Monday 25th October 10

A much better day.  I got up early as Gill and the boys were heading to Whitby and I had been asked by Keith to deliver some compost at 10am.  So I gathered four sacks of best mature unriddled from down the garden and one large carrier bag of riddled from the side passage.  I cycled slowly round to Keith's in South Bank.

He had his Thai girlfriend Arie staying with him, so once I'd brought the sacks of compost round the back, and Keith had made me a coffee and we were sitting chatting, lots of the conversation got partially translated into her language, which Keith has been learning for 5 years.  I was pleased to see them both together, they are a lovely couple.

On the way back, clutching my newly-earned £20 note, I went into Cycle Heaven and was surprised to see my friend Dylan T. working there, and he checked my gears which have been jumping a bit.  He adjusted them... and I spent £21 on some reduced-price cycling gloves, as the last ones are wearing through.

And home via Alligator and Country Fresh, the latter to arrange the pumpkin purchase and delivery for Pumpkin Evening on Wednesday at St Nicks.  I'll do that tomorrow.

I got home to find that the family hadn't gone to Whitby.  For assorted reasons, a peaceful day at home was the preferred option.

I went onto my laptop and scanned Freecycle and there was a message from the other Keith, in Burnholme, who had offered some wood for burning which I'd responded to.  He said the bits of wood were taken but there were two tree stumps which needed chopping down, and if I could do that, I could have them.  So I had lunch and cycled round with my electric chainsaw and carefully removed the two large softwood stumps, chopping them into movable pieces for ease of packing and transport.... I only just managed it, there was such a lot!  So a win-win situation there, Keith got his stumps chopped off close to ground level and I got some good chunks of wood. 

I got home safely and had a bit of time in the garden preparing for my next visitor, Fern, another Freecycler.  She'd asked for some compost so I did my usual thing and said she could have one free bag or sack, no obligation, but that if she wanted more, that I'd be happy to come to an arrangement.   So she came round at 4, and was keen to learn about composting, as currently she's just collecting kitchen scraps in a bin liner.... not a good method!  I showed her all the different composting systems including the wormeries and tumblers, the different stages of composting, the sorts of things that can go in and how different things decompose at different rates.  She was happy with the free sack and wanted another 5. I was happy to oblige.... and earn another £20. I took the barrow full of compost sacks to her car.

I did a bit of wood chopping and stacking and at 6pm had a chat with a journalist film-maker who was researching something, and then later, after a cauliflower cheese tea, I visited a friend who is feeling lonely because their youngest child has left home and they are all alone in the house, then I picked up a huge lot of dead Lavender bush, another Freecycle job for someone.  I'll probably shred it.

So, a busy day, and much more upbeat than yesterday.