Tuesday 14th July 09

I woke and was aware that our eldest did go to school but our youngest had a cough and sniff and was very tired, so he stayed at home. I used the good weather to do some tidying up in the garden... a wheelbarrow full of compostables from the greengrocers which needed to be roughly chopped up and loaded onto the latest pallet-heap, also some shredding, hedge material from last week, and some sacks that Gladys from Thief Lane has saved for me, including Berberis which is prickly.

I got a message form Lynn saying that she'd like to ask Freshways for a raffle prize for the LETS Healthy Living Event. I agreed to meet her outside the shop just after 11 to give the letter to Raj; he wasn't at work today but one of his employees said they'd give it to him or his brother. I then went on to Country Fresh with another letter and poster, and Richard said no problem to providing us with a prize. What a generous guy! I'll collect it next Wednesday.

On this leg of the journey I met a chap called Paddy who is an estate worker, who's role it is to do various jobs around the small bungalows between Lawrence St and Heslington Road, and he was cutting up some elder branches with secateurs and putting the bits in a bin bag. I stopped and said hello and asked if I could have the cut stuff, and he was only too happy. I had the cut branches and the sack of chopped up stuff... which was heading for 'the bin'. We had quite a long chat and I gave him my card and invited him to contact me if he was in a similar situation again. I also said I might be able to help him find a solution to this bad situation.

I came home and shredded this material... took about two minutes. It all filled just one small sack when shredded and made a layer on one of the current heaps.

I had a go at deleting loads of emails over lunch and found one from the chap in charge of waste and recycling in York, Geoff Derham. He had taken charge of the sorry situation with Lord Deramore's School's approach to my composting attempts. I sent him an email asking if anything had happened... had there been a meeting? Were the school going to improve their 'eco-credentials'? What had happened to my compost bin the alleged Health and Safety advisor had ordered to be removed? I got a fairly swift reply. There had been a meeting. The school was going to undertake some process of greening, but this would take time. My compost bins will be returned to me by lorry in the next couple of days. I have received no thanks or any communication from the school regarding the years of waste-reduction work and composting, nor the work I put in with Green Thumbs. I do feel hurt and angry, yet I also see this situation as having a potentially positive outcome as this school might, just might develop ways of being a 'shining example of sustainability within the community' which has always been my aim. Just a pity it should happen with them virtually excluding me.

I picked our first two courgettes and we had these for tea, with nutloaf croquettes, potatoes and corn on the cob. I had to rush out to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel, meeting at the Tang Hall Community Centre, where I was due to hand over the Clerk's role to Vicky... something I'm sure she'll do a much better job of than me. We did go through several applications though, and I got away shortly before 7.30 and headed down to Green Drinks.

This is an idea which started in 1989 in London, where like-minded environmentally conscious people meet up for a drink and a chat. Simple really. This was York's first.. upstairs at the Yorkshire Terrier on Stonegate, made reasonably accessible with a stairlift, but along narrow corridors. It was well attended and I was pleased to meet Susanne, an archaeology support worker, and Pam, a newbie to York but Green Party member, plus various friends including Dave and Andy, Lynn, Rich and Ivana, Bryony, Katie, Jennie, and others. Had some good chats.

I left fairly early... before 10 anyway as I was tired.