Wednesday 13th October 10

Up at a sensible time and when I went on my tiscali email at breakfast, I found my inbox was downloading all the emails I've received since December 2008, ie at least 3600 of them, which showed up as unread emails in the inbox next to the ones that are stored in my inbox, already read.  I was aghast!

I went onto Tiscali webmail which is now on the TalkTalk website, and didn't find anything in the list of common questions, so I rang them up.  The Indian guy who answered was difficult to understand, but I did eventually hear that they had received loads of similar complaints, and the Tiscali engineers were working on the problem.  I didn't find out if the unwanted emails would disappear from my inbox (I suspect not) but I did find out that my one-click 'send' button should be working again soon; currently I have to press 'File', then 'Send Later' and then 'File' on the main Mozilla page and a fourth click on 'Send Unsent Messages'.  Obviously, I'll be very happy when the 'Send' button works again!

Gill and I watched the Chilean miners rescue on the TV for a bit; wonderful to see them coming out from where they were trapped and could have died. 

I got up and about before lunch and did quite a bit of tidying up in the garden, and filling sacks with mature compost, ready for next year's Edible York raised beds.  I had a good afternoon, doing more garden work. I need to put all the pea beans on a tray to dry them... mustn't let them hang around and go mouldy!

A simple tea, baked potatoes and stir fried veg, including a bit of spinach beet from the garden.

And then zoomed down to town, to the Green Drinks meeting which this month was focused on food. I arrived but had nowhere to put my bike, and then Graham and Ceri turned up so we all put our bikes near the Minster and walked up to the Three Legged Mare.  The back room was pretty well packed.  I got myself a pear cider, and after a while, Jenny introduced the speakers from the various food projects.  The first was Holgate Windmill, which will soon be back grinding flour with wind power.  Next was Edible York and Abundance, and I followed Dave with a bit about zero-carbon fruit preservation, and passed round a jar of dried apple rings for people to try.  Next was Sasiki and YUMI, and finally Colin said a bit about  the Fulford Community Orchard.  Some fantastic York projects focusing on local food.

I had some good conversations, including with Oliver from People and Planet at the University of York, who invited me to come and do a talk tomorrow tea-time at the Activist Cafe, as York Rotters cannot attend, so I'm going as a non-York Rotter and will do a 30 minute intro to home composting.

Andy Chase my election agent arrived and gave me rosettes for tomorrow.  We discussed who might help by being a 'door smiler' and who would come to the count.

I came home and got busy with the cooked quinces.  I pulped them, added some pectin and a load of sugar, and boiled it on the stove which made a bit of a mess as it splattered all over the place as it was gloopy, but it boiled and I poured it into a dish for setting.  I just hope it sets!

I also chopped some pears for drying and watched the last of the Chilean miners being rescued.  Glad they all got out.