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.
Monday, April 11, 2016
Sunday, April 3, 2016
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.
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.
Sunday, March 27, 2016
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!
Saturday, March 26, 2016
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.
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.
Saturday, February 20, 2016
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.
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.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
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!
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!
Saturday, February 13, 2016
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!
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!
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