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!