A mild Halloween is not that unusual!

It is being reported that this is a record-beating mild Halloween.

But a mild Halloween is not that unusual.

Last year it was mild into November - I noted it particularly as I was on a white water kayaking course where I couldn't wear gloves as I was afraid of losing them when I came out in a stopper. And I was capsizing and "swimming" several times a session.

In my perpetual calendar I've noted in 2013 and 2010 a Halloween paddle (this would have been after it had got dark) where I wasn't wearing gloves or a hat. These are the only 2 Halloween paddles I've been on, so there could easily have been other mild Halloweens I hadn't particularly noted.

Paddling does make me very aware of the weather. There are often weekends where I would have thought it had rained all weekend if I hadn't been paddling in the dry, and sometimes even the sunshine, whatever the weather the rest of the time!

A little pot of honey for tea

On Thursday there was a little pot of honey each for everyone at work - made by the bees on the hives on the roof.

I plan to keep mine until I make some bread.

At the moment the warm weather means  am not using the wood burning stove, and I raise my bread in front of that. If the weather forecast is right it might be December until I get a chance to eat my honey!

No need for all spice berries - no sweet chestnuts!

I still haven't found all spice berries for the pickled sweet chestnut recipe. I was going to make the pickle without them.

There are sweet chestnuts on the green by  the church at Wanstead. There were a lot there last year when I hadn't anything to do with them. This year there were a lot of the shells on the ground but only flat chestnuts falling out of them.

I usually go to Wanstead by tube, which is outside my season ticket zones. Once Ros Bedlow led me back from the church into New Wanstead and then to the Leytonstone High Road. I can get to New Wanstead - it is where the vet hospital is. A look at the A-Z and the route from there seemed simple so I tried it and it worked (what looks simple on the A-Z is not necessarily so when one is walking!).

There was a vintage and craft fair at the church hall. Nearly an hour to go but some stall-holders were already packing up. I found a lovely unmarked silver moth broach for £12. I had also got a knitted tunic and a cereal bowl at the charity shop on my way to the supermarket this morning.

It was beginning to rain so I took the tube back and then a mile walk from Leytonstone.

Seeing the bees on the roof at work

We have two hives on the roof at work and recently staff have been able to accompany the person looking after them, 6 at a time, to see them and learn a bit more about them.

The last trip was today. It's getting cold so the bees are slowing down. I was cold up there on the roof in the bright yellow bee-keeping suit, so surprised to see even the few bees there were coming back to the hive.

The bees in one hive are still eating the liquid feed, the other hive was given something that looked like marzipan. (We were told it didn't taste nice!)

We are just south of Regents Park which is their main source of food. We are also hoping to have lots of good bee food plants in the garden to the east of our building when finally the work to put the electrical sub station and the accessible paths is completed.

I wish I could find something suitable for insects at this time of year that did well in my garden. Michaelmas daisies do - but they have strong roots and are difficult to pull up if they seed in the wrong place.

Wood burning problems? The wrong kind of weather!

I had my chimney swept and the annual maintenance for my wood-burning stove today.

I had problems burning wood last year, both to get the logs to start burning properly and keep burning properly.  Mark* couldn't see any reason why there should be a problem with my stove (and there is not much to go wrong with a woodburner).

He said it was likely to be the weather. Last winter there were several long periods of low pressure. So fingers crossed for this year.

*Mark Killick 07914 041813 if you want a chimney swept and/or a woodburner maintained in Walthamstow/Woodford area (but this is his busy period, he's booking for December now!)

For the want of a car a wheel was lost...

For the want of a car a wheel was lost. For the want of a wheel the computer table was lost. For the want of the computer table some money for the charity shop was lost.

A week or so ago I had brought home a small table someone had left on the pavement to be taken away. So I was able to get rid of the computer table, used as a side table.

I checked with the charity shop yesterday that, in these days of lap-tops and tablets, they could sell a computer table, and they could. So today I wheeled it there, but it lost two of its wheels and the screws that held in the keyboard flap. So not in sellable condition!

I wheeled it home again, leaving it outside in the hope that the East European totters would take the metal and I could then fit the "wooden" bits in the wheelie bin. If I had passed a skip on the way home I would have heaved it in there, but the only skips were right opposite my house and outside the house two doors up.

This evening when I went to feed my neighbour's cats, the whole computer table had gone.

Most of the time I don't need a car, but every now and then like today it would be really useful!

Blackberries: What a difference the city makes

Round my way the blackberries are over. From previous years' experience I would expect them to taste horrible (the devil spits on them at the end of September, according to folklore) if they weren't.

My boss and his wife, who live out in the middle of Essex, near Saffron Walden, were picking blackberries yesterday - large and juicy.

Here I expect the best of the crop of blackberries end of July to beginning of September.