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!