Thursday 11th September 08

Woke to hear a rumpus downstairs, REST OF PARAGRAPH CENSORED

Anyway, he went to school and school rang to say he'd arrived. Phew! Gill went to an appointment. I lit the stove and did some of the washing up I didn't do last night as I was on the computer.... bad John :-(

The day got better. I saw there was a gap in the rain and I rang Joan who lives in Tang Hall/Heworth and had an apple tree fall, and one of her neighbours or friends suggested that I might be able to help her dispose of it. Joan was in and so I cycled my electric chainsaw and extension lead round to her house to cut up the trunk of the tree. She was very chatty and we spent as long talking as I spent actually cutting up the tree. I think she probably needs the company. She certainly likes my cycle trailer and seemed amazed about how much I can fit in it, ie all the chunks of tree trunk, several branches, the extension lead AND chainsaw.

When I came home I kept the chainsaw out and did a bit of tidying in the front, dealing with a pile of Leylandii trunks which came from a neighbour I lent my loppers to. Whilst doing this I was thinking of quiz questions for next week's York in Transition quiz. Also, a friendly neighbour, Paddy, asked me if I could help him recycle or dispose of two old bicycles which have been in his garage for a while. I told him I could take them to Bikerescue down on Terry Avenue, they would reuse and refurbish what they could and then re-sell the finished bikes. This is a fab scheme as it keeps bicycles out of landfill (well, some bikes!) and out of metal skips, which although better than landfill, isn't as sustainable as repair and re-use. So I loaded my trailer with two bikes and five spare wheels(!) and took them to Bikerescue, who were pleased to see me with such a full trailer. Apparently there is a bit of a dip in the number of bikes coming to them and they need as many as possible to keep their volunteer bike repairers busy! See here for some good photos of what Bernie and Andy are doing...

On the way back I saw the door was open on my friend Anne's houseboat... and she was just putting a 'For Sale' notice on it! What a pity, they've lived there for 11 years but they aren't really near enough to their child's school and are going to become landlubbers again. So if you want to buy a static houseboat, for £150,000 and annual ground-rent (water rent?) of £5,000, in the centre of York, then contact me and I'll pass you her details or yours to her!

Got home in time to go and pick up our youngest son from school.

This morning's difficulties were put far behind us and we had a good evening. Opened one of the jars of pickled walnuts and had some of these with a bulgar wheat-based tea. I'm not that impressed with them... perhaps I've used the wrong vinegar. I'll try the other jar soon which has a different vinegar preserving them.