Woodpile empty of logs, off-cuts only left

I took in the last of the logs this morning. There have been so many slim bits of log that burn quickly that I've got through the pile quickly. The last two (admittedly mild) winters I have used about 15 bags (from an original delivery of 30), with off-cuts as well.

I noticed that the 20 bags I got this year filled up the wood store and didn't spill out on to the pallet in front - the small bits meant a tighter stack.

There is several weeks of off-cuts. I had a few weeks of getting quite a bit of wood from skips.

And of course I have the central heating and can afford to use it.

I am hoping I was unlucky this year, and will get better sized logs next year. This is my fourth log supplier (first disappeared, second supplied Surrey and London, but didn't really like delivering to East London especially someone who didn't have a driveway to dump the logs in) and the third, if it still exists, was so chaotic I wouldn't want to use them again). I would have problems finding another.

Winter has started

The first heavy frosts this winter in Leyton this week.

I had to go out for two mornings to take in one of the casserole dishes I use as a wildlife (and cat) water dish, leaving it in the conservatory to thaw, and take the other one outside. The third morning I found a huge chunk and fallen from the side of the dish in the conservatory, presumably the frost had found a weakness. Luckily it was mild(ish) that morning and the dish that had spent the night outside wasn't frozen. Though a fox had shat in it again!

I am two thirds through my wood pile and it is only the beginning of December. Luckily I have had some success with rescuing off-cuts from skips. Luckily also, of course, that I have central heating I can afford to run.

One morning I wore some wristies while I ate my breakfast as I needed that extra warmth.

Leaf mould and wood foraging

Because of back problems I didn't want to risk kayaking this morning but was able to be fairly active with Alexander Technique lie-downs every now and then.

I went up the road to get some plane tree leaves from round the corner for the front flower bed.

Just up the road was a skip, uncovered with quite a bit of wood in it. Most not suitable for a fire but a bit was that I took back and left outside the door while I carried on to gather my leaves.

All small bits - no substitute logs. And one wide bit, that would have been great for making a shelf for the large drawer I have. Unfortunately it is warped.

It was quick to get enough to fill the collapsible fabric bin I have. Because of pollution for cars I only use the leaves I gather from beside roads on the front bed. Their main purpose is to provide hibernation cover for beetles, toads, etc.

What did the squirrel bury?

Yesterday morning I was looking out of my bedroom window to see a squirrel bury something in the earth near the pond. It scampered away.

Within a couple of minutes there was one of the foxes digging up what the fox squirrel had buried and eating it!

What could it be?

Getting wood, getting wet

It rained last night and again while I was getting washed and dressed this morning.

I got ready to go kayaking prepared to make my decision whether to actually to go when it was time to leave. The rain had stopped so off I cycled.

The rain had obviously put people off coming kayaking as there were only 3 of us, but the weather got nicer and nicer and it was soon lovely and sunny.

On the way home I passed a skip with clean off-cuts in, so I stopped and put 3  x 18 inch (45 cm) lengths on top of the bag on top of my panniers. When I got home I changed into jeans and a fleece and took a small shopping trolley to rescue a few more bits.

Just as I started home again it started to rain. When I was half way home it was chucking it down. I am not a runner but I even ran the last bit down my road.

My socks, which had stayed dry kayaking, were now wet through, wetter even than my fleece and jeans!

I got enough off-cuts for at least 2 evenings burning.

Where the sweet chestnuts lurk

I had a day off today so I walked to the open space by Wanstead High Street as I thought there would be sweet chestnuts there. There were only 3 sweet chestnut trees and I only got 10 sweet chestnuts and those very small.

I met my handyman on the way back and he said I needed to go to Georges Fields where there are a lot - though not very big. Looking at the A-Z I think he means George Green by Wanstead Tube Station but don't know if I will get the time to go there this year.

Then again - I am unlikely to eat very many. Perhaps 10 are enough!

Late but autumn has arrived!

Yesterday evening I was at Stow Tellers, a story-telling (aural tradition) club in Walthamstow. The central heating wasn't on and I would have been glad if it had been.

I decided to wear bed socks to bed as I didn't want to wake up cold in the night and have problems getting to sleep again. Mentioning this to colleagues at work, a couple of them had also worn bed socks last night.

I've lit a fire in the wood burning stove for this first time this season.

With this morning's weather forecasts telling of cold weather approaching (though BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio London disagreed in which direction this cold weather was heading from) this morning I picked not just the ripe tomatoes but any that were even slightly orange. There are 10 green ones left - not enough for a green tomato chutney.

The leaves of my boston ivy on the back wall usually turn red and then the leaves drop off in August, very early. They have just turned red. Being driven around by friends on Saturday and Sunday the trees are still very green, with just one here and there with a yellowing tinge (probably the same species, but going past at speed I wasn't able to work out which it was).

Swiss chard resisting the slugs

I've read that slugs and snails are very bad this year due to the winter being mild and the summer not being particularly dry.

I have a clump of self sown swiss chard and there has been very little slug damage. I have found it easy this year to find leaves with no bits eaten at all.

There are plenty of slugs and snails elsewhere in the garden though!

Christmas and Spring in one day

I had a trip to Ely today (saw a kestrel and a buzzard from the train on the way) and saw a lot of Christmas stuff in the shops no longer hidden a bit away (and yesterday in Waitrose there were socks with Christmas designs on!).

On the way back to the station there were a group of domesticated ducks and one had two ducklings. Quite large but still yellow and fluffy!

sloe gin for 2019!

I cut from a magazine a receipe for sloe gin which doesn't use sugar (from Andy Hamilton "wild food expert and brewer"). I am to just fill a jar with them, cover with strong vodka and seal. Leave for six months. Strain. Leave for two years.

I am going to try it. But next year when I am harvesting sloes again, I won't know whether it is worth the wait! Or the year after that!

I pick my sloes in September. Books and magazines keep saying you should pick them after the first frosts but down here in London that is October or later. If I wait that long the sloes will either be shrivelled, have fallen off, or been picked by someone else.

I went today to open space near Kingsbury station (in north west London - Kingsbury is the station just north of Wembley). It looks as if it is old farm land. I easily got two soya dessert tubs of sloes.

The tubs are in the freezer compartment at the moment, but I intend to prick each sloe with a needle tomorrow evening as I listen to the radio, and then start the sloe gin.

Extra: Today I saw a weasal for possibly only the second time in my life. It ran across the path in front of my bike as I cycled up between the riding stable and the marshes.

I also saw what I think was a kestrel. This flew low over the path and then perched on a pylon. It looked rather grey, but the bird book shows grey underparts, so I think that the most likely bird.

What the robin knows

I have just finished reading What the robin knows by Jon Young which shows how birds reveal the secrets of the natural world to those who know their language.

In particular you learn the "baseline" calls and behaviour of birds in your area, the songs, the companion calls, territorial aggression and adolescent begging. so you can then spot the alarm calls (and alarm behaviour) and work out what is causing the alarm and where it is. The book is American based but the information is transferable to other environments.

We need a "sit" area we use regularly to learn the lessons from the book.

We are given guidance on "jungle etiquette" where our way of moving, including expanding our sphere of awareness and shrinking our sphere of disturbance, mean birds don't have to waste valuable energy when we move about.

My main sit area will have to be the garden, but there is also an area in Wick Wood, a small new growth wood near the Lea Navigation between the Leabridge Road and Old Ford Lock, I'd like to use also. The problem is it is too far for me to walk (I mean, I am capable of walking that distance (4/5 miles), and back again, but I'd never do it) so I would be cycling there.

There is no mention in the book of how disturbed birds are by cycles. I expect birds whose territory is by the towpath have cycles as part of their baseline environment, but I don't think many people cycle around the wood - I haven't seen another cyclist anytime I have been cycling round it.

I wouldn't want to chain the bike near the towpath and walk to my intended spot. I would be tense from worrying about my bike being stolen. And one of the ways of disturbing birds less is be relaxed oneself!

First ripe plum tomato!

Third September and I pick my first ripe plum tomato - and another one is ripening.

A colleague at work says she doesn't bother with plum tomatoes anymore as they take so long to ripen so it is not just me.

Though the only non plum tomato plant I have had ripe fruit a month after my friend Tony got ripe fruit on his plants - and it has been just 2 or 3 ripe tomatoes every week. And my first picking of beans was on bank holiday Monday - over a month after Tony started picking his.

And Tony lives in Chingford on the edge of London, so not benefiting much from the heat of the city.

Lots of off-cuts for the woodburning stove - but I regret the bits that got away!

Coming back from the shops on Saturday morning I was able to lay some off-cuts from a skip over the top of my shopping trolley. Then, when I reached the old factory where now artists live and work ,one of the big rubbish bins had off-cuts in, so I grabbed one piece - having no room for more.

Once there was some nice wood left outside the old factory and I went home with my trolley, unloading my stuff, going into my neighbour's with her stuff and unloading that, chatting to her, getting the cheque. Then 3/4 an hour later I went back up the road to find someone else had taken the wood.

This time it was down the road, quickly unloaded my shopping and back the road again - less than10 minutes. But the wood had gone! One of the bins was now closed and I couldn't open it. Did this bin still contain the wood?

However I did get one piece from another skip at the end of the road. There were long lengths of nice wood on the scaffolding on the house which the skip was outside. So this evening when I got home I went up to see what was in the skip - four good length pieces - nearly 3 evenings' worth of burning!

I checked the bin outside the factory just in case.

I've a lot of sawing up to do, but a good addition to my wood stash in one weekend.

But I still wish I had not missed out on those extra bits!

Kings Cross Skip Garden

A colleague at work organises a lunchtime walk most months. This month we went to the Kings Cross Skip garden. This is a little space behind Kings Cross with a lot of second hand stuff, not just used skips, made into a community garden.

As well as the herbs, vegetables and wild flowers, there are also beehives (which we didn't see) and chickens (which we did).

There were two chickens, one of which had wonderful markings. They reminded me of medieval floor tiles.

I don't have room for chickens.

If I did and I had a fox-proof shed and run for them, it would be very stressful when foxes were pacing around or sleeping in the sun on top of them! And if I could have hens I would feel I would have to take rescue chickens. But in my dreams I would have a couple of these chickens!

https://www.kingscross.co.uk/skip-garden

I've passed the chimney sweep test!

My woodburning stove had its annual maintenance this morning and my chimney was swept at the same time.

This is a little earlier than last year as Mark* said last time he was less busy in August and gets very busy afterwards.

He could tell from my soot that I had been burning dry wood. 

He knows from the messy soot stuck to his brushes when people have been burning wet wood. They always deny it! Other people use their fires as an incinerator and burn all sorts of things on it. They often try to burn dog or cat hair, but this doesn't burn easily, so that is brought down all sooty by the brush.

Every time I am arranging for my logs to be delivered I have wondered whether coppicing and pollarding is increasing to keep up with demand as more and more people get wood burning stoves. Mark says we could become like Germany where wood is becoming scarce and expensive.

On Wednesday coming back from kayaking I passed a skip up the road with a large piece of wood in it that looked clean and brought it home, but it wasn't until I saw it properly in the morning that I could see that it didn't have the greenish tinge that showed it had had wood preservative put on it. It should be 2 evening's burning once I've sawn it up.

*Mark Killick 07914 041813 (lives in Enfield)

Wildlife and cycling better in the city

I was chatting to 2 colleagues yesterday.

One loved wildlife, particularly birds, and had moved to the country mainly because of this. He said that generally he had seen a lot more birds when he was living in Hackney, especially on the marshes. He also hadn't been out on his bike since moving as he felt the country lanes were so dangerous. He found it frightening  enough driving past cyclists

The other colleague had moved to Lewes where the wildlife was not so good as in London (except for the slow worms in the Quaker meeting house garden). He had cycled almost daily when he lived in Walthamstow, but doesn't in Lewes, again because he felt it dangerous and unpleasant.

I know my friend who moved from Walthamstow to Sudbury in Suffolk has nice cycle routes near her as I have twice taken my folding bike on the train to Sudbury for a cycle ride with her. I'll have to check with her about the wildlife.

Harvest time!

My friend Tony has already started picking his runner beans - mine haven't even got flowers yet!

But I did pick my first tomato today (though all the rest are green so it will be a while before I pick my second).

The loganberries and the raspberries are over, as are the blackcurrants. But I am getting fruit from the second redcurrant bush for my breakfast supplemented by blackberries from my neighbour's overgrown garden.

Today I picked blackberries from Leyton Marshes and the crumble is in the oven as I type. Really large berries!

I got spring onions, carrots and leeks on tape from Thompson and Morgan. Disaster! Nothing at all has germinated.

I enjoy getting stuff to eat from my garden, but luckily I don't depend on it.

children temporarily wanted for outdoor nature activities

Even as a teenager I did not foresee my future as involving children. Coincidentally none of my friends have children either. At the moment I am feeling the lack of temporary access to children.

They would have to be the right type of children of course - interested in the outdoors and nature and crafts.

I've just got "Learning with nature" with lots of outdoor things to make or do. Some are bit outdoor-classroom-ish but many would be fun to do but I couldn't see myself doing as a adult on my own where I might be seen. I would be far too self-conscious!

Some would be possible with some other interested adults, especially some of the games, but I've got the wrong type of friends!

There are a few things I could do myself in the garden, and I plan to have a go at these.

I got a book last year on things to make outdoors and I saved various plastic containers to make snow castles and ice bricks, and feathers and acorns to make little snow birds - and London didn't have any snow! Fingers crossed for the coming year!

Snowy weather is great (as long as I am not trying to get anywhere) as it is a time when adults are allowed to be like children again.

Rain on me, little on the garden

There was some very light rain this morning, so I didn't water the pots (or pick any red currants, black currants, loganberries, raspberries and "wild" strawberries to have with my breakfast cereal).

There is a youth centre that was one of the old Essex County Cricket grounds near the bus stop and this morning there were 6 wood pigeons on the grass. Two of them were laying on their sides, every now and then opening the upper wing to get some of the rain on the on the underneath of the wing and the bit of the body usually protected by it.

The weather forecast I heard on the radio this morning had predicted rain this afternoon. And we had this at work (Euston). It had eased off by the time I stepped out of the building at 5 pm but had started up again before I reached the pavement!

I arrived at Walthamstow Central to find sunshine and dry pavements. It doesn't look as if we had any rain in the afternoon. It doesn't look like we will get any this evening either.

Scratched but happy!

Yesterday I was picking gooseberries from the only surviving bush in my neighbour's garden. I cleared back vegetation at the beginning of the year, but the bindweed was encroaching. However, the gooseberries were large due to all the rain, and I picked 1 1/4 kilograms from the bush.

My arms are scratched so I am using my comfrey cream on them.

I took half the gooseberries into the kayak club this morning to give to a friend, and made the rest into a crumble for me.

I still have my 4 bushes to pick but don't expect to get as much combined from them as I did from one bush yesterday.

When cycling along the Lea Navigation yesterday, and again to and from the kayak club today I passed people with binoculars and telescopes interested in the roofs of the houses by the pub between the club and Leabridge Road. On the way home today I asked what bird they were interested in. It was the rose finch, normally found in Easter Europe and Russia.

Scratched but happy!

Yesterday I was picking gooseberries from the only surviving bush in my neighbour's garden. I cleared back vegetation at the beginning of the year, but the bindweed was encroaching. However, the gooseberries were large due to all the rain, and I picked 1 1/4 kilograms from the bush.

My arms are scratched so I am using my comfrey cream on them.

I took half the gooseberries into the kayak club this morning to give to a friend, and made the rest into a crumble for me.

I still have my 4 bushes to pick but don't expect to get as much combined from them as I did from one bush yesterday.

When cycling along the Lea Navigation yesterday, and again to and from the kayak club today I passed people with binoculars and telescopes interested in the roofs of the houses by the pub between the club and Leabridge Road. On the way home today I asked what bird they were interested in. It was the rose finch, normally found in Easter Europe and Russia.

Scratched but happy!

Yesterday I was picking gooseberries from the only surviving bush in my neighbour's garden. I cleared back vegetation at the beginning of the year, but the bindweed was encroaching. However, the gooseberries were large due to all the rain, and I picked 1 1/4 kilograms from the bush.

My arms are scratched so I am using my comfrey cream on them.

I took half the gooseberries into the kayak club this morning to give to a friend, and made the rest into a crumble for me.

I still have my 4 bushes to pick but don't expect to get as much combined from them as I did from one bush yesterday.

When cycling along the Lea Navigation yesterday, and again to and from the kayak club today I passed people with binoculars and telescopes interested in the roofs of the houses by the pub between the club and Leabridge Road. On the way home today I asked what bird they were interested in. It was the rose finch, normally found in Easter Europe and Russia.

Fox and magpies - beginnings of an Aesop's fable

Yesterday morning I looked out of my bedroom window to see 3 of the family of 4 magpies on the cross struts of my bean poles pecking at the string holding the poles together. On the path, watching them intently, was a fox.

It immediately brought Aesop's fables to my mind!

Fox cubs 3 sunflower seedlings nil

On Monday evening I put some sunflower seedlings out in the garden putting some cut-off plastic bottles round them to protect from slugs.

Later that evening I looked out of the bedroom window to see a fox with 3 cubs. For the last fortnight I've only seen it with one.

The cubs were chasing each other round the garden, including along the back of the flower bed where I'd put most of the sunflowers. "Oh, dear," I thought.

Next morning I found all the sunflower seedlings in the flower bed had gone, but the 3 in the edges of the veg beds had survived both fox cubs and slugs. One seedling has gone since, but fingers crossed for 2.

Mysterious plants arrive

A bx of plants arrived from Thompson and Morgan. I could remember that I was due another delivery from them, but not what I had ordered.

They were plug plants, and I didn't recognise them. Were they vegetable or flowers, for the beds or for pots? There was nothing inside the box to say, and I couldn't find the catalogue to check all I had marked off to order.

I went to look to see if there was any reference number on the box label so I could phone Thompson & Morgan to ask, to find the label said what they were sweet potato plugs.

I tried these last year without success, and looking on a Thompson & Morgan website I didn't see anything in the description to enlighten me as to why I decided to try again.

I've put them 2 each to a large pot, which I will keep indoors for a week or two.

I did put out the courgettes in cut-off 5 litre water bottles to protect from slugs and, hopefully, the fox cubs, and the tomatoes in these bottomless pots with a well round the outside for watering - hopefully also protected from the cubs. However, if the foxes do decide to play in that vegetable bed, then the protection won't be enough!

Paying for carrying the logs

I had 20 bags of logs delivered today, paying for them to be carried through the house. As the way through the house and out through the conservatory has several kinks in it, and I have a dodgy back, I have in the past slit open the bags and carried the logs through in 2 goes (and the last time in 3). It has taken me ages.

Today I had logs through the house and stacked in under an hour.

New supplier. The bags seem lighter than the last load I had, and more small bits. It'll all burn though.

Listening for the sound of rain

Just listened on catch-up to "During wind and rain: a British history in weather" - episode 7 "rain" on BBC Radio 4.

The early section was about telling where you were by the sound the rain makes on what it is falling on, in particular quoting Thomas Hardy but also noting the sound of rain in modern urban landscapes.

I want to try to see if even my cloth years can tell the difference in sound when, for instance, rain falls on walls and when rain falls on a hedge.

I will get my chance too, tomorrow when rain is forecast.

I hope the morning stays dry, or at least not more drizzle, as I have logs being delivered. I am paying for them to be carried through the house, but then need to stack them.

Missing fox cubs

On Friday evening there were only 2 fox cubs playing in the garden - play fighting and chasing each other round and round. They looked as if they were having great fun, though I winced at the damage to my plants.

Then this morning (Sunday) there was only one cub.

What could be happening?

When there are 2 or 3 cubs they play together, when only one the adult plays with it.

Herb walk Walthamstow Marshes

Today was the third herb walk on the marshes, my second time of attending.

Colder than last month. I started off the day in a thin top, changed to a fleece, then added a vest, and popped on a zipped fleece just before I left the house.

We also didn't get as far, but still very interesting.

Will be watching out for plantain on any walks in case needed for a spit poultice for bites and stings.

I also intend soaking hawthorn berries in brandy later in the year for a heart tonic (reputed good for emotional upset as well as physically good for the heart).

At the Oxfam shop at the end of Walthamstow High Street, just over the road from the start of Coppermill Lane where there is our meeting place "The Mill", I found a long length of ecru coloured fabric. It is a loose weave and one one side feels very natural but on the other a bit synthetic. It was only £3.49. I am planning what to make - my first idea is a loose over top, two rectangles for the body and then a rectangle each for the sleeves.

Birds in spring

Today I have seen:

2 swans doing a courtship dance on the Lea Navigation (only seen this in photographs until this morning)
a sparrow feeding a young sparrow
Sparrows collecting the feathery bits from my neighbour's pampas grass
2 wood pigeons courting

I also saw swifts for the first time this year

Fox cubs in the garden.

The other day, looking out of my bedroom window I saw one adult cub and a fox cub playing in the garden.

Then yesterday I saw one adult fox, and 2 cubs playing together.

I am not sure where the den is, with the first sighting it seemed it might be under my neighbour's pampas grass. Often when I am gardening I hear a sound part cough, part grunt coming from there. However a new hole has appeared under the concrete by the autumn raspberries* which was by where the 2 cubs were playing yesterday.

Some years ago, 2 years running, my neighbour's rhubarb and potatoes were ruined by playing fox clubs - it is rather like having toddlers playing football in the garden but without the danger of broken windows.

Already there is a lot of flattened plants, including the tulips, and two foxgloves which have lost their flowering tips. Some of this might be the adult fox lying in the morning sunshine, but there is much more flattened bits than usual.

I got tomato plants and courgette plants yesterday. Too early to put them out, but am trying to think of ways to protect them from the foxes.

But I did enjoy watching them play!

* I cut these down in February but most of them don't seem to be growing again, and I don't think it is the layer of extra earth from the den-digging that's upset them.

Herby walk on the marshes

On Saturday I went on a herb walk on the Walthamstow Marshes. This is a monthly walk through the growing season looking to see what herbs are there and their uses and lore.

Led by Rasheeqa, a Walthamstow-based herbalist. www.hedgeherbs.co.uk.

I meant to go last month, the first walk of the year, but waited to see what the weather was likely to be and the walk was full by the time I emailed to book.

Saturday was sunny, though chilly, so I was glad of my layers.

We walked from the community centre, The Mill, in the old library at one end of Coppermill Lane, down to cattle creep at the other end, stopping to look at herbs on the way. Then under the cattle creep to the marshes, to the Navigation, along a bit over the marshes, back along the path to the car park at the end of Coppermill Lane, and then back to The Mill to finish.

It was a gentle, interesting walk and I learnt a lot. I wrote a lot of notes, but carefully circled anything I was likely to use. I extracted these notes when I got home. I plan to get some vegetable suet to make some balms.

Although we found no lemon balm, the walk did make me go out into the garden and pick some lemon balm leaves to make a (rather boring) tea.

The first plant we saw was herb robert and I have quite a bit of that in my garden. It is astringent, so will wait tummy trouble to give it a go!

real live dead badger!

This is not a post about living green and country in the city, as I was in Surrey at the time being driven for a day out with friends at Wakehurst.

But we passed a badger on the verge - my first seen in the flesh, so worthy of note to me. Unfortunately it was dead, presumably the victim of a car.

First bindweed and first rhubarb

Sunny day today, though cooler than yesterday.

I was able to have several hours in the garden.

Weeding some of the vegetable beds - mainly violets.
Emptying one of the perennial weed compost bins into the vegetable bed where the tomatoes and courgettes will be
Repotted the watercress as its plastic pot had started to break-up (and also repotted 2 amaryllis I'd missed when I'd done the others, and put the 3 apple blossom geraniums into bigger pots.

I found a bindweed just over the boundary in my neighbour's garden. Didn't expect it this early - bindweed likes to lull you into a false sense of security, making you think you have finally got rid of it, when up it pops!

Also picked enough rhubarb for a small crumble, which is cooking now as I type this.

Frog spawn not looking healthy

I have frog spawn in my pond, but 3/4 of it is black, so it doesn't look healthy!

Egret in the paddock

Yesterday I saw an egret in the paddock.

It was a lovely spring day, and I went for a cycle ride north of the Leabridge Road. I cycled back between the paddocks of the riding stables. I saw what I thought for an instant was a very large dove, then I realised it was an egret stalking the churned earth of one of the paddocks.

Mountain biking at the bottom of the lea valley in London

Leaside, my kayak club also does mountain biking. Six of us are doing our Mountain Bike Instructors Award Scheme Level 1 this weekend. Ian. our course tutor, is also being assessed so that Leaside can offer these courses in future.

The club is on the Lea, in Clapton (part of Hackney), facing the Walthamstow Marshes, with Leyton Marshes and then Hackney Marshes further south.

Rising behind the club is Springfield Park on the nearest hill to me. I am going to have to go there on my Saturday morning ride to practise getting up those steep paths!

Ian took us on a ride as if we were part of a group he was leading, but also explaining what he was doing. Interesting off muddy road bits - alongside paths I have often ridden along.

Not that I am likely to do that with my bike in wet weather - I don't clean my bike (though cleaning the club bike I had been out on today was part of the course!) so I don't like getting it muddy!

There were also lots of short sections of up or down cycling. Some muddy.

I never thought that "my" part of the Lea was surrounded by such good off-road cycling.

In the old days when I was young spotted woodpeckers were larger

I have just listened on i-player to Tweet of the day showcasing the greater spotted woodpecker, a "starling-sized bird".

I was brought up in a hamlet in Cornwall with a large garden. One of my memories is of seeing on several occasions a spotted woodpecker on the other size of the lawn. It was a bird larger than a starling, more magpie-sized. So, unless the lesser spotted woodpecker is larger than the greater spotted woodpecker(!), either my memory or Tweet of the day is wrong.

I know it must be my memory, but I feel it must be Tweet of the day!

Logs finished, luckily off-cuts remain

I will finish the last of my logs this weekend. Luckily I have scrounged enough off-cuts from skips and cut up enough pallets that I hope to be able to have the stove lit as often as I want to for the rest of the winter.

I got 30 bags of logs two years ago and used just over half of them, so I didn't buy any last year. I am a little surprised to have used up the logs so quicly when I only occasionally had the stove lit until Christmas.

Hopefully the February cold-snap that my friend Tony predicted (see my post of 23 January) won't happen, as that will use up the off-cuts too quickly.

At one point last Sunday night, when it was very windy, the flames were racing around the inside the stove so fast they weren't properly burning the log!

Buy expensive puncture-resistant tyre and get puncture 9 days later - but not tyre's fault

Last Friday week I went to the bike shop with a flat front tyre and got a new inner tube and a replacement tyre, the more expensive version of the Schwalbe puncture-resistant tyre, to match the one on the back wheel.

After kayaking today I am loading my bike and realise my front tyre is flat. Even though I only work on punctures at home, I do carry the tyre leavers and puncture kit, and the club, as it does mountain biking, has a stirrup pump.  So Klaus can then sort out the puncture without even taking the wheel off.

The puncture is quite a large hole and the cause is the rim tape which leaves cylindrical holes which traps the inner tube. Probably going over a bump did for it. Beate finds some gaffer tape in the workshop so we put a 6 inch (15 cm) strip in over the rim tape.

It survived the journey home, though I am a bit nervous about happening again.

Cold snap February, mild March, hot summer

My friend Tony is predicting a cold snap again next month, a mild March and a hot summer.

When professional forecasters can't get today's weather right a lot of the time, and the 3 months of freezing weather forecast in the autumn has, in the South East ,turned out to be a couple of cold days in December and a week of cold weather just now, why should I believe him?

Well this is the man who, execting a mild autmnn, sowed runner beans last October and got a crop!

Mistletoe in ash trees?

I went on a kayaking trip to the weirs around Shepperton yesterday (cold but dry, and I capsized once, luckily just at the end as my feet got really cold!).

On the way there we passed a roundabout with trees with mistletoe in them. They could have been ash trees.

I have a couple of times hung mistletoe on one of the overhanging branches of my neighbour's ash tree in the hopes that birds would eat the seeds and then rub their beaks on a branch. No luck so far and thought this because ash trees are not one of those listed in the books as having mistletoe. But if there's a chance I will try again.

Round my way the mistletoe is not marked as British which I presume means it is not.