 different varieties. The labels for each variety mentioned the colour of the flowers, but not what the strawberries would taste of.

Even quite a few of the descriptions of vegetables and fruit in the Organic Gardening Catalogue don't mention taste, but some do and I choose one of those.

Unfortunately, as I am mean on heating my house, growing tomatoes from seed is not practical. For a few years I grew them on a window ledge beside my desk. But the new offices don't have suitable window ledges.

I just want the tomatoes I grow to taste of tomatoes. Time will tell.

I've potted them up into bigger pots and put them in the conservatory until May.

Trying to get my compost wet

I have black plastic compost bins that I got cheap from the council. They get quite a bit of sun, which is a shame as I'd prefer the vegetables to get that. But the shadiest bit of the garden is by the house (and on concrete).

The the compost dries out and is bone dry at the moment.

The weather forecast today was for rain in the afternoon so I took the lids off. We did have one very heavy shower, with rolls of thunder, but not enough to penetrate. I'll be leaving the lids off for a while longer, though significant rain not forecast until Monday. And the weather forecast, and the weather, could change a lot by then!

Walking and talking with the Walking Book Club

I recently found out about the Walking Book Club www.emilybooks.wordpress.com/the-walking-book-club  and went for my first walk today.

We started off from Daunt Bookshop in South End Road in Hampstead. The Book was Mr Pye by Melvyn Peake. Not keen on the book, but enjoyed the discussion, the people and the walk on the Heath in the sunshine.

I also saw male brimstone butterflies fluttering about.

Plan to go again. Next month's book is "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim, which I already have and will enjoy reading again.

Emily, our leader, encourages us to use independent bookshops and libraries to get our copies of the books each month.  I hope to do this, though not easy as no independent bookshop near home or work (except the bookshop at work, but they are bad at checking delivery against the order so if the book doesn't arrive it is not chased up promptly!).

Waxwings wrongly identified

A few weeks ago there were over a dozen birds on one of the cherry trees up the road from me. With there red crests I thought they were descendants of some escaped cage birds, like parakeets.

I've just seen a picture of a waxwing. They were waxwings. Waxwings in Leyton!

Will insects mean plums this year?

Despite a cold start both yesterday and today, we had what seems to be - at last - the start of spring. A lovely day. I saw a couple of bees and a butterfly (a tortoiseshell or a comma, flying to fast to see which). So hopefully some of my plum blossom got cross pollinated.

Almost springlike, while I plan for next winter

It was sunny this morning and the weather forecast good, so I hung the washing on the line, first time this year. As this was before 9 am in the morning my hands got cold. But washing almost dry now and I hope it will be completely dry when I go to bring it in.

Last of the logs from the log pile were brought in last weekend; not quite used up yet. Have some offcuts so, if weather does get warmer, then I should have enough.

Darrell at the kayaking club is planning to cut down his greengage tree (he gets only about a dozen greengages every other year) and says he will bring round the wood for my stove. This will then be stored for winter 2014/15

Trying to decide which wood store to get. Will then have to co-ordinate delivery with having Michael, my handyman, here as I don't think, with my back, I ought to risk carrying the bits through the house by myself.  I have several tasks for Michael, so I could have him here doing little jobs. If the store comes early he brings it through and puts it up. If it comes late, he brings it through and comes back another time to put it up.

I have to co-ordinate a day off as well.

Spring coming slowly

Cycle ride this morning in the sunshine (it's trying to snow now!).

I saw:
gorse starting to come into flower
pussy willow, some just bursting from the buds, others covered in yellow pollen
dandelions (one clump in seed)
daisies
blackthorn in bud
colts foot

One of the trees full of catkins I think was an alder (if my memory of the bark pattern I've just checked in my tree book). Alder is supposed to be attractive to woodworm. The idea is you put bits of alder around furniture in the Spring and the woodworm moth lays its eggs in alder rather than the furniture. Then in the summer you burn the alder. Very useful if you get second hand furniture.

Country living n the 1790s

I have just finished reading "The Cottage Garden Diaries: My year in the Eighteenth Century" by Fiona J Houston.

Fiona spent a year living as a school master's wife in the 1790s. She was mainly inspired by her fury at the machinations of supermarkets, who care  little for the nutritional value of the food they sell, its environmental impact and the survival of the poor people who farm the crops. But she was interested in history and how people lived before the industrial revolution, and also concerned how we would survive without the oil we currently rely on.

I got it in a charity shop, but it seems still to be available on the Internet. Being interested in history, having enjoyed the BBC2 programmes set in farms of different periods, also being interested in recipes and tips that would help green and country living in the city it immediately appealed. (I didn't know of Fiona's green interests until I started reading the book.)

I enjoyed the book and found it very interesting. I will have to go back through the book to see if any of the recipes I might actually get round to trying.

Living a year in the 1790s made Fiona really appreciate electricity for heating, light, freezing food, for music, but now back in the 21st century she has changed what she does to be greener - eating locally produced food no longer flying and restricting how much she uses the car, for instance.
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http://thisbluemarble.com/showthread.php?t=33686

Cycling in the snow

This morning out on my bike while the snow was falling, though by 9 am it was no longer settling and the snow that had already fallen was beginning to melt.

The problem was the big puddles of melted snow at the edges of the Leabridge Road. A car or bus went through one of those and a wave of muddy water up to 2 feet high came right over the pavement. I was slowing down and speeding up to avoid passing one of those puddles at the same time as a car. Luckily there wasn't so much traffic along there as usual at that time of a Saturday morning.

Can't moan too much about being out in the cold on my bike instead of nice and warm inside a car as I then spent 2 and a half hours kayaking! Saw a wren bobbing about at the side of the Navigation in Hackney Wick.

plums this year if weather is kind

Out in my garden in a space between showers this morning and found both my plum trees in flower so a chance of cross pollination IF London doesn't get the cold spell forecast for the next few weeks.

Last year I had one plum tree in flower and the other with not a single blossom, so fingers crossed for plums this year!

Daffodils: pick for the house or let them stay in the garden?

I went up to Chingford to meet friends for a trip out. When I got off the bus I went and brought 2 bunches of British daffodils for a £1 a bunch* (last of the big spenders!) for Debbie, who wouldn't be joining us on the trip.

The daffodil buds were still tight in their sheaths , but I hope they will open slowly and give Debbie a lot of pleasure. I certainly enjoyed the daffodils I brought home from my allotment when I lived in a flat.

I picked them when the buds were just bursting through the sheaths and put them in my unheated bedroom. They took a week to open and then lasted ages, and for several weeks a vase with a new bunch was added each weekend.

I really enjoyed seeming them each morning. The worst the weather the more they cheered me up!

Now I have a house and a garden I can see my daffodils from my bedroom window and so I don't like to pick them to bring them indoors, though I missing them in the house.

My previous cats used to eat plants and then be sick, my current ones knock them over. So I have to put any flowers in the conservatory outside my dining room window where  can see them from the dining room table, so not quite the same effect!

This year I don't think I am going to have many daffodils in the garden, though I do have the miniature ones out under the neighbours' ash tree.

* How much money can the farmers get, and the people who pick the daffodils get, if they end up in a London shop for a £1 a bunch?

We need some old-fashioned country preparedness!

Kent and Essex have had several inches of snow resulting in lots of trapped motorists. The Red Cross has been out taking food, drink and blankets to the stranded drivers.

Why don't people have these basic supplies in their cars in winter as a matter of course? Even more so when the weather forecast is threatening snow!

My father had "town and country" tyres on and took great pride on being able to get up any slope he needed to in any conditions - though in West Cornwall this was more likely to be mud than snow! He also in winter had a shovel and some sacking to put under the wheels.

Nowadays every one ready to blame the highways agency and the councils but not ready to take any responsibility for themselves. I would like to think it was just urbanites, but suspect nowadays most of those living in the country have lost the impetus to plan ahead to look after themselves and their families.

Middle-aged moan over. I feel better now!

Lesser spotted woodpecker spotted

Cycling to kayaking yesterday past when at the bottom of Marsh Lane I saw a slim bird fly from high up on one tree to high up on another. I immediately thought woodpecker, but it looked rather small. Would a lesser spotted woodpecker be that small?

Checked in my Collins bird guide when I got home, and yes it would.

Rather pleased with myself, a very amateur amateur birdwatcher, that I recognised the shape.

Hackney council reneging on their promise to protect Hackney marshes!

Last summer, before the Olympics, there was a music festival on Hackney Marshes that cut off the area for some time - not just the day of the event.

Public space becoming private space is not OK just because it is temporary.

In fact, the effects have been very long lasting with some of the cricket/football pitches still not usable. Don't play cricket or football myself but I think it is great to see people getting enjoyable exercise in the outdoors every weekend - and mixing with people they might otherwise not mix with.

After the event the Mayor of Hackney promised it wouldn't happen again.

But guess what! He wants to apply to be able to do it again! We don't have to worry - there's going to be a consultation!

To help or hinder a toad?

This evening as I came home from Leyton station I found a toad walking along the pavement of Francis Road, a side road with a mixture of shops and houses.

I presume a frog or toad on the move at this time of year is off to a pond to mate and knows where it is going, so best to leave well alone - unless crossing the road when I help it to the other side.

I couldn't have done much straight away anyway as I had my arms full of offcuts rescued from a skip.

I did wonder about getting a bucket when I got home, going out to find the toad again, and bring it to my garden with my pond and plenty of cover. However, I don't know whether the toad would be content to stay or rather struggle to make its way back to its home pond.

On this date in 2009 I recorded a butterfly flying past the window, either a tortoiseshell (called King Georges in Cornwall where I was brought up) or a comma.

One rook - it must be a crow?

Morning off today. Looked out the bedroom window to see a crow on the ash tree overhanging my garden. It was eating something, though I couldn't see what.

There is a saying:

If you see one rook, it's a crow
If you see lots of crows, they're rooks

It is true that one rook will be a crow, but lots of crows can be crows. Certainly on the playing fields etc down Marsh Lane and on various bits of open grass along side the Lee Navigation there are often large groups of crows.

I mean to check out this year whether this is seasonal - groups in winter, pairs in spring.

I read once that before street sanitation was introduced there would be crows scavenging the rubbish!

If you live in a city, you don't need a car

On the Guardian website today was an article from Joanna Moorhead who had given up the family car and doubted she would replace it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/06/live-city-dont-need-car

Most of the comments were about the London-centric nature of this article, most other cities don't have the public transport infrastructure that London does (and several South Londoners pointed out that South London doesn't either).

However, following the comments it showed that many (but not all) who claimed to need the car, or that the car was cheaper, were probably misleading themselves.

I once talked to someone from Gloucestershire who thought there was a lot of snobbery about cars in the countryside. He used the buses.  In Gloucestershire these were full of the elderly and children, whereas in London they were full of a wide range of people of all ages. He was once at a meeting and the person he was meeting found he was travelling by bus and was amazed, "But you are a manager!".

One of the options for those not owning a car but needing to use one was to hire one. However that only works for ex-car owners. If you have passed your test, don't get a car, then need to hire one a year later, are you going to be safe on the roads? That's why I've never driven since I passed my test 30 years ago!

Some clutter blocked, some clutter going

Two nice blue and white plates in the charity shop yesterday, I liked both, they were different from each other (I tend to avoid things matching) and from any I had got. BUT I have over a dozen blue and white dinner plates. I don't entertain often and haven't had more than 3 visitors needing dinner plates! So I resisted in the hope that someone buys them during the week and they aren't there next week!

(Did get another bangle - dark red, carved, to add to the collection, though!)

This morning I emptied out two shelves of a small cupboard. Three vases, one unused chocolate sundae set and a board game ready for the charity shop.

I also found several packets of paper napkins. Why so many? Unfortunately the ones I am not so keen on are the unopened ones so I can't take them to the charity shop. So, I'll use them as tissues instead.

Small steps but in the right direction!

Plastic bag causes a walk home

 The gears didn't seem to be fitting "home" properly as I cycled back from kayaking this morning. I used to have this problem with my old bike in any gear other than 5 so not happy but not surprised either.

I always stop my bike with the left pedal down, but need to start off with the left pedal up. When I stopped to use a crossing I tried to kick the pedal up it wouldn't go. I carried on cycling, hoping that when I got home I would be able to solve the problem myself. I am not very handy, so the likelihood would be no. All my plans for my half day off  this week were fading as I imagined myself having to take the bike in to be done  Not long after that I had no traction when peddling at all. Got off and spotted the plastic bag in the chain cogs.

If I had spotted it earlier it might have been easy to remove but it now looked firmly wedged. So I had to walk the rest of the way pushing the bike, thankful I had at least got half way home.

Luckily, with the help of a pair of pliers, I think I have got all the bag out. The light is a bit dim in my hall so won't know for sure until tomorrow when I will test the bike before loading it up to go to the club ready to help pack boats for a trip to the Lea Valley White Water Centre. Luckily I have a folding bike so can use that in an emergency.

Celandines out on the old River Lea between Tottenham and Walthamstow. Also saw a kingfisher - a flash of electric blue, but for sometime as it flew down the river and round the corner,

Rurbanites

Article in the Evening Standard today about a new book "The Rurbanite: Living in the Country without Leaving the City" by Alex Mitchell.

This book is for people with a passion for the countryside coupled with a reluctance to leave the city any time soon. It seems from the review to have a lot about fitting food growing into small spaces (does it take account of shade?!). Also it sounds as it covers how people are meeting together, becoming villages in the cities.

Sounds really interesting, so I will probably get it.

Will "Rurbanite" catch on?

Finding uses for manual knitting machines

Transition Leytonstone has been offered 2 manual knitting machines.

Ros Bedlow and I had a chat about what we could do with them. There is the option of finding a good home for one or both of them with someone who can make use of them.

I also suggested that we could have the machine at some event (eg one of the recycling ones held at the Hornbeam Centre), asking people to bring leftover wool, and we knit a blanket there and then. For Oxfam, if they still need them, or an animal shelter if not.

There are instructions, so we might be having a session when those interested can get together and learn how to use the machines.

I've also offered my loft to store them, as Ros's house is getting rather full of Transition stuff. We'd need to find someway of getting them to my house - she thinks they are a bit long to be successfully transported in a shopping trolley each. Then I would need Ros's help to hand them up to me while I was up the loft ladder.

I can remember my grandmother had one of these, so it will be a nostalgia kick to see one working again. I will try and resist adopting one myself - I already have a long list of craft projects to get through!

Vegetable book that takes account of shade

Permanent Publications are bringing out "Edible Perennial Gardening" by Anni Kelsy in n November, which seems ages to wait.

She has been experimenting with perennial vegetables, including growing some annual vegetables as perennial vegetables. She has undertaken many experiments, including most importantly for me personally, and for those trying to live a green and country living in an urban environment, growing these vegetables in SHADE!

Looking forward to reading this book.

The advantage of nothing to watch on catch-up tv

I used to have a small black and white television but I didn't get it replaced when digital came in. (So angry that digital, which uses so much energy, was introduced, when we need to be finding ways of saving energy!). I use the laptop to catch up television* and watch so much more. It used to be when I was out, I missed what was on television. When there was more than one thing on at the same time I chose one thing and missed the others. Now I can watch all that I used to miss, plus BBC4 (lots of good history programmes) and catch up on daytime radio. I have to be fussy though and things I would quite like to watch have to be given a miss - I just don't have the time.

I do however often do other things while I watch, including some paperwork and needlework.

Today I want to watch Time Team from 4 on Demand but they haven't got it up yet. It does mean, however, that I will get a newspaper pattern made for a waistcoat I am going to make out of a old thick wool jumper that got moth. I have been trying unsuccessfully to get this to felt up. It didn't work at high temperatures in the washing machine. This last week I put some pieces in a bucket and poured boiling water I had heated on the wood burning stove and let it soak, but without success. I plan to get out the good bits and make a patchwork out of them.

I have sellotaped sheets of newspaper together and will then make the pattern based on the bought paper pattern for the waistcoat I've just made from a tablecloth I got in a sale.

*Perhaps this uses more energy than a digital television?

Frosty beards and spring sunshine

Freezing fog this morning.

I cycled to my kayak club to help out on a half term session. The nearer I got to the Navigation the more frosty the twigs, plants and grass. I saw a cyclist with a curly beard - and the beard had frost on it. He looked like one of those explorers making for the north pole!

I was expecting to help with kayaking but we took the boys on a bike ride instead, doing the Limehouse Loop. At first I wished I'd remembered my fleece earband, but half way to Limehouse it was clear sky and sunny.

Again appreciated the new bridge over the Navigation allowing us to go under the Bow Road roundabout rather than risk our lives crossing it!

We were a little behind by the time we got to the Limehouse basin, but we took 5 minutes to go and actually look at the Thames before coming back along the Regents Canal beside the Mile End linear park. No sign of the turtles that I often see along there.

Just over 2 miles to go before we were back at base when Ahmed had a chain disaster on his bike. So we put him on the bike Anna was using, sent all the boys off with Eilish while Anna and I walked pushing our bikes. It could have happened at Limehouse with a 6 mile walk, it could have been a cold or damp day instead of lovely sunshine, and Anna and I might have had commitments in the afternoon we couldn't be late for. But luckily it was none of those things, and so didn't spoil a good morning.

We think it was a 12 mile ride.

Kestrels nesting about a mile from my home!

Really enjoyed the warm, sunny spring weather today!

The Friends of Epping Forest (www.friendsofeppingforest.org.uk) had a walk on Wanstead Flats to look at birds. It only took me half an hour to walk to the meeting point.

We saw a kestrel spending quite some time on the ground and then discovered it was gathering nesting materials to repair a nest. This was the highlight of the walk for me.

The site where the muster point for the police during the Olympics had been is looking pretty bad - standing water instead of turf. But the silver lining was all the gulls. Usually Tim, our guide, usually finds his groups not interested in gulls, but we were. There were many common gulls (though they aren't that common), quite a few black headed gulls (including 2 which already had their summer black heads), a couple of herring gulls and one lesser black backed gull.

We also saw a sky lark, flying high and singing. I have put my name down to help with the sky lark survey. The areas of rough grass and mown grass, including the football pitches, makes this a good area for sky lark nests, despite the disturbance by dogs running though the rough grass where the nests are hidden.

Wanstead Flats is the southern end of Epping Forest and a magnet for migratory birds, with April and August/September being good times to look. I am putting a note in my diary.

I am also joining the wren group, the local wildlife and conservation group. http://www.wrengroup.org.uk/

And then time in the garden this afternoon with signs of spring all around me. A good day!

Green drinks

Several green groups arrange a day of the month and a pub where local greens can gather and chat to other people with similar interests.

Transition Leytonstone meet on the 15th of the month. They have been meeting at the Rose and Crown, but that is so noisy and crowded on a Friday night that on Friday nights we will now meet at the Walnut Tree.

There were 7 of us in all, though one person left just as the last person arrived. Our conversation ranged over many topics, including the effect of the weather on our vegetable growing last year. I mentioned how my worms started working so late in the year that I thought they had died and how this would have been a relief from the responsibility of looking after them. Lesley admitted that she had let her worms free in the garden as she had found the responsibility too much!

There is a good range of beers and some draught cider, and cheap too.

And only a 25 minute walk home.

Don't cull the fox asleep in my garden!

Day off today and when I got home at lunch time there was a fox wandering around my garden. It is now curled up asleep near my pond.

I have had foxes asleep  in the garden in the summer before. Today it is cold, with small patches of snow still not melted, so I am surprised it wants to sleep in the open today.

The attack on another baby is putting foxes in danger of culling which would do no good at all. Foxes control their own numbers, with the lead pair having the cubs and the number of cubs depending on death rates and amount of food available. In cities full of that dirty, wasteful pest, the human species, there is a lot of food so a high density of foxes. Kill foxes leaving the food source and the fox population will not decrease. This is what happened when councils were paying bounties to pest controllers years ago. it cost a lot and achieved nothing.

I wouldn't want a sudden wipe-out of all waste food which would mean a lot of hungry foxes, but a steady decrease of it would help reduce the number of foxes, and rats too.

I don't think a fox would never attack a baby, but the stories of the attacks we have heard in recent years don't seem logical. I did hear on the radio the other morning a young woman who had a fox attack her leg. I believed her, and wonder whether that is one that has been tamed and had then escaped or been let loose, otherwise why would a fox do that?

All those politicians thinking they can win support by damning the fox ought to be careful. We have the problem now of many people feeding foxes. Do they want pictures in the papers of tearful children because "their" fox has been murdered? The feeding of foxes will be a huge stumbling block in any attempt to reduce the food supply to reduce their numbers.

If only they had done something about our messy, wasteful habits years ago, instead of waiting till too late! But that is fairly typical of how society treats problems.

bikes v cars

The route between the kayak club and home takes me along Leabridge Road. On the way home this afternoon there was lots of traffic in both directions, stop, start; so I was going at least as fast on my bike.

But it was drizzling.  My feet had got cold kayaking and hadn't warmed up. I was thinking of my friend's car with its heated seats as I peddled away!

Tonight I have the wood burning stove lit downstairs and only a quilted waistcoat on over my jumper and I feel fine. No heating on upstairs yet, and if it stays as warm I won't need it.

Weather forecast tomorrow heavy rain or sleet. We shall see.....

Vintage not fashion

In Clapham today to see Hyde Park on Hudson with a friend. I was early so patrolling the street (so 4 books and one bangle at the Trinity Hospice charity shop) when I passed a vintage store with this lovely sign in the window:

Don't follow fashion
Buy something already out of date

Yeh!

snowdrops and snow in the diary

Noting the snowdrops I saw yesterday in a local graveyard in my perpetual diary I see that on 2 February 2008 snowdrops were already out in my garden (and there had been snow the day before). In 2009 on 2 February there was 6 inches of snow and no buses.

Today such a cold wind that I abandoned my cycle ride after a mile. My Sunday morning ride is supposed to be a pleasure not a penance!

My perpetual diary gets more interesting every year that passes - I wish I had started it earlier!

Scattered snail shells

I have a bay tree in a large pot. Whenever I find an empty snail shell in the garden I put it on the surface of the soil in the pot and now they cover the soil.

Every now and then the bay tree is blown over by the wind and I have to right it and put back fallen snail shells. This morning I had to lift up the bay tree and collect snail shells from 2 metres away. I think a cat (or perhaps a fox) has been playing with them.

On the way to the shops this afternoon I saw snowdrops in St John's churchyard - not in flower in my garden, though I have a few primroses and violets.

Snow notes

What you should be seeing below is a photo of the front of my house and my neighbours'*. I took it on Sunday just before it started snowing again when I went out to check the snow on the roof. I was pleased to see the snow on my roof was as thick as that on my neighbours'. Not quite a direct comparison, I suspect Piers and Charmaine had their heating on, whereas I rarely have the heating on in the morning, and never when I have windows open. I had 2 windows open til nearly 3 pm that day to air the house, though no sign of the condensation evaporating unfortunately.

Saturday we had tried sledging in our kayaks, but not enough snow to pick up any speed - and lots more children sledging as well. But lovely to see children enjoying themselves and parents playing with them.

Watched on i-player yesterday "Winterwatch: the Big Freeze 1962-3". I can remember the whole village where I lived in Cornwall sledging but not a prolonged period of snow. We lived in a village at the bottom of a steep hill. Two months of snow would have caused major problems! Frightening to think that even with our better insulated houses, more technologically advanced winter clothes and mobile phones, how badly we would all cope if it happened again.

It is in times of snow that I appreciate living in London, when most of the roads and lots of the pavements are gritted, the buses tend to run and most of the tube (especially the Victoria line) does as well.

I am wearing a base layer under my pyjamas which is keeping me much warmer at night, especially when I get up to go to the bathroom. This is something I must remember again next year.

*I uploaded it, It is there when I go into My photos but no sign of it with the other photos when I want to attach it to this blog!