Building community with ukeleles

At our team away day last week we did the usual team away day things but finished with a fun session when someone came in to teach us to play the ukulele.

We've decided to have ukulele sessions on Tuesday lunchtimes. Four from our team, plus Leslie from another team who has a baritone uke, had a first go on Tuesday.

I got my ukulele from Argos today and hope to get to Hobgoblin tomorrow to get a tuner.

A colleague, normally working near Birmingham, says at his local pub 10 years ago some people who had acquired ukuleles got together to learn how to play them. Sessions twice a month over a few years they got really good. Now twice a year they have a big event at the pub and the place is packed.

I am hoping that once I get to a basic standard (which might take some time!) I can find a local group.

Autumn leaves and wish for a delay before the first frost

The leaves of the Boston ivy usually turn red at the end of August - they are still green. The leaves of the mulberry have dropped.

I scattered some seeds just before the hot water but didn't water them. Some have now germinated. I have several small sunflowers which might flower if he frosts hold off, but they are unlikely to have the time to set seed..

Sunday 12 August

• First rain Tuesday evening, a lot of showers between then and now, and rain most of the day Thursday. Temperature has gone down quite a bit in the house and I am sitting typing this in a jumper.
• Out by torchlight late Thursday evening after snails and saw 5 frogs. They don't seem to jump from being caught in the torch beam just if I approach too near.
• Today I found hidden in the tomato foliage 4 cucumbers. Picked the 3 largest and had the largest of those with tomatoes from the garden and some olives this evening.
• The rain appears to have badly affected insects. Yesterday saw no bees, just 2 cabbage white butterflies. I did see two bees on the lavender outside the garden centre by the Hertford Union canal cycling back from Victoria Park. I also saw one bee in my garden on the verbena this morning.
• Where I sowed sunflower seeds ages ago I now have a 15 cm seedling. If it survives the weather, snails, etc will it flower? The sunflowers in a front garden a few doors down are 2 metres plus tall and in full bloom.

Sunday 5 August

• We had some rain last weekend. Even though it wasn't a lot, still gratefully received!
• I've started getting figs - from the new fig tree that has 2 crops a year. Still nothing from the older fig tree. There are no figs on that one for this year, just masses that will be half grown and will need to be picked off and discarded before winter.
• I have had 3 courgettes recently that almost became marrows!
• First runner beans on Monday, and first French beans yesterday.
• Plenty of tomatoes. They don't taste of tomato but lovely and sweet.
• Have collected two bag-fulls of plane bark. Presumably because of the hot, dry weather, the local plane trees have shed most of their bark. Will use this as kindling.
• Chimney sweep/stove maintenance guy due to come on Thursday, but problem with his clutch. Now coming September.
• Wednesday morning on the way to the bus stop, I passed a car with a snail on the roof! 
• Also found a goldfinch feather on the pavement.
• Yesterday morning bike ride. I picked blackberries for crumble, then cycled back to pick up (using trowels!) two lots of horse shit (there were another 3 lots I could have got if I had had room). (Blackberries on one pannier, horse shit in the other!)
• I cycled through both sections of the Walthamstow wetlands, cycled back through one and then pushed my bike along one of the walkers-only paths which brought me back to the path near the gate I enter by.
• To B&Q yesterday and got verbena and rudbeckia (both had insect friendly signs on) and dahlia (the plant in the pot beside the one I chose had a bee feeding on it). I have flowers dotted round the garden but felt the need to get some more for the insects.

Sunday 22 July

• Piers and Charmaine next door have tomatoes in pots - several ripe. I have one tomato just beginning to change from green. 
• Cycled out to Leyton Marshes yesterday and picked blackberries for a crumble.
• When kayaking today I rescued a moth from the water. Very distinctive. It looks like a Jersey Tiger Moth. My Observer's Book of Larger Moths (reprinted 1978 so pretty old) says more or less confined to Devon and emerges in August! Searching the internet unsuccessfully to find somewhere where I could post a question about moths, I did find a site saying that they have recently been in parts of London.
• Cut off the flowers of my lavender. Bush looks much neater but bit splayed out in the middle.
• Cut more branches off my sage. Looks quite compact now and very healthy. Think it is doing well for a bush now over 20 years old.
• Wisteria is having a second flush of flowers - with many more flowers than usual. I have seen bees feeding from it - first time seen this!

Monday 16 July

• Another big fire locally. This time on Wanstead Flats which is part of Epping Forest. Two hundred and twenty five fire fighters and 40 fire engines needed to tackle a grass fire engulfing an area the size of 100 cricket pitches. The smoke could be seen for miles. I didn't notice it even though I was in the garden for the early part of the evening (the garden is the opposite side of the house to Wanstead).
• To Kew on Thursday and had a picnic underneath a tree. The wildflower beds around The Hive had no more and quite probably less bees than my garden that made me feel a bit better about my efforts. There have been cabbage whites and gatekeepers in the garden all week, and often a comma. The marjoram and tarragon(?) have often had a dozen or more insects on - last seen several years ago. I am very pleased about that.
• I've had someone to measure up for some shelves in the out-side lavatory. He used a lot of second hand wood. If that works out I have several other wooden items I would like him to make.
• First rain for ages - light rain though went on for a while on Friday evening, but very little difference to the garden.
• Skype meeting at work where we were in summery tops and the person skyping in from Wales was in a hooded fleece - it was bucketing it down with rain where she was!
• A new cycle workshop has opened near me - www.cycleway.co.uk. I popped in on Saturday to get a replacement screw for the chain guard and also for the spokes holding on the mud guard to the hub of the front wheel. The latter had only fallen out on my bike ride that morning. They supplied and fitting both screws, bolts and washers for £5.
• Got home from Kayaking Sunday afternoon to find a large slug inside my spray deck. As the only grass I had sat on, which was when I was getting back into the Navigation from the weir was dry and brown. It must have got inside the boat while it was in the shed and then moved on to my spray deck while I was paddling.
• My second gooseberry crumble. The gooseberries early this year and are starting to drop off the bush.

Sunday 8 July

It's been nearly a month since I last posted. It would have been one week less, but last week I spilt some kombuchi on my laptop messing up my left mouse click. I got a mouse yesterday to plug in and it's worked! Laptop usable again.

• Seen an Ofo bike by the Lea Navigation covered in river weed - it's obviously been in for a dip. I have also seen one without its front wheel, and another chained to a lamp post with the front wheel off and chained to the bike as if it was someone's personal bike.
• Kayaking on 11 June passing a swan's nest. For adult Canada geese and 4 half-sized goslings trying to pass but cob swan not liking it. Two of the adult geese were approaching nest to draw off the cob while the other two adult geese swam past with the goslings.
• Rescued bumble bee caught up in old web in conservatory. If it had been flying around I would probably not have succeeded in getting it out!
• Logs have been delivered and stacked. Better quality than previous two years.
• I've been having plenty of soft fruit with my breakfast - raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, red currants, loganberries and yesterday my first blackberries.
• There was a big warehouse fire on Saturday 23 June, on Orient Way just south of the Leabridge Road, huge plumes of smoke my friend could see from Plumstead. Orient Way closed so detour on my bike ride Saturday and to kayaking Sunday when smoke no longer plumes, but still there above the warehouse. Monday morning I was watering in the garden and I have never seen the swifts so low. One flew about 10 ft over the garden. Clear blue sky but presumably pollution from the fire and brought the insects down and the swifts had to follow.
• I cycled to Wick Wood but walked down the middle path. Did start in my bare feet, but realised my attention would be solely (pun not intended!) on the soles of my feet so put my sandals back on.
• The French marigolds haven't worked so well on the greenfly on the conservatory this year, my indoor cucumber covered in them. Have had two cucumbers from that plant, and one from the outside cucumbers. Also some courgettes but small - they are growing slowly (due to lack of rain - though I am watering them?)
• Found little bumblebee in wildlife waterbowl. Got it out still alive but not moving. So gave it some sugar and water on a spoon and left it for a little while - and it was gone when I got back.
• No scum on the elderflower champagne but decided to open a bottle. Luckily I took it into the kitchen rather than bringing a glass into the dining room and it gave bang and spewed foam when I opened it.
• Some dead fish floating on the Lea Navigation today. Hope this hot, dry spell doesn't end in a storm. When that happened a couple of years ago, the resulting pollution on the Navigation killed lots of fish.