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.