I am not too keen on grass being lost but a large sculpture of a 14 foot high wooden chair is to be placed by the path between Cheshunt Station and the Olympic white water centre. It will be an Olympic legacy.

The Lea Valley Walk alongside the white water centre is expected to have bunting and fencing during the Games. The nearby streets are being decorated with banners and hanging flower baskets.

The Great British Cucumber Festival is at Waltham Abbey on Saturday 12 May.

The event in the Abbey Gardens is supported by the Lea Valley Growers who provide 75 per cent of UK cucumbers. British cucumbers are sweeter and have thinner skins.

The Festival runs from 10am to 4pm and there will also be tomatoes and peppers to taste and buy. Refreshments include a hog roast and specialist sausages. Events include The Longest Cucumber Competition.

Admission free.

According to reports yesterday and in the Evening Standard today the people occupying Porter’s Field have been moved.

Police took action after the Lee Valley Park obtained a court order.

Work on the temporary Olympic basketball structure has restarted. Meanwhile some protestors are now camped alongside Lea Bridge Road.

Local opinion is divided. My view is that since the building being erected is temporary for a once in a lifetime event it should be allowed. By this time next year it will have been removed and the grass relaid.

I feel much more concerned about what has happened to Middlesex Wharf opposite and the permanent building due to spoil downstream Essex Wharf.

The Great Bed of Ware, an Elizabethan tourist attraction mentioned in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and once displayed in the Ware’s inns, is back in the town for a year.

The Victoria & Albert Museum has lent it to Ware Museum.

It was made around 1593 and has been on show and in use at five inns over more than two centuries. In the Victoria era it was an attraction at Rye House to the south of Ware which was a day trip from from London by train.

The bed is mentioned by Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Byron and has recently appeared in a poem by Andrew Motion.

Protesters from the camp recently outside St Paul’s Cathedral have arrived on the towpath just upstream of Lea Bridge.

They claim to be supporting local opposition to a temporary an air hall housing basketball training courts for the London 2012 Games.

The site is on the Porter’s Field of Leyton Marsh near the footbridge leading to Middlesex Wharf.

The Johan Zoffany exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts has at least one picture of Luton.

It shows the three daughters of Lord Bute in 1763 when he was prime minister. The girls are grouped round a tree at Luton Hoo near the archeway entrance.

A painting of the sons is in siimilar countryside although is it not confirmed at Bedfordshire.

Also by a tree, athough in Italy, is the 3rd Earl Cowper. His statley home was Panshager Park at Cole Green near Hertford (see page 54) but he spent most of his time in Florence where Zoffany caught up with him.

Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed is at the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly from Saturday 10 March to Sunday 10 June; admission £9 (conc £7).

Yes, that was St Anne’s Limehouse in last night’s Call The Midwife on BBC1.

The church exterior was used for the wedding of the midwife (Miranda Hart) and the police constable.

“The work to complete many of the environmental improvements at the Olympic Park and secure a green legacy for future generations was completed today,” claimed the Environment Agency on Monday 6 February.

It’s a signifiant achievement for the Queen’s 60th anniversary day.

“The River Lea is now healthier than at any time over the last 20 years,” added the EA. Highlighted is the removal Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan Balsam and Floating Pennywort which once chocked the river.

More than 35 kilometres of new cycleways and footpaths have been secured for the Olympic Park. Unfortunately the planned Lea Valley Walk section alongside Bow Creek which was due to open in May has not been built.

Greater Anglia has taken over the railway franchise from National Express East Anglia from today.

All trains from Liverpool Street up the valley to Hertford East are now operated by the Dutch railway company Abellio under the name Greater Anglia.

The franchise is planned to last during the Olympic Year and is subject to review in 2014.

Planned changes include extending the Oyster card the end of the line.

It’s just a month to go before Nicholson’s pubs will be serving Three Mills pale ale.

It is the first in a series brewed in honour of William Nicholson who founded the pubs in 1873.

This was a year after he had purchased Three Mills, near the end of the Lea Valley Walk, for his J&W Nicholson & Co gin company. Distilling continued until 1941.

Three Mills Pale Ale, brewed by Nethergate in Essex, is available from Saturday 3 March.