by Derek Smith
Sunday was our Welcoming Winter celebration. It came in with a blast of rain over most of the day. We put up three gazebos, one for the children’s area, one for the musicians and another for their audience. The food tables were under our pergola, which is sizeable and close enough for the music to be heard. Our musicians were …
It’s a cold day, the breeze adding a chill. Spates of sunshine warm us up, but they don’t last long as the sky is full of drifting cloud. This is autumn seasonal weather, while we have been spoilt by an Indian summer with temperatures in the 20s, so temperatures 10 degrees cooler are a shock. Its scarves and fleeces today, …
A tree makes news! How beautiful, how sad. I am of course referring to the sawing down of the tree in Sycamore Gap along Hadrian’s Wall. A tree made famous by its inclusion in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) with Kevin Costner as the outlaw. It was voted tree of the year in 2016 in the Woodland Trust Award. …
Last Sunday, around 60 of us came to the garden, to hear music in celebration of the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. We listened to the violinist Adriana Cristea playing traditional Jewish melodies, as we ate honey cake and apple with honey. The violin sound covered much of the garden. I was surprised how far it carried, a small stringed …
It is autumn, or as, they say in the US, fall, an apt name as the big signifier is falling leaves. Meteorological autumn began on September 1st, astrological autumn in a few days with the equinox on September 21st. Deciduous trees will lose all their leaves between now and December. This is very noticeable along Earlham Grove where curled, brown, …
We have our standpipe. Thames Water put in the meter and piping, ready for us to fix a standpipe which we did midweek. It was quite an effort getting through the concrete and needed a hefty drill. But it has been done. We have used it for watering the garden. I did one of the sessions myself. I am sure …
On Bank Holiday Monday, we had a celebration in the garden. Some fried vegetables from the raised beds were shared around, we had a plant sale, drawing for children and cyanotype printing. The latter was organised by Max, the garden co-ordinator, and was very popular, mostly with adults but some older children had a go too. Cyanotype printing is a …
Forest Gate Community Garden Saturday, 26 August 2023 We have two cherry trees at the front of the garden. The larger of the two may be 50 years or more old. It is certainly in peak condition with no rot or decay. In late April or early May, it is a glorious froth of pink blossom, enhanced by the lack …
100s of sycamore seeds are dangling from our two sycamore trees. They have mostly lost any green colour, now light brown, and are in pairs connected at the ‘heads’ with the wings at right angles. We call them helicopters because when picked up in the wind they twirl and fly some distance from the mother tree. There are so many …
There are many honey bees about the garden. In the hollyhocks, around the globe thistles and deep in the penstemons. Though, you often see a bee head into a flower and immediately back out and go to another. They have smelt an earlier bee in the first flower, and know that there will be little nectar left, and so don’t …
