Thursday 21st May 09

Up early as got a lot to try to do today. First had a hunt through various bags and piles of paper, to try to find my Oyster Card, for travelling in London. Did find my London map, though, which is good.

Gill took our youngest to school and went on to the dentist, I went down to the Nationwide to get a cheque cancelled. I had to wait quite a long time, but did eventually get this done. On the way out of there, I met my friend John Forrester from the Stockholm Environment Institute and had a nice chat, then off to Bishopthorpe to the Brunswick Organic Nursery to spend my vouchers (for volunteering with York Rotters) and when there met my friend Marit, and again, had a good chat. She's building an accessible allotment at the Glen Allotments in Tang Hall, a good project.

I found a range of veg plants; squashes, courgettes, cucumbers, calabrese, cauliflowers and tomatoes, just enough to fully pack-out my trailer, even so I cycled slowly home so not to bounce them around too much.

Home for just after 1pm, enjoyed lunch and did a quick email before getting on with sorting stuff out and getting ready for my trip this afternoon/evening.

I left the house soon after 3 and got to the station in very good time to get the 3.54 to London. Had a nice chat to an inorganic chemistry student called Michaela, and then to a chap involved in railway signalling, and soon we were in King's Cross. Thameslink was easy to find ad I got the 6.24 to Crofton Park, and chatted to a researcher in mental health. At Nunhead, a drunk with an aggression problem caused a 20 minute delay, but there was general good humour in the carriage about it. I found Lisa's house very easily, having used Googlemaps yesterday to check it out. Good for 'Streetview'!

Lisa's 15 year old son had made a lasagne, I'd taken some squash soup down, as well as gifts of home made sweet red pepper paprika, pea beans to grow and some dried fruit. I did a little balloon workshop with Lisa's 7 year old daughter, and had a very pleasant evening. One of the things we did was to go out into the back garden and Lisa watered some recently installed plants, and behind the house is some railway land, on the edge of a cutting, covered in trees... a pretty wild area, which her son and his mates use to escape from Mum... a clearing for a campfire, lots of dead wood around. Whilst we were there, we heard a lot of squarking and I spotted a colourful (Green?) Woodpecker leaving a hole in a dead tree, and obviously the noise was a clutch of babies. They've also seen foxes there. A lovely resource to have access to.