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"!