Cuckoo Hall Orchard - the second Saturday - 13th August 2016

The second Saturday at Cuckoo Hall Orchard with the Aldborough Hatch Defence Association and The Urban Orchard Project found us continuing to cut back the undergrowth to reveal yet another apple tree. We built a massive pile of clippings and undergrowth for Redbridge Council to clear - which they did as promised and even swept up the car park too leave it clean and tidy afterwards. WE learned how to bark ring to kill saplings at their roots - Balkrishna and Revd Lovesey are seen at work here. It was a reward for our hard work to see come superb cooking apples against the blue cloudless sky. Next there is work to be done mulching around the trees to prevent weeds and sitting back the ivy which we have killed lower down - all giving light and air to the trees that now seeing daylight for the first time in years!

Columbia Road Flower Market

Columbia Road Flower Market in Bethnal Green - approached from Liverpool Street Station - was bustling at 8.30am when I arrived on Sunday 14th August - it is only open on Sundays. Hoteliers were coming away, armed with cut flowers - the aroma was just stunning. I bought a foxglove (a colour I do not have so I will save the seeds), a large pineapple plant bulb and a spring bulb the name of which I have forgotten (buy I now what it is like!). My foxglove is second from the left in  the shot here - a light pinkish colour. The lad attaching a sort of cling film to the rear of a stall told me that this was to stop thieves taking plants! He was very busy! Thence to St. Paul's Cathedral for Sung Eucharist, where there was some amusement as I guess it might have been the first time a foxglove has been taken in to a service! Then to Valentines Mansion - great day!

The Walled Garden at Valentines Mansion

The Walled Garden at Valentines Mansion was a blaze of summer vibrant colours in the recent brilliant sunshine. Whilst jazz and folk music delighted over 200 visitors to the Cafe garden, some folk could sit quietly a few feet away, admiring the gorgeous array in the summer sun. Rebridge Parks are to be congratulated on a tremendous display.

Exploring East London

Good day exploring some parts of the East End of London. Bus to Wanstead, Central Line to Bethnal Green, bus to Broadway Market, walk in London Fields and along Regents Canal, bus to Ridley Road Market, walk and marvel, bus to Holborn, bus to Mile End, Central Line to Newbury Park, bus then walk home! Fascinating!

The shots here were taken at Broadway Market and on the Regents Canal - I bought a loaf of seeded bread at the shop with the young ladies outside - and chatted to the couple on the barge, who told me that they move on every two weeks and have been on all the canals in London. With my Freedom Pass, the day cost me less than a fiver - and I enjoyed seeing London from the top of many buses, even managing a front seat on the 25 from Holborn!

Ready for the Garden Coffee Morning - well almost there!

This was shot as the sun came into the garden just after 7am. I have taken down the washing line, vacuumed the summerhouse, teak oiled the bench and table near the house (the other bench was done weeks ago) and I am almost ready for the Garden Coffee Morning. Balloons up on the noticeboard in the front garden to attract a few more punters! 10am to 12noon tomorrow - do come along if you are free. Coffee, tea, soft drinks, cakes and biscuits (chocolate ones!), a superb raffle, being & buy stall, plus NOTELETS made specially for the day with flowers from my garden and a shot of Socks rolling on his back in the sunshine. All to raise funds for The Children's Society.

Garden nearly ready for The Garden Ccoffee Morning!

Not entirely ready yet, but these shots of the rear garden - taken from my office window at 7am this morning - give you some idea of how things are looking., The patio in front of the summerhouse (shed-with-the-overhang) was given the jet treatment yesterday and things are getting there slowly. The cushions for the benches will not come out till the sun shines on Saturday morning. I need to take the hoover to the carpet in the summerhouse and give the windows some sparkle too! We (Socks and me, that is) look forward to greeting lots of folk on Saturday at the Garden Coffee Morning and Bring & Buy Sale raising funds for The Children's Society, one of Yvonne's special charities from 10am to 12noon. Sue will be in charge of the raffle (it is said that when two or three are gathered together at St. Peter's there shall be a raffle!), Jennifer, Shirley and Shirley will be looking after the coffee, tea, soft drinks and cakes, while Val will oversee the Bring & Buy! Linda will be selling my NOTELETS with new photographs taken in the garden over recent days and one of Socks rolling on his back in delight. I have decided not to include one of me rolling on my back - I fear it would not sell! And Chris will be generally in a supervisory role. What a team!

The garden is being prepared for The Children's Society Coffee Morning on Saturday 6th August

Work is being carried out at a feverish pace as we prepare the gardens front and rear for The Children's Society Garden Coffee Morning and Bring & Buy Sale on Saturday next, 6th August. This event - an annual one - has been run here for some years by Yvonne and I have carried on the tradition. But it means that work has to start well in advance for we cannot have folk thinking that standards have fallen. The brass, copper and silver cleaning is behind me - it took two days but with MASS I only do it twice a year. The garden at the front is more or less sorted - for some plants have had to be replaced and refreshed. Now work in the rear is in ernest. I filled four green bags with cut stuff and the frog pond has been sorted - well sort of! I jet cleaned the patio in front of the summerhouse - and mighty clean it looks too. I have yet to hoover the summerhouse and there are other tasks still to do. But I am getting there. Cakes and biscuits purchased - off to Aldi on Thursday to complete things! Great  fun! And the forecast is for sunshine - wow!