Mutant Broccoli

Photographed at the allotment this afternoon. This colouration is presumably the consequence of a recessive gene in the plant, and is rather attractive. Unfortunately, grey aphids have found it attractive too, and the broccoli heads themselves are too infested to be eaten. Bum! Bum poo donkey smells!

In the Garden this Morning

A photograph of the Japanese quince in flower against our shady fence, taken a few minutes ago -- just because.

Steaming Away (The Motionless Picture)

Addendum to the previous post: I tried posting a video clip of the beam engine in operation, but after an hour the upload was still churning away, with no end in sight. It has therefore been abandoned. Instead, have this picture of the engineer's desk, with its giant spanners.

Steaming Away

Today it rained a lot; but we didn't mind, because we had planned to visit the Markfield Beam Engine in Markfield Park, a Grade II listed (i.e. historically protected) steam pumping engine from the great days of Victorian sewage engineering. (The website has, under the "History of the Site" tab, a detailed exposition of not just the engine's history but also the history of the struggle to bring adequate sanitation to late nineteenth and early twentieth century London. Who'd have thought that poo -- the stuff that comes out of botties -- could have such heritage value, eh?) The engine is not now connected to the sewage system, having been decommissioned in 1964, but was recently restored to working order with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund (which also built the cafe alongside and installed modern toilets) and now steams a couple of times a month -- the beam rocking back and forth, the pressure cylinders being pumped up and down, the flywheel spinning. It all looks suitably majestic, and here are some photographs to prove it -- a general view of the beam engine house, with (in the foreground) the gardens where the sewage filter beds used to be; a view of one end of the beam support structure, with the flywheel to the right; the flywheel itself, with added Judith for scale; the pressure cylinders in operation; and a view of the other end of the beam support structure, showing the stairs to the upper deck and (descending) one end of the beam itself. (The beam can be seen from above on the website, under "The Engine" tab -- a view denied to ordinary visitors.)

In a separate post, I shall upload some video I took of the engine in operation.

Another Victory

Today has been cool, overcast and occasionally drizzly; but that has not deterred me from attempting and almost completing the relaying of the back garden path. It was visible in Friday's photographs of the arch before and after restaining; what was not visible was its decayed and untidy state, where what had once been clean gravel had been pressed down into the soil and soil brought up to the surface in patches (very often by feral pigeons pecking in the gravel for seed dropped from the bird feedery by the sparrows and other birds). I had been putting off attending to it because of the volume of gravel which would have had to be sieved (and the length of time this would have taken); in the event, however, I made the decision to just rake off the top layer, leave the rest embedded in the soil, and lay down the new path over the top. This did require some digging out, in order to remove what had built up over time and lower the level back to the original; stony soil was accordingly redistributed to selected parts of the growing beds. I then laid a weedproof membrane to ensure there would be no future mixing of gravel and soil, washed and replaced the brick stepping stones, and applied the reclaimed gravel to the membrane. Except that the quantity of gravel reclaimed, plus another bag of gravel already in stock, wasn't nearly enough to completely cover the membrane; we shall need to acquire at least two more from B & Q at Tottenham Hale. (And a third bag to apply to the slope on the front face of the pond. Is there no end to the gravel requirements of 15 Jansons Road?)

Below are some photographs of the path relaying in progress -- the two-trug system used to reclaim the gravel (shovel it into one, add water and stir vigorously to separate it from the soil and weed plants, then sieve the washed gravel into the second), with Wugster feetyoids visible for scale; a view of the path being dug up; the membrane as laid; the replaced brick stepping stones; and the regravelling in progress (reclaimed gravel at the garden end, new gravel at the house end). Lashing rain is promised for tommorow, so the regravelling may not be completed until next weekend.

Achieving Great Victories

It's clouded over now -- and in fact clouded over a couple of hours ago -- but in the hours of sunshine available I completed two of the garden jobs I'd diarised for this holiday weekend: applying a new coat of wood stain to the arch which holds the bird feedery; and giving the grass its first cut of the year. Below are two photographs of the arch, before and after its re-painting; if it looks as though the uprights aren't vertical, and that the whole thing has a twist to it, that's not an optical illusion -- it really is crappily constructed, by yours truly.





While the sun shone, the Wugster also got some gardening done, mostly in the front while I was busy in the back -- so no photographs of what she was about, except for this one, of her doing some potting up for tomorrow's plant sale on behalf of the Wards Corner Community Coalition. As the Wugster, she is of course thoroughly rugged up against the cold, while I was happily legging about in a pair of shorts and nothing else. (Well, it meant that I didn't get any splashes of wood stain on my clothes, what what?)



Tomorrow, if it doesn't rain, I shall attempt another of the diarised tasks: relaying the brick and gravel path. A whole day's work, to be sure....

Easter Approaches

I was looking forward to Easter, and last weekend even drew up a list of things to be done in the garden and on the allotment -- give the grass its first cut of the year, remove the bubble plastic from the greenhouse, rehang the insect home on the fence, apply a new coat of wood stain to the arch which holds the bird feedery, repair bed edging and lay down some new carpetting, install guttering and a downpipe on the allotment shed....but the weather forecast looks grim, and it seems that little if any of that will now be possible (chiz chiz, as N Molesworth would sa). Not that there aren't things I can get on with indoors (sorting the photographs of Paris I took a couple of weekends ago into the existing Paris photograph album -- restoring some slipped fragments in the stained glass of the front foor -- various computery things -- reading some books), but postponing any garden work at this time of the year, when one is essentially setting things up for the summer and autumn, simply creates a traffic jam of Things To Do later on in the month, which is most non-robust (chiz chiz agane).

Still, the Markfield Beam Engine will be steaming on the Monday, and we are planning to go to that whatever happens. I don't have any existing photographs of the engine and its house, so will probably take a few and post them here -- a positive outcome!