Feeling the lack of a car

In John Bird's column in the Big Issue this week he writes about the art of Richard Dadd. There is a new exhibition of this artist's work (paintings of fairies including "The Fairy Fellers Master-stroke") at Watts Gallery in Compton near Guildford. It seems that Compton doesn't have a railway station and the Watts Gallery website is not helpful to someone who would like to get there without a car.

There is a lot to see in London available by reasonable public transport, but there is an awful lot of interesting places that can only be seen if you have a car - or if you have a friend interested in visiting the same place as you who has a car.

I am very careful not to impose on my few car-owning friends - for friendship's sake as much as for using as little oil as possible. So will have to try to find a website with a few pictures of Dadd's to send a  link to my friend Hilda, who lives in Streatham, to see if she likes that type of art and would be interested in a visit.

Foxes hunting in my potting soil

Yesterday I had a day off and one of the (few) tasks completed was getting some potting soil for the strawberry planter ready for the time when my wild strawberry seedlings are finally ready to be transplanted from the seed tray.

I propped the bag of potting soil against the outside wall by the conservatory door.

This morning when I opened the curtains there were two young foxes playing over the pots near the house.

When I went out to pick soft fruit for my breakfast and to water the pots and the vegetables, I found the potting soil bag on the floor, ripped with a hole dug into it. Presumably the foxes smelt damp soil and thought there might be worms there, so worth a look.

Gathered elderflowers just in time for elderflower syrup

When kayaking on Sunday there seemed to be plenty of elderflowers still. I was on the old River Lea, so perhaps those trees were more shaded and the blooms were later than those on higher ground.

This morning on a day off I cycled out after breakfast to the Hackney Marshes. Lots of the bushes had blooms that were already turning to berries. Others had also been after the blooms (there were paths trampled round the bottom of lots of the bushes) so on some bushes the sprays within reach had already been taken.

I had to cycle further than I thought I would, but I got a few blooms here, a few blooms there, and so got the 15 I needed.

The elderflower champagne I made a few weeks ago are showing no sign of "working" so might not be getting the fizz. I hope it is just being slow to get going.

Lots of rain not necessarily good for little fish!

We had a long, heavy shower yesterday late afternoon. I had just got home, so was able to enjoy thinking of my garden getting the benefit. It rained hard enough to come through the canopy of my neighbours' overhanging ash tree. As we had missed the thunderstorms of the previous weekend it was especially good to get this rain.

At Leaside - my kayak club - this morning I found two little fish on the side. I hadn't seen any small fry yet this year, and these dead little fish, presumably swept along by the high water due to the rain and then left stranded when the water levels fell, were the first.

It was nice to see when paddling later this morning some tiny live fish - less than 2 cm long - in the old river below the weir south of Leabridge Road.  Further down the river by the exit to the storm drain two fellow paddlers saw a carp "this big". As they weren't fishermen perhaps I can believe it was two foot long!

First strawberry, red currants and courgette

I picked my first strawberry for this year on Wednesday, 17 June. This is later than usual as I expect to have had some by 13 June when traditionally my family ate them at my grandmother's birthday tea.

Today I cut my first courgette (early for me).

And also I had red currants on my breakfast cereal. One of my red currant bushes is full of ripe fruit, the other only a few feet away has small green berries.

Learning to crochet foiled again!

I could do very basic crochet when I was a teenager but didn't carry on. A few years ago I did a very good City Lit class but didn't practise soon enough after I finished the class.

Then a booklet from Waltham Forest Council popped through my door last week and one of the events inside was a two hour crochet class, as part of Adult Learners Week, at North Chingford library today - which was my day off. So I booked.

I left the house at 8.30 this morning to leave plenty of time for the 97 bus to get me to Chingford. The class was at 10.00. When I arrived I found there is no lavatory for public use at the library. The public lavatory next door to the library is permanently closed. I was told there was a community lavatory at the Pie and Mash shop past Tescos so off I went - to find the shop was not yet open.

I didn't stay for the class as I was not going to be able to last that long without a lavatory.

I have emailed to complain, asking that the write-up for other events at this library and other venues with the same problem should be clear there are no lavatory facilities so only locals attend.

Disappointed not to have the class and an almost wasted morning (did get some reading done on the bus!).

Supporting E17 Arts Trail through Stow Tellers

One of my interests is the oral tradition of storytelling. For the last 18 months I have been going to Stow Tellers events in Walthamstow Village, a half hour's walk from home.

This year Stowtellers have been involved in the E17 Arts Trail with several events at the cafe in the Old Station Yard near Wood Street station. I have participated in 2 of the events - the one for adults last Saturday when I told 2 stories and the one tonight on the Arabian Nights when I told one.

On Monday the regular monthly event was featured in the programme and there was a guest storyteller, Seema Anand, who was brilliant with a great energy and some lovely stories. There were a few stories from the floor so I was able to tell one.

As well as hearing and telling stories which I love, because it is local there are people I know in the audience. And then I meet people in the audience at events elsewhere. One of the people running the cafe used to be at the same Egyptian dance class as me - though I only recognised her when she told me where we had met!