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!