Tuesday 16th December 08

I got our youngest to school, and whilst coming back picked up loads of beer cans which had been thrown into the hedge bottom on Windmill Lane, nearly all aluminium and therefore worth collecting for cash.

When home, attacked a big pile of paperwork and spent most of the day sorting out stuff, some of which has sat for several weeks, naughty John tut tut. But, tis done now!

Just before Lunch, Damian and David popped in and chatted, and as Gill had planned to go into town (on the bus) they took her in their car. So I had a quiet lunch and then continued doing an invoice for Monk's Cross and a variety of other paperworky stuff.

I collected our youngest and came back and needed a little bit of fresh air so cut up a small load of sticks which someone had dumped, sorry, donated (me grateful!) in the front garden/wooding area. They were apple, mainly about 3 to 7 cm thick, and cut to a length which meant that they needed one or two cuts to get them to stacking length. I tend to cut these in a bit of an unusual way... when you think of cutting wood, you imagine someone drawing the bowsaw over the stick with the saw pretty horizontal. Well, with small sticks like these, holding them still is quite difficult and an easier way to cut them is to put your foot on the base of the bowsaw with the blade vertical and the bow propped up against leg or legs, and take the stick to be cut in both hands and pass it up and down the blade... this is a really quick and easy way of cutting thinner sticks to length. The only drawback is that you have to lean over and that can give some of us backache... I first saw this being done by Girl Guides at a camp I was doing a circus workshop at... and it's an excellent method.

I was disturbed by a chap who introduced himself as Jamie from round the corner... he's been building and living on boats for a while and knows about stoves on boats... but is now a landlubber but wants a woodstove in his house, and was interested in who supplied ours and about the flue. So I chatted, took him inside to see the 8Kw Clearview in action, and as he was talking about foodplant gardening, I gave him a tour of the garden. He was most impressed with our walnut tree.

Gill asked me to go and get goats milk, chocolate chips and frozen peas from Scummerfield and I chatted up one of the workers, Debbie, as she was very friendly with me...

I didn't have any tea at home as I was due to have food at the St Nicks Volunteers Party. However, I had a Hull Road Ward Planning Panel meeting first, in the Tang Hall Community Centre, and Carolyn was waiting for me when I arrived at 6.30. We took just over 30 minutes to agree the responses to the various planning applications and I then went to the nearby St Nicks for the party.

This was excellent... lots of folks to chat with, some old friends including Carole whom I've known for nearly 20 years and assorted other Green, Transition and Rotters people. Drank lots of Westons Organic Still Cider and ate apple crumble and pumpkin muffins... lovely!

Left at 10.30 and visited the newly discovered logpile twice to restore the number of unprocessed logs resplendent in our front garden.... I'll have to get busy with the chainsaw again!
Lovely to see Gill who was doing some sewing, turnups on kids trousers, and had a good chat with Ali who has free evening calls somehow....