Monday 7th September 09

I had a well deserved lazy morning, although I got quite a bit done... Gill took our youngest to school and our eldest had a couple of friends round as they didn't start school til 11am or thereabouts. I did some washing up and tried to reduce the large numbers of emails which have accumulated in my inbox over the weekend.

My neighbour popped round as he'd seen a rat either going into our garden or coming from it... and says there is nowhere in his garden where they could possibly be interested in, or living, or feeding... so it must be my fault! I promised to set my traps to see if I could do something about it. I suggested he too set a trap, but he said that the rats weren't his problem or responsibility!

I spotted a few wasps around the nest that I thought Id finished off... looks like I'll have to continue disrupting it and making it difficult for them to get in and out. The glass bowl is still in place, but there might be another entrance.

Gill went to Poppleton to visit our old friend Kate, who was a friend of Betty Adelaide, Gill's mother. Betty Ad would have been 90 this weekend, so Gill went to put flowers on the grave of both her parents.

Therefore I went out to pick up our youngest from primary school, and had a nice chat with a mum who attended the festival yesterday, who loved it and had a really good time.

When I got back, Gill was just in and our other son was home too. I went to see Ben who wanted to discuss something about this evening's LETS meeting, and Raj at Freshways who was talking with some chaps about the landlord of who had tried to remove a parking meter, firstly by jemmying off the solar panel, and then attaching it to a vehicle and pulling the whole thing out of the ground. The parking meter person told me he'd really enjoyed the festival especially Seize the Day. He loved their harmonies and political lyrics.

I brought back three sacks of stuff, and loaded up a dalek and the composter I'm trialling, a spherical roll-around thing called a CompoSphere. I harvested beans, a squash, a pumpkin and cut back some withering squash/pumpkin vines.

Gill made tea... some pasta parcels with a tomato sauce made with our own tomatoes, beans and bought onion. Delicious. I then went out to the LETS meeting, Ben chaired and we agreed a reshuffle which will hopefully make things work more smoothly. I now have the important task of minutes secretary, which was vacant. We had a wide-ranging conversation about membership fees and admin fees... but came to no clear conclusion. Feedback about the LETS stall at the Green Festival was that it was fab... we got 5 new members and at least one rejoiner. And the rejoiner turned out to be Sue, a friend I've known for about 20 years, so after the meeting we chatted and caught up. Good to see her.

I got back soon after 10pm and prepared windfall apples and pears for drying. And washed up with stove-heated water.