Monday 20th August 07

An interesting and busy day, got up fairly early and decided to do an email reply to my parents over the 'car parking where the logpile lives' incident, following the concilliatory message I got from my mum. I think this followed a phone call with my brother, who told them to stop being silly and park on the verge, and couldn't they see I could be a far worse person than an environmentalist?

So I did a long reply to both emails, including apologies for upsetting Daddy with my attitude, and explaining that I hadn't meant to upset him, just be honest with him. I refuted that the house looks like a slum and that I was trying to 'make a point' by having logpiles in the front garden. But I didn't put anything which was potentially inflamitory, and ended with sending my love to them both.

I also did some letter writing, replies to Fiddlesticks bookings. Whilst this was happening, Gill was playing a game of Scrabble with the boys, and I occasionally came in to help our eldest one who is intensely competitive and moody... the youngest just stated he'd be happy to put down any word he spotted, and wasn't trying to get the highest score, whereas the older boyo was counting up points and taking ages trying to get the best word, and getting angry when the letters he picked weren't very good.. this is when I popped in to assist. He's very hard work at the moment, a high input child.

After this game finished, I took the needy boy on a cycle ride... against his will, predictably, although once on way, he was fine! Went to the bread shop, then on to St Nicks to deliver something, and back for lunch.

After lunch, Gill went to town to get some bits for our eldest's birthday later this week, and I did a lot of sorting out of our non-slummy but untidy and unusual front garden. Seived/riddled a load of sawdust, the sawdust destined for the compost toilet, bark for shredding and composting to balance the large volumes of fruit and veg, woody chunks for the drying pile. Then did some chainsawing, created more sawdust, bark and logs for splitting and stacking. So my parents still have a hold on me!

Whilst doing the logs, noticed that the traffic on Hull Rd was not moving, and vehicles were turning round, so looked down the road to see a van upside-down in the middle of the road. I called the boys and we went to look at the accident. It was two vehicles, one upside-down but not otherwise badly damaged, the other was hit in the side and had it's rear wheel pushed back at a rakish angle, probably a write-off. Apparently, the van driver had sneezed unexpectedly, lost control, hit the other car and turned his over, he wasn't badly hurt, but it was spectacular! I immediately thought of my comment to my parents about roads being dangerous, more dangerous than parking on the verge between the road and the pavement!

I cooked tea for the boys, as Gill was stuck in town with no buses getting through, and as it was put on the table she arrived, so she had hers immediately. I cooked for myself an hour later, then did a little bit more chainsawing and tidying up.

A good evening emailing and chatting on Googletalk with my friend in America, we're looking forward to seeing each other in a few weeks.