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.