Wednesday 15th August 18

Complicated day, up at 9 as had to be at Ted's (Maryvonne's Dad) at 11, only to find I had a flat tyre. Boooo.

Phoned Electric Transport Shop and took bike there to fix it, hung around for over half an hour. Home for lunch.

After lunch went to Maryvonne's to do another stint on her trees.

Took cuttings to Hazel Court.

Nap in evening, got to get ready for Tribfest tomorrow.

Tuesday 14th August 18

Extraordinarily busy day.

Up early as Gill was heading off to radiotherapy.  I went to buy bread and potatoes, got a cauliflower too.

Had appointment to put electric wheel on the bike and new hitch on the trailer, so cycled to the Electric Transport Shop and took trailer off. Walked trailer to station using a strap, met Liz Ferris.

Ash said yes to doing the trailer, and I walked into town to send book to Carol Hunt and documents to solicitor.  Ate a pastie, got a cheque made out to Cycle Heaven for the trailer hitch. Walked to Electric Transport Shop and eventually got my bike back, with motor!  Cycled to station to pick up trailer.

Delivered empty poo bucket to Helen, and chatted with her for a while. Then went to Maryvonne's to do half hour of pruning. Then to Hazel Court to dump prunings... and got a puncture so walked to Cycleworks to get that sorted which they did.

Cycled home, put load of stuff on a compost heap, had nutloaf and freegan sandwiches for tea.

Monday 13th August 18

Gill's first day of radiotherapy, but she didn't know how she was getting there so I got up to help organise things, and she was picked up at 9.45am.

I had quite a good day, despite there being a storm with thunder and lightning and rain. Lit the stove, dried fruit, dealt with Red Tower Cafe compost, and searched for Ben's gate key which between Howard and Gill has gone missing.

Got the solicitor's letter signed and witnessed by Marion.

Nutloaf for tea.

Sunday 12th August 18

Got a message to go and collect Helen's bucket and take over some more sawdust. So I did that, going via Sainsburys and then, after picking up the bucket, found a skip with copper wire in it, then went to Maryvonne's and did half an hour of Leylandii removal.

During the evening I uploaded the festival compost photos. Shared the album widely!

Saturday 11th August 18

Quite a lazy day in many ways but did some weeding and compost heap filling, apples and brambles, stove in the evening to dry fruit.

Did a conversation with Terry in the evening on Zoom which I recorded and she then uploaded to YouTube.

Friday 10th August 18

Toby's birthday, and he was thrilled with the gnomes.

Doctor's appointment at 4pm.

Thursday 9th August 18, Green Gathering, my final day

A much easier day.

Explored Chepstow.

Travelled home to York.

Wednesday 8th August 18, Green Gathering Clear Up - day 3

Beginning to see the final shape of things!

Tuesday 7th August 18, Green Gathering Clear Up - day two

Still busy

Monday 6th August 18, Green Gathering Clear Up - day one

Busy!

Sunday 5th August 18, Final day of the Green Gathering

Final day for the majority, but my work will get busier for a couple of days.

Saturday 4th August 18, Day 3 of the Green Gathering

Very hot during the middle of the day, and a wonderful evening.

Friday 3rd August 18, Second day of the Green Gathering

Today the Gathering got really busy.
I did a talk in the Permaculture area at midday.

Thursday 2nd August 18, Day One of the Green Gathering

Started my compost heap build.

Wednesday 1st August 18, Travelling to the Green Gathering

I mostly got my stuff together this morning and packed my panniers and rucksack, and got the train.

Tuesday 31st July 18

Playscheme t 10am, quite a early start for me!

Today was a 'first'. I taught about waste, recycling, composting and invertebrates at a kids playscheme.

I got booked by Minster School to do a normal Professor Fiddlesticks show and workshop and whilst discussing what I could do, I let slip that I did talks on composting, and Jackie, the play-leader, said she'd love me to do that and I rashly agreed, not thinking how difficult it would actually be.

It was tough - age range 5 to 15. I had two hours to fill. I took samples of compost, different sorts of recyclable waste, pots of assorted 'minibeasts', a USB microscope and my laptop, and the rotasieve riddle and a bucket of unriddled compost.

I did one segment with all 30 or so kids, then after a break they were split into 4 groups by age. I had done some planning but was mostly 'winging it' as my normal composting talk was not appropriate - I teach adults who usually have a clear grasp of underlying principles of what things are made of, how plants grow, what bacteria and fungi are.... so I had to cover a wide range of basics.

I think it went well. It is another 'string to my bow' although it needs strengthening.

Finished at 12.30, popped in on Joy. Home for lunch. Put chilli vaseline on walnuts.

Sorted a lot of waste food I don't want hanging around.

Monday 30th July 18

Took bike and trailer into Cycle Heaven cycled away on one of theirs.

Took delivery of waste foods from Red Tower Pay As You Feel Cafe.

Visit from Michael, Ruth to pick up aubergines, and Az to pick up stuff too.

Got stuff together for tomorrow's playscheme.  Phoned in income for Tax Credits.

Took bike back, paid off paper bill, paid BT bill. saw Kiri, gave her food.

Cycled home with my mended bike.

Sunday 29th July 18

Picked up at 10.30 by Matthew, Pip's partner, and drove to Shipley with chainsaw, shredder, loppers. 

Despite rain, I pruned a tree.

Shredder didn't like the wet leaves so gave up, put them in the undergrowth.

Lunch, drive back to York.

Evening: Kate Smurthwaite's show "ForniKATEress" at the Yorkshire Fringe, with Joy.

Saturday 28th July 18

Quite a busy day again, visited Maryvonne with a prop for her crab-apple tree, and chopped down a Euonemous bush, then went to the Art Market on the riverbank and saw Nelly, and then back to Matt's to deliver dried apple.

Evening visit from Kiri to pick up some waste food.

Friday 27th July 18

A really busy day, and one of weather extremes.

The hailstorm was very memorable, we got hailstones 2 or 3 cm across, we put some in the freezer. The sunflowers got holes in their leaves.

I also took my trailer over to Matt Bibby as he said he'd be able to sort out the problem with the sides of the trailer going into the wheels, and a few other things too. I left the trailer with him and popped in on Maryvonne, to see her various jobs.   Then on to town to see Ash to talk about my bike refurb, and home.

In the evening, after the worst of the storm, I went to Matt again but he wasn't finished so I visited Maryvonne's father in The Groves to look at a job there. Also briefly spoke to Madeleine on Emerald St about her tree work. Up to Matt again and picked up the trailer, got a new saddle and stand too.

Thursday 26th July 18

Collected a second load of tree remnants from Alligator and came back to shred them, and when I did, there was thunder approaching from the south, which was exciting - we also got some rain! Not a lot, but some, enough to give something to shallow roots.

In the evening I was due to have a webinar with the Ecotechnicians but the wifi was playing up and we gave up in the end. Hugely disappointing.

Wednesday 25th July 18

An early start as I had a gig at the Minster School Summer Playscheme, but we needed bread so I popped into Thomas The Baker on Tang Hall Lane for Yesterbake. Cycled along to the Route 66 Sustrans cycle track and popped out of that at Heworth Green, and by 9.50 was at the Minster, and I had an audience of between 30 and 40 children, who saw my Professor Fiddlesticks Circus Skills Show and Workshop - followed by a free-play workshop. I finished at about 12.15 and had a chat with the team leader about next week's visit where I'm taking in a range of compost-related things, including 'minibeasts'. Then I cycled home, had a bit of a rest and had lunch.

I rang Alligator to see if they wanted me to come and do the tree work they'd asked me to do, they were happy with that so I told them I'd be with them for 3.30. They have a Laurel which needs to be trimmed now and again, so I loaded my huge ladder onto the trailer, my battery chainsaw, Fiskars loppers and heavy-duty secateurs. The work wasn't that difficult; just cutting off some of the branches which were poking up higher than wanted. However this produced 2 trailer-loads of vegetation - I took one back at half five and left the rest to be picked up tomorrow. It was hot work, but I was glad to get it done today rather than leaving it as the weather is due to get hotter over the next few days.

Cycled home and unloaded trailer, went with Gill to the Co-op, and I carried the shopping back. Then I shredded the Laurel, enjoying the almond smell, which is in fact cyanide. Not a great idea to breath too much of that in. It has no effect on the ability of the material to compost down. 

I then dealt with another enquiry, someone asking if anyone wanted to pick up a pallet, and I chopped this up to get it in the trailer.

So, an extremely busy day working and volunteering.

Tuesday 24th July 18

Main thing today was going to the dentist for a clean at 4, but going to the opticians first to pick up my new varifocals. They feel quite odd, almost as if I'm a bit drunk.

I visited Joy afterwards and then in the evening had the sad news that Tamara Kennard had died.

Monday 23rd July 18

Up fairly late and when I came down Debbie was here and had bought bread. I did a little bit of garden stuff and then went to Sheffield to go to the Sheffield Skeptics.

Sunday 22nd July 18

Another hot day - and a late start, but I went and did a bit of work for Ben, taking out a shrub and then coming home and shredding it.

Saturday 21st July 18

Up fairly early with a phone call from Dawn, and I went to the Green Party hustings for the leader and deputy leader. I helped by being on the door, and was nice with Shahrar's wife and kids. Later, I ventured out to go and see Matt Bibby who said he might be able to help fix my trailer sides which are on occasion rubbing against the wheels.

Friday 20th July 18

Lots of cycling.  Went to the bread shop and then over to my doctor's to pick up a prescription and found it was closed 12.30 to 2.30 every second Friday. I arrived at 12.36. Damn.  Went to Sainsburys to buy cereals. Picked up sticks on the way home.

Got Gill's prescriptions and came back for lunch.  After lunch cycled in again to put in a cheque and to get my prescription, and witnessed an incident with a cyclist accidentally jumping the lights and then I caught up and told him what had happened. In Parliament St there was a car in the pedestrian zone about to drive up Parliament St the wrong way, a musician, and I took his instruments to the venue whilst he was escorted away.

I got my meds and came home to chop up sticks and do compost. Gill and Toby witnessed a pair of rats mating in the conservatory. Damn.

Thursday July 19th 2018

Gill had an early start going to Leeds re her radiotherapy. I had a lie-in til 10 and then got up to do a fair amount of writing.  Gills radiotherapy visit was a waste of time and I had a largely wasted day - the best bit was a talk at the York Cycle Campaign about how to count cyclists!  I picked up a load of logs and didn't go out after the Cycle Campaign meeting, but did type up minutes of the Tang Hall Road Safety meeting last week.

Wednesday 18th July 18

Picked up from Alligator.

Picked up hoops from Freegler so I can learn to hoop!

Green Party meeting followed by pint in the Ackhorne.

Tuesday 17th July 18

Lellie came in the morning, lovely to see her.

At 3 I went to see Joanna in Fulford with my long ladder, which reached her strip lights and she went to replace them.

At 5.45, met Jamie at Cycle Heaven. York Blind and Partially Sighted Society.

Went to Aldi after cycle ride and bought £50 worth of soya milk and almond milk.

Monday 16th July 18

Today I helped Joy with some paperwork, then went to my GP for a repeat prescription, then to the opticians to see if my broken glasses could be fixed. Came home and worked in the garden.

Sunday 15th July 18

Another extremely hot day, but I needed to go and pick up the last of the wood from Andrew, so I went via the hooping fiun event at Millennium Bridge, and took my devilsticks. I had some gentle devilsticking with others, and had a go at hooping and, for the first time, succeeded - Jenny is a good teacher!

I spent an hour there and then went on to load up my trailer fully - and just managed to get that home, but was really VERY hot, and had to collapse.   However, later I chopped all the sticks up before having tea.

Saturday 14th July 18

A very hot day - I took a call from Andy D'Agorne asking if I could advise on a green waste collection question, and said they'd be at the Micklegate Social at 5.30.  I read that as Fossgate Social. So I went to the wrong place.  But did get there in the end. 

Met up with Joy just before 7 and went to El Piano, and that was lovely, then went home with her, and got back home at 10pm.

Friday 13th July 18

Tanghall and Heworth Road Safety Campaign meeting 12-2, I took minutes.

Bombed home to have a quick lunch and then loaded up with shredder, loppers, groundsheet, rubbish bags, and cycled to Andrew Green's, starting at 3, did 3 hours 15 minutes of shredding and processing the tree materials I took down last week.

Home, exhausted mainly from the cycling in the heat, so didn't feel like cooking so had a Food Not Bombs meal, and went on to Andrew's to pick up another 4 sacks of shreddings and some branches.

Chopped sticks with Toby before coming in.

Thursday 12th July 18

The day included delivering compost to Gianna, poo bucket back to Helen, walking round Water End Meadows with Barry Potter, visiting Cycle Heaven to talk about forthcoming chain/sprocket/block renewal, Electric Transport Shop about motor, and the Coop to get veg.

And, regrettably, standing on my glasses. Fuck.

Wednesday 11th July 18

Some of today was dealing with the fallout of yesterday's online mistakes. However I also delivered books to the Groves Library, picked up Helen's poo bucket and left sawdust, and visited Joy which was lovely. Also got bread and prescription for Howard.

Tuesday 10th July 18

Not a good day, although did get out to get a prescription for Gill, and did some stick-tidying, compost riddling and trench digging.

Most of the day was dealing with the fallout from the UK Poly mess, and, sadly, digging a deeper hole.

Monday 9th July 18

Main things today were doing an earlier version of my Two Rivers Radio show, interviewing Robert Griffin, then doing some work at Ben's, and coming home to shred and work with Kiri who picked redcurrants.

UK Poly shennanigans in the evening.

Sunday 8th July 18

Another work day, with an earlier start - got to the venue on Burton Stone Lane well before the 12.30 stat time and was quietly dismayed to see a bouncy castle AND a DJ corner being set up!

But it went really well.

Evening, went to the Shakespeare Rose Theatre for A Midsummer Night's Dream with Gill, Joy and Kiri. Fabulous.

Saturday 7th July 18

A good day working - although it was a tough gig.  Alfie, who is 9, had a feeding tube pit in at 6 months old and recently he had it taken out, so this was a celebration for him, at the Carlton Tavern in Acomb.  However it was hot, outside, and competing with a World Cup football match.  But it went well, and the mum and dad were both very happy with what I did.

Had a nap 8.30 to 10.30 ish.

Friday 6th July 18

My 'big day' today, presenting a composting talk for Bloom!

But it wasn't that good; only 9 in the audience, all enjoyed it but I was disappointed about the numbers.

Went to Museum Gardens after, met up with Robert and Michael.

Then to St John's where met up with Treememndous people and others, then had a go climbing a tree with ropes.

Walked to the Co-op with Gill.

Thursday 5th July 18

Today's highlight was going to the Edible York Gardener's Question Time at Bootham School. Met Maggie and Helen, left 11 bags of compost ready for my talk tomorrow.

Wednesday 4th July 18

The highlight of the day was cycling over to Joy's, picking her up in the trailer and taking her to Eagle and Child in Petergate to see Kiri's first paid gig. Also Jimbo Doomface playing, and Georgina..... enjoyed people-watching with Joy.

However earlier in the day I cycled over to Heworth Green with Toby to see the doctor, and on the way back I taught him some plant names.

Tuesday 3rd July 18

A pretty hardworking day. I first attached my trailer to the bike and tried to find the set of loppers which cuts best, but could only find the set which doesn't quite meet; and the battery chainsaw. Then to Cycle Heaven at the Station to get my wires soldered, as I'd busted them between the dynamo and the back light when I picked up some lead pipe. For this I had to take my trailer off.

20 minutes later, bike fixed, trailer on, cycled to Ruth's to pick up plants. Then to Andrew's to deal with 3 trees, a little pine which just needed one trunk cutting, then a large leylandii which needed the top cutting off, then an ornamental apple which needed trimming. Went for lunch at Chill.

Came back very very tired!

Monday 2nd July 18

Collected Melissa from the hotel and took my bike for a wheel change, then walked to the wall - visited the Barbican cafe, and walked to Red Tower, Jewbury, Monkgate and round to Bootham Bar. Then the Minster, El Piano, and to the station. 

I then walked to the bike shop, picked up bike minus motor, and cycled to Ben's to do an hour of slab-lifting. VERY hard work.

In the evening I went to the York Community Energy Cafe meeting and chatted to Ian from Derwentthorpe and Jon from Australia, as well as Anthony Day and other friends.

Sunday 1st July 18

So hot!

Met up with Melissa when she came through to York to see her sister perform at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, and spent a bit of time with her before that, and then afterwards spent an hour chatting.

Saturday 30th June 18

Pretty quiet day, did a little shop at the Co-op and more compost riddling, filled 16 carrier bags with nice riddled compost for Friday's Bloom gig.

I also had another look around the skip down the road and got a nice teapot which has a loose leaf tea section, and loads of other bits - bread, muesli, sugar, rice, yeast, oils, assorted stuff for composting, a really good haul.

Friday 29th June 18

Got a message from Ben saying he'd be happy to see me and employ me today, so I told him I'd let him know once I'd talked with the Electric Transport Shop who were due to check my bike between 10 and 1. I left the bike there and walked to Ben's, and worked 12.30 to 4.45, emptying, moving and refilling the compost bin, taking up edging things, removing shrubs and taking up slabs.  We had lunch as well!

In the evening I riddled a lot of very rich mature compost, and later, inside, stripped wire.

Monday 28th May 18

An early start as had a blood donor session at 10 at the Barbican. I was a returning Donor, having not donated since 2012.

Then came home to get £50 worth of compost up the garden to Tony, Helen's partner.

Saturday 31st March 18, Richard Clare Memorial.

Another busy day, up at 9 and was working by 10 to put all the logs in one place, all the twigs in another, and to redistribute the compost heap and to reinstate the compost bin, this time on top of the pear stump, so it will have no chance at all of regrowing.  There is now ample space for the plum to be put in, and I think Daddy will help with that.

I wanted to get down to the Ponderosa by midday, so at quarter to, I packed everything into the panniers and rucksack and cycled down to the memorial for Richard Clare. He died 5 years ago, and is still fondly remembered for all his tree planting, seed swapping and assorted green activism and teaching.  His aunt and uncle came down from Aberdeen, Marion and Keith, I think, and Ed Smith was there with his girlfriend, and three other of Richard's friends. We talked together for about half an hour, didn't have any ceremony, but did have a seed swap, of sorts. I learned that Richard planted all the trees around this edge of the Ponderosa, getting funding and organising planting crews. Brilliant, what a thing to leave!

I got a train back to York and cycled round to see Kiri to arrange what she was going to do this weekend whilst Joy is in Manchester. We booked a bike ride on Sunday.

I was glad to get home and was pretty tired.

Friday 30th March 18

Going over to Sheffield today, to see if I can give blood and resume my platelet donations, and then do some work in Anna's garden.

So I got to the station and bought my ticket to Sheffield and got an earlier train than I'd expected an arrived in Sheffield at about 11.30, and slowly made my way to the blood donor centre near the Cathedral, which I knew opened for the afternoon session at 12.30. I sat next to the Cathedral for 40 minutes watching the world go by and then walked my bike up to the Blood Donation place and waited there for a few minutes. A member of staff came along at 12.15 and I asked if she knew if they had any spaces for the afternoon session, and she said she'd ask. A minute later she came back and said they were completely full, so I thanked her and cycled up towards the University and Walkley.

Daddy had delivered the long ladder the previous day, using a sack barrow he'd tied it to as a convenient sort of trolley.  I untied this and leaned it up against the pear tree and started using my big Fiskars loppers to remove branches.

The pear tree was a variety called Jargonelle. We have one in the garden more than twice as tall as Anna's. The pears are quite small, between 4 and 10cm long, and ripen in the 3rd week of August, approx. They almost immediately go bad from the centre. They are an intense 'pear drop' flavour, and, traditionally, were used to provide the flavour for pear drops. If you search 'jargonelle', you will probably find a boiled sweet, named after the pear.  Our tree is very straggly and chaotic in character. Because there are many other pear trees nearby, we get excellent fruit set, but Anna's (last year) had a very poor fruit loading. It could have been a bad year, or it may be missing the two other varieties of pear nearby which it needs to pollinate with.

I am sad to take this 100 year old tree down (that's a guess) but, it's not nice or useful to the current custodians of the land, and they have bought a replacement tree, although it will never grow nearly as big.

The wood will be dried out and Daddy will use the logs in his woodburner, somewhat replacing fossil-fuel use as he doesn't need his heating on when the burner is going.  I was sad to take this tree down but if I didn't do it, someone else would have done. 

I took the tree down slowly and carefully, using a rope to tie some branches to the tree so they didn't fall dangerously.  Daddy turned up and helped me a little bit, using a long rope to pull some branches onto the lawn, away from the ladder and fence.  I used my Oregon battery chainsaw for the up-ladder cuts and then the Worx plug-in for the trunk.  I was able to get some little discs for Anne who wants to have them for some kind of place mat, and left the trunk in two large chunks for turning or carving.

Anna fed us well and I had a bath to get the sawdust out of my hair, and was in bed by 2am, early for me!