Tuesday 18th June 13

I got up early, so I could deliver food to The Stables and distribute WNBR flyers.  So I had breakfast and soon got busy on the computer.  I had to sign in to facebook and found a warning... the picture I'd used for the YWNBR event page had been deemed to be in breach of facebook standards, as if you look REALLY closely, you can see a cyclist's penis. So, I was on a 24 hour ban, unable to post anything.

I  took the food which is being taken onto Botton, and as soon as I'd delivered that, cycled up to the station as my gears were playing up, and Ash placed his magic hands on them and I think they work perfectly again.  I flyered bikes at the Station, Blake St, Petergate, Parliament St and Piccadilly before coming home.

I was able to do other things on the computer other than facebook, and I did quite a bit of work, learning how to do DropBox, and transferring the sustyork2013 email contacts into a document and then into a shared DropBox folder, and also completing the minutes from last night's meeting and wrote a brief update to send out to the YiT contacts.

I did manage to get into the garden later in the afternoon, and did a fair amount of shredding and pruning, cutting down some ivy to allow more light into the top garden.

So, a productive day.

Tuesday 4th June 13

Another busy day, sorting lots of stuff in the front garden so we can put in a big planter made from a pallet with sides.  Gill and I modified this by putting on two half pallets on the front and back to clad it, using No Nails glue and... nails!

I chainsawed up and split some remaining logs including some big 'rounds' which have been sitting there for quite a while. I stacked them in the back garden behind the willow tree.  I also weeded ground elder from the raspberry bed and did a little bit of compost management.

As it was very hot outside, I did some stuff inside, including an hour of preparing toilet roll tubes by cutting one end with a series of 1cm cuts and folding them in to make cardboard pots, and planting them up with pea beans.  I soaked a load a few days ago and have had a surprising germination rate.  I'll be able to take some to the seedling swap, and give a few to my parents and Cookie. 

Mid afternoon there was a delivery of a box of York World Naked Bike Ride 2013 leaflets which was exciting as I hadn't seen them... they were a gift from Peter Birkett, who's also paying for the banner to be made. This means that tomorrow I'll have to do a load of deliveries.....

Monday 29th April 13

A full day; starting with a meeting with Edwina and Nick, about a new project they'd like me to help with. This was 11.30 til 1.15 at the Bar Convent, and I then bombed down to Fishergate to attend the meeting with the Police and Council about the 2013 York World Naked Bike Ride.

We discussed the route and the Police policy this year, and went through the junctions they'll be at to look after. They both wanted the start time to be changed from 5pm to 6pm for safety reasons.

Then I visited Get Cycling

Then Ola

And soon after I got home, out again to go and hear Professor David Nutt speak. 

Thursday 28th February 13

A good day, with a visit to a shop with my friend who's bank card I'm looking after at around lunchtime, and then mid-afternoon I did 3 hours DEFRA door-knocking. Really enjoyed this.

I headed off to town to get to the Friends Meeting House by 7pm for the followup meeting to 'Towards a Sustainable York 2013' which was due to start at 7.30. 18 other people attended which was a really good turnout.

I co-chaired with Lyndsey, all sitting in a circle. Everyone introduced themselves, just briefly... and then we recapped the different subjects which emerged from the meeting in January.  These were the York Green Network or Hub, a Vision and Future for York in Transition, Creating a Bee-Friendly York, Local Carbon Capture - biochar, Renewable Energy, Community Agroforestry Gardens, i-Travel York, Wellbeing in York and there was a late addition to the topics, Creating a Plastic Waste sculpture.

Lyndsey facilitated a voting system for these to decide the most popular. This resulted in 3 groups, the networking one, the wellbeing one, and a conglomerate of 3 groups, which we renamed the growing group. We had about 45 minutes discussion time and then regrouped to share our next steps.  The most advanced group, it seemed, was the Wellbeing group which had laid plans for a Wellbeing Festival, and several other events and actions.

Some of us then went to the Last Drop Inn, where although it was noisy, some good conversations were had.

Friday 8th February 2013

Up fairly early and went to the Thomas's Bakery on Tang Hall Lane to get some cheapo Yesterbake bread, and then I went into the Co-op to get a load of soya milk, and I was surprised to see Hugh Bayley, our MP, and Councillor Neil Barnes, our Ward Councillor.  They were there to officially open the new Post Office in the Co-op.

I chatted with Hugh for a while and he asked me if I'd help with a photo.  I joked that I'd be delighted to be in a photo with him just as long as no-one photoshopped a Labour Party badge onto me!  He gently explained that he'd like me to take a photo of him and Neil, so I did a series of snaps for them, next to the new counter.

A couple of minutes later I had another joke with him about him being up a ladder pretending to put the Post Office sign up on the wall.  I mentioned the DEFRA work I was doing with St Nicks and he was interested.

I then went to St Nicks to take all my filled-in forms in, and ask about continuing, and was given a form with all the roads yet to be done. There's still quite a bit of work to do.

I didn't feel like doing any door-to-door today as I wanted to do some more wooding, and I had a busy and enjoyable outdoor day.

Saturday 26th January 13 Towards a Sustainable York 2013

Up early so I could be at Priory St by 9.15.... in deep snow! 

Monday 21st January 13

A quiet day mostly inside, helped by cold weather. However, I did go to the 'Towards a Sustainable York 2013' planning meeting at 11.30, and after that, to Alligator to get supplies and compostables.

In the evening, went to the Seahorse to the York in Transition 'decision' meeting, and happily, we now have a new team of Directors, Lyndsey, David, Jon, and Barry and I will remain, but Barry will not be Company Secretary.

Friday 11th January 13

A real mix of a day; up early and got an email from Ivana about tomorrow's Rotters event in Bishopthorpe, to which I responded 'yes, will see you there but will see you soon at the Terrace Cafe in Auden House' as we'd agreed to meet there at 11.30.

20 minutes later we were there, I got in just a few moments before everybody else.  It was a good meeting, to finalise the arrangements for the Towards a Sustainable York 2013 event.  I have a Press Release to write.

We were finished within the hour, and I came straight home.  I did a bit of shopping for Gill, heavy stuff like cartons of soya milk and bags of potatoes.

In the afternoon I did another significant bit of willow pruning; I'm over halfway now.

I got an email from Georgina saying that she'd had a lot of thought about her various businesses, and she was sorry to say that she was not going to be persuing the 'Really Resourceful' food waste collection in York, and that I was to destroy the business cards.  Later in the day I had a good conversation with her and was assured that the decision wasn't to do with anything I'd done or not done, but what she was concentrating on, which is a bigger project.  We will work together on the Galtres Festival recycling, and perhaps with St Nicks if she's needed there.  I was disappointed for a while, but I'm sure something else will come along. 

Friday 4th January 13

Another good day, as it was mild and dry, so I did some more work on the big willow tree, and removed another two big branches, and then pruned them down at ground level.

In the afternoon I bombed down to town to get a cheque out for Yell. And my new website is ready to go live.  It needs just a couple of tweaks.... and my professorfiddlesticks.co.uk URL directing to it.

The other good thing was the Residents Weekend pamphlet was published and the Towards a Sustainable York 2013 event is in it!  Hooray!

At 6.30 I arrived at David's again and I took him to City Screen, just did an hour and a half.

In the evening I worked on tomorrow's 'fracking' talk in Malton.

Thursday 3rd January 13

Got up quite late and had a good day, the highlight of which was working with our youngest in the garden, just taking the last of the split oak logs down the garden, by hand, 2 or 4 at a time, and stacking them in a place just vacated by some dry logs which are now outside the front door, on their final drying cycle before use.

I stacked, he delivered.  We enjoyed working together... and although it was less than an hour, this was the best bit of the day for me.

At 5.30 I headed off to The Seahorse for a Sustainable York 2013 meeting.  Pleased that Alistair and Ivana were there too.  We got quite a bit sorted out.

Saturday 14th January 12

A happy day.  I got up fairly early and did a few bits and bobs around the house, including finishing off the soup I made last night.

But shortly before midday I cycled down to the station and met up with Nick who told me there was a problem with the trains the other side of Leeds and there was a bus replacement between Leeds and Huddersfield.  He was unsure whether he wanted to go with me if the bus was going to take ages, but I assured him that replacement buses didn't take that much longer.

Anyway, there wasn't a problem with the trains in the end, and I went to my usual cafe-haunt and met up with friends.  After this I took the tram to go and see my festival friend Kerry, whom I haven't seen for quite a while. 

Friday 13th January 12

A late start as Gill got the kiddies up and off to school and did her stint in the school shop.  I was woken by a phone call at about 10am but it rang off and there wasn't a number left for me to phone back.  I got several more silent calls, before the scammers got through saying they were aware my Micro$oft Windoze computer was underperforming.  I told them I don't use Microsoft or Windows, and told them politely to remove my number from their database.    I got phoned by these scammers a while ago and they ask for a card payment to sort out your system... which of course has nothing wrong with it (well, thinking about it, if it's Windows, it probably has!)

So I got on with assorted online nonsense and interspersed this with assorted housework until Gill came in.  I got a genuine booking phone call for an event on my birthday in May, and another which I couldn't fulfil as I'll be at the Little Green Gathering.

After 5 I got ready to go to work, got to David's at 6 and he asked to go to City Screen, where I got him his coffee and I had a mocha, and Dave Taylor came to join us and we chatted about travel, since Dave is going on a short break.

I then took David back and got him his evening meal, and left just before 8pm, collecting a sack of tomatoes and other unsold stuff from Freshways on the way home.  This meant that at midnight, I made a wholesome soup out of two onions, a small leek, about 20 large tomatoes and some Marmite.  That'll mean Gill doesn't have to think about cooking tomorrow, when I'm in Manchester.

Thursday 12th January 12

A good day, got up fairly early due to a bit of a commotion, and Gill took one of the boys to school on a bus.  The other went in a taxi. I made up my muesli before breakfast, then did some work outside, chainsawing and splitting various logs and trying to get the front clear, as I want to sieve the pile of sawdust, so I get sawdust for the compost toilet and bits of bark and twig for the compost heaps.

I also did some tidying in other places too, peeled waste plums for drying, washed up, sorted out some dates which were mixed in with other fruit, washed them and blanched them, and trayed them up for drying. Deleted loads of emails.  Got a phone call from someone from Leeds City Council just as I was about to reply to her email.  I agreed to meet her next week after I've donated platelets, and we'll chat about starting a Leeds Master Composter scheme.

During early evening one of the log piles collapsed,  or was caused to collapse.  Gill spotted some lads hanging around just beforehand, and I got a nuisance call at about the same time which I dealt with in my usual very polite way.  I deliberately never get abusive or upset, as the caller would love that, I'm sure.   Anyway, the pile only took 5 minutes to rebuild.

We had a family discussion about a diary/planner which I bought before Christmas and only arrived this morning.  It's an 'Elements' planner, and it's really nice... however I've already started using a 'wildlife in the garden' planner and so I think it will become a family diary.  It is full of great pictures of many elements from the periodic table, and fascinating facts about them too.

So, despite a tricky start to the day, it was productive and good.

Wednesday 11th January 12

Slow start to the day, hardly surprising considering what time I went to bed, but a good day nonetheless.  I went to get bread first thing (ie before lunch!) and then started on my tax return which I always find difficult to the point of pain.  There are, despite having done it quite a few times, quite a few bits which I don't understand.

3pm crept up on me and I put our youngest's bike on my trailer and cycled down to the Steiner School to pick him up, and we cycled back together.  Gill had gone to town to pick up our eldest from The Stables where he's doing some extra work, so I made a simple pasta and veg tea.

Then I cycled towards town and picked up some Freecycled guinea pig food, and arrived at Green Drinks just before 7.30, at the 3 Legged Mare for the last time.  The staff hadn't put the notices on the tables in the annexe so there were other (noisy) people in there, making our meeting less easy.  Andy D'Agorne turned up at about 8.30 to present some information about the current Clifton Green Cycle Track consultation...which I knew quite a bit about already, having followed the whole thing through the Press.

However, I was expecting a text message from my friend Debra Fayter, who was performing her Stand Up Comedy routine at the Gillygate pub on Gillygate.  She messaged me saying she'd be going on in 5 minutes, so I made my excuses and shot off, saying I'd be back within the hour.

I was really impressed by what Debra did.  She's obviously learned a script, that she's written herself, and the subject matter was most unexpected.  I'm not going to try to reproduce any of it here... firstly this isn't an 'X-Rated' blog, and secondly, it would spoil the fun and surprise if a reader were to go to a comedy night that she performed at.  Although I'm not a connoisseur of stand-up comedy, I think Debra was good and if she continues, she'll develop more material and get more confident.  She certainly got quite a few laughs and I'm really glad I went to see her.

I left immediately afterwards, to get back to Green Drinks, and met Ginnie going in, and had nice chats with Ian and Denise.

I came home soon after 11pm.

Tuesday 10th January 12

Up fairly early and got the shredder out, and a big blue tarpaulin-sheet to shred onto.  Did all the foliage from the pine tree, a 1m3 builder's dumpy bag full, and a load of Christmas tree branches too.  Eventually I was able to empty the dumpy bag of unshredded stuff onto the sheet, and fill it with all the shredded stuff.  With it all shredded, it didn't fill it completely but it was still almost too heavy to move.  What will I do with it all I wonder?

Just as I finished, my gardener friend Nick arrived, as arranged.  We had lunch and then prepared to take down the pine tree trunk.  I'd asked him to come and help as he wants to inoculate the trunk with Fir Oyster mushrooms. I first needed to take off the top metre or so of the trunk, as I didn't think the trunk would clear the phone line if I left it so tall.  So I tied the top with a rope and then tied the rope to the lower part of the trunk, so the top wouldn't fall down and do damage or go somewhere where I didn't want it to go.  Then I started a cut with the chainsaw, but I wasn't happy using the chainsaw up the ladder so I finished it off with the bow saw. The lump eventually fell, and was caught by the rope, just as intended.  I was able to untie it and throw it down where I wanted it to go.  Then I retied the rope to the new top of the trunk and removed the ladders.

I then cut out a wedge from the trunk, at waist height, facing where I wanted the trunk to fall, which was onto our front garden.  Then I asked Nick to gently pull on the rope as I cut from the opposite side.  The trunk fell exactly as expected... I was really pleased!  This was a 'professional' job!  Then I chopped the trunk up into about 6 pieces,of a length that Nick says will be good for mushroom logs.  He'll buy some spawn off Adrian and come and do some inoculation in the next few weeks.  I'll have one or two logs and he'll have the rest.

Nick got off home and I spent quite a bit more time clearing up the front, chainsawing some bits and bobs, and cutting some smaller pieces with the loppers. 

Monday 9th January 12

Well where did the day go?  Did a bit of paperwork in the morning and then in the afternoon headed into town for a meeting.  I popped into the building society first and paid in a cheque, and got a pastie as I thought the meeting might take a long time.  My route into town was disrupted by a bomb-scare at the Old Dairy site, but my detour didn't take too much longer.

I got back soon after 6, a huge Christmas tree in tow, chopped that up (quietly, with loppers) and decided not to go to the York Skeptics Open Mic night.

 A late evening, despite saying at 1am that I'd be going to bed early....

Sunday 8th January 12

Well the only interesting thing today really was cycling down to town with our eldest and meeting up with Gill, our youngest and their friend, who'd travelled a different way, and taking them to a science lecture at the Tempest Anderson Hall. This was about magnetic liquids and was very interesting and enjoyable! 

Tuesday 1st January 2013

Up before midday and had a good day, pleased I'd done the mailout. 

I did a bit of tidying, stacking, pollarding, composting and fruit drying.

In the evening we had an attempt at a game of Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, but it took a long time, especially when I was told (with 'The desert' on my forehead) that I was a mineral, and oil-based.  Whoever said I was oil-based was thinking there was oil under the desert, so that made the desert 'oil-based'.  No wonder I couldn't get it!

Monday 31st December 12

Sometime in the morning I had a nice phone chat with my cousin Chris.  We have quite a bit in common, besides our fathers being brothers. But we haven't got to know each other, but I expect a meeting in 2013.

Before lunch I went for a short walk with my mum to buy a few groceries
We came home on the 1.20 train, and when I got in, I lit both stoves to warm the place up.

Although I'd been invited to a New Year's Eve party, I decided to stay in with the family, and we had a very quiet, and sober evening.  The boys stayed up to see the New Year in but went to bed soon after midnight.

However, I got busy then, and did a big email out to potential participants in the Towards A Sustainable York 2013 event. This included the flyer/poster and a booking form. I finished at 5am and didn't get to bed til 6am.