Green and Country in the City 30 December

• Haven't done much of my to-do list this break (and I deliberately made it short so more achievable!) but I have done quite a bit of sawing of off-cuts of wood recently rescued from nearby skips.
• I made a felt reindeer Christmas tree ornament that was a free gift from Mollie Makes Craft magazine
• The weather had meant only 2 bike rides and 2 short walks this break. On Thursday, which was cold with blue sky, I went in a Friend's side car to High Beech and the Owl at Lippets Hill - both in Epping Forest.
• At High Beech we met a biker friend of Tony's he hadn't seen for 2 years and when we got back someone passing was a biker Tony hadn't seen for over 40 years. Bikers recognise the bike, and even if they don't, a bike is always an excuse to come over and start talking. I am always a bit dubious about talk of various "Communities" outside the local one, but bikers do seem to have one.
• I saw 2 discarded Christmas trees yesterday (30 December) and Valentines cards in Tescos and a local card shop. I can imagine someone buying a Valentines card early if it is really appropriate for your loved one's interests, but these were very ordinary ones. 

Green and country in the city 24 December

• I've often been hearing sparrows when I am out in the garden, sounding they were over the wall at the bottom of the garden, thought couldn't think where they could be as there were no bushes near enough (but I am bad at telling where sound comes from). Then on Saturday 16th there were 7 sparrows and one robin in the creeper coming over from my neighbours' on to my shed roof. I used to see them in the bushes in my neighbour's garden the other side, now cleared, so I was pleased to see them after all these months.
• The pussy willows on the banks of the Lee Navigation are showing tiny buds.
• I picked 3 rose buds from the bush in the front garden today and put into a vase on the mantelpiece amongst the Christmas cards.
• I've decanted my sloe gin.
• My back has been well enough to do a little bit of sawing up of off-cuts rescued from skips.
• I am making a decoration - a felt deer - I got free with a craft magazine. I hope to have it on the tree with the home-made decorations which stands on the chest of drawers on the landing before I put it away. I don't have Christmas things up for long. The door wreath and the robin cushions on the bed come out a week or two before the event but the Christmas trees are put up very close to Christmas - yesterday (Saturday 23rd) this year. I take them down on New Year's day as that's easiest on a day off.
• I have been responsible for the lost property box from our big event in August. I put out a 500 piece jig-saw for staff to complete so I could check it was all there before taking it to a charity shop. One colleague said I could count the pieces, but I ignored him! Lots of staff had a go. One of the cleaners did half an hour at the end of a couple of shifts. She is going to get one for her family at Christmas. It turns out it is missing 2 pieces. Despite this, a colleague who didn't have time to do much but enjoyed what she did, is taking it home to do at home. jig-saws are wonderful things, they can be done alone or with others and then taken apart and done again.  

Green and country in the city 10 December

• It snowed today and settled! Looks very wet though. Because of problem back didn't go kayaking. When snow thick enough we use the kayaks as sledges to come down the path on the slope of Springfield Park just behind the club. I think the snow was probably a little wet though. I'll find out from Beate when I got to Girls' Club tomorrow. Beate is like a kid when it comes to snow. Already melting now so unless we get a further fall won't be able to have the girls sledging which will be a shame. We don't get many chances to do it in London as we are so much warmer than the surrounding countryside.
• Wednesday found several long thin bits of Wood in a skip. One 8 foot long. Got them through the house into the conservatory but couldn't get the 8 foot one out of the conservatory into the garden so had to saw it in half first in the conservatory.
• I've bought several pots of honey from work for presents. They are from the hives on Friends House (where I work) roof. The bees mainly forage from Regents Park.
• Another load of stuff to charity shop - some from my sorting ready for my friend's visit next weekend and some lost property from an event at beginning of August.

Green and country in the city 3 December

It's been 3 weeks since my last post and I don't feel I have been doing very much green or country but thought I will record the few bits:

• I am doing a mini spring clean as I have a friend coming to stay the weekend before Christmas. I am a clutter bug who hates housework, she is allergic to dust and cat fluff! I am making an effort and tidying and dusting bits that haven't been sorted for years! Have got rid of a couple of dozen books to the charity shop (lots still 2 rows deep on the shelves but none on the floor at the moment!). Also some other bits chucked or gone to the charity shop. I would like this to continue next year.
• I put out the blackcurrants in the garden after decanting the blackcurrant gin. I did try cooking some with sugar and water but they weren't tasty enough. As I was closing the conservatory door a fox trotted down the garden path, across by the pond, to where I had put the black currants and ate them! How did it associate the smell with food?
• On Thursday 16 November it was so mild I didn't bother with any heating - but Friday morning the second heavy frost of the year! (No heating on this evening either.)
• Saturday 25 November there was no rush of cold air when I opened the bathroom window after my bath. There was a thin layer of ice on the wildlife water dish though.
• On Thursday 30 November when I opened the curtains there was no ice on next door's grass but pond looked odd so I went to check and there was some very thin ice on the pond and some thicker ice on the wildlife water bowl. I broke the ice. Later in the morning after bringing in some logs I checked the water bowl and the bits of ice had all frozen together.
• Recently in the mornings when I am in the garden I can hear sparrows. Don't know where they can be, with the ash tree one side and all the bushes the other gone. It sounds like it is coming from over the back but no likely bush that I can see. Nice to hear them though.
• Yesterday I had my first Christmas card (from my eldest brother, his wife and my nephew).
• Last week on my day off I was on the way to the post office and spotted a skip in the road parallel to mine. It had a lot of clean off-cuts so took an armful home, then went back with the trolley and got nearly 2 trolley loads. Most need sawing at least in half but my back is playing up so haven't sawed any.
• As well as the osteopath, I am taking ginger tablets (anti-inflammatory), using turmeric as much as possible, and tried some marigold tincture in water today. Like to use kitchen medicine.
• On 24 November there were some paper whites in bud in a flower bed by a University College London building behind work.
• Supposed to be a large moon tonight, but it's been overcast all day.

Green and country in the city 12 November

• Last weekend I spent visiting a friend who has recently moved to Wilton just outside Salisbury. Had a lift with mutual friends also visiting from Three Bridges (Crawley) as the trains from London to Salisbury last weekend were horrendous. So saw some countryside, in particular some kites which was very exciting - first time I can remember seeing them.
• Last week I had central heating on Monday evening when I came back from volunteering at the kayak club, but then not again till this evening. Thursday, yesterday and today I have had wood burning stove lit. Kept going out Thursday, went well yesterday, and is having to be watched carefully tonight.
• First frost Monday with thin ice on the wildlife water bowl. 
• First sighting of domestic Christmas decorations (Santa and sleigh in jelly bits on a window in my street).
• Made Christmas pudding liqueur today. Sugar and dried fruit in vodka with cinnamon. Recipe says leave for one month, then decant and it is ready to drink. I will have sip in a month's time, but expect to leave it for 3 months, decant (though I will try another sip) then leave for 9 months. All my other flavoured spirits have shown the need for patience to be worth the adding of the flavourings. (Recipe in Country Living Christmas but I left out the orange and used powdered cinnamon.)
• Found quite a few off-cuts in a skip coming back from meditation yesterday morning. Started sawing larger bits today. One flat bit took me even longer than usual.

Green & Country in the City 29 October

• Read in the Wren newsletter (Wren is a group for those with an interest in the history and plants and wildlife on Wanstead flats) that 3-corned leek can take over and is impossible to get rid of. So I will have to do my best to keep mine under control. Will try eating as much of it as I can. I am thinking of adding it to a nut butter - coconut oil, ground nuts, yeast extract and 3-cornered leek. Should be nice on toast!
• Planted out heather on Wednesday and today was planting tulips, including 3 sets of tulip bulbs that are supposed to naturalise. Supposed to plant tulips 20cm deep but I did them less than that and am hoping for the best.
• At work we had the first tasting of our kombucha which is made with a scoby (a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). It was ready on Tuesday but we waited til Friday as more of the team were in. It tasted of pickle water. It is supposed to be good for the digestion. It had grown another scoby. (The scoby is the team "pet" we got after our team away afternoon when we had time making tonics and teas with Rachel de Thample.)
• Condensation on the bathroom and bedroom window yesterday. My friend Tony said he had a frost in Chingford.
• There was a skip with some offcuts on the way home from Leyton station yesterday. Took a few pieces as I passed and went back for more. 
• Decanted black currant gin. One ordinary bottle and one little bottle.
• Hope to have time to make Christmas pudding liqueur with vodka, sugar spices, and dried fruit. It is supposed to be ready in a month. I will treat it like sloe gin and not decant for at least 3 months and then leave for at least 9 months more.

green and country in the city 20 October

• So we didn't get the forecast storm. I was at a Seasonal Alignment Day in Kew on Saturday and in Kew gardens in the afternoon. It was windy but not stormy so fine for walking round. Then very windy when I got up this morning, but wind had calmed a lot so I cycled off to kayaking. Wind died down some more and sun came out so an enjoyable paddle on the water.
• I got a white heather at the shop by Kew station. On my to-get list this year for some autumn food for insects.
• Plumber came for boiler maintenance on Wednesday. Afterwards put up thermal curtain which I had carefully sewn material on to one side. I had had to get rid of portiere rod as it had come out one side above the door and had replaced it with ordinary curtain rod. But new curtain too heavy and curtain hooks come out of curtain rings when I open door. Have taken off material (very quick - it had taken me ages to sew it on!) and will try just the thermal curtain and hope it is light enough. Not very attractive, but do need door curtain as I have wide door and panels are two panels wide and there is a gap. I had put some green sticky tape down the gaps, but it is not very attractive and keeps peeling at the edges.
• I always look to see what birds there are on the sports ground when I am waiting for the bus in the mornings. This autumn there have been a lot of what I think are herring gulls (right colouring but don't seem large enough - or is it my childhood memory that makes them seem large?). But the black-headed gulls hadn't been there until Friday when I saw two. 
• This autumn there have also been many more wood pigeons on the sports ground than usual(100-200 of them!). But rarely any feral pigeons. In the winter I don't see them on the sports ground in the mornings - but I do see them on roofs and pavements on the bus journey to the tube station. But in summer and autumn expect to see them on the sports ground, but most days none and only occasionally one or two. Not seen so many elsewhere either.
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Tonics and teas all in (half a) day's work

At work our team away days are half work and half play. As there was nothing we needed to work on that couldn't be done in the hourly fortnightly meeting, it was decided we would have half a day's play.

Although I really, really could have done with Tuesday afternoon at my computer trying to catch up on the backlog, I did enjoy our afternoon at the Skip Garden near Kings Cross.

We had a very nice vegetarian curry lunch followed by a session with Rachel de Thample based on her book "Tonics & teas". As well as chat and information, a chance to sample drinks, vegan cake and truffles, we made a flavoured vinegar (I made a sage, rosemary and thyme-flavoured one, all the herbs gathered from the Skip Garden) and a tea to drink (I did a basic elderflower and lemon but colleagues were making zen tea and women's balance tea amongst others). We also each had a copy of her book to take home.

I would recommend Rachel's book and attending any workshop of hers you can get to.

Sloe vodka

In my post last weekend I mentioned starting my sloe gin to the recipe that takes 2 1/2 years. Then I realised I should have used vodka!

I've put sugar in the jar and have been stirring that.

The weather has improved over the week, so today after a damp start it dried up nicely with some sunshine. I went to a park near Kingsbury in North East London. It was obviously once a farm with some hedges still surviving, only 15 minute walk from the tube station. There were plenty of sloes there and I quickly filled my tub.

The shoes were all large - much better than the ones on Leyton Marshes. Does this show the extra rain that West London gets.

I'll be pricking the sloes tonight, putting in a jar and then filling the jar with vodka.

Green and country in the city 17 September

It's been 3 weeks since my last post as I haven't done much with a green and country theme.

• I have been sewing some new material on to the thermal lining for my door curtain. I won't put it up yet. I have someone painting the outside of the house and he will need to get a ladder through, so thought best to wait till he has finished. And then I need a wood delivery and the boiler maintenance. (My hall is very cluttered, even without the bicycle!)
• 2nd September there were primroses out in my garden.
• Unexpected evening home Monday 4 September so I cut down tree parsley. It was 7 feet tall and 3 ft wide so taking up a lot of room, and I preferred the swiss chard leaves so only using the tree parsley leaves out of a sense of duty.
• A colleague had frost on the cars near where she lived in Essex on Friday morning (15 September. My beans are over, courgettes almost over and tomatoes getting blight, so not as worried as I would be some years. (Last year the tomatoes were very late so a frost about now would have meant losing half the crop.)
• Pulled my carrots yesterday - all 8 of them!
• Picked sloes yesterday. None by the path by the old Essex filter beds so only had those on the thicket on the east side of Leyton marches. Only those sloes on the south east corner had berries. The ones in easy reach by the path were very small (surprising considering the amount of rain we have had) but the ones to the south were bigger though I had to put my hand  into the thicket to reach them. Luckily only mildly scratched! They were damp so I spread them on kitchen towel in flan dishes and kept turning them. Today I pricked them all and put them in a kilner-style jar and poured vodka on them. I have to leave this for 6 months, decant and then wait for 2 years. I made some last year but it will be another 18 months before I know whether this method is worth the wait!
• Yesterday I went to two houses open as part of the Walthamstow Green Homes. 
• Yesterday I also went to the Repair Café in Leytonstone about a vintage office chair I have whose seat I have broken by standing on it. I didn't take the chair as it is heavy and not on casters. I am to email a picture of it to Nostalji Home Design so she can she whether she can do anything. However I have tried downloading the pictures from my phone, the first time on my new computer and it doesn't work - I press to download on to the PC on my camera but nothing pops up on the computer screen! Probably a simple solution to those in the know but I am an analogue girl in a digital world (words of a country music song).

Green and country in the city 20 August

• Asked a guy putting up a screen around lift that is going to be worked on if I could have the two little bits of wood he had just sawn off for my wood burning stove. I was overheard by his foreman/boss who has said he will bring in the wood they have - sawn up as well. I have said I had to get this home on the tube so hope ne doesn't bring in too much at once. Especially as I haven't got room under for storage as I have lost property from a recent big event under my desk (and a load more to come).
• Got a yard of thickish pine from skip on way to girls club, a 5ft length of skirting propped up against a wall down the road, and several bits out of a skip on my way home from the shops yesterday. And I've got them all sawn up!
• Day off this week, weather better tan forecast so did Parkland Walk from Highgate to Finsbury Park. Got a small totem mug from the RSPCA shop in Highgate which makes my 10th Totem item.
• Luckily I resisted temptation to get hare cushion from a catalogue for my bed, even though golden yellow background, as I already had one and two would mean it would be in danger of becoming a collection. In a week I've seen 2 other hare cushions, so good thing I nipped it in the bud!
• Posted an order to Sarah Raven - tulips (scented and they naturalise), Iceland poppies, anemones a self seeding camassia and a daisy (9-months flowering and it self-seeds). As just over £40 I will get some free tulip bulbs I won't have room for, so will have to find them a good home.
• Rain Thursday night. Friday morning out picking autumn raspberries for breakfast and catching snails late home to bed and found a frog sitting on the huge pile of stuff too tough for the compost heap behind the shed.

Green and country in the city 6 August

• Picked surviving plums - 6. But that's 6 more than I've had before!
• Two catalogues, both autumn ones but with large Christmas sections. (What's that to do with Green and country in the city? Well, it's a seasonal marker!)
• When we arrive at the canoe club on a Sunday this summer there is usually two swans with 6 cygnets. We have been watching them grow. They are now nearly as big as their parents. Today there were only 5 cygnets. Sad the brood survived when they were small and vulnerable and lost one when nearly full grown.
• Saw a comma in the garden - first for some weeks. Also a gate-keeper, a red admiral and a cabbage white. Also a moth but it was on a leaf by the fence so I could only see its underside.

Green and country in the city 30 July

• Got my first runner bean on Monday and a big handful today
• Also first tomato today - and others ripening. 
• Dug up one potato plant that had squeezed in from Dorothy's - must originally be from a plant at least 5 years old as Dorothy hadn't gardened for that long.
• I have moved a lot of pots over a week ago to make room for when Peter comes to paint the outside woodwork, etc, and today there was the frog that doesn't jump away in the wild strawberry pot again!

Green & Country in the City 23 July

• Last Saturday I got an enamel daisy necklace for £5 at a local charity shop. On Monday I wore it with a long, green, sleeveless, button-through dress and a yellow long-sleeved t-shirt. I got 5 compliments on the whole outfit and 3 more just for the necklace. Two of the compliments for the whole outfit were from colleagues in their early 20s, which I think good-going for someone my age!
• The wind with the thunderstorm on Tuesday night had one of the plum trees in pots over and it lost a few more plums. 
• Today able to kayak, go to the café, take a detour to pick blackberries and cut back stuff in the garden before a thunderstorm and then a hail storm. Compensation for the 30 minute walk to Tescos and the same back again in the rain yesterday afternoon!
• Getting a large handful of plump autumn raspberries each morning.

Green and country in the city 16 July

• Sunday evening found two tiny frogs in garden - and have seen several around the garden since, as well as the full-grown frogs.
• It rained hard Tuesday evening which was welcome on the garden. The rain on me walking back from Stowtellers (story-telling club) not so welcome as my pac-a-mac turns out not to be waterproof.
• Less insects in the garden around at the beginning of the week though they have picked up again now.
• Picked some large juicy blackberries yesterday and made a crumble.
• Klaus, a German friend, was saying it was drummed into him as a child to keep away from an unafraid fox, as that lack of fear a symptom of rabies. So he is really spooked by all the tame foxes in London!

Green and country in the city 9 July

• There has been a major second flowering of the wisteria - instead of the few late flowers I usually get. I've even seen insects on the flowers - they are supposed to be good for insects but have only ever seen an insect interested in my wisteria flowers once!
• Tuesday morning a fox was digging a hole in next door's (ex Dorothy's) lawn. Wednesday morning there was a magpie eating what looked like bread it had got from the hole.
• Two small holes dug by fence ex Dorothy's side - foxes looking for worms or want to dig a tunnel underneath? There is a gap between the fence and the back wall and they can get onto the back wall and walk along the backs of several gardens so they don't really need a tunnel.
• Wednesday lots of bumblebees and other insects on the lavender.
• Was thinking Leyton getting like Cornwall as, as well as the gulls on the youth centre field have several times had gulls flying above the garden, lower down than normal, crying that distinctive cry. However, visiting my mother this weekend, and I find that in Cornwall (Truro) the gulls walk on pavements. (Truro is not a seaside town.)
• I got a bright white bangle from a charity shop in Truro. I have several white ones that appear cream when put against white clothes. Hope this one can be worn with lots of things - then I will have to think about getting rid of the others  (to a charity shop).

Green and country in the city 2 July

Lovely to have had some rain for the garden - and nice weather - sunny, but not too hot - this weekend.

• Disturbing frogs a lot this year. This week there has been a frog in the top of the wild strawberry pot who is not disturbed when I am picking berries and checking there are not snails around the inside of the rim.
• The farmers 5-day forecast on Monday morning on radio 4 was completely different from the ordinary day's weather on the Today Programme about 10 minutes later. Was it going to rain that day or not?
• First thing Tuesday morning there were 2 fox cubs playing on the grass in the next door garden. Later there were 2 adults playing together (which I've never seen before) and the small cub. Then one adult played with the cub.
• Day off on Wednesday and after breakfast I was meditating. I felt what I thought were the tip of a cat's whiskers on my forearm - but it stayed the same pressure so I opened my eyes to find a thin, black and yellow caterpillar. I didn't know what plant it had come off so put in back on the blackcurrant bushes as I had been picking some blackcurrants to have with my breakfast.
• Picked blackcurrants to make blackcurrant gin but I forgot (again) to buy a bottle of gin from Tescos. Looked to see what I had left from previous years. I had enough - and 4 empty gin bottles for the recycling.
• Many more butterflies, bumble bees, other bees and other insects this year than I have had for several years which I am really pleased about. Yesterday there were 3 bumblebees on my lavender. Recent years I was lucky to have 3 bees in the whole garden. I did notice when I left Wanstead Meeting House after being one of the storytellers at a Leytonstone Arts Trail event that there were 12 bumblebees on the lavender in their front garden!

Green and country this week - 25 June

I have realised that these notes of being green and country in the city are mainly about wildlife rather than community, craft, food, etc. And it is the same again this week.

• The foxes are still bringing clothing into the garden.
• Tuesday morning there was a magpie flying from fence to wall over several gardens and back, cackling every time it was perched. Then it was on the end wall following a fox pecking at the fox's tail. Fox not bothered.
• Saturday morning magpies saw off two collar doves who wanted to settle on the fence.
• Tuesday after KAPAP there was a kestrel hovering over the sports field behind the VIth form college.
• Had to get a red admiral butterfly out of the photocopier room at work.
• My perennial sweet pea has flowered for the first time - I've had it several years.
• Got pots of african marigold, oregano, Garvina (first winter hardy gerbera variety),a yellow coreopsis and a scabiosa. I have had many more bees and other insects this year and want to make sure I have the flowering plants for the rest of the season.
• I saw two Egyptian geese when kayaking today and one had its wing extended - lovely blue section. I'd like to get a feather of that!

Birds in the garden

Delighted to see a great tit in the garden this morning.

When I first moved here I didn't see birds in the garden. Some would be in the ash tree that partly overhung it, often they flew over it.

Before I moved here I had an allotment where I used grow some sunflowers each year. I would be down working on the allotment while birds were taking the seeds from the sunflowers. I only ever had one self-sown sunflower. My first year here I had sunflowers and the first time I saw a bird on them was one finch on Christmas Day. The next year there were sunflower seedlings everywhere!

The past few years I have seen birds in the garden more and more frequently, though I put no food out for them. I don't encourage birds directly because of the amount of cats that use the garden.

I was worried that the clearing of my elderly ex-neighbour's garden might impact on the number of birds in mine as I have no shrubs. There has been the occasional magpie and wood pigeon. The sparrows were getting nesting material from the plumes of what's left of my neighbour's pampas grass.

But today there was the great tit. And then a group of 5 sparrows on the beanpoles.

One rook is a crow - not so!

This isn't exactly green and country in the city as it takes place in Great Dunmow a town in Essex (a very pretty little town too with a very good local museum).

I went there yesterday in my friend Tony's sidecar and we met up with our friend Tina in the carpark by the co-op. There was a rook there - it was definitely a rook and definitely on its own.

The saying is that lots of crows are rooks and one rook is a crow.

I don't know about the country but here in London you can definitely see large groups of crows. And now it seems one rook can really be one rook!

Green and country in the city 16 June

I had an update on my computer which upset my antivirus so I had to download it and then reinstall. Problems with reinstallation which meant I haven't been able to use my home computer for over 2 weeks, so one big update!

• Got French marigolds for conservatory - I find these most successful at keeping aphids out of the conservatory.
• My neighbour, Pat, says 4  fox cubs in her garden. She's only see one but Winston has seen 4. They are carried along the wall at the back by one of the parents. I've seen the adults with one cub since I spoke to Pat, but only the adults in my garden. The last few mornings I have found bits of clothing etc, probably used by the club to practise its prey-catching skills.
• Have got rid of 2 large scented leaved geraniums in conservatory as they were too big. Have taken one cutting, but I will cut this back every year. I do try to learn from my mistakes!
• The winds we have had recently have knocked over the plum trees in their pots - so a few more plums lost. Will it be yet another year with no ripe plums?
• My bird of paradise plant has 2 flowers this year!
• Been having early autumn raspberries, loganberries, wild strawberries, one ordinary strawberry, red currant (one bush just finishing) and blackcurrants (just starting) with my breakfast cereal every morning.
• Last Saturday got 4 lots of horse shit on my cycle ride for the compost.
• Only 14 gooseberries from the 3 plants in pots but enough from the little bush I have had for years for a large crumble and more to come.
• Wednesday evening at 9.40 pm saw what I am pretty sure was a bat flittering over the garden. I have quite a lot of evening primrose - not yet in flower - which is good for night insects, therefore good for bats. Want to find out what else is good for night insects too.
• There has been a comma butterfly in the garden all this week.
• There have been more bees in the garden than there have been for several years - is this because of what I have done, or that my next door neighbour's garden has been completely cleared so nothing for them there?

Green and country in the city 28 May

• Last Sunday there was a gull outside the changing rooms at Leaside eating an eel.
• This Sunday I saw a gull swoop down and grab a coot chick and swallow it(the chick) whilst in flight.
• Increase in bees in the garden this week - a few times there were 4 on the sage bush. Today two of the opium poppies had flowers open, One this morning had 3 hoverflies. Not up to the numbers of bees and other pollinators a few years ago, but better than recent years.
• Last Sunday I put out the tomatoes and the courgettes. Also the tree spinach and a meadowsweet.
• Swifts over the garden and martins over the Lea.
• First wild strawberry. Also berries from edible honeysuckle (not very sweet/tasty!)
• Sparrows still collecting the "fluff" from the pampas grass plumes
• Early autumn raspberries and red currants (the later from one bush - the other bush the berries are still small and green).  Having for breakfast.
• Bottled elderflower champagne. Did this after 5 days not 3, and also very hot - so strong yeasty smell!
• Got my wormery to the Transition Leytonstone community garden on a luggage trolley.

Green and country in the city notes 20 May

• There was a pair of foxes in my garden on Tuesday, both morning and evening. In the evening at the same time, there was a fox on the fence two gardens west.
• I got some thin strips of clean wood from the garden of my ex-neighbour.
• Wednesday I had off - not able to do all I would have liked due to rain. I put up workmate in the kitchen and sawed up three metre-length branches and all the strips of wood I rescued the day before.
• Today I went to the Transition Town Leytonstone community garden and offered the 2 wormeries I need a home for. They are interested so I now need to get them there.
• This morning the weather was sunny and warm and I went on a cycle ride. I have a badly bruised big toe so didn't try the hills of Springfield Park in case the peddling pressed my toe against my shoe. Instead I went down by the old river, over White Horse Bridge into the Olympic Park, along the old river there, then out on to the tow path by the Navigation and home.
• I took a slight detour to get elderflowers. Luckily despite the rain we have had the flower sprays both looked and felt dry. This evening I started off the elderflower champagne in a bucket on the dining room table.
• Saw some chives in a vegetable garden in full flower - no where near in my garden.
• Having last week mentioned lack of slugs and snails - I spoke too soon. Plenty since then (though not as many as usual after rain in my front garden).
• Got a nice brass necklace at a charity shop on Wednesday which I wore today. Also reading a book I got from another charity shop the same day - not sure whether I like it yet!

Green and country in the city notes 16 May

• The garden is now thankfully getting some rain. It is noticeable how few snails and slugs there are - presumably as the result of the dry spring. How long before showery days increase the populations?
• On Saturday I saw a magpie having a bath in the wildlife/cat water dish - such splashing!
• Saw a few sprays of elderflowers on Saturday. Today walking home from class saw several bushes with lots of flowers out. Got some lemons from Waitrose today and will get some white sugar tomorrow ready for a dry day when I can go and get some flower heads of elderflowers to make elderflower champagne.
• Saturday kayaking on the Lea Navigation towards Tottenham Lock. There was a heron on the towpath. A jogger approached. The heron just slowly walked out of the way.
• Occasionally disturbing frogs in the garden. There is at least one small one. Too big to be this year's, too small to be last year's. Presumably it is one from last year.
• Dorothy, my elderly neighbour (now in a home not knowing who I am) had a hanging basket outside her front door with a red geranium. In the last few years I had several goes at getting a cutting to root but luckily my last attempt succeeded. It was just had its first flower. Pleased to have this as a memento of a friend and neighbour for 20 years.
• On Saturday went with friends on the Epping-Ongar railway. This is the country not the city - but Tina and I got there by tube to Epping then vintage bus to North Weald (no suspension - thrown about when the bus went over a speed bump!).
• Both this morning and this evening a couple of foxes in my garden. This evening saw a fox on a fence 2 gardens away while the foxes were in my garden. The den in Dorothy's old garden now gone.

Nature red in tooth and claw

We were having a team meeting yesterday. Luckily I had my back to the window so didn't see the crow on the roof the other side of the courtyard kill and eat the thrush!

bees wax found

I have over the years found instructions to make things, particularly with herbs, requiring beeswax. But I never have had any beeswax.

This week I found a tub of beeswax (the beeswax looks like lentils!). This was at Alara's Health Food store in Marchmont Street, London, WC1.

Marchmont is a wonderful street - the opposite of a cloned high street - and just round the corner from Russell Square tube station in central London!

I hope I have enough chickweed this year. I managed almost to get rid of it as a weed when I found out it was my herbalist's favourite herb, and very good for the skin. So I have been encouraging it ever since but it has not been keen to make a come-back in my garden!  I will make some skin balm if I can.

My herbalist - Gail Farrow - is based in Walthamstow lindens@btinternnet.com 07815  168410

Ash trees gone, more light and some logs

On Thursday some men came and got rid of the ash trees in my next door neighbours' garden. Although they were only just starting to come into leaf and they were to the north west of my garden, it is amazing how much lighter the garden feels. The ash tree and the sycamore in the next garden along have only been trimmed so will not get as much evening sun as I was hoping for.

I plan to get a parasol, or an umbrella I can use as one, so I can use my hammock in the afternoon in summer.

Most of the wood went through a chipper but I did get given about 20 lengths of branches 4 foot-6 foot long and 3 inches or so in diameter. Sunday evening I was sawing them up to fit in the wood store to protect them from the forecast rain (which actually came).

Glad of the rain Sunday night and the heavy showers on Bank Holiday Morning (I was at a craft fair with friends and was luckily I was on the train/in a tent/in the tea room for everyone) as we have hardly any rain in April.

Bindweed too dangerous to use as compost

It took me 5 years after I moved her, but I cleared my garden of bindweed, only having the problem the bindweed coming from my elderly neighbour's garden.

She is now in a home and her garden has been cleared and a six foot fence put up. I have been pulling up the bindweed coming through my side of the fence and putting it in a bucket with some water to make liquid fertiliser when I had a dreadful thought.....

Though I can see the foot of the fence on the side that was Dorothy's I haven't notice any weeds, including bindweed, coming through the brown turfs in her old garden. (The turfs are brown as instead of laying them within two days of them being delivered they didn't get round to it until at least a fortnight had passed).

The builder was there one morning before I left for work so I asked him if he had put poison on his side - he had. 

Most of the bindweed is growing so presumably OK but some of the bits of root I've pulled could have been dead so I daren't risk using my bucket of liquid as fertiliser. And for safety's sake will bin all of the bindweed for the rest of this year.

Easter cycling a disappointment

Last weekend it was warm and sunny.

On Saturday I was out on my bike for an hour and a half - practising on the hills in Springfield Park, then down the canal to Wick Wood. This is the best time for cycling through the wood when the canopy is not too dense and sun shinning through makes dappled shade. Then along the track between the football pitches to the path by the old river (where I met too people I know from kayaking choosing a log for wood carving from the remains of a tree cut down).

No kayaking on Sunday so out on my bike again. Springfield Park then all the way to Victoria Park, both East and West sections, back home, taking in Wick Wood on the way.

Lots of people, particularly joggers.

This weekend I had plans for a long cycle ride everyday. Yesterday morning I left the house but popped back in within seconds for my cycling jacket, and I stopped after 5 minutes to put gloves on. Chilly today also. So both days only to Springfield Park then home again.

So I doubt I will be doing the Limehouse loop tomorrow.

Sparrows using the pampas plumes

When they cleared my next door neighbour's garden they left a clump of pampas that had encroached into my garden.

I chopped down as much of the leaves as possible - oh so much space it's given me! But I left the plumes as last year the sparrows used them to line their nests.

The weeks passed but no sparrows. I wondered whether it was because of the loss of the bushes in Dorothy's garden. Then on Sunday afternoon just before I finished my session reading in my hammock I saw two sparrows collecting the fluff from the plumes. I saw them again when I opened the curtains on Monday morning.

Not as much activity as last year, but at least they have taken some.

A colleague at work spins, and those birds in her garden who line their nests get bits of alpaca wool!

Pretty salad

Yesterday I made a salad from leaves from my garden:

chives
celery leaf
flat-leaved parsley
3-cornered leek (stalk and flowers)
small swiss chard leaves

Looked very pretty but didn't taste of much

Over-run by violets

I have large patches of violets on the flower beds, in the cracks in the concrete near the house, around the fruit bushes and in between the deep-beds of the vegetable patch.

I regret the need to get rid of them, as they start flowering over the winter and then are in full bloom for the insects in early spring, but I want the space, and some soil for other plants to free-seed. I've had 3 sessions so far pulling up the violets. Some come up easily, some need tugging.

The problem is they take up so much room! I've barely half way through and I have filled up half of last year's dangerous-weed bin*, all of this year's, and the large compost bin my neighbours didn't want.

*I have 3 dustbins with some drainage holes drilled near the bottom. I put in dangerous weeds not fit for the compost (eg couch grass) plus ordinary stuff when the ordinary compost bins are full. Each spring I empty the oldest and use that for that year. Anything dodgy can go into one of the other bins to rot down for another year.

Relaxing earth hour

Yesterday evening I was home AND  I remembered, so I turned off my lights for earth hour. I lit some candles in the sitting room, did some meditation, stoked a cat's tummy, did some yoga.

Then, as the clocks were going forward so it was 10.30 new time, I went to bed.

There would need to be an awful lot of people participating to make earth hour show up as less demand at the power stations, but it would at least show a lot of people cared.

Though more important than this is to be careful with energy use, direct and indirect (so buy less stuff!) every day! Me, I have a way to go but I am getting better at not buying stuff, including being more discerning at what I buy in charity shops.

Tonight I have no heating, but Friday night I had the wood burning stove lit, and yesterday evening I had the stove lit and the central heating on. I have enough off-cuts remaining for an evening's burning.

Mistletoe in the High Road!

Yesterday I saw a football-sized ball of mistletoe in a street tree in Leyton High Road!

I think it was in a rowan tree by the few berries left. Looking in a tree book today at a tiny picture of rowan bark makes me a bit more confident of that, but I have put it in my diary to go and check in a month or so's time.

I might have a go at tying up a sprig of mistletoe on a low branch of the ash tree overhanging my garden in the hope that the birds will spread mistletoe there. Perhaps the Organic Lea/Leytonstone Transition Town stall might have local mistletoe at Christmas.

Quince in flower, fig not dormant

My quince is in flower - so I am not expecting any quinces this year as they are unlikely to be pollinated and frost will kill them if they are!

We've had two heavy frosts this week - and some mild mornings like this morning.

At least I think the little tree is a quince. I always thought it was a medlar until after having it for years it fruited and the fruit definitely wasn't a medlar! I asked my friend Maureen, who gave me the plant she'd grown from seed, what it was, but she said she hadn't given it! So, I compared the one fruit with pictures in books and the liklihood is that it is a quince.

I am supposed to prune my fig when it is dormant in January. Another January and my fig is not dormant!

Frosty cars, frost-free water

This morning there was thick frost on the cars - but no ice at all in the wildlife water bowl.