Friday 3rd September 10

I didn't need to get up that early but was up and about before 10am... but as soon as I got downstairs there was a phone call. It was a young chap called Anthony who had found Novaterium and had then found me on facebook. He has an estate on the South Downs and is planting woodland and creating a new area of parkland, and he's interested in a green burial site in the woodland.

So he rang me for a general chat about how to go about the initial process of starting a natural burial site, and we spent well over half an hour chatting through lots of issues. He later messaged me and said it had been a very helpful talk, which was nice of him. He had a link for our website too, a friend of his who has a video streaming service which means the funeral can be 'attended' by people who don't need to travel to it. Very green... it'll be put on Novaterium.com soon!

After lunchtime I popped over to Woodlands to find out about the timetable for me starting the volunteering, now that the CRB stuff is through. Both my referees have sent back a reference which is good, and so 'induction' is next week sometime. I then went to find the groundsman, Richard, but instead found his colleague Gareth, whom i chatted with for a while... he was interested in info about photovoltaic panels so I said I'd send him some links to forthcoming Transition events which will give him all the information he needs.

Then I did some work in the garden, a bit of stacking and some weeding and composting; but Gill called me back up as a Freecycler called Mark had unexpectedly turned up asking about a CD of popular Christmas music that I'd apparently said he could have. So I came up the garden and we looked through a big pile of ex-skip CDs and he took a handful.

Towards 7pm I got washed and changed as the York Rotters 6th Birthday Party was happening, and I got to St Nicks soon after 7. Relatively few people turned up, but it was good to see Chris, Pat and Jean, Ivana of course, and Catherine our Project Officer. There was also Penny, who's the daughter of Gill's Mum's old friend Kate, and Vicky whom I first met at the Transition Ceilidh and she upset me, but now we're friends. I chatted with Julia from Parashoots, who may be making a video of York Rotters. We ended up talking about the RSPCA and all sorts of things! There were a few others there but I didn't get to know them. I enjoyed the buffet and stayed til after 10 so Catherine who was locking up wasn't there on her own.

I had a chat with my friend Laura when I got back, as she was worrying about the health of one of her friends and she wanted to talk. Then i lit the stove to continue drying the Mirabelle plums. A very late evening...