Low Carbon Lifestyle

Sunday 13th November 11

2012-01-26T08:32:00.000Z

Another goodly day; although woken by a phone call soon after 9, from Rob in Robin Hood's Bay, confirming my performances for the Victorian Weekend.

But I'm glad I got up as I had a relaxing morning before going to work in Haxby, I set off soon after 1pm, in costume, and cycled the 5 and a half miles to the Memorial Hall which was the venue for the party. The 4 year old boy (about to turn 5 on Wednesday) was very excited, and had invited his whole class.

So about 25 children turned up, with them about 30 grown ups who nearly all stayed! So there was a fabulous audience and we had a really good show. I really enjoyed it, and the balloon workshop went well too, with lots of adults getting involved in that.

I managed to finish on time... just... and soon got packed up and left. I decided to visit someone in Wigginton whom I bought a unicycle from a few years ago... and they had emailed me months ago to ask if I wanted to buy another. Their son had gone through a unicycle phase and out the other end, so there was a spare uni available. I will probably pass this on to the Steiner School who are setting up a circus school.

So I came home with 3 unicycles on my trailer. Once I'd got unloaded, I did very little during the rest of the evening, apart from some more pears, some washing up, and watched The Secret Millionaire on Channel 4. It is a brilliant concept, and the end part of the programme makes me tearful without fail.

Saturday 12th November 11

2012-01-26T08:28:00.000Z

An enjoyable and productive day, again starting off with a phone call, this time from someone who had found me through facebook and asked about a Professor Fiddlesticks party, and I'd said yes, please ring and we can discuss it. So that's a booking for next weekend.

We spent some of the day getting our youngest ready to go for a sleepover with a group of friends. But as we were doing this, Gill spotted someone in our front garden and she told me to come and look.... but it was just my friend Wendy who was unloading used guinea pig and rabbit bedding for me to compost. I went to say hello and she and her 17 year old son Ryan came in to see our two guinea pigs, and spent quite a bit of time chatting with Gill and our youngest, and cuddling the guinea pigs, and sharing tips about guinea pig care, etc. I left them to it! But I learned that they like bark to nibble, especially willow bark (maybe it dulls their pain?) so I gathered a load of willow bark from some old logs for her to take away, and some apples too, which all her pets (50 guinea pigs, 20 rabbits) love eating.

Our youngest went out, then our eldest went to see a friend... which gave us a 'window' of 2 hours to do with what we wanted. We used it very well.

On the dot of 4 our eldest came back, his friend coming to have a sleepover here a couple of hours later.

I spent some time doing yet more pears for drying, and was pleased that Charles, an old friend of mine, came to visit and chat, drink tea, and sample pears both fresh and dried.

So a fairly sedentary day, but nice and social, and lovely to have some time with Gill with no pesky kids around!!!!

11/11/11

2012-01-26T02:58:00.000Z

I was woken by the phone and it was a nice Fiddlesticks enquiry... I'm not available on the date the mum wanted but she's going to get back to me when she's spoken to another mum and they might book me for a joint party, the week after the date she wanted.

I had a quiet day, although in the afternoon I did some chainsawing, splitting and stacking. I got quite hot and sweaty doing it; it's really good exercise!

I had another Fiddlesticks enquiry, did some fruit, washed up, made up some more muesli, but not a huge lot else happened.

Thursday 10th November 11

2012-01-26T02:57:00.000Z

I was due to go to donate platelets today but I woke up sneezing and with a runny nose, so I rang and cancelled, as they like you to be well, and I just wasn't feeling like it.

However, I felt better during the day, and did some composting and chainsawing, and at 6 went to work with David, and we went out to City Screen, where we had half an hour of peace and quiet, then we were joined by Geoff Beacon, and his and David's mutual friend Alec, who was an interesting chap.

I left David's at 8 and visited a logpile on the way home, coming back with a good load on my trailer.

Wednesday 9th November 11

2012-01-26T02:55:00.000Z

A sensible start today, up at 8.30 so I could gather together the pears I wanted to take to Scoop. I took two trays full, hoping that more than half would sell. I took the kilo of dried pears and 500g of dried apples. I set off at 9.45, very slowly so not to damage the pears which were very soft and juicy.

When I got there, the shop was shut and 3 students waiting for it to open. And the bumping around in the trays had damaged some of the pears, which was a pity. I'll have to find a better way to transport them. One of the students found a porter who unlocked the door and let me put the pears and dried fruit in the room, and then locked up again. Apparently the shop was short-staffed as quite a few students had gone to London to the 'stop privatising education' march.

I went home via a logpile and then went to have a coffee with my friend Julie B, which extended into lunch. I got back in good time to go to Country Fresh and then on to the Guildhall to attend the Environment Forum meeting at 4.30. I got there at about 4, and got a very rude haranguing from the caretaker who said 'what would happen if I got injured in the room before the meeting?' All I was doing was sitting reading quietly. Ridiculous man!

The EF meeting was good.... a presentation from Matt Barker from the City Car Club, a car-share scheme.

Then there was an update about Treemendous York, and following that, a chat with Professor Alan Simpson, who authored the 'York: New City Beautiful' report last year.

Nothing much happened in the evening.

Tuesday 8th November 11

2012-01-25T03:17:00.000Z

Well whoops, I was due to be at Seacroft Hospital to donate platelets at 10.50 and I woke at 10.30. I rang the hospital and rebooked for Thursday. They thanked me for ringing.

So, a bit of an unexpected morning as I thought I'd be woken at 8 and be leaving the house at sometime after 9 to get on a bus to Leeds. As it was I just did some more fruit and got the dried fruit ready for Scoop tomorrow. I was surprised how light apple rings are, and how many jars of them it took to make just half a kilo. The pears are much denser, and I easily got a kilo from about 3 and a half jars. However, the student price I agreed is quite a lot less than I get if I sell some privately, a jar full (used to contain 700g peanut butter) goes for about £4, but the student price is £7 for 3.5 jars of pears and I think I put about 4 jars of apple into a bag and that only weighed 500g, or £3.50 student price. The fresh ones are looking like a better deal, as there's no processing, just several days up trees, and I'm getting £1.70/kg for them. Anyway, I'll get a bit of money and the lovely Scoop-ers will get some delicious and fairly cheap dried fruit!

I used the afternoon to do some chainsawing and splitting as I've started collecting logs again.

Then at 7pm I headed over to the University to attend the New Generation Society (affectionately known as 'Thinking and Drinking'!), a presentation by Ieuan Ferrer called 'Why Meat is (usually) Murder'. This was good, quite thought-provoking and very well put over. The argument was based on the premise that eating meat increases the demand for food (as the food animals eat a third of the food grown, which could be eaten directly by people, and are inefficient processors, converting only a small percentage of the grain/soya or whatever into meat), and suppresses the supply of food (same reason) and increases the cost of food, all of which contribute to some of the problems regarding our global diet... malnutrition in some areas and in some communities, obesity in others. There was a debate afterwards which I contributed to, after which I came home via a logpile.

Monday 7th November 11

2012-01-25T02:55:00.000Z

Gill woke me up at 9.30 with a chap on the phone who wouldn't explain what he wanted to her, and when the handset was given to me, he spoke so fast that I couldn't understand him, so I asked him to repeat what he'd said... and he put the phone down!

However, it got me up and I got busy with some admin/paperwork, and found most of what I was looking for, and put several letters and cheques in envelopes, and before lunch cycled down to the post office on Melrosegate and put stamps on the ones which needed them, and sent them off.

I had lunch and washed up, and then went into the garden for the first time in a while and dug out a compost heap in order to refill it.

At 5 I put our eldest's bike on my trailer and cycled down to The Stables to pick him up. He'd started and evening class to work towards a GCSE English. We came back via the logpile and Heslington.

In the evening I went to the LETS meeting which had changed venue, and was at the Priory Street Centre. Melody was on good form and Sue was there too. Sue came with me to see Rory Motion at City Screen after the LETS meeting. Rory was on fabulous form, and I really enjoyed the event, and it raised some money for York Green Party. I walked Sue back to her van afterwards before cycling home.

Sunday 6th November Our Wedding Anniversary, and Fiddlesticking at Eid Celebrations.

2012-01-25T02:44:00.000Z

Up early, to get the 9.52 to Leeds, in order to get the 10.45 replacement bus to Batley. However, the 9.52 stopping train was late, and I was told that the 10.15 express would arrive 2 minutes earlier than the late stopper, so I waited and got into Leeds with less than 5 minutes to spare before the bus.

But I enjoyed this bus journey and at 11.20 I was delivered to Batley station, my unicycles and juggling stuff disgorged from the boot of the bus. I only had to wait a few minutes for Priya, my hostess, to arrive, and take me to the mosque and meeting space, which the Shia Muslims call a Jama'at-Khana.

I was given a tour of the Jama'at-Khana by a confident teen girl, whom I think was the daughter of one of the leaders of the community. She told me about the Ismaili community, who certainly came across as very friendly. They are from Uganda, India and Afghanistan, and consider themselves as modern and forward-looking compared to some of the more traditional Muslims. In this country there is fortunately little or no conflict between the Shia and Sunni Muslim groups. The Ismailis also do a lot of charitable work, and give 1/8th of their income to charity.

My role today was to help them celebrate Eid, one of their holy days, when they have a feast and entertainment. They invited me to have some food, which was lovely, and then I got changed and did my Professor Fiddlesticks circus show for them. This was followed by various performances by many of the children, which I enjoyed watching... and I did some balloons after this. It all went really well.

This was a really enjoyable day, as I love learning about different cultures, and these people were most welcoming and easy to get along with.

I had an easy journey back, the trains had resumed normal service and I got back to a happy house. Gill and I did acknowledge that we'd been married 12 years, and that we've been 'romantically entangled' for 18. Ah, lovely!

Saturday 5th November 11

2012-01-14T03:45:00.000Z

A pretty low key day for me. Gill and I did quite a bit of sorting out, going through piles of paperwork and trying to find our TV licence demand. It is overdue. I got a phone call from Ben who once again had come to the rescue and helped with my laptop woes. Ages ago the power jack had come loose and recently there was only an occasional connection, and my battery was only lasting 20 minutes (it is an old laptop), so he'd attempted to mend the jack but had been unsuccessful. So I asked if he'd be prepared to find a new power supply and battery pack. Today these had been delivered to him, so I went round to pick them up. The battery looks like it has twice the staying power of the old one did when new, and the jack fits snugly. I paid him and came back home.

After lunch I went down to town to take money out of the building society and put it into the bank so we could pay electronically, but the bank was shut so I couldn't top up our account (depleted because of the washing machine). However, I did check out the Big Green Market and had a nice chat with the organiser, Jane, and discussed its green credentials, as I had seen loads of things with a massive carbon impact (metalwork, ceramics, meat) and imported things, and gifts and extras which are most definitely wants not needs. If we're to achieve an 80% reduction in carbon emissions and resource use, we really have to stop consuming many of the things being offered at this 'green' market. However, I like the fact that they champion fair trade, and artisan crafts, and have over the years stopped some stallholders re-booking because they didn't fit the criteria.

I cycled home and on a short cycle path (Dixon Lane) between Piccadilly and
George St, there were 3 women walking up in the same direction as me, one on the footpath and the other two, one with a pushchair, in the cycle path. I used my bell and they heard me and moved to get out of the way, but quite slowly, so I braked and stopped to let them get onto the pedestrian path. As I cycled away, I got a torrent of abuse; saying 'slow down' and 'f***ing maniac', and worse, so I stopped and got off my bike and told them that I was going slow enough to stop in time, and actually they shouldn't have been in the cycle lane. The all started shouting at me and verbally abusing me, and I answered, probably more loudly than was necessary, and the oldest hag then said she was ringing the police as I was causing a disturbance. She did something with her mobile phone and then either spoke to the police, or more likely pretended to. What I should have done, in retrospect, was to stay with them and wait for the police, as it was they who started the commotion by shouting abuse at me as I accelerated away from them after stopping to let them go onto the pavement. But I cycled away, not wanting to have more cat calls.

The remainder of the day was fine, lots more housework, cooking, fruit drying and the like. The boys went out with a friend to a bonfire/fireworks do. Gill cuddled guinea pigs. I had 15 minutes watching fireworks and Chinese lanterns from the loft window, before making tomato soup for tomorrow.

Friday 4th November 11

2012-01-14T03:40:00.005Z

Well I got up at 8am as Gill went out with the boys on the bus, and as we were expecting the washing machine delivery between 8.17 and 9.37 (they offer an accurate 90 minute delivery window!) I was ready to get the delivery at quarter past. However, they were a bit later than that, sometime before 9. They took the old one away and also the polystyrene packaging from the new one.

I then got ready to go to Ginnie's to finish off the coal-hole job. It was raining but still a nice enough day, and I enjoyed the cycle there apart from one idiot outside the Minster who wasn't looking where he was driving and looked shocked when he saw me almost too late.

I didn't have much more scraping and shovelling to do in the coal hole, but I did have a load to take back so I did that. I got back at midday and after unloading I went straight back and got the final load, which included a wooden ladder which had rungs missing and Ginnie said was only fit for firewood.

I had lunch on the dot of 1pm. I'm not sure what else I did today, apart from get the washing machine installed, which involved removing some bolts which stop things moving around during transit, and fixing hoses etc.

Thursday 3rd November 11

2012-01-14T03:38:00.000Z

Quite a good day... although it started badly with a lot of teenage shouting downstairs, and I had to get up quickly and jump on my bike before eating breakfast and cycle to school with our youngest, who is an excellent cyclist but not yet completely comfortable crossing the one difficult road on his journey to school. I gave him a couple of suggestions about how this could be made easier and safer, but did go all the way to school with him, and came back via a good big logpile I've discovered.

I enjoyed breakfast. A lot. Lovely home-made muesli. Gill put the washing machine on last night and when she opened it, the stuff was still wet and hadn't washed. She tried to make the machine work and it just wouldn't. It has been misbehaving for months.... which isn't surprising as it is over 20 years old. We'd already done some research about washing machines when it started preparing to die, but now was the time to finish that research and make a decision. Despite being broke.

So, I rang the Co-op electrical people and bought a £400 washing machine. It will be delivered tomorrow. It's an A+++ rated one.

I worked for David at 6pm.

Wednesday 2nd November 11

2012-01-14T03:31:00.000Z

What a wonderful day. Although I was woken by teenage shouting, and I came downstairs at 8, the day got better. Gill took the boys to school on the bus and I had breakfast and my usual diet of facebook and emails. Gill came back and I spent some time with Gill before she went out to the Dentist.

I had to stay in as I was expecting the Yellow Pages chap; I'd said to him last week that I needed to spend less on advertising as I was earning less as during a recession, people spend less on entertainment than when there's more spare cash around. So he came and sorted out a package with me which he said would double the amount of work I was getting, but would cost more. He said it would more than pay for itself. I said I needed to check it over with Gill, and was unable to sign for that package there and then, and I wasn't happy that although I said I needed to spend less, he'd actually given me a more expensive package.

Anyway, he came back today and spent some time re-doing my advertising so it was reduced in size and cost less, and I signed for it. The chap was interested to see the garden so I quickly took him down... I think he was a bit mithered about his posh shoes getting a bit of mud on them! Nice enough guy though.

Anyway, I then could think about planning the rest of my day. I needed to take my bike into Cycle Heaven again, as the dynamo stopped working, or rather didn't work when I got on it at Ginnie's yesterday night. I needed to be at CVS for 3pm as Melody had asked me to be there to accept an award for YorkLETS. And then I needed to be at the Scoop Shop at Wentworth College at 6pm. I decided to have lunch and take my bike into Cycle Heaven and leave it there whilst I was at Priory Street.

Over lunch I got 3 phone calls, all Fiddlesticks bookings. One was from a woman at a Mosque in Batley, wanting to book me for a show this Sunday for Eid. She also invited me for lunch. Then I got a December booking for a nursery party in Meltham, near Huddersfield. Finally, a chap whom I'd met on a train rang me and said he wanted to book me for a private workshop with him and his girlfriend, learning basic balloon modelling. He too was in Huddersfield. Oh, and Rob from Robin Hood's Bay rang and I confirmed that I was able to go up with the family for their Victorian Christmas event, in exchange for 3 nights B+B in a hotel. So a flurry of pre-Christmas bookings which is good.

I went out at about 2.15 to take my bike to Cycle Heaven, so Ash could try to solve the 'spooky dynamo' problem. I walked up to Priory St and waited for Melody at CVS, and at 3 went to find her in the big room, which was hosting the Annual General Meeting. One of the items on the Agenda was the Colin Stroud Award. Colin was the Chief Executive at CVS for 23 years until last year when he stepped down, and the staff wanted to do something to acknowledge his input and dedication. So they decided to have a weekly or monthly collection of a few coins from all the staff, and then present this money to a worthy cause at the AGM. YorkLETS had been suggested as a worthy recipient and it was chosen to receive £500 to spend on anything it wanted to! Amazing! The chair introduced the award and Colin said a bit about YorkLETS, and then handed me the cheque and shook my hand. I thanked the meeting, and said I was especially moved by this as the money didn't come from a big donor giving out £500 here, £10,000 there, but was from the staff and others connected with CVS, and in my eyes, was all the more valuable because of this.

I walked back to Cycle Heaven after this, picking up several aluminium cans to take to the metal merchants when I eventually go. Ash had found the source of the problem: a wire had worked itself free of some insulation and was shorting on the frame. The dynamo was fixed!

And I needed it as my next trip out was to the University at 5.45, to be at the Scoop (Student Co-op) meeting at 6, with a sample tray of pears and dried apple and dried pears. The meeting was to decide how best to sell this produce, and the price. After quite a bit of discussion, a price of £1.70/kg of fresh pears was agreed, and 70p/100g for the dried fruit, and Scoop will add 5p to that to help them cover breakages, leakages and food that they're unable to sell (for instance if it goes out of date). These prices were based on a bit of research I'd done in Country Fresh and Alligator, and my desire to give the students the best price possible. At the end of the meeting, all the remaining pears and dried fruit was sold, and I'll take a load in next Wednesday morning. I'm really pleased with this as there's no way I can eat all the pears myself... even if family members join in!

Which for tea, they did! I had some soup, garlic bread and veggie sausages followed by a fruit art explosion made by our eldest. We all had a bowl of carved orange slices, pear, ginger biscuit and chocolate drops. Nice!

I had a nice evening after this doing more fruit, watching telly and chatting.

Tuesday 1st November 11

2012-01-14T03:29:00.000Z

A hard-working day. I went to Ginnie's to dig out her coal hole. I'd spent some time thinking hard about this issue.

Ginnie moved into the house about 20 years ago and there was a pile of coal in an outhouse... they didn't use solid fuel and it sat there. She's selling up and wants the place as tidy and clean as possible, so she asked me if I wanted the coal. Our stoves are 'multifuel', meaning they'll burn wood or coal in a smoke-free way, so that meant I was in a position to say yes.

However, this carbon was fossil carbon, extracted from the air millions of years ago. And I've made a conscious decision to be as 'low carbon' as possible... that's mainly fossil carbon, but it also pertains to not wasting renewable energy too. So, a dilemma. What to do with this coal? Should I say, no, I don't want it, and let her find someone else to dig it out, bag it up, drive it somewhere and burn it? Or should I spend time bagging it up, to help Ginnie, and then take it to Hazel court to be landfilled, or find somewhere to bury it? These last two options would mean the fossil carbon would be locked up underground, the ideal situation. But if I used the coal, it would add a little to my carbon footprint... which is about a twelfth of the UK average... so this 'carbon expenditure' wouldn't make my footprint particularly large, just a bit bigger than it would be if I'd just carried on using wood. It would add carbon dioxide to the air, probably a similar amount that the logs would, that I would need to burn to get the same amount of heat. There is a theoretical difference between carbon locked away millions of years ago and that sequestered by plants more recently, although the molecules of CO2 are exactly the same.

I decided to help Ginnie, and to bring the coal home, and use it to supplement our log piles.

So I filled lots of sacks and bags with the whole lot, probably about 250kg, and did several cycle rides back home with them in my trailer.

Later, I asked my facebook friends what they suggested I do with it. Several said 'make an artwork' out of it (my mind boggled at how I should do this!) and several others said yes, just use it, as my years and years of being low carbon would not be undone by this small high-carbon act. The burial solution was mentioned too, but by this time I'd spent several hours digging the stuff out, and the idea of chucking it away wasn't that appealing.

I'd love to know blog-readers' opinions. Am I a hypocrite? Am I just taking advantage of a freebie? Does this 250kg coal being burnt 'matter' in the bigger scheme of things? Should I burn it with a clean conscience?

Monday 31st October 11

2012-01-04T02:16:00.000Z

A good day, despite going to bed at something like 4am and being woken up at 8.50am by a phone call from Ben, asking if I'd like to take my laptop round to have the power jack repaired.

So, after breakfast I went round with my laptop and power lead, and some fresh pears, and a bag of dried apples and pears, and some walnuts. These were partly as a thank you for his offer of help, and partly as it is his birthday. He asked me to come and collect it later.

I then spent a good hour or more dealing with the last of the pumpkin seeds left over from last week's York Rotters Pumpkin Evening. I put the pulp and seeds into a bowl of water and the seeds tend to float, so I can skim them off into a drainer and from there onto sheets of paper to dry in front of a stove.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur.

Sunday 30th October 11

2012-01-04T02:12:00.000Z

I had a quiet morning, keeping out of the way of Gill and the boys who were getting ready to go to Sheffield, to stay with their grandparents, see their Uncle Thomas and their cousins, and take part in Sheffield's 'Fright Night'. I had already agreed to work for David tonight, so I couldn't go.

Also, I was feeling lousy. A running nose, sneezing, blocked sinuses. So I had a very sedentary day, and during the afternoon, I decided that I should tell David that I wasn't well enough to work. However, his phone wasn't answered, so I kept trying. He still wasn't answering at 5.40, and I became worried that something had happened to him, so whether I was poorly or not, I had to cycle in to see him.
The cycle ride made me feel somewhat better, and when I arrived at David's I wasn't feeling like going home, although I told David that if he wanted me to go I would. However, he was happy for me to take him to the William Temple Association talk, and he had a nice time.

Saturday 29th October 11

2012-01-04T02:06:00.000Z

I woke having had an odd dream that a young foreign woman had come to the door saying her business needed to recycle some food scraps, and would I help. Gill had answered the door and sent them away saying that we didn't need yet more composting going on, and then I got to the door and called the woman back and it turned out she was from somewhere like Norwich Union, and I got a contract with them to set up a Jora system, composting at their premises, and managing it too, so an ongoing 'job'. Funny dream!

There wasn't much morning left after I got up and breakfasted and got dressed....

The afternoon was good as I went up Marion and Dave's Winter Pear tree again. I saw Marion on the way down the garden and she said she was very happy with the 3 trays of pears I'd taken up the garden for her, and I could have all the rest. I'm very happy with that! I picked a load more but there's still more to get.

I'd agreed to go over and see Anna, Douglas and Loony, in Sheffield, and Anna had suggested we have a meal out, and said could I be at the station for 5.30? I got the 4.09 which went via Leeds, and I chatted a bit with a pleasant young law student called Natasha, from Newcastle, and visiting a friend in Birmingham. I also took my pumpkin seeds (last years) and peeled the outer layer off them, one by one. I got a lot done, on both legs of the journey.

Anna and Douglas like a particular Chinese restaurant called the Hong Kong Wok, and they'd booked a table. I had spring rolls and a green pepper in batter for starters, and then tofu and veg with egg fried rice for main meal. It was lovely to have some relaxed chats with Anna, sitting opposite me, and Loony's 3 year old daughter was very entertaining too.

We spent just over an hour here, and then Anna drove us back to Middlewood where she and Douglas live, very close to the end of the tram line. I had a coffee and shelled more pumpkin seeds, and at just after 9 set off for the tram, the 9.26 which would get me to the station for my 10.06 train back.

A late night but all went like clockwork, very smoothly. A lovely evening, thank you Anna and Douglas.

Friday 28th October 11

2012-01-04T02:03:00.000Z

A really excellent day. I was woken up just before 10 which gave me about 45 minutes to get ready and out of the house to get to work. Quick breakfast and emails, gathered jugglestuff together, Gill plaited my hair and I left with all my work equipment at 10.45 to get to the station for a train soon after 11, as I was being met at midday in Leeds.

Nice conversation on the train with a couple from Darlington, heading for Stockport, which made the journey go quickly and I was in Leeds by 11.50. Paul from Middleton Park met me at the back of the station and took me to the usual place, the building in Middleton Park which is due to be knocked down soon and a new centre built, hopefully by next summer!

This gig they'd booked me for was not well advertised, as they'd got some extra funding quite recently to put on kids events during this half-term, so it didn't go out in their usual literature, but was on their website, in the papers and on the radio. So at 1pm, when I was all dressed up and ready to entertain, a family group of 4 wandered in. And then a few more. There can't have been more than 20 people there all day, but several of them worked really hard with the circus skills, and I got nearly everybody, including grown-ups, having a go with the flower sticks owned by Middleton Park, and with some juggling too. It was a very successful event, because of the amount of one-to-one teaching and other interaction. I really enjoyed it, despite not following my usual routine. 3pm soon came and I helped tidy up and by quarter-past, I was in Paul's car heading for the station again.

I soon got a train to York and was home by 4.45. I had planned to do some stuff in the garden before going to work for David, but I had to do some sorting out about the gig tomorrow in Ashton Under Lyne. I'd got a provisional booking for an event there back in July, and as usual, just put the contact name and phone number in my diary, and waited for confirmation. Nothing came, so I left it as I don't tend to chase people until I need to.... either when I get someone else wanting me on the same day, or as the date get nearer, to check that the client still wants me. Well this person was playing hard to get.... a phone number with either an answerphone, or engaged. And then they left a garbled message on my answerphone with no phone number to ring and a very indistinct email address which neither Gill or I could work out what letters were being said. However, this evening, the client rang and I spoke to him! Hooray! Except he cancelled the booking. He sounded shifty about what had happened... first saying he'd booked me and the event was going ahead, then saying he'd booked another entertainer, then saying the event was cancelled. I have no idea what the truth was, but I'd rather not work for someone so disorganised, and, to my mind, untruthful. It would have been far better if he'd said that he had made a mistake, which is what I think the truth was.

So then I went to work and got to David's on the dot of 6pm. We had a little chat and then I took him to City Screen, and after that to the Envisions light show (Illuminating York) which was at the Castle Museum. This was mindblowing, really good. Neither of us expected it to be so powerful and enjoyable. We got a really good place right in the centre, and saw the whole sequence right from the start.

I got him back to his place and made some food and was finished by 8.10. I rang Gill to suggest that if one or both of the boys were ready to go out with me when I got back, I'd take them to see the show. I was really pleased that our eldest was up for this, so I got his bike and we went the quiet way down to the Eye of York and waited about 10 minutes for the show to get to the change over time, and took our blanket thing and sat down right in the middle, at the front. It was well worth it. Here's one YouTube video of it, but there are plenty of others.

Thursday 27th October 11

2012-01-04T02:00:00.000Z

Well a bit of a frustrating day in a way, as I spent quite a long time sorting out my laptop, or trying to... I plugged it in near the WiFi box and plugged in the Ethernet cable, and Ian talked me through how to let the machine complete the process of installing the new Ubuntu version, which had got stuck... possibly because my computer switched itself off because of it's problem wobbly jack-plug. Anyway, Ian got it back to a working computer, but the plug was so wobbly that I still cannot use it and I messaged Ben to ask if he'd sort it out. I will pay him handsomely when he fixes it, which is probably just a 20 minute job.

At midday the Yellow Pages guy came back, with his colleague who I think was a more senior chap, and had re-done an advert for me with two versions, neither of which I liked. I like my existing advert, which looks like a bulls-eye, but I said I was happy for him to tweak it to make it stand out more. They spent quite a long time working out a trial Google Ad Words thing for me, and I was prepared to try a 4 month trial at £39.50 per month, but when it came to the crunch, they asked for my bank account number and I don't pay anything for my Fiddlesticks work from my bank account; I use a dedicated Building Society account, and I do not do any Direct Debits. I said I'd pay for the full 4 months in advance, by cheque, but they apparently can't accept cheques for Google Ad Words. I said either they should change the rules or I'd have to put £39.50 from my Building Society into my bank to have the DD go out of my bank, and I wasn't prepared to do that. So I said scrap the Ad Words idea. They were here for 2 hours, but eventually left as they couldn't get the form to work that they'd have wanted me to sign. I didn't want to sign today anyway as I wanted to ask Gill about this cost. He said he'd call tomorrow but I'm going to ring him and ask that he comes next week.

I popped out to get two cheques made out, one for the glass I put my hand through at the gig in Poppleton (cost me £40), and one for my National Insurance contribution.

I made some soup, out of the pumpkin bits I was given yesterday. I put in onion, butternut squash, a cooking apple, some carrot, and flavoured it with herbs, Balsamic vinegar and a bit of soy sauce. I had it ready for when Gill and the boys came back at 7pm. They were glad I'd done that!

The other annoying or frustrating thing today was that I tried to contact someone who has provisionally booked me to work this Saturday in Ashton-Under-Lyne near Manchester. I'd rung the number which is in my diary, and got a message through to the answerphone, and he'd rung me and left a very fuzzy message on there, and crucially not left his contact number or email address. In my message I clearly ask that people leave their phone number if they want me to get back to them. I phoned the number I have got about 30 times during the day, and each time it was engaged. When I went out to buy bread, ARGH he phoned and once again didn't leave a contact number. How incredibly frustrating. I am available to work on Saturday, but I need to know where it is, what it is, and how much I'm going to get paid.

Gill came back at 7 having had a really good time in Norwich with her sister. The boys were happy too. I then went out, at about 7.45, to see my favourite local band The Falling Spikes. I had a lovely evening, one of the tracks they played had me in tears it was so wonderful. The band they were supporting weren't nearly as good, for me, and I left halfway through their set.

Wednesday 26th October 11

2012-01-04T01:54:00.000Z

Woke soon after 9 and had a productive day, including another round of pear picking. I picked 4 trays full, and took 3 up Marion and Dave's garden and left them near the house, so they can put them in their garage and wait for them to ripen. I went to Alligator to check the prices of pears there, and also dried fruit, to get an idea of how much I should ask Scoop to pay for my pears and dried fruit.

I collected compostables at Alligator and Country Fresh,and then headed over to St Nicks to help with the pumpkin evening. I served soup and showed children how to peel the outer shells off pumpkin seeds. I was impressed by the size of the winning big pumpkin, which came in at 25 stone (about 160kg) and I asked the growers if they would be willing to let me have some seed. I wonder if they'll send me any?

I came home with all the pumpkin innards, and spent some time sorting out some of the seeds, and also saved a load of the flesh to make soup out of. Did loads more dried pears, and a few apples.

Tuesday 25th October 11

2011-12-24T11:32:00.000Z

Long lie-in, such a peaceful house and such a late night last night. My Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome is really kicking in without Gill around to make me feel guilty about being up and about at 2am or 3am. I was doing things around the house til 3.30am last night, and slept til after 10am.

But I got going with my usual bowl of cereal and did the usual facebooking and catching up with emails, before lunch and then some chainsawing, as Mark Windmill my gardener friend had delivered some elder and probably Leylandii logs to me yesterday. So I chopped, split and stacked all of them, and at 6 got ready to go to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel where we had some interesting planning dilemmas to look at.

I made myself a cauliflower and macaroni cheese with garlic for tea, cooked entirely on the woodstove. What a treat to have something so garlicky, as none of the rest of the family like garlic as much as me, so as they're away, I'll have a few things I like and they don't.

Edward came round to ask me to sign a few cheques for York in Transition, and gave me a set of papers to give to the Council, to allow us to access some grants we've been awarded.

Up til well after 3am pottering around and listening to music, peeling fruit for drying, etc.

Monday 24th October 11

2011-12-24T11:30:00.000Z

Gill and the boys went early, via taxi, to the station, to get the 08.30 train down to Peterborough and then on to Norwich, where they are staying for a few days with Linda, Gill's sister.

I went to Country Fresh at about 9.15 as Catherine had asked me for 4 pumpkins for Pumpkin Evening at St Nicks.

I delivered them to St Nicks where there was a Rotters meeting at 10. This went smoothly.

Pottering round the house over lunch.

Got the 16.26 train to Manchester to go to a 'clothing optional swim' at Levenshulme Baths, and to meet up with several friends, including Janie and Chris... but when we got there, the event had been cancelled as the staff member who was supposed to be looking after the event was off sick.

So we went to a hotel and had a walk and spent the rest of the evening together.

Came home on the 10.22 from Stockport, getting into York just after midnight.

Good chats with Mike and Juliet on facebook

Sunday 23rd October 11

2011-12-24T11:25:00.000Z

Lovely to get a lie in til 10am, and a good day with various bits of housework, and then another stint up the pear tree in Sally's garden. I finished there... not all of the pears are picked, but all the ones I could reach are, and that's most of them, filling 29 trays.

Then I took the ladders round to Dave and Marion's as they too have a huge winter pear, and they'd like some of the pears and are happy for me to have the rest. I filled one recycling box completely full, and left that in their shed. I'll get a load of fruit trays from Richard soon and place the pears carefully in them so they can all be inspected individually, any mouldy ones removed and then ripening ones taken out for use.

I picked pears nearly all day, nothing else of note happened. I do love being up a tree, though.

Saturday 22nd October 11

2011-12-24T11:22:00.000Z

An early start, up at 7am as had to leave the house by 8.15 to get the 8.44 to Wakefield. I enjoyed a good conversation with a chap picking up a vehicle from Barnsley and taking it back to Newcastle.

I was picked up by Will, the father of the birthday girl. He took me to a hall where his partner Katie and their two daughters were waiting, the eldest is 5 tomorrow and the youngest 1 next week.

As usual, it was a good party, and loads of parents stayed, which I like as I can do the two levels of humour. Some really nice teenagers too, several of whom messaged me on facebook later, and put complimentary comments on my Professor Fiddlesticks Facebook Fan Page.

Got back into York at 2ish and delivered posters to the library, Millers Yard and Sainsburys on the way back home.

Had a bit of a relax, then picked pears, then Olly and Hydi came, then I picked more pears.

Friday 21st October 11

2011-12-24T02:28:00.000Z

Had a lie-in til after 9 which was good, came downstairs to a very quiet house as Gill had gone to a meeting with other Steiner shop volunteers. I had nothing happening until Marion came round with the fruit press and a good load of spare apples, which I'll give to Olly as a thank you for re-engineering the malfunctioning O-ring thing on the top of the screw-thread.

Marion chatted to me about her plans for an Apple Day at her church next year, and paid me the hire fee for the apple press yesterday, and sampled some dried fruit, and had a quick tour down the garden.

When she'd gone I messaged Olly to find out when he'd be able to pick the press etc up, and it'll be tomorrow, so I put it all away. It needed a bit more cleaning, which I did with the watering can.

I took the wheel off the wheelbarrow as it has become deflated, and brought it in and re-inflated it... no sign of a puncture, so I put it back on and took a load of stuff down to the compost heaps.

Before work I popped down to Country Fresh, did some shopping and brought back a trailer-load of recycling, then got cleaned up and went to see David for 6pm. I took him to City Screen and we met Trish and one of her friends, and Elizabeth, and Dave Taylor gave me some fliers for the forthcoming Green Party fundraiser.

We didn't spend that long at City Screen and when we got back to David's house, I made him his meal and drinks and got away for 7.45, and zoomed over to Peter's for a York in Transition Thermal Imaging Camera meeting. We looked through our Awards For All application for funding and decided a few things about that. I'm expecting to proof read it in the next few days, before it goes to Barry Graham as it's in his name.

Gill had made a stew and a lovely loaf, so that's what I had for tea at about 9pm when I got in.

Thursday 20th October 11 Apple Day at Dringhouses School

2011-12-24T02:25:00.000Z

A very satisfying but tough day. I woke at 7 after less than 5 hours sleep and got myself ready, with the screw thread part and the spare ratchet bolt, and a couple of sacks of small apples which I'd either been given or foraged from somewhere, and some good examples of Bramley's Seedling and James Grieve to put on an example table, and set off at 7.50.

Gill left earlier, by bus (using a family day rover ticket) with both boys to the station, where she dropped our eldest off as he was having a school trip to London, and then on another bus to the Steiner School to drop off our youngest, and a bus back to the station where she got a train to Leeds to see her sister who's broken a bone in her hand so she wanted to go and see her. Funny how injury brings out the best in people!

I arrived at Dringhouses Primary School at about 8.20 and helped move stuff into the hall where the press was already set up. The children and their families had brought LOADS of apples in.... It looked like we'd never get through them. There were two mums who were chopping the apples in half and checking for soft brown rot (which contains a toxin called patulin and shouldn't be put in to make apple juice, but is OK for cider as I think it's destroyed by fermentation.) I started the first grinding and at 8.50 we had our first class... and I managed to do a full press full and got quite a few jugs of juice for them to try, just half a cup each at first, and then a top-up for those who liked it, which was most of them.

During the day I worked with 10 classes and did a grind and press for each class. I imagine I got approximately 15 litres of juice out of each pressing, as the press can hold 36 litres of pulp. As I did the grinding, the children came in twos to see the machine, as it has impressive toothed rollers which 'eat' or 'kill' the halved apples. The smaller children stood on a little platform to see into the hopper. As I was expressing the juice, they were able to ask questions, most of which I could answer.

We supplied apple juice to the kitchen staff, and in return they gave us a poached egg sandwich. At midday I went for a little walk to the school nature reserve, a small woodland with a scratty little pond, two compost piles and a ring of chopped logs to sit on, amongst a few trees. I ate my sandwiches here and came back to school to get on with another grind and press, to supply apple juice for people to have with their lunch.

In the afternoon I did a load more, finishing just before 3pm, and then taking the equipment out into the playground, where someone would hopefully clean it up. One of the dads helped me carry it to near a hose, where I left it.

During the day I'd received a text from Pauline, one of David's PA's, asking me whether I could take him to a lecture this evening, as she had a bad cold. And when I got home, there was a phone message from one of the Stables Staff offering to pick up our eldest from the station, so that meant I could say yes to working for David.

So I didn't have long before I was going out again and got to his place on the dot of 5.30pm. We had our usual evening... lovely.

Wednesday 19th October 11

2011-12-10T02:37:00.000Z

Another good day, with an enjoyable visit to the Central Library, the University to the People and Planet 'Better World Cafe' and then more pear picking.

I'd been booked to do a York Rotters 'support the Council Officer' job, with my favourite Waste Minimisation Officer Sara Goodhead, who has been tasked to try to get as many Council premises to start composting as possible. She wanted some help with getting the bin put in, so I agreed to meet her and two staff members at 11am today, at 'Explore'. I got there first and she arrived 5 minutes later with a box containing a Green Johanna composter, which can officially take all sorts of food waste including meat and processed food. She had to go and park her van and then we met up with a rather hassled staff member (the person we'd agreed to meet at 11 wasn't coming in til midday!) and Mick the Caretaker. We went round the back to where the bins are, and there was a mossy passage which looked perfect for a compost bin. I installed the bin, screwing it together as it is in sections, and between us we explained how it should be used and what could go into it.

During the afternoon I attended the University People and Planet 'Better World Cafe', presenting some info on York in Transition and St Nicks.

Tuesday 18th October 11

2011-12-10T02:31:00.000Z

I had a lie in til about 10am and then had a fairly busy morning trying to organise the fruit press again. I'd given the screw thread part to Olly the Blacksmith to retrofit something, with the assumption that my day with it in Dringhouses school was next week. I was wrong, it is this week, and so I had to contact Olly to ask that it got back to me more swiftly than expected, and also to ask Marion from Dringhouses school to pick up the press from St Nicks.

After lunch, at 2pm, a Yellow Pages chap called Stewart came, to discuss the next lot of Fiddlesticks advertising.

After this I went round to Sally's garden to finish picking apples and pears. I got a nice box of cooking apples and 3 trays of pears.

Then I cycled down to town to pick up my prescription for my asthma preventative, to the chemist to get the medication, and the building society to get two cheques. I popped in on Debbie on the way back and swapped some pears for a box of Weetabix she didn't want.

In the evening, after the children went to bed, I lit the front room stove for the first time since spring, to burn off the dust which always smells the first time I light it after a gap of not having it lit. I love my little Clearview Pioneer!

Monday 17th October 11

2011-12-10T02:28:00.000Z

I really enjoyed today as for a lot of it I was up a tree. I like being in trees, up ladders, and especially picking fruit.

I didn't get a lie in and got dressed quite early, luckily, as Mike from The Pizza Farm arrived much earlier than he'd planned and delivered two sacks of logs, as promised, as part-payment for the work I did there a couple of weeks ago.

Then I took my giant stepladders round to Sally's house, which she rents out, and started picking her pear tree which this year has the best crop I've ever seen. Some of the pears are really huge, 8 or 9 ounces... so that 4 big pears weighed a kilo. I got 7 fruit trays full plus 4 drawers from old chests of drawers I'd rescued, literally hundreds of pears. I also picked 2 trays of apples.

I was really thrilled with this haul, and as I'd nowhere to store them, I spent an hour at dusk removing all the tomato plants from the conservatory, as they've more or less finished fruiting, and therefore made space for some of the larger drawers which wouldn't easily fit anywhere else. These are 'Winter Pears' and will ripen over the next few weeks and in December, should be really juicy and delicious, to be eaten raw, cooked, or dried.

Sunday 16th October 11

2011-12-10T02:21:00.002Z

Another good day.... did a successful if quite difficult gig and then had an interesting evening out with David.

So, the party was in Bishopthorpe at 2pm, so I set out at about 1.20 and got there at 1.45, got set up and over 40 children piled in and excitedly ran round and round, noisy and, well, as you would expect of 5 and 6 year olds.

The party went pretty much as expected, apart I had to be more strict than I like, as they were very excitable and restless, and then when I demonstrated the 4 wheel unicycle, one axle broke. I must remember to take a spare in case that happens. It didn't detract too much from the party and, actually, meant we finished that part of the show on time. Birthday tea took quite a bit longer than average, leaving only 25 minutes for the balloon modelling, which usually takes 30 to 45 minutes, so I had to cut that short at the end.

Anyway, several parents said that it was a good party, and one requested a business card, and by 4.25 I was away, heading for home.

I didn't have long, though, before going out to David's, as he was going to a lecture at St John's University, held by the William Temple Association. The talk was by Gill Martin, who amongst other things works at The Haven Project in Hull and Solace in Leeds.

She spoke about the different sorts of refugees and asylum seekers... those who have been smuggled, and those who are trafficked. They include families and lone children/minors, and come from the Congo, Zimbabwe, Eastern Europe (eg. Kossovo) and more recently, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. They face a number of stresses, including what they've left behind (maybe war, religious persecution), the journey and what they've experienced once here in the UK, where they may have been used as slaves or prostitutes, and may be having difficulties with racism, the cold weather, unfamiliar food, language, isolation and poor housing.

York did not put itself forward to take refugees in 2000 when the Government decided to locate them in other parts of the UK. Hull, Sheffield, Leeds, Huddersfield all did, but York does now have some and therefore we now have Refugee Action York as well as YUMI. Gill Martin works with various organisations, and provides counselling and psychotherapy, support and advice.

The talk was very illuminating, and shocking, and there was a bit of interesting discussion afterwards. Following this there was a short Christian service called Compline, with prayers rattled off like nursery rhymes... I didn't know any of them or the format of the service. So, a fascinating evening, and David enjoyed it a lot.

I took him home and soon after 9.30 I left, and headed to Walmgate Stray, where the People and Planet students were having a little bonfire. I chatted with several of them, and showed them the whereabouts of the pile of brash the Council has said they're going to burn, and brought a few branches over for their bonfire.

I spent about an hour there and went soon after 10.30, and was up til well after 2 doing assorted things, including fruit and washing up.

Saturday 15th October 11 Apple Day at St Nicks

2011-12-04T01:03:00.000Z

I really enjoyed myself today. I got a lie in and slowly got up, had a shave, shower, hair wash and late breakfast as I had to make up my muesli first.

Apple Day was from 1pm til 4, so I went, in costume, and with my circus stuff in the bike trailer in case, and arrived at about 12.45. I took my 'bee body' balloons as they make good apples, and thought that instead of a general circus thing, I could offer the apple juggling and balloon apples.

The apple grinder and press was already in action, and Anneliese was setting out her stall to create a long apple poem, with each contributor writing a single rhyming couplet.

The day went really well, with 2 lots of apple juggling, and helping out with the Apple Olympics and announcements. Towards the end, I met a very nice young man who saw one of the problems we were having with the fruit press, with the split ring thing which held the ratchet mechanism on. He explained he was a blacksmith, and wondered if he could solve the problem. Olly turned out to be a really nice guy, there with his partner Hydi, and we discussed a solution. Olly said he could drill a hole into the vertical screw axle, and make a screw thread which would take a bolt. This would hold a washer in, replacing the split ring clip. I instinctively trusted him and said if he would do this repair, he could use the press and grinder for free, as a thank you. We both liked this deal, and at the end of the event, he went home with the relevant piece to re-engineer it. He also suggested that our eldest might like to come and see his workplace, too, but he'd have to discuss it with his boss.

So, another good day.

Friday 14th October 11

2011-12-04T00:33:00.000Z

A really lovely day, as I'd been asked if I'd like to go and cycle with the Steiner School Sponsored Bike Ride which our youngest son was participating in. So I did a few things round the house before loading up his bike onto my trailer at 10.40am and carefully rolling down there, getting in at 11 which was officially the time to gather and go.

I took some cake and paracetamol to Gill, who'd gone in the taxi earlier with both boys, our eldest walking further on to The Stables and Gill doing a stint in the shop and once we'd gone, she cleaned the classroom too.

Year 7 was to have a cycle ride out along the York to Selby cycle track, 11 children, one teacher, 3 parents. Other classes were doing other things... the youngest were walking to Rowntree Park, Year 6 were following us on the cycle track but not going as far as we were.

I was pleased to have the company of Celeste, who's Serena's sister, and has a daughter in the class, and Polly, who's a nurse at the Monkgate practice I go to and also has a daughter in Year 7. So we had quite a bit to chat about, which was good.

We eventually set off at 11.40, after tyres were pumped up and a saddle was adjusted. The children were good cyclists; there's only one child in the class who doesn't cycle and I think he's going to get lessons in school time as it's almost mandatory that the whole school does this annual fundraising ride. We had a brief rest at the bridge over the Ouse at Naburn Marina and then continued almost without pause all the way to the place where there are cycle jump ramps.... but we continued all the way to Pluto, which is the furthest the class have ridden.

We returned to the ramps where Year 6 had got to and stopped at, had lunch, and a few more adventurous children had a go on one of the jumps. I picked up some good hefty logs to take home. And home we went, felt quicker going back, despite the heavy load in the trailer.

A really lovely ride, very impressed by the cycling abilities of the youngsters. I think we did about 18 miles.

Thursday 13th October 11

2011-12-04T00:26:00.000Z

A good day, got up just before Gill went out, and I got quite a bit of writing done, and also took a phone call from a good friend who's going through some difficult times. I got a letter from All Saints Hall in Poppleton with the invoice for the replacement of the window pane I put my hand through during the party there on 18th September. That will cost £40. I have to decide whether that's a business expense or not!

I did a lot of washing up and jarred up loads of apples and pears.

At about 4.30 I headed off to town to meet another friend who I haven't managed to have a chat to for ages (outside of committee meetings anyway) and I had a hot chocolate with him; he too is going through some difficult personal times but trying to remain positive. At 6 I went along to David's and after a bit of chat, he asked to be taken to City Screen and we had a coffee and read papers, chatted to a few people, and spent an hour there. I took him back home and made him his evening meal, drinks and left at 8pm.

Cycled up to Andreas' house and we talked about the management of York in Transition and the current project, the Thermal Imaging Camera.

I got back home after 10pm and was up til after 2am, as usual.

Wednesday 12th October 11 Treemendous York launch

2011-12-01T02:16:00.000Z

I felt really happy today, although spent more time inside than I really prefer.

I was rung up by James Houston, who organises the Galtres Festival, shortly before I went to the launch of Treemendous York at 3pm. He had been invited to the launch, but a childcare issue had cropped up and he was unable to go. So he asked me to represent Galtres Festival if needed. The reason he'd been invited was that at this year's festival, when people bought their tickets, they'd been invited to give a little extra to be spent on offsetting their carbon emissions travelling to and attending the event. And therefore James was in a position to give a substantial donation to Treemendous York to be spent planting trees in areas of York with less tree coverage than average.

I got to the central library, 'Explore', in good time to meet the Council officer who was setting up the room, and to tell her that I was here instead of James Houston, and to help her put the Treemendous York leaflets out on chairs.

Kate Lock, who chairs the York Environment Forum, introduced the new project... which had been thought up following the York New City Beautiful report by Professor Alan Simpson, which included the vision of York with an extra 50,000 trees, and Hull Road being a tree-lined boulevard... so that figure had been lifted and the vision of a tree-filled city is hopefully going to be achieved by Treemendous York. It's a partnership between the Environment Forum and the City of York Council, BTCV and The Woodland Trust, Wheatlands Community Woodland, Edible York and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and other partners will surely come on board in due course.

The aim is to record and monitor tree planting for 3 seasons, until April 2014, and to facilitate the planting of appropriately placed trees, including ones with fruit and nuts, and in public places, sides of roads, private land and gardens.

Councillor James Alexander then did a short speech after which the group walked through Museum Gardens, crossed Scarborough Bridge and ended up on the far side of the bridge where the grassy banks of the Ouse widen out and a hole had been dug for a ceremonial tree planting. I cycled down, getting there first, and chatted to the contractors who had dug the hole. After the ceremony, I took the two B+Q donated spades back to the library, and chatted with Steve who was there with his lovely child-carrying tricycle.

I came home via the health centre where I ordered a repeat prescription, and got in shortly before our eldest son came hurtling home on his bike, followed soon after by Gill and our youngest.

I attended Green Drinks in the evening, and tried to work out how to make it better, with help from Randall. Wrote some notes which will be published on facebook, to hopefully get some feedback from the members of the group.

Tuesday 11th October 11

2011-12-01T02:09:00.000Z

I got up at 8am after 5 hours sleep and got slowly ready to go to Leeds to donate platelets. My appointment was at 10.50 so I aimed to get to the station for 9.45 and get the bus to Seacroft. I had a nice chat with a guy who'd just arrived from Pakistan whilst waiting at the bus stop, he had an electronic ticket and was concerned that the bus was late.

I dozed on the bus but kept half an eye on where I was; didn't miss my stop.

The platelet donation went very smoothly, I gave 3 units in 67 minutes, which is awesome.

On the bus on the way home Gill texted me to ask if I could pick something up for her so I got home eventually after 2, and had some sandwiches for a very late lunch.

And a fairly quiet day then progressed; sorting out the tomatoes which started drying last night, having the soup which I started making last night which Gill finished this afternoon. Cracking hazelnuts.... the usual type of evening!

Monday 10th October 11

2011-12-01T01:58:00.000Z

I would have liked to spend some time outside today but I kind of got trapped inside. However, I did make a nutloaf for the evening meal.

At 3.30 I cycled down to town via Country Fresh, where I picked up 3 bags and a box, and about 30 punnets of tomatoes, all of which had several manky ones, but quite a few good ones in between them.

I got to the Guildhall for the Environment Forum just before 4pm and met up with Steve from Local Works, who'd come to do some research about the Sustainable Communities Act. It was a full meeting.

I went to Randall's birthday bash later in the evening at The Duchess, to see a singer-songwriter called Sarah Blasko. I enjoyed the support artiste more, Fred Kimbon, but the evening was pretty good, and it was good to see Rand, Anzir, Alison and others.

Sunday 9th October 11

2011-11-20T02:37:00.000Z

Yay! A lie in til after 10am, which was a real treat! I watched most of Country Tracks and did assorted stuff on the computer, and in the afternoon did a lot of compost clearance, as stuff has been piling up, and I've been too busy to deal with it.

At 5.30 I got myself sorted to go and work for David, arriving at 5.50 and than taking him to City Screen. We had a jolly time, very social.

Saturday 8th October 11

2011-11-20T02:36:00.000Z

I went to Manchester today, for the regular cafe gathering, and to take David's port and Champagne to the auctioneer who will sell the 15 bottles in December. The bottles were picked up from outside Night and Day, I got a receipt.

In the evening I had been invited to Milladio's and Pebbles' party, but there was a message on the invite page saying that if it was raining, it would be cancelled. So as it was raining when I got back to York, I decided to go straight home.

Friday 7th October 11

2011-11-20T02:29:00.000Z

I did loads of work in the front today. Chainsawing and stacking, got a whole stack done outside the front door, which should keep us going for quite a while.

I went to get bread before lunch and did loads of apples in the evening, loading up all the available racks to dry the James Grieve crop. They don't keep very well, so drying them is a good way to preserve them. If the dried fruit is put in airtight jars, they last for ever.... well, as long as the lid stays on and they don't get eaten!

Thursday 6th October 11

2011-11-20T02:26:00.000Z

Well I was supposed to have a lie in but Gill woke me up and asked me if I would cycle to the Steiner School as our youngest had forgotten his water bottle.

But whilst I was eating my breakfast, she said that actually, he had some melon in a plastic pot, and water was available at school so I didn't have to.

So I stayed in and dealt with fruit and washing up. A quiet and nothingy day.

I went to work for David at 6 and we went to City Screen... but there was no-one to chat to so we came back after about 40 minutes and I left his at 7.25, having warmed up his tea and got him his fruit juice drink.

Wednesday 5th October 11 My Cafe Scientifique presentation

2011-11-19T02:01:00.000Z

Spent bits of the day tweaking my presentation.

At midday I arrived at my dentist's and had a clean, didn't take long.

Home via Richard's and then spent most of the afternoon indoors, and dealt with several phone calls, including one from a place near Easingwold which is hoping to put on events, and I spent quite a while talking through my show so the enquirer understood what I offered.

I got a message from my contact at City Screen suggesting I should get there at 6.30pm, to be ready for doors open at 7pm, to start the talk by 7.30. I took my laptop down and got there on the dot of 6.30pm. My laptop and their data-projector worked perfectly together, which was pleasing... and I got hooked up to their wireless internet to show WorldClock, which I knew would be of interest for illustrating part of my presentation.

Carolyn arrived, and shortly after, David plus Pauline, one of his PAs, and a few other Cafe Scientifique regulars. I chatted with Stephen, from the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, who are now sponsoring Cafe Scientifique. I told him I thought I could get my talk done in 20 to 30 minutes, and then we'd have a break and a discussion. About 20 people turned up, and I started by zeroing Worldclocks, and then using my slides, started my presentation which I'd called 'Climate Change, Peak Oil, Sex and Death'.

My first topic was climate change, and I explained that climate had changed naturally over geological time, and was driven by a variety of factors but mainly by the composition of the atmosphere. I introduced the greenhouse effect, and explained that water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane were the main gases which trapped heat. I explained that over many millions of years, plants had absorbed carbon dioxide, changing it into solid lignin and cellulose, and some of this had become coal and other fossil fuels... and that we humans were extremely rapidly putting huge quantities of this carbon back into the atmosphere by burning oil, gas and coal. I touched on some interesting feedback effects such as a warmer Arctic region allowing permafrost to melt, so releasing lots of trapped methane, which would warm the region still further, a 'positive feedback'. A less easy to understand feedback mechanism would be that a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapour, and more clouds are likely to form, and clouds can both trap heat in the atmosphere and also reflect the sun's energy back into space, having a cooling effect.

I then showed a video which shows really well how CO2 absorbs heat,and then a video of a graph showing how CO2 levels have changed over time. So these set the scene for a bit about what is likely to happen on a warming planet: climate in chaos, with various feedback mechanisms (two of which I explained), more floods, droughts and more energetic storms, seasonal changes and shifting habitat zones, and sea level rise due mainly to the thermal expansion of water, but probably to be exacerbated by terrestrial ice melting. Not easy things to talk about without getting emotional, but I think I held it together. I mentioned changes in forest cover, as it is possible the Amazon rainforest could become grassy savannah, that patterns of disease would change, that crops and food availability would become an issue, and that the biggest centres of population were close to current sea-level. I think I mentioned the end of civilisation. I don't think I was over-dramatic, though.

My next slide was about peak oil, so I gave a brief overview of King Hubbert's prediction about oil extraction in the US, and that being uncannily accurate, and his prediction for peak production globally being 2005-2015, and the fact that over the past 6 years production hadn't actually increased, despite consumption continuing to go up. Basically my suggestion was that we are at the peak of oil production now, and that it can really only go down from here on in.

The next slide was a graph of oil consumption, going inexorably up, and then one of those two graphs sort-of superimposed, with the line of oil availability falling off, and the consumption still rising.... showing what I sometimes call 'the scary gap', as it indicates rising commodity prices, shortages, rationing, and worse.

However, this 'energy gap' might have some positive consequences, including making renewable energy more competitive, and a re-localisation of how our communities run. Travel and imports would become too expensive, and might be possible for people to develop healthier lifestyles, with more exercise, stronger communities, local food, growing their own food! Well, I'm an optimist, and try to find positivity even in the face of somewhat potentially difficult circumstances.

So, we'd done climate change and peak oil, so now the sex and death. Well the 'sex' bit was simply the fact that the global population is still rising, and to demonstrate this, I had found a graph of this and put it on my presentation. I also clicked back to Worldclock, to show how much the global population had increased in the 30 minutes since the start of the talk. I firmly believe that population pressure is the other side of the resource-use and pollution emissions coin. If the world had fewer people, we wouldn't be using so much oil, or emitting so much CO2. I suggested that if everyone in the world had a carbon footprint of the average Indian, we might be OK, or if we had only a couple of billion people, we might all be able to have the footprint of the average American. But with close to 7 billion people on the planet, it just wasn't sustainable to have so many people with two and three planet lifestyles.

And so to death, our final footprint. As both cremation and burial have considerable pollution impacts, there is a new technology being worked on, which I feel very positive about: the freeze-drying and composting funeral, Promession. This has a much lower carbon footprint, as the liquid nitrogen used is a waste product from the oxygen industry, and the remains are recycled into soil in an aerobic process. Although this isn't yet available, it should be soon and I'm already excited about it.... not sure why, but we can't help what we're interested and moved by.

After the talk, there was a short break and then some questions. There was only one anthropogenic climate change denier there, but most people seemed pretty au fait with the science and asked how I got my carbon footprint so low, and there were some other interesting queries and observations.

I went for a drink afterwards and had some more good conversations, but I didn't stay long. I was happy with how it had gone and so were the organisers.

Tuesday 4th October 11

2011-11-03T02:22:00.002Z

Spent most of the day trying to master the LibreOffice presentation programme, had some help from Ian and the partner of one of my facebook friends Julie, a lovely guy called Mike who explained that I'd have to download the YouTube videos I wanted in MP4 format, not 'flv', and he suggested a 'plug in' to download which might do the trick. It worked.... eventually!

In the evening I attended the Hull Road Ward Committee, with my Hull Road Ward Planning Panel hat on. The most interesting thing to happen here was that I had a chat with the old chap who is very much part of the furniture of this ward, John Horsley, and he told me he had terminal cancer and would be dead soon. But he was laughing about it, saying he'd had a good life and was (I think) 80 years old and that was plenty. I had a quiet word with one of the Councillors to see if there was anything we could do to acknowledge his contribution to York life, and it may be we can do something before his time is up. I think it would be better to do this before he dies, to thank him. It would mean less to him if he wasn't there to see/hear the thank you!

Monday 3rd October 11

2011-11-03T02:01:00.000Z

Quite a frustrating day as I spent a LOT of time trying to master the Linux equivalent of Powerpoint, a thing called LibreOffice Impress. I managed to make a set of 5 slides with some writing on, and an image from my desktop, but I was just playing with it with no real help or idea what I should be doing to create a working presentation to help my talk on Wednesday evening.

I got very frustrated by my inability to take a YouTube video and put it onto my desktop so I could put this into the presentation. I got some online help from my friend Ian with one problem, but I still couldn't get it sorted very well.

I had a phone call from a TV production company about an aspect of my lifestyle that they're making a documentary on, but again, I'm not going to feature in the programme.

In the evening there was a LETS meeting which is always nice.

Sunday 2nd October 11 Beverley Food Festival

2011-11-03T01:57:00.001Z

Woken by my phone at 8am and went down to the breakfast room. Sharon, I think her name was, wasn't expecting me, as somehow the message had come through that I didn't want breakfast. I NEVER don't want breakfast.... it is the most important meal of the day for me!

Anyway, I had a bowl of cereal and some toast, beans, tomato and an egg fried hard, and three cups of coffee, and an orange juice. I then went to my room, got changed, and went to the Market Square to find Helen, my handler today, to find out where she wanted me to be. She had disappeared but her colleague Helena suggested working in front of a building which I've done my show in front of each time I've done the Beverley Food Festival. However, it was no longer an empty cinema, but a Browns department store, and it looked like it was going to open later that day. So I couldn't stay there.

I went and devilsticked outside the main marquee whilst the event was being opened, and then one of the Beverley Town council people suggested I work outside a Building Society which wouldn't be opening today, so I got set up there, and got a Council van moved as it was part blocking the view.

I was busy from then on in, continuous workshops and interaction and all sorts, 100% full-on. At about midday I took a short break to go and buy a pie for lunch, and I also got two 750ml bottles of 'Gold from the Wold' Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Rapeseed Oil for £10. But this only took 10 minutes, and another 5 minutes to eat the pie, with various children hanging around and watching for my last mouthful, to then home in and ask if they could have a go with the 4 wheel unicycle, or Deborah the Diabolo (Derek's blind sister) or juggling...... but I wanted a change so I did an hour and a half of balloon modelling, finishing at 1.55 to go and sit in the Market Cross building to do a composting workshop. Only 4 people turned up to this.... but it was still worth doing.

So from 2.20 through til after 4pm I was busy with more circus and balloons, without a break, full-on again. That's how I like it as the day goes really quickly!

I waited ages for the bus home.... including walking down to the railway station to see if it would be quicker to go that way, but it wasn't. Beverley really needs a direct rail link with York, in my opinion! Anyway, the bus came and I dozed on it all the way to York and collapsed when I got in. A busy weekend.

Saturday 1st October 11

2011-11-03T01:48:00.001Z

A busy busy day: cycled up to Haxby in the morning to help with the York Rotters compost bin sale. I took the jars of different sorts of compost from yesterday with me, and showed lots of people what they might expect to get from the bottom of their bin in a year or two. I took the leafmould jars and the jar with lots of worms and other beasties. I stopped at 11 and cycled back, collecting some sticks on the way, and got back at 11.40.

Then at 1pm I set off, in Fiddlesticks costume, to the Central Library, 'Explore' to do the final show for the Summer Reading Challenge 'Circus Stars'. I called into the Anti Gravity Shop to buy a new 'two wheel unicycle' as my old one has got too old to support my weight. I did my show from 2.10 til 3, and had a lovely response. I'm now in a position to submit an invoice for all my summer's library gigs.

Came back home via the cobblers to re-stick my Fiddlesticks boot sole, and via another place to get new shoelaces. Then came home via Richard, and collapsed as I was really hot and tired.

Later I got all my kit together and jumped on a bus to Beverley, and dozed on the bus, got myself booked into the Cross Keys and had a quiet night before the Beverley Food Festival.

Friday 30th September 11

2011-11-03T01:45:00.000Z

Up early to cycle out to Tollerton to work at The Pizza Farm. They grow wheat (and make flour and pizza dough), tomatoes and onions (and make pizza sauce) and pigs (to make Parma ham, apparently) and cook pizzas in a wood-fired oven... and have school trip visitors to learn about food production. Normally they have about 40 kids, and split them into 2 groups, but today they were due to have 58 kids, so needed to split them into 3 groups, and felt my composting talk would complement the food growing and food preparation sessions.

So I took a range of food packaging plus some food 'on the turn' and various sorts of compost, and a selection of compost beasties.

I set out early in order to get there for 9.30; it was an hour's cycle, and the children were due at 10am. I was given a place near a hedge, with a table for my materials, which I placed in 3 areas: assorted food packaging, some of which was recyclable, and some which generally isn't; a load of lovely biodegradable things... including things starting to biodegrade, and a collection of jars of assorted composting things... some still just recognisable, from the top layers of a heap, and another of more mature compost. I had one jar of year-old leafmould, another of mature riddled leafmould. I had quite a few different animals, beetles and beetle larvae, centipedes, millipedes, woodlice, slugs, worms... and finally, a jar of well composted 'humanure' and sawdust, as I know children love anything to do with that sort of thing.

With each group I started by inviting a child to pick a packaging object and to tell me what it was made of and how it could be recycled. With a few different sorts of packaging chosen, we covered glass, metals, cardboard, paper and plastic, and got quite a bit of information over. We covered landfill and incineration, and how different sorts of materials can be recycled and why. With the mouldy food, we covered bacteria and fungi, and how food is normally preserved. Then with the compost I was able to talk about the carbon cycle and methane from landfill, and the benefits of home composting, helping to make soil fertile for food growing, wildlife value, etc etc.

One of the other two groups was learning about food growing and processing, and the others were making pizzas and having them cooked in the wood-fired oven. Part of the deal today for me was that I got pizza for lunch... it was really delicious! The other part of the deal was that I'd get partly paid in logs; Mike's son runs a fuel-wood business, so once I'd done the third group, after lunch, I was shown the logging area. I was really interested in the machine that the logs are fed into which cuts and splits them. There was a builders' dumpy bag full of bits and bobs which weren't the right shape or size to go in the 'onion-net' bags which is how the logs are packed and sold, and Mike said I could fill my trailer with some of these. He also promised a delivery of a couple of sacks of other oddments when he was next passing our house.

So I cycled home having had a very satisfying day teaching about sustainability, paid a fairly small fee, but fed and given logs in lieu of a more substantial payment.

In the evening I went to John Brierley's leaving party. He's been the St Nicks Centre Manager for 8 years, I think, and done really good work, but he's decided it was time for a change and so he's resigned and tonight was his main leaving do. I found Kennedy's, just off Stonegate, and spent a couple of very happy hours there chatting to friends old and new.

Thursday 29th September 11

2011-10-28T01:41:00.000+01:00

Not too bad a a day. Had some time with Gill... good that the boys are being more independent and giving us some time together again. Most welcome.

Got a phone call from Robin Harford, who's in York to run his foraging course. He wanted to visit, so an hour or so later, he turned up, on his friend Atul's bike, and I gave him a tour of the garden and we had lunch together.

I did some work in the garden during the afternoon... mainly compost stuff, but also preparation for tomorrow when I'm off to The Pizza Farm to do a series of talks on compost to some schoolkids. I also worked out where I was going using Googlemaps.

After 5pm I got ready to go to work; got to David's just before 6pm and took him to City Screen to meet up with Lotte, also met Esther Lilley (whom I know from when she worked at Lord Deramore's school) and her husband to be, Daniel, and we all had really good chats... I got on very well with Daniel, with a shared interest in architecture and sustainable buildings.

I took David back to have his tea at about 8, with Lotte who left her bike in David's yard, and David and I worked out my hours and monthly payment. Home via Country Fresh, where I picked up some waste furniture.

I did quite a bit of washing up and fruit preparation, played Scrabble and other laptop-based stuff.

Wednesday 28th September 11

2011-10-28T01:39:00.000+01:00

A fun day with good social interaction. I got up fairly early but spent quite a time on the computer. Gill went round to Maria's and I had an early lunch before heading off into town to meet a new friend Antonella, whom I'd offered to show the Millennium Bridge. She's not from York and didn't know the walk from the centre down to the bridge and up through Rowntree Park, and it was really nice to be able to show her.

We parted in the Clifford's Tower car park and I foraged a few sweet chestnuts.

Came home via Richard at Country Fresh. I then had a final session picking walnuts off the tree. Those I couldn't quite reach from the stepladders, I whacked with a stick to make them fall. Later, I laid out most of them on trays to dry... and there were over 300.

Robbie came round, with a bottle of home made cider, as last year I'd given him a load of brewing equipment, and this was a thank you!

Philip came round at 8pm and we had 3 happy hours chatting, me shelling hazelnuts, and catching up as we haven't spent an evening together for a very long time.

Tuesday 27th September 11

2011-10-28T01:35:00.000+01:00

Well a low mood day for some reason, despite getting quite a bit done. Got up late and had a normal morning doing stuff inside.

Mid afternoon I did some chainsawing and stacking, trying to get the front garden clear, although it'll take a while.

In the evening I went to the 'Powering York; Our Sustainable Future' meeting at Priory Street. This was a joint meeting between the Open Planning Forum and the York Environment Forum. There were 3 speakers, Professor John Whitelegg, from the Stockholm Environment Institute, Jacqui Warren the Sustainability Officer from the City of York Council, and Amanda Botterill, from the Yorkshire and Humberside Microgeneration Partnership and it was chaired by Julia Booth, from BBC Radio York.

When I arrived, I was startled to see someone I thought I recognised, my friend Lorna.... but it was actually her identical twin Clare, whom I haven't seen for a couple of years. We had a good chat before and after the meeting.

Monday 26th September 11

2011-10-28T01:32:00.000+01:00

Gill got the boys off to their schools in a taxi, to the Steiner School, and our eldest walked from there. She stayed at home, and that enabled us to spend some child-free time together, a very rare thing these days.

But we had a busy morning, Gill made a fruit cake for David, using home made dried fruit and then icing it with a pretend 'Waterlilies by Monet' picture on the top. It is David's 78th birthday tomorrow.

I carefully took the cake in a bag dangling from my handlebars down to town when I went in for 6pm. He was thrilled. We went to City Screen for a coffee and chat, and we met up with Susan, who came back with us to have a slice of cake.

Sunday 25th September 11

2011-10-27T02:53:00.000+01:00

Got up soon after 9am and had a slow start to the day. The boys had a friend round, but our youngest had a homework task to do, to draw a river (I think) so I walked down with my bike to the River Foss with all three boys and Gill, via Hull Road Park, St Nicks, Hazel Court and James Street, and over Foss Islands Road to see the new bridge between Navigation Road and Hungate. I left them here and cycled back home, via Country Fresh, to pick up several bags of goodies.

Later in the afternoon, I picked all the remaining walnuts from our little tree... I say little, it's about 8 or 9 metres tall. I used my big ladders and got most of the nuts, it's a good crop, I'm very pleased. The chilli powder and vaseline trick must have deterred the squirrels.

I worked for David in the evening, went to City Screen as usual.

Saturday 24th September 11

2011-10-27T02:50:00.000+01:00

I had a fairly slow and relaxed morning, but towards midday, started getting my stuff together to cycle up to Snowball Plantation, where the Cubs, Scouts, Brownies and Guides have their camp. I'd been invited to help with the Strensall Brownies weekend camp, with the theme of circus, by performing my show and workshop, and running a free-play workshop.

I took about half an hour to get there, it's less than 6 miles via Heworth and Stockton on Forest. The girls were just finishing of their post-lunchtime clean up and when the room had been hoovered, I took my bike and trailer in, and got myself unpacked and changed.

The next two and a half hours went very smoothly... lots of fun, excitement and skill sharing. I got everybody doing things, including the three adults and three helpers. I finished off by showing them a few balloon animals; they'd made some basic ones this morning with one of the adults, but only made dogs. I showed them a rabbit, bird, giraffe, elephant and dogs dinner.

So, it all went to plan, and by 5pm I was cycling back home... I decided to go via Warthill and Holtby. When I arrived at the roundabout at the junction of the A1079 and the A64 I noticed a cyclist on the grassy verge, obviously having difficulties with their bike. I always offer help to other cyclists... and then I realised it was Councillor Dave Merrett, whom I've known for almost the whole time I've lived in York. I helped him get his chain back on.... and then cycled down the Hull Road with him. We had some nice chats on the way into York, but he stopped off at Badger Hill and I was glad to get home and relax.

Friday 23rd September 11 York Food Festival

2011-10-27T02:46:00.000+01:00

A really busy day, with two Food Festival events. My friend Steve had said he might be able to move the fruit press, as his cycle can carry heavier loads than mine, so I called him and asked if he'd be able to come in half an hour. He said 45 minutes.

I got it ready, in the drive, and collected some apples from down the garden, and some plastic sacks for the pressed apple pulp, and a few other bits and bobs.

I took the crusher on my trailer and we managed to fit the press into Steve's Danish load-carrying Nihola tricycle. We cycled slowly in to the City Centre, and unloaded in St Sampson's Square, next to all the 'Edible Schools' stalls.

I had a stall with several trays of apples and pears, delivered by an Abundance volunteer, along with a chopping board, some plastic cups, jugs and bottles and a bucket for washing the apples, as some were windfalls. I'd brought a couple of bottles too, and a knife for cutting the apples in half.

I got busy and prepared a load of apples before the first group arrived; my job was to show small groups of York school children that apple juice came from apples. This might seem obvious to some readers, but many kids are so completely separated from nature that if you ask them where apple juice comes from they'll say 'a carton' or the name of a supermarket. So a project has been set up called Edible Schools, to help educate children about food.

I did a series of crushing and pressings, going all day, one group after another... getting the children to operate the crusher quite a bit and then dishing out apple juice to anyone who wanted it. It went down really well! Lots of people came to see what was happening and had a bit of juice. I really enjoyed myself, but was glad when the last group had gone, and I cleaned up the equipment with a hose which was in St Sampson's Square, near my stall.

Steve came to pick it up again and I zoomed home, only to come back in again for a York Rotters stall in the evening. This was fairly quiet, but I had a nice time with Pat, and some free food.

A long day, but really worth while.

Thursday 22nd September 11 World Carfree Day

2011-10-14T02:20:00.000+01:00

Got up at 8 so I could cycle with our eldest over to Bishopthorpe Road. On the way there, his mudguard got very loose and then fell off. I put it in my pannier and pocketed the bolt... but the nut was no-where to be seen. From his school, I went to the bank to see how much money was in our account as we have bills to pay. I took £250 to the Council to pay another installment of Council Tax, and then popped in to see Dylan who had a box of mostly mouldy oranges for me to dispose of.... I cycled them over to St Nicks, and sorted out about 20 good ones for the volunteers there, and washed them, put them on some plates for people to take.

From here, via Freshways and back home. Gill was just getting ready to go out and I got a phone call from St Nicks, who'd been contacted by a BBC Autumnwatch researcher, who wanted to know what sorts of animals could be found in, or connected with, compost heaps. Well there was no-one at St Nicks who could go through the range of wondrous beasties, so I rang the researcher and spent 40 minutes chatting, and describing springtails, worms, staphylinid beetles, several sorts of fly, slugs, ants, and vertebrates like newts, frogs, toads, slow worms (my favourite reptile), grass snakes, mice, hedgehogs, rats, magpies.

Later, by email, I told her about woodlice, millipedes, centipedes, mites and pseudoscorpions. It's unlikely that they'll want me to go onto the programme but it was nice to be able to help!

I was able to do a bit of work outside... not much, and then at 3 I was off again on my bike to go and pick up our son. I found the nut which had fallen off his mudguard on the way into school, which was lucky, I think. Once I'd collected him, we popped into Cycle Heaven and one of the kind guys there tightened up his mudguard by inserting a sliver of rubber before re-tightening the fixing.

We came home along the roads, rather than go all the way to the Millennium Bridge... an interesting experience, especially when a large lorry decided it wanted to share the bike lane (Sorry Mate, Didn't See You - SMIDSY syndrome) but my lad was impressed how I dealt with this. Actually, I was impressed too. And glad that he didn't witness his Dad being knocked off or squashed.

I got a Fiddlesticks booking for a 5 year old's party in Wakefield, and then later in the evening, the chap from Poppleton brought my apple press back to me, in time to take (somehow!) down to town tomorrow for the Edible York stall at the Food Festival. I spent several hours peeling a huge load of pears for drying, and played bits of Scrabble on facebook between times.

Wednesday 21st September 11

2011-10-14T02:13:00.001+01:00

Up earlyish again and quite a good day... cold receding, cut getting better.

I did assorted admin, including chasing up the whereabouts of my fruit press (should be arriving back on Thursday eve, to be used again on Friday) and ordering £80 worth of modeling balloons.

Took delivery of 5 sacks of apple bits from the people who borrowed my crusher and press over the weekend, and they gave me a bottle of apple wine from last year as a thank you.

I did some compost heap loading, mainly the apple pulp, and guinea pig bedding. I love being outside, really good for my mental health!

At 4pm I went to the Ecodepot and took part in the first Snow Warden training. The Council wants to help volunteers all over the city deal with snow on footpaths this winter, if we have snow... and gave us training and a snow shovel, hat, gloves and hi-viz jacket. The training was hilarious, with a very over the top health and safety risk assessment and dead-pan humour from the officer delivering the training.

At 10pm I went to Priory St as my friend Jackie said she was coming out of 5 rhythms dance then, but her train was at 11.15, so would have time to chat. But when she came out she was deep in conversation with her friend Vicky, and they went for something to eat, so I came home again, via some thrown out wooden chairs, two of which are broken, so are for firewood, and one is in good nick so it will get used.... or put on Freecycle.

Tuesday 20th September 11

2011-10-14T02:11:00.000+01:00

Up surprisingly early, thought I'd had a lie-in and came down at 8.30. Weird. Maybe something to do wih my cold?

However, I made reasonable use of the time, today doing loads of apples for drying, making up my muesli, dealing with correspondence and phone calls, washing up, writing.

One thing which was quite exciting was I made a charcoal retort, and successfully made several batches of 'biochar', and next year I'm going to experiment with adding this to my potting mixes to see if it increases productivity. The retort is a metal container or tin made of steel, with a close fitting lid which slides on and off. In this I've punctured a pin-hole. When any organic material (in the chemistry sense, ie anything which has come from living things, and is composed mainly of carbon) is subjected to high temperatures in the absence of oxygen, the water is driven off, then the volatile materials are driven off (and burn in a jet coming out of the hole) and that leaves a matrix of almost pure carbon, or charcoal, or biochar, which has a variety of uses. I'm interested in its use to add carbon to soil, and its supposed ability to increase soil fertility and crop productivity. I made a batch of willow twigs, which made really good drawing sticks, like are used at the Steiner School. I will probably make a big batch of willow stick charcoal to give to the school later this year.

At 4pm I got ready to go to work at David's.

Monday 19th September 11

2011-10-13T16:28:00.000+01:00

I got up early in order to take my eldest into The Stables but in the end he went on a bus with Gill. So I had a quiet day, feeling a bit low... not just the unnecessary early start but also a cold which got steadily more annoying, with successive sneezes and an increasingly drippy nose. The downside of being very social!

I did a variety of admin stuff, phone calls and the like, plus relaxing with 'Eat Static Radio' on Last FM, which raised my spirits considerably.

I prepared several racks of sliced apples for drying, and at 3 put our lad's bike onto my trailer and cycled down to The Stables, where he'd fortunately had a good day.

At 4.30pm a chap from Everest came round to check our front and back doors, fitted in 2008 I think, and I had a very amusing conversation with him... nice chap!

I really wasn't feeling like having tea but Gill made something irresistible and I had a small bowl full.

I was looking forward to the evening's meeting of the Co-operative Members Group, which tonight was at Co-op FuneralCare on Cromwell Road in Bishophill. I got there at 6.55 and over a dozen other people turned up.

I took notes but didn't get around to writing these up until October, and I don't like to publish subsequent blog posts until I'm done for that day (hence a gap in publishing posts).

So, my write up of the Co-op Members visit to the Co-operative FuneralCare premises. We were welcomed by Philip Taylor, the manager, and we were offered coffee and biscuits. He told us that the Co-op is one of three funeral providers in York, all of whom have a more or less equal share in the market. This means that the Co-op arranges just over 900 funerals a year in York, although this is dropping by about 2.5% a year as the current demographics change and people are increasingly living longer.

Funerals are an expensive business, the average one costs £2900. That's partly because the York Crematorium is one of the most expensive in the country, costing £665 plus £147 for the necessary documentation. York has mercury abatement technology too, which has added to the cost. Some people opt to pay for their funeral before they die, and whatever is charged then is the full cost of the funeral, even if the person dies many years later and the cost has gone up. So buying your funeral whilst you're young is quite a sensible thing to do, from the point of view of the client... but not the funeral provider! Some funerals are paid for in installments beforehand, and others are paid for by insurance, after the death has occurred.

There's quite a bit of interest in 'green funerals', and most people think that this equates to a cardboard or willow coffin. These caskets are 'greener' than solid hardwood, but the biggest part of the carbon footprint of funerals isn't in the materials used for the casket. And the figures for different sorts of funerals are interesting. In York, 87% are currently opting for cremations, the rest are burials, very few in churchyards and more in ordinary cemeteries. The interest in 'green burial' or 'woodland burial' is low, only about 10 a year, and only once has someone asked for a burial with just a shroud, which is one of the 'greenest' ways to be buried. However, about 40 people a year are requesting bamboo, cardboard or willow coffins.

The Co-op has invested in Resomation, the 'alkaline hydrolysis' disposal method where the body is dissolved in chemicals and flushed into the sewer, and the bones ground up to make the 'ash' which is collected in an urn for burial or sprinkling.... Philip had never heard of Promession, which surprised me, and I hope the Co-op gets behind this technology. It is lobbying for the legislation to change to allow these sorts of technology to be allowed in this country.

For more about my interest in this subject, please visit www.novaterium.com or contact me direct and I'll be happy to explain anything.

It was a fascinating visit... we did have a brief look at some of the rooms in the building, ones where coffins are put and family members or friends can say goodbye to their loved one, but for me, hearing a funeral director telling us about his job was the most interesting thing. Thank you Philip and the Co-operative Members group for arranging the visit.

Sunday 18th September 11

2011-09-24T00:40:00.000+01:00

Woken by my children being inconsiderately noisy. Good to be back.

So, no lie in and had a reasonable morning and got myself ready around midday to go to work, up in Poppleton.

It took about half an hour to cycle there... including checking out if the sweet chestnuts were fruiting already (nothing on the ground, yet!) and I got there in good time to set up and get changed.

The show went well, just my normal routine, until I did something very silly. Occasionally when I get on my unicycle for the first time at the end of the show, I deliberately ride towards a door (which, if I've done my risk assessment properly, I've checked beforehand!) and as I approach it, I strike it with the hand the audience can't see and pretend to bang my head on the door. I then unicycle backwards, or turn to look at the audience and hold my head, or some comical activity designed to entertain and get a response. This time, I rode towards the door, hit it with my hand, but, stupidly, on a glass pane.... which shattered, cutting my wrist where it joins my hand, and my thumb, just superficially. The main cut started bleeding immediately. However, after a short halt, to put some tissue on the cut, which I held on with my other hand, I quickly finished the show, with the 4 wheeler unicycle and two wheeler, and a few participants having a go on the four-wheeler.

The kids went for their birthday tea and some adults helped me by getting a plaster for the cut, and a cuppa, and sweeping up the glass and covering the broken pane with a taped-on sheet of paper. I did the balloon show without a problem, and after this I signed the accident book, leaving a note saying that I was willing to pay for the repair.

So, an accident-free cycle home and then a bit of fuss from Gill when I did get there, her going into 'nurse mode' and putting home made steristrips on, and a good plaster. The cut was quite deep as it bled quite a lot, even under the plaster. Gill said that if I'd had gone straight to A+E, they would probably stitched it, but with the fairly long gap, I'd missed the err, 'window of opportunity' ho ho ho.....

Saturday 17th September 11, Basingstoke Green Fair

2011-09-23T02:27:00.000+01:00

A packed day, with a 4 hour stint at Basingstoke Green Fair. I used my mobile phone alarm for the first time ever, to wake me up at 7.30, then went to have a bowl of Serena-style cereal and then we were off, in Serena's car, to the station and then she was taking her son swimming.

I got a slightly earlier train than expected, a London Underground service, which took me into a connection on the Bakerloo line. I'd been given a connection to go from Marylebone to Basingstoke, but when I got to Marylebone, they said I needed to go to Waterloo. My other connection was from Paddington, quite close to Marylebone, so I thought I'd give that a try... and fortunately there was a train going to Reading from there at 10am which I just caught, which connected well with a Basingstoke train which got me in there just after 11am. Phew, glad I didn't heed the Waterloo advice!

I soon found my way West out of the station to the 'Victory Roundabout' on Churchill Way, which I went under, to get to Victory Park and very soon I saw Brookvale Village Hall with stalls setting up outside, and a plethora of scarecrows propped up and tied to various things.

I found Cal, my contact (Malcolm MacInnes), and we talked through the format of the day... he wanted me to do Meet and Greet on the unicycle for an hour, then a talk on composting at 1, then a Fiddlesticks static show at 2, followed by balloon modelling and participation in the procession at 4pm. There was some debate about the best place for my show; in the end we plumped for three spaces in the car park, which we kept vacant using a row of chairs.

Everything went reasonably well... apart from the composting talk which, like the talk from Basingstoke Transition Network, didn't pull a crowd. However, I did have several good one-to-one conversations about the subject, and was able to provide each person with some suggestions about how to improve their composting situation. I enjoyed chatting to Martin from the local Transition group, which is just 6 months old, and has already got plans for a renewable energy co-op, and photovoltaic panels on the roof of the Village Hall.

My circus show had a small audience, and a rainstorm which slowly threatened, so I zoomed through it and finished just as the rain set in. I packed up and went into the village hall and competed with Morris Dancers with my balloon animal giveaways being a bit more popular amongst the under 10s. I enjoyed meeting the Deputy Mayor, Martin Biermann,and his excitable wife Chansophia, the friendly Town Crier David Craner, the local MP Maria Miller, and a hardworking gaggle of volunteers, one of whom, Serena, recognised me from UK Aware.

Suddenly it was 4pm and the place gradually emptied and stalls were taken down, and I filled in some paperwork for Cal, which should enable the Brookvale Community Association to release a cheque and send it my way. As soon as this was sorted, I walked back to the town centre, and wandered round a supermarket to find some food for the journey back home and walked up to the station, where thee was still 50 minutes to wait for my train.

On the train, there were a large group got on at Reading who were very noisy and merry after being at Newbury Races, and delighted to find out that I could do them some balloon animals. I did some hats too... it was riotous, and I (and other passengers, I'm sure) were happy to see them get off relatively soon. Then I met a young performance poet called Anna McCrory heading up to Manchester to do a poetry slam tomorrow, and I enjoyed finding out about her.

The rest of the journey was relatively quiet.... except after Chesterfield we came into Sheffield via Totley and Dore, and had a bit of a slow journey along that line as there were children on the tracks, apparently.

But got home on the dot of 11pm and came home swiftly, glad to see family, tried not to go to bed too late as work tomorrow.

Friday 16th September 11

2011-09-23T02:24:00.000+01:00

A really lovely day, quite a slow one, doing nothing very hurried or busy. I enjoyed breakfast with Serena (Weetabix and Cheerios) and her delightful and engaging 3 year old son. After this I popped along to Tescos on my unicycle to get a few bits and bobs for lunch, to go with the bread that Serena had got.... hommous, sun-dried tomatoes and olives, a cucumber, and a single bottle of pear cider for the evening. Over lunch I was introduced to the delights of 'Rosie and Jim' on video, which is a series for children based on life on a canal boat. Topical, and actually very well made and clever. Both Serena and her little boy are fans of this.... and I might be a convert too!

During the day I met Serena's son's Dad, Julian, and one of Serena's best friends, Mike, and her long term best friend, Jeff. It was really good to see the sort of community she lives in... quite tight-knit, where people know about each other, help each other, and trust each other.... for instance, any strangers coming into the community are observed, and may be interrogated, partly because making a boat secure is not that easy.

I had a nice chat with Mike, and his friend Jane, whilst Serena had a quiet few minutes with Julian, burying a chicken which had died. Then I helped Julian shift a trailer-load of topsoil, which he'd rescued from a skip and was going to use to raise the level of his canalside land. Then, Mike, Serena and Julian, all of whom have unicycles but cannot ride them, came down to the car park which had a good smooth surface and a sturdy fence to hold onto, and I gave them a unicycle lesson.... mainly theory, but some practical help too. This was fun... and then another boat-dweller arrived, Ben, and proceeded to jump on and ride every unicycle apart from mine (it was too tall, and the height can't be changed after so many years in one position)... but he's been riding unicycles since he was a child, so he was actually better than me.

A group of us went out to a 'Harvester' pub for a meal. The vegetarian selection was poor and overpriced but there was an option to have as much salad from the salad bar as you wanted, so I had two visits to that.

Serena and I didn't have a late night as we had an early start the next day... but she did put her stove on, to take the chill off the boat, and I enjoyed seeing her stove working. I really enjoyed today, as we didn't have to go anywhere or have set things to do. My life has a lot of 'having to be somewhere' at specific times, so it was a treat just to float around (literally!) and slow down. Pity I couldn't stay a bit longer....

Thursday 15th September 11, York to Rickmansworth

2011-09-23T02:20:00.000+01:00

Up fairly early and slowly and chaotically got my stuff together for my trip to Rickmansworth and Basingstoke. I got the stove lit, and later had a bath and washed my hair. I collected a few apples, pears and nuts together as a thank you present for my hostess for the next couple of days. I made sure I had all my performance stuff, plus balloons, my last bag so I'll have to order some more.

At about 11.30 I set out to town to catch the midday train to Stevenage, which is exactly 2 hours away, so I had my sandwich on the train, and put my computer on so I could get on with deleting emails, as my inbox is permanently congested and any time I can get to weed it is really good. I was pleased with this trip as the advance ticket was especially cheap, just £9 for the single journey.

Once in Stevenage I found the bus station and the bus to take me over to Luton. I decided on an all-day Rover ticket, costing £8. I thought this would probably save me money, as the 50 minute journey to Luton was £3.70 and therefore the nearly 2 hour trip to Rickmansworth would possibly be twice that, although the driver in Stevenage didn't know. In Luton there was quite a wait, but eventually the 321 service came and a very friendly driver took us down to Watford and on to Ricky. I chatted a bit with a woman who must have been in her early 60s who was listening to dub reggae on her personal hifi and reading Oscar Wilde, and heading back to her 'lovely Rasta Man'. I love public transport! You just wouldn't meet such a variety of characters if you were cooped up in a tiny metal box all by yourself.

Serena was waiting in the station car park in her little car..... and we again just managed to fit all my weird-shaped gear into it, the last item going in on top of me. She called in on a supermarket before going home... her boat doesn't have a lot of storage space, so she needed to get a few bits and bobs. I'd bought my tea whilst the bus was stopped in Watford, so she didn't have to get anything for me really, although I was glad of the coffee and soya milk. The fruit went down well... Serena's 3 year old son especially liked the James Grieve apple.

Serena's son's Dad Julian lives on a narrowboat, but he also has a 7 or 8 metre launch or cruiser which is kitted out to be able to be lived in... but it's not being used, so Serena had spent quite a bit of time cleaning it and getting it ready for me to sleep in. This was my first ever night on board a boat. I had a really comfortable night, very cosy, tucked into the bow or prow of this little vessel.

Wednesday 14th September 11

2011-09-23T02:17:00.000+01:00

Well a good day... spent the morning with our eldest son who was off school, watching a really interesting video, explaining how to understand annual percentage growth rates and the exponential curve. We both really enjoyed it, and I feel it is an important concept to understand if you class yourself as 'green', or use the word 'sustainable', or enjoy a bit of maths, or are involved in public policy. It renewed my belief in having a zero growth economy. It is truly the only way we're going to get through the next few decades. It also features the work of one of my favourite oil scientists, M. King Hubbert.

I'm looking for resources with which to illustrate my Cafe Scientifique presentation on 5th October, which is titled 'Climate Change, Peak Oil, Sex and Death'. I need to make a Linux equivalent of a 'powerpoint' and I'm not too sure how to do it....

In the evening I visited Helen and Phil round the corner to talk them through using the apple press which has found it's way from Brunswick Organic Nursery to its next group who want to use it. They are getting together with a few friends and want to make cider.

Tuesday 13th September 11

2011-09-23T02:05:00.000+01:00

Quite an exhausting day. I had a platelets appointment at 10.50 so I cycled down to the station to get the 9.53 bus to Seacroft. I used the new entrance to the station, the one between the river and Leeman Road, which avoids the potentially dangerous roads around the station front. The only disadvantage is that there's no bike racks around that North end of the station, and I had to walk and scoot down to the other end, along the platform.

However, it is still a better way to get into the station. I like it. I went to the bus stop and minutes later, had my £6 return to Leeds and began to read my NewScientist. But at one of the next stops, my old friend John Redpath, who used to be the Town Cryer of York, got on, and we sat together. I was pleased to be able to have a conversation with him, as after the Peace Festival, several people said to me that I should be a town cryer, as my voice would easily allow me to do it. He gave me several tips and suggestions about how I could approach becoming the town cryer, if I wanted to!

We were soon on the outskirts of Leeds and I got off at Seacroft, and walked back to the Blood Donor Centre. I was swiftly processed and on the platelet machine, and this time the needle didn't go through my vein, but properly into it, and I was able to donate 3 units of platelets in 77 minutes... a bit slower than the previous donations, but still 3 units, when most people give only 2. I like being a superdonor!

I had a bag of crisps, chocolate biscuit and coffee from the Donor Centre for lunch, and got the next bus back.... I felt sleepy and couldn't concentrate on my magazine, and was soon back at the station in York. I cycled via the Building Society (compost cheque in) and my dentist, who had seemingly forgotten me and not invited me back for a check-up, and Millers Yard (picked up one sack of half oranges) and then home via the cycle path and St Nicks. When I got in I was surprised to see it was already 3pm, and I was due to collect our youngest at 3.30pm! I had a quick sandwich and bombed off to Fulford Cross.

I part walked, part cycled with him sitting on the rack, and we were home soon. I spent an hour relaxing on the computer, before getting ready to go to work for David at 6pm.

We went to City Screen, and met Ceri and Richard, and had some good conversations. And soon back to put his meal in the microwave and I got away at 7.45, so I could zoom home for my tea, and more pear peeling.

A very busy day, was quite tired during the evening.... but no earlier to bed, sadly!

Monday 12th September 11

2011-09-23T02:02:00.000+01:00

A fairly low key day with a lot of hard physical work in the front garden, chainsawing all the remaining pallets and quite a bit of other wood, and stacking it, and a lovely social visit to Anita, who is back from Spain.... and therefore we had a couple of years worth of chat to catch up with.

However, in the morning, I got my phone back... I'd left it in Newark by accident and Lisa had popped it in the post. Tomorrow I'll put together a donation of assorted dried fruit as a thank you, and send it off in the same padded envelope.

So, at 3pm, I arrived at Anita's, avoiding two fallen trees in the St Nicks area. We had two coffees and our usual frank and direct conversations. I really like Anita.

I came back via a logpile, Freshways for a big sack of vegetables and 7 loaves of unwanted bread. When I got back, there was a message from my friend Peter in Bradford, inviting me to ring one of his colleagues as she was looking for an entertainer. I rang her and talked her through my shows... and she'll get back to me tomorrow with an offer.

I did another hour or more of wooding before tea; Gill had made a really nice pasta, cauliflower and broccoli mix with a cheese sauce.

In the evening I had some interesting facebook conversations and peeled yet more pears for drying.

Sunday 11th September 11

2011-09-23T02:01:00.000+01:00

A fairly quiet day, woke at 9.30 and had a slow morning, did quite a bit of fruit prep, and before lunch, cycled down to Country Fresh as Gill wanted some potatoes and I knew there would be quite a bit of compostable stuff for me.

I called in on Debbie and she was in a happy mood, and on the way back I saw Gladys who invited me in for a cup of coffee and to ask me to pick up a load of pears from the tree overhanging her garden. I didn't really need any more pears but I took 4 bags of them away... most will be composted as they're windfalls and are bruised.

Got back for a late lunch and Gardener's Question Time on Radio 4.

After this I did a bit more sorting in the front garden.... I've done virtually nothing all summer apart from sometimes add to the pile of planks and logs. So now I have to chop them up and stack.... this will be several days work.

Gill started bottling of the pears I prepared yesterday, by bringing them up to the boil with some sugar in the water, to make a syrup. I helped with moving the jars when they were hot. One didn't seal properly so we'll have them soon.

So a good day, not hugely exciting or that amazing, but OK.

Saturday 10th September 11

2011-09-23T01:59:00.000+01:00

A funny old day as I was planning to go over to Manchester to the regular cafe meet-up I go to, and see friends including Laura, who told me she'd got something for me... And then I was going to go to Sheffield to the Green Party Conference.

But in the end, I stayed at home... Gill needed me around.

I did a bit of cleaning (not much, I rarely do a lot!) and washing up (I always keep on top of that) and some composting and weeding... I even had an hour of chainsawing and stacking.

But what I did mostly today was pears. I washed and halved them, cored and peeled, and filled a big saucepan with them, ready to bottle them, and filled all my racks with the rest. Finished at 2.30 am.

Friday 9th September 11

2011-09-19T14:07:00.000+01:00

A good day, although very busy... cycling over to Bishopthorpe Road with my eldest son first thing (8.30am) and then calling in on Country Fresh to pick up compostables. Richard gave me a bag of green beans which I made into a soup with an onion and a butternut squash, also a 'second' as it had a hole in it, making it unsaleable, but not inedible. For tea, Gill modified the soup by putting half of it into a pan with a tin of tomatoes, cooking it and whizzing it and putting it through a sieve. The boys liked it, and when I eventually got in, I did too!

So during the day I did a few more pears and a bit of paperwork, until 2pm when I shot out, put in two cheques to my building society, one cheque into the bank, then on to Millers Yard to pick up oranges, and on to Pauline who'd responded to my request for a working toaster, as ours had gone phut. She also gave me some plates and a lovely saucepan. The house she manages has new tenants and they want it completely unfurnished. Her compost bin needs some attention so I'll do that for her soon.

At 3.25 I cycled to Bishy Road to collect our son and we cycled home together, which was nice. Then soon after 5 I set off for town again to meet up with David and Graham from the Minsters' Rail Campaign, which I've joined and want to help. They want to open a railway between York and Beverley, linking Stamford Bridge, Pocklington and Market Weighton. This would also probably make it easier to get from Hull to York. We had a good meeting and I agreed to make a facebook 'page' for the organisation.

Then, just as that meeting was drawing to a close, my new friend J arrived, and we had a good hour and a half chatting about all sorts of things. Very nice to meet someone new whom I get on with really well. I got in at 9pm.

At 11.30pm I unhitched my trailer and bombed down to town to see the start of the Friday Night Ride To The Coast, which I was considering gong on but realised that my weekend was too busy to do everything. I cycled with them until we got to our house, where I stopped and watched all 37 of them disappear up towards Hull.

Did more pears and watched News 24.

Thursday 8th September 11

2011-09-19T14:04:00.000+01:00

Up early, got the 8.30 train which got into York at 9.23, earlier than timetabled.

Cycled briskly over to St Nicks, trying out the new bike access which allows entry into and out of the station onto the little path between Leeman Road and the River, parallel to the Scarborough Line. I think I like it; if I used this access it would mean using far less busy road and several sets of traffic lights.

Got to St Nicks early for the York Rotters meeting.

At midday, Geoff and three Brunswick volunteers/employees arrived and I talked them through using my apple press.

Cycled home and had lunch, cycled back to Monkgate for an appointment.

Cycled back home and did my emails, then at 3 got our eldest's bike bungeed onto my trailer and relatively slowly cycled over to Bishy Road to The Stables where he'd had his second day. We cycled back over the Millennium Bridge.

I did various things in the house until Gill and our youngest got in, then I did a little bit of compost heap management, and came in for tea at about 6. At 6.30, when I was just finishing my tea, David rang and asked where I was. Whoops, I'd forgotten!

I zoomed into town and was with him by 6.45. I took him to City Screen and there we met Carolyn, then Mary Machin and her friend Jill, then Lotte and her sister Alice, then Geoff Beacon turned up! Such a lovely social time for David!

I took him home at about 9 and made tea for him and shot off by 9.15.

Met Sue Wallace on the way home and had a good conversation with her about Promession and she suggested ways that the Church would find it acceptable.

Wednesday 7th September 11

2011-09-19T14:01:00.000+01:00

I had quite a busy day and at 4 got on a train to Newark to go and see Lisa, my friend from London who's just moved house. It only takes an hour to get to Newark, and I didn't have to wait long until Lisa showed up at the station and we walked into Newark, collected her daughter from the after school club, and then had a wander around the town, along the canalised river and eventually back to Lisa's new house.

We had a low-key evening, a bite to eat and some nice conversations. Lovely to see her again.

Tuesday 6th September 11

2011-09-12T02:38:00.000+01:00

Two appointments today.... working for David from 1.30 til 3.30, and an Environment Forum meeting at 4pm.

I stayed in during the morning whilst Gill took our eldest for his first day at The Stables, and quite early, the Suma order arrived. I checked it in and everything apart from Maria's stuff was there.

I took David to Asda, which has replaced Netto. He bought a select few items and we went back home.

I finished there at 3.30 and went to the library, sorry, 'Explore' and participated in the Environment Forum meeting which was interesting. I shot off at 6pm as I thought I might have a Planning Panel meeting... but when I got to Tang Hall Library, there was no-one else there, so I concluded that I'd made a mistake.

So, home and collapse, quite glad I hadn't got more work to do (apart from drying pears!)

Monday 5th September 11

2011-09-12T02:35:00.000+01:00

I woke fairly early and came downstairs for breakfast and emails... but after an hour, felt so headachy and tired that I went back to bed. I got up for a late lunch, but didn't feel like having much. I got a phone call from someone who'd been to a Fiddlesticks appearance in a library recently, and she booked me for her 6 year old's birthday party in October.

A bit later I got out into the garden to put the two sacks of paper plates and waste food into my Compostumbler, which was steaming with lots of wonderful aerobic activity. I found that one of my small pear trees had gently dropped most of it's pears, so I came up the garden with a very heavy box of them, most of which I'll hope to dry. This spell outdoors helped blow away my hangover (I admit it) and I felt a bit better during the late afternoon.

I'd rescued about 10 vegan hot dog sausages at the end of the Peace Festival, so Gill and I had them for tea, in bread rolls, with pink fir apple potato salad, which is just wonderful!

At 7.15 I cycled down to The Seahorse to the LETS meeting. Melody, Geoff and Kay were there, but it was a short meeting, although I chatted with Geoff afterwards, until Gill rang me and asked if I'd come home to take bathwater upstairs. So by 9pm I was home, dealing with one son's bathwater, the washing up, and a mountain of pears.

Sunday 4th September 11 York Peace Festival

2011-09-12T02:33:00.000+01:00

I got up fairly early as I'd agreed to go down to Rowntree Park and help York Rotters set up. I got there soon after 10, took nothing with me apart from a couple of large sacks to collect paper plates and waste food, and a bottle of pear cider in case I fancied a drink after my obligations had ended.

St Nicks had just arrived and their tent was up but not pegged in. I helped a little bit and when they were ready, had a cycle around to say hello to people and see what was up around the park. At 11 I was back at the St Nicks.Rotters stall to do my first hour with them. This went well, Pat my minder was around, and Ivana and John too, but at midday I went to the main stage to see The Falling Spikes. I met Richard's mum... she'd never seen her son's band, or heard them. Randall and Annie dropped by and I sat on their mat to listen to the band, who did a 40 minute set which I really enjoyed.

I then had to get back to the Rotters stall for another hour, after which I'd agreed to do an hour on the Green Party Coconut Shy. I've never run a coconut shy before, but I really enjoyed it. I made it into a kind of show... and drew people in with my loud voice. I stayed for 90 minutes and estimate that in that time, made about £60... there were times when there was a queue!

However, I was pleased to be free of the volunteering and enjoyed the Dub Barn Collective, chatting to Vanessa, Sally and Kate, who are also friends from many years ago, and met Jessica, who I vaguely remembered from the late 1980s. I had a bottle of perry whilst the Dub was on.... made it last a long time, was quite a treat! I enjoyed dancing, and watching others dance. A really super gig, and the highlight of my day.

The event came to an end at about 6pm, and people started to disappear. I got my two heavy-duty sacks and started to go through the bins nearest the food stalls, to rescue the paper plates which had been specified by the organisers as the only acceptable plates to use for serving food. I collected two compacted sackfuls, I estimate about 30kg of plates and waste food, plus a carrier bag of coffee grounds, maybe 5kg. Great stuff for my Compostumbler! Great it didn't go to landfill. I didn't have to do any litter picking this year, as Dylan and team had got it organised this time.

I had been invited to go and see Jennie, back in York to print off her thesis and get it bound, and staying with Peter. Peter had decided to have a little party and bonfire in her honour. I popped into the York Beer and Cheese shop near Alligator, and got two small bottles of perry, or 'pear cider' as it seems to have been re-branded.

Peter had created a vegan lasagne which was really nice; I was just in time to have some. I texted Gill to tell her where I was. I enjoyed chatting with Jennie and Peter, and then Barry turned up, and a colleague of Jennie's. The most interesting part of the evening, in some ways, was trying out a new form of making bread, by wrapping dough on a green and whittled stick, and cooking this over the embers of the fire. I did one lump, it was lovely. I drank both bottles of perry.

I got home before midnight. Happy.... perhaps a little too happy!

Saturday 3rd September 11

2011-09-10T03:20:00.000+01:00

Quite an early start... had been asked to be in Chapel Allerton by 11.30, to be working at midday. So I worked back and left the house at about 9.15, and got a train bound for Leeds at 9.57, due in at 10.30ish. This all went smoothly. I then walked along to Vicar Lane to the bus stop outside the Co-op Bank which I'd found out (by phone this morning) was the place to wait for the Chapel Allerton buses. I got chatting to two lovely people, who used to live in Chapel Allerton, but now live in another part of Leeds, but who go to the Chapel Allerton Festival every year. They were in their 80s, and the woman was very chatty and lively, curious about my unicycles and entertainment.

The bus came. As I queued, the bus driver shook his finger at me through the windscreen. He said 'no bicycles'. I politely told him that they weren't bicycles, but in fact unicycles. He was adamant that he wouldn't have them on the bus, and he began to sulk. Several people, including the 80+ year old couple, chimed in and said things like, 'he's going to a charity gig' and 'they are the tools of his trade', and eventually he, grumbling, let me have a ticket.

The journey didn't last long and the lovely old couple told me when to get ready for the correct stop. As I left the bus I slipped the driver a pound coin and said 'get yourself a half pint on me'. He still looked grumpy.

The day got a lot better from here on in. I found my 'handler', Amy, who talked me through what she wanted me to do. I did a half-hour very quick run through my show, then a fair bit of unicycle-about and when it got too crowded, some walkabout, and later, a one hour show, followed by more random interaction... mainly giving out balloons.

It all drew to a close at 5pm and I was glad to get on a bus (easily this time) and then walk to the station and come home. Another tiring day.

Friday 2nd Sepember 11

2011-09-10T03:15:00.000+01:00

A rushed start to the day. Last night Gill had asked what time I needed to get up. I said how about 7.30 as I should leave the house at 8.30 to be in Pocklington at 9.30 to start work at 10. She set the alarm for 7pm. Yes. PM. So the alarm didn't go off. We woke at 8am. Therefore I had to get breakfast, pack my bike and get going as soon as possible... I left the house at 8.43, and cycled without stopping to Pocklington, which is about 11.5 miles, and this took 65 minutes. I had time, just, to get changed, slurp a coffee and start my POP Club entertainment on the dot of 10am. Phew!

So, I had just under 20 youngsters and I did a show with bits and bobs of workshop, then a free-play workshop. Then it was lunch, followed by more free-play workshop, and then I prepared for the balloon modelling workshop. It all went really well. I was ready to go home at 3pm, and took 70 minutes to get home.

Then after a rest I had to sort out the coconut problem. I'd asked the guys at Freshways if they could sell me a sack of coconuts, for the Green Party coconut shy at the Peace Festival. They said yes, come and collect on Friday afternoon. Then yesterday, I'd popped in and said Eugene would be collecting it. Anyway, when I got in this afternoon, I got a bit of a garbled message about Eugene not getting the coconuts. So I cycled down there at about 5, hoping to simply pick it up, take it back home, and get back down to David's for 6pm. But nothing is ever quite that simple.

They had no coconuts in, but knew a chap who did have a sack for sale. They rang him up, and said I'd be round soon, and gave me his address and phone number scribbled on a slip of paper. So I followed the address given and ended up in Fulford, knocking on the door of an empty house. So I used my mobile and rang the chap... he was in Kilburn Road, off Fulford Road, not ON Fulford Road. I cycled back towards town and found his house. He was someone I know a little bit... he'd bought the nuts for a coconut shy a week ago an hadn't used them. I purchased them. Then I got a phone call. It was David. Where was I? I was supposed to be with him at 6pm, and it was now 6.30pm. Oh dear.

I bombed into town and met up with David who wasn't too bothered about my being late. We went out to City Screen and had a nice social time, meeting two of his friends.

Eugene came round at 10pm to collect the coconuts.

A long day!

Thursday 1st September 11

2011-09-07T13:59:00.000+01:00

Quite a chilled day, did quite a bit of planning for some future events, both Professor Fiddlesticks and my eco-alter-ego, John the fruit press owner. Quite a bit of emailing and phoning.

I did go down to see Richard at Country Fresh and picked up several sacks and boxes... and then came home to deal with the materials. I unloaded a cylinder tumbler of finished compost into two plastic sacks and then reloaded the tumbler completely full of fruit and vegetables, plus hay and wood-shavings from the guinea pig bedding.

I gathered some windfall pears and apples to dry on the stove tonight, and picked a few hazelnuts that Gill had missed.

Later in the evening, after celery soup, cous cous and fresh tomatoes still warm off the plant, Melody and her children came round, as we're doing a Suma order soon.

Wednesday 31st August 11

2011-09-07T13:54:00.001+01:00

I was woken by Gill who took a phone call from an aggressive woman saying she was from BT, British Telecom, suppliers of telephone services. I have an advert with The Phone Book and Gill thought it was someone about this, so she brought me the phone and I spoke to the woman. She asked me if I'd been approached by anyone about moving my BT account to another provider. I told her that I had an advert with The Phone Book and Yellow Pages, but didn't think anyone had contacted me about these accounts. She sounded annoyed and asked me who I paid my bill to, my phone bill, and I told her The Phone Co-op. She said something like 'Oh God' and slammed the phone down.

Not a good way to wake up. Later, I rang BT, who said yes, there were companies out there purporting to be BT, but they weren't. BT suggested I complain to my phone provider.

I had four other 'confrontations' today. Three were whilst on my bike. I got a phone call from Ash at Cycle Heaven saying he'd fixed the problem.... it was a simple case of the alloy axle getting 'threaded' and the nut coming off. He'd replaced the alloy axle with a steel one which should be a lot stronger. And he only charged me a fiver, which was great! But on the way there, at the bottom of Heslington Road where it crosses Cemetery Road and goes into Kent Street, the lights had gone green and I'd started crossing the junction, as had a bus coming in the opposite direction. Suddenly a black car with a single male occupant zoomed through, missing me and the bus by a metre or so each. The driver had just ignored the light which had turned red seconds before. The bus driver and I looked at each other, incredulous.

After picking up my bike from Cycle Heaven, I cycled away towards town and waited at the junction of the cycle track from Bishopthorpe Road where it meets Bishopgate Street, waited for the lights to go red and stop the traffic so I could cross onto the road. As I did this, an idiot cyclist jumped the lights and nearly smashed into me. I accelerated after him and came alongside, yelling at him so he heard over his personal stereo, 'So do traffic lights not apply to you then?' He almost fell off with surprise but answered back that no they didn't. I swore at him and accelerated away. Then, after I'd been to the Building Society and put in my cheque from David, and picked up two small boxes of squashed halved lemons from the lemonade stall, I was cycling down Walmgate and a smallish sporty car overtook me at great speed, perhaps 50mph. I caught up with the speeder at the Walmgate Bar lights and spoke to him through his open window, asking him why he was going so fast down a narrow urban road. He came out with some crap about paying his taxes and I parted with a polite 'You were driving far too fast'. As I cycled up Lawrence St, he appeared in the oncoming traffic, and he leant out of his window and shouted 'I owe you an apology, I've had a bad day'. I was amazed. He performed another U-turn and when he overtook me this time he waved, so I waved back. I wasn't expecting that.

My final bit of aggro was online.... I've a close friend who's just started going out with another of my friends, and I'm really supportive of this liaison, I think it's great for them both; in fact, I introduced them to each other! However, I had an online chat with another one of my friends who is quite close to one of the two new lovers. This person was seemingly quite upset about the new relationship... I couldn't work out if it was a bit of jealousy, or wanting to protect their friend from getting hurt, or just not really understanding the situation the two new lovers are in. Well I did my best to explain and to try to calm things down, but to no avail, I think. I was saddened to think that someone was unhappy about two long-term single people finding a bit of company and romance.

I chatted with one of the organisers of the POP Club in Pocklington about the timings of the gig I'm doing at the end of the week for them. I think I'll be cycling out.

I made up my muesli and did a bit more dried fruit stuff in the evening.

Tuesday 30th August 11

2011-09-07T02:29:00.000+01:00

A lovely long lie-in!

I've been a bit behind in writing a full blog post every day and I genuinely cannot remember what happened today, but suffice to say, I relaxed... but probably did assorted housework, bits and bobs in the garden, some fruit drying, that sort of thing.I know that after the long weekend I had a backlog of emails to deal with.

So, I got through the day just fine.

Monday 29th August 11, Spofforth Gala

2011-09-07T02:24:00.000+01:00

Quite an early start. I got more things... mainly myself, cleaned up, and then went to get my bike, but when I saw that, I decided not to even risk cycling to the station! So I got a taxi to the station and got the 10.11 to Harrogate. At Harrogate I got a taxi to Spofforth. I decided I'd get a taxi more easily from Harrogate than Knaresborough, despite Knaresborough being closer to Spofforth. Anyway, we had a nice chat, and I got to Spofforth before 11.30, very good timing.

This gave me space to have a quick wander round the stalls. I got Gill a present... a box set of watercolours. I avoided buying some tiramisu which looked very delicious. Then I got changed and on the way out was delighted to see a house martin nest in the porch of the village hall.

I got started just before midday, unicycling round, interacting with people, being foolish but clever. At 2.30 I did a one-hour show, which went well,after which I did a few balloon models and oversaw workshops. My taxi came at 4.50 and took me to Knaresborough... more good conversations with the driver.

When I got in to York, I walked to David's... and was accosted by Mark Wallis, who used to be Mr Yellow. He's selling a large walking globe... did I want it? I don't think so... transporting it is just one issue!

I got changed at David's and we went for a coffee and met up with a friend of his called Elizabeth, whom I rather liked too.

I walked back towards home with all my gear... and luckily there was a number 10 bus which took me up Hull Road for under £2.

I was exhausted but happy. Helluvaday!

Sunday 28th August 11, Galtres Festival

2011-09-07T01:39:00.000+01:00

I did a 10 til 1 shift with Graham, Mel and their daughter Alyssa. This was a more difficult day as there was a huge amount of rubbish to sort through... but we did, and started filling our third cubic metre of compost bin. The weather was kinder, with a breeze drying off the mud... but the rutted surface was still difficult to wheel the green bins to and fro, so more help was given by the big tractor with the bucket loader. Made the job a bit easier... and more fun, as we rode in the bucket too!

Got then their rewards and I had a bit of free time to float around, sorry, trudge through the caking mud, before my show. I didn't want to do my circus show again, wanted to do the balloons so I took my unicycle, in my costume, and a full bag of 100 balloons, and at about 4pm started to blow up as many as I could fit into the spokes of my wheel whilst sitting on the stage.

I had a lot of fun with the awaiting audience, inviting them to have a go inflating a balloon. One girl had the ability... I'd say about 1 in 200 people can do it, and randomly, sometimes it's a child. This time it was a 10 year old girl. No-one else could do it, including grown-ups, whilst I blew up and tied one after another to prepare for the show and workshop.

My balloon show works well with a finite number of people there at the beginning, who see how to twist the balloon into a dog shape (and a few other more complicated shapes) and then are invited to have a go. However, with people arriving all the time, there is always the chance that a balloon will be given to someone who hasn't seen the beginning and hasn't a clue what to do! This is what happened but I think I dealt with it reasonably well.

At the end there were a long line of kids who for one reason or another hadn't got a balloon, so I had another half hour of inflating and making models, until I'd done the full 100 balloons. It was a successful entertainment session.

I had a dilemma for the evening. I really wanted to see The Falling Spikes, in the Little Top venue. However, they were on at 11pm. And I had a gig the next day, in Spofforth, which is 18 miles West of York, and not easy to get to by public transport. To cycle there would take 2 hours, and if I was to get there to start at midday, and go by train and taxi, I'd need to be on the 10.11 train to Harrogate.

My dilemma was that my bike was not in good order. I might have to walk back to York, which at 15 miles away, would be about 5 hours walk. So, if I left after the Spikes, and had to walk, I'd get back at maybe 6am. Not a good start for a busy day in Spofforth. However, if I left at, say 9pm, and had to walk, I'd be back at 2am, much more manageable for a 10am lift-off.

So as I took down my tent, I deliberated over this dilemma, and began to err on the earlier return. So I spent my last vouchers, and gave several away, and as The Levellers took to the main stage, I got my payment for the weekend's work and then cycled gently off into the darkness. I like cycling in the dark. My dynamo is easy to take off the front wheel and I had several long stretches with no other traffic... of course, when something else approached, I flicked it on, but off again as it passed me. As I approached Sutton on Forest, I needed to do something to tighten up the wheel, but after that, I cycled steadily all the way back to York, taking about 1 hour 45 minutes to get home, getting in at the same time that the Spikes were due to take to the stage.

I spent some time getting things clean... Gill too helped with this, and got to bed at 2am.

Saturday 27th August 11, Galtres Festival

2011-09-06T01:13:00.000+01:00

I did a 10 til 1 shift working with Graham and Mel. Our role was to take the biodegradable waste and recycle it by stacking it in static pallet bins, lined with cardboard. Most of the biodegradable stuff was in fact paper plates, soiled with food, and a small amount of other stuff like donuts and pizza crusts. I'm sure that each cubic metre of material will heat up well and compost down pretty well. We didn't take the paper cups as most of them were not compostable; only one outlet had bought proper compostable cups with the compostable symbol on them.

So, we went through the green bins which had been provided for caterers to put waste food in... but unfortunately, most of them had been available for the public to use and had a mix of compostable plates and food, cans and plastics, and assorted other materials. So we spent quite a bit of time sorting, but we reduced the amount of stuff heading for landfill, and we also sorted out a lot of other recyclables. We also got extremely muddy. Moving the green bins through the mud was very difficult, so at times we got lifts in the big tractor shovel which was being used to move bands equipment from backstage to the various performance areas. This was fun, and speeded up the job.

I got my co-workers their £15 worth of vouchers for their shift, and started planning for my first Fiddlesticks appearance. I had to get cleaned up, into costume, and then up to the Pash tent to do my show for 4.30pm. I had a shower... bliss.... and then walked with a little trolley borrowed from another camper which was able to carry my box of goodies plus unicycles, and went out of gate 4 (backstage) and up the road (mud-free) and into gate 2 which was nearer the Pash tent arena, so I didn't get TOO muddied up.

My show was tough to pull off. There was intrusion from the nearby big stage, and the audience weren't all in the Pash tent for my show... many were just sheltering from the rain. So there was a lot of extraneous noise. I'm more used to an audience enraptured by my show, and relatively quiet, so my non-amplified voice is easily audible. However, it was a good show, seemed to be well received and there were loads of people wanting to join in... no shortage of volunteers.

So then I was free to have an evening of proper festival, and I ended up in the Arts Barge Marquee with quite a few good conversations, including my friend Sam, and Alison and her daughter Daniella, and music from the Dub Barn Collective, which got me up and dancing.... unusual these days in my mid 40s sobriety.

So, a good and hard-working day at the Galtres Festival. Well worth being there, despite the awful ground conditions.

Friday 26th August 11, Galtres Festival

2011-09-03T00:53:00.000+01:00

The day started off well, with pasties for breakfast! Soon I got going and got more pallets and started to build the second bin. I got some cardboard and lined the first one and started to fill it with a few paper plates and assorted biodegradables. The site got progressively busier and busier, and officially opened to the public at 4pm.

I got my assorted wristbands... one saying I was over 18, so I could buy alcoholic drinks, one saying I had a weekend ticket, the other saying I was a performer and could therefore go to the backstage area where I was camping, and of course, making the compost bins. I was given 5x £15 beer and food tokens, two for the two days I was working as Professor Fiddlesticks, and three for the three days I was working as a waste management person. The books of tickets are a good idea, I think. Each £15 book has 10x £1.50 tokens, which can be exchanged for drinks and food. So a pint of beer or cider is two tokens, most meals are 2 or 3 tokens, apart from the pizzas which are 4. When the retailer has collected a big pile of these tokens, they can cash them in with the festival organiser, who gives them 80% of their value... with the remaining 20% going to charity. There are little cabins where the books of tokens can be bought. I met one caterer who didn't like the 'multiples of £1.50' idea, and about 5 who did. One caterer had produced their own 50p token to give as change for one meal which they had worked out was worth £2, with the 50p token spendable at their stall.

It rained and rained. The site got very muddy. But it was good to be at a festival again.

Today's highlight was the cider and perry tasting. I can't remember what happened after that.

Thursday 25th August 11, Galtres Festival

2011-09-02T01:46:00.000+01:00

I spent most of the morning getting ready for going to the Galtres Festival, where I've been asked to do the composting and two Professor Fiddlesticks shows.

I decided to cycle up to the festival, as it's only 15 miles, ie about 90 minutes gentle cycling, even with a trailer full of gear. Also, the festival bus service doesn't start til Friday when the event starts. But I wanted to go early as I needed to construct compost bins, using pallets that James said he'd make sure were available and wire and pliers I said I'd take with me.

I set off at about 3.30pm and got to Huby when my bike suddenly started making an odd noise so I stopped and found the nut on the back axle had fallen off! I walked the bike on to a safe place to lean it up, and walked back along the road to try to find it. Which I did.... but when I tried to put it back on, I found the nut had lost its thread and it didn't stay on, and the trailer hitch came off and axle slid out of the other side. Nightmare!

However, I used some wire to hold things together which meant that I could wheel the bike easily, so I walked the last mile or so to the festival site. I found James Houston, the 'main man' of the event, a friend of mine whom I've known since the early 1990s when he published an independent newspaper called The Journal. He explained where the composting was due to happen and told me there were various pallets around on site which I could use. The composting area was in the backstage area, the performers camping.

So I put my tent up and found my first few pallets, wiring together four vertical sides sitting on a single horizontal base.

Later, a bunch of set-up volunteers and organisers had a communal curry plus slices of fried giant puff ball mushroom. Gill had provided me with a veg pastie and a cheese and onion pastie, which because of this unexpected meal, I didn't need, so I kept those for breakfast tomorrow.

Wednesday 24th August 11

2011-09-02T01:44:00.001+01:00

A fairly quiet day, spent the morning chatting with Gill about this and that, and dealing with some more plums, and doing admin connected with the forthcoming Galtres Festival.

I needed to go and get a cheque out to pay my Yellow Pages advertising, and to put a cheque in, so I loaded my bike with loads of drinks cartons, scrap metal and two old electrical items, to drop off at Hazel Court.

When I got there a new notice had been put up saying 'no cyclists or pedestrians' which I ignored, as I obviously needed to put my recyclables in the correct place. I thought that common sense had prevailed when the previous notice was removed, following my protestations and pointing out that motor-vehicle drivers suddenly became pedestrians once up at the top, walking things to the various recycling banks and skips. I did my recycling; two things to the WEEE skip, 3 sacks of soya milk cartons (sacks came home with me) and quite a bit of bits of assorted metal.

I cycled into town wondering if I should make a fuss about the new sign.

I went to the Building Society with the cheque to pay in and the info about the one to get out. Then on the way to the bank to pay the water bill, I got a tap on the shoulder and it was Karen Cannard, who had been doing some filming in Manchester (she's a reduce waste expert) and had decided to see a friend in York. We chatted for a few minutes and then I did my bill payment, and cycled off to Alligator. They were having a repaint, but were happy to see me and give me their compostables.

From here, on to Country Fresh for my last pick up for a while from them, and then Freshways.

I did about an hour of shredding... various hedge materials, and lots of dead pear tree branches etc. Dug out the Compostumbler and started to refill.

Gill did a rice tea which I had at 8pm when I was finished in the garden. Got to bed before 2am!

Tuesday 23rd August 11

2011-09-02T01:44:00.000+01:00

A very full day with two Fiddlesticks gigs. My first was at St Oswald's School in Fulford at 10am, a show to support the Circus Stars summer reading scheme, followed by a free-play session, which went very well. I had lunch in that library with Jenny the librarian, whom I liked as she and I shared some music tastes, and Elizabeth, the Council Officer who'd booked me for these series of gigs.

I then cycled over Millennium Bridge to Bishopthorpe Library, where I did another 2 hour session, the one hour routine followed by a more-or-less free-play workshop... although I did start each of these free-play sessions with a catching and throwing game.

So I finished the activities at 3.30 and was cycling back at about 3.50, home via Richard (who's also, like me, looking forward to the Galtres Festival this coming weekend) and home to an empty house at about 4.30pm.

Gill and the boys had gone to see the Harry Potter film, as a birthday treat for our eldest. I went to pick some plums and windfall apples, and carved up the last of the Jargonelle pears for drying.

The rest of the family appeared, and we had a quiche with lots of halved tiny home grown tomatoes in it, and Gill had also made a cake that she'd tried to get to look like a guinea pig.... but with all the candles in its back, it actually looked like a hedgehog. It tasted good anyway.

I did quantities of paperwork/admin stuff during the evening, plus washing up and fruit preparation, and went to bed well after 2am.

Monday 22nd August 11

2011-09-02T01:43:00.000+01:00

A late start and my first appointment was at 2pm, to go and see Ginny's wormery. She'd wondered if it was working properly, and had asked me to see if it was OK.

It wasn't OK. The tap at the bottom was blocked and the contents were saturated and anaerobic and quite unpleasant. I asked if she had a wheelbarrow and I put all the contents in that, so I could sort out the tap at the bottom. I dug it out with my hands and there were almost no worms, and yes the tap at the bottom needed blowing through and washing out with clean water. I put a bit of twiggy matter at the base, on top of the plastic grid, and then gently put handfuls of the partly composted material back in, trying to ensure lots of air spaces to allow adequate drainage. I added the worms I'd brought with me and found that Ginnie's compost bin was absolutely full of them, so I added some of these too. Hopefully the bin will now work.

Ginnie had some bits and bobs of wood sitting in an outhouse and she wanted rid of them, so I loaded my trailer up and slowly cycled home.

During the evening I had two meetings to go to.... the Cosy Homes meeting and a planning meeting for the Galtres Festival with Mary Passeri, who's co-ordinating the kids entertainments, it seems. So I popped in on the Cosy Homes and chatted with Kit, then after 20 minutes, cycled to the Ackhorne where I was pleased to meet Adrian Spendlow and Steve the Drum and later, Catherine the storyteller arrived, plus baby. The courtyard filled up with a vast number of people who are part of Chilli Bon Bon, a theatrical group composed mainly of people who work at Brunswick Organic Nursery, a supported workplace.

I filled in my papers that Mary had brought and discussed a few bits and bobs... and then when the Chilli Bon Bon crew threatened to sing, I made a swift exit. I went back to the Seahorse to see if the Cosy Homes meeting was still happening and it was just finishing.

So a busy day.

Sunday 21st August 11

2011-08-31T12:33:00.000+01:00

Well a quiet day at home but did do a compost collection from Country Fresh, and then after that, got my fancy dress costume ready, so I could participate in the York City Cycle Races, in the opening race, on a Brompton (a small folding bike) as one quarter of Team Green.

Andy D'Agorne had organised this, texting me a few days ago and saying we had to decide by the end of the day. I said yes, without knowing very much about it. I did check abut the fancy dress, so I put on the most colourful and barmy clothes I've got.

So I cycled in on my usual bike and locked that up and met up with Andy, Jane McWeeny and Ginnie Shaw. The Brompton race was first, at 5pm, and I took the chance to try the Brompton and check out the route round the city centre before the race, a good idea as I knew which corners were toughest and could judge what speed to take them.

Andy had said he wanted to go first, then me, as I'm about the same height, followed by Jane and Ginny, who had the seat-post lowered. I was surprised how slow Andy was... he later admitted that he thought the circuit was dangerous and he hadn't pedalled as fast as he could have done. Maybe he was wise as another team, the General Practitioners team (family doctors) didn't finish as one of their members crashed and was taken to hospital with broken ribs and a damaged liver. However, I cycled as fast as I could, managed to overtake one other team, and crossed the line feeling I couldn't have done better.

Out of the six teams who entered, we came fourth, not bad considering our combined ages (all in our 40s and 50s!), and our fancy dress caused a fair amount of mirth and merriment. I believe that some money was raised for charity, too.

We had a few group photos taken but I didn't stay to watch the other races.

I cycled home, via Grape Lane and Swinegate where there were assorted festivities taking place, and felt pleased that I'd taken part in my second ever bike race.

Saturday 20th August 11

2011-08-31T11:31:00.000+01:00

I had a fairly late start but got myself together to get to New Earswick for lunch and a 1.30pm start for the AVP meeting. I'm the Health and Safety Officer for Alternatives to Violence Project, North East and East Midlands, and people from all over the region had come to attend the meeting at Hartrigg Oaks.

This was a good meeting which I enjoyed, and Roswitha gave me some beetroot and Gill gave me some plums.

I enjoyed the cycle back into town with Alan, who'd come over from Bradford, but at the cycle track I peeled off and turned towards Burton Stone Lane as I'd agreed to go and see a friend who everyone knows as J or Jx, who'd asked my opinion about composting, or disposing of, some pyracanthus twigs. I said I'd come and chop them up and put them in paper sacks, and take them for composting. So we stood and chopped and chatted, which was really nice.

I think it took about an hour, after which I cycled the length of the cycle track to St Nicks, picked up a sack of compostables at Freshways, and called in on Bob as I had some bread for him and his household. Here I met Lou Mason, whom I've been wanting to meet up with for ages, as I was friends with her brother Tom, and then I saw some art done by Lou and I have been wanting to meet her since. One of those chance meetings, random and surprising. Hopefully we'll get to go for a cuppa together sometime. Would be good to meet at Millers Yard as there's a bench there in memory of Tom Mason, who worked there as a baker when I first moved to York in the 1980s.

Friday 19th August 11

2011-08-31T11:02:00.000+01:00

A really good day as we met up with my parents for the first time in ages.

The arrangement was that they'd meet Gill and the boys off the bus in Pocklington, and take them to Swing Bridge Number 6 on the Pocklington Canal, at Melbourne. As the car only carries 5 people, there was only room to pick up 3 passengers. So I cycled the 10 miles out through Elvington, Sutton on Derwent and on to Melbourne.

I set off at 10.15 and the others got the 10.24 bus. They arrived in Pocklington at 10.54, and I got to Melbourne at 11.05, ten minutes before the car with canoe on top arrived.

The canal has lovely clear water and plenty of fish. We sat on one of the jetties which boats moor up against when the bridge needs to be moved, and ate our lunch. I fed the fish crumbs from my sandwiches.

My father first took our eldest out on the canal, and Gill and I chatted with my mother, and we all enjoyed watching the damselflies and fish jumping.

Then I went out with my Dad, with him at the back steering and my youngest son in the middle, me at the front. We went along the canal towards Pocklington, and the canal gets very blocked with reeds and vegetation. I picked a load of watercress, which I'll clean up and make into soup. It's not a good idea to eat wild watercress raw, as there's a chance of getting a parasite, but if cooked it's completely safe.

We got back to the landing area and I took Gill out for a very slow paddle, as she's not used to boats and was a bit nervous.

No-one else wanted to have a go so we stopped there, at about 2pm, and the canoe went back on the car, and Daddy drove it up the muddy track without the other 4 passengers, as the uneven ground meant that the car had 'bottomed out' with the extra weight on the way down. So we all walked up the track, and then they all got in and turned left to Pocklington and I turned right to York, and cycled fast all the way home.

I worked for David from 6 til 8, got on well as usual!

Thursday 18th August 11

2011-08-31T04:19:00.000+01:00

A bit of a nothingy day to be honest.

I took the tent down as it was dry and our eldest has decided not to use it for his birthday next week.

I did a couple of hours composting and a bit of wooding.

Did more pears.

Wednesday 17th August 11

2011-08-31T04:18:00.000+01:00

I enjoyed today as I had no particular things to do, get to, or any obligations, but I got a lot done. During the morning I interspersed watching Concrete Circus on 4oD with various jobs in the kitchen, but it was good to catch up with this programme which Gill watched on Monday night, whilst I was at Just Do It. I'm a big fan of Danny MacAskill, and enjoyed his part of the film most... but all the 'urban sports' performers were good.

Gill went to Malton with our youngest to buy two young female guinea pigs, which he's wanted to have for quite a while, and are his birthday present. They came back after lunch with them in a travelling pet box, one is mostly ginger brown with some white bits and the other is mostly nearly black with some other colours. Their names have yet to be decided but Fudge and Toffee might stick (haha!)

I got a message from Rich to go and pick up from Country Fresh and I did do, and got some eggs and veggies too, and some stuff for Debbie. She had her daughter's friend Vicky there and we all had a nice chat.

I got a phone call from a woman who attended a recent Fiddlesticks gig, with her son, who had some very extrovert behaviour which made him stand out from the rest of the audience. I had dealt with him in my usual way, made sure he was included and I didn't tell him off, but did explain a couple of times about how the audience was supposed to behave in a live show. At the end, she apologised for his behaviour, and I said something like "no problem, he was great, and anyway, I have Aspergers so I know what it's like to be a bit different". I had no idea what a profound effect this comment was to have on her. She rang me to thank me for doing the show, and to tell me her son had loved it, and that she'd like to book me for his birthday party. She has had several people suggest that her son has got Aspergers Syndrome, and she was quite mixed up and confused by it, as she's had quite a bit of negative reaction from some teachers who couldn't cope with the boy's intelligent questions and unusual ways, and my comments had really given her hope and some sort of positivity. Actually, I don't really know what I did or said that had such an effect, but she was profusely grateful. We spent quite a bit of time on the phone, and then chatted on the internet later, and her feedback made me very happy.

I did another big pear tree pick, and got about 6 kilos of lovely Jargonelle pears, which will mostly be dried, as this concentrates the flavour and dried pears are my favourite dried fruit. I got my 9 metre ladder fully extended and then climbed into the tree off the top of it, it felt quite dangerous and exciting. These pears do not keep at all, most of them go bad in 24 hours, so drying is the best way to preserve them. The ground underneath the tree is thick with fallen pears, wasps and Red Admiral butterflies, so I needed to harvest what I could.

The only other useful things I did were to do loads of washing up and help prepare tea. Oh, and load up lots of wire racks with halved pears.....

Tuesday 16th August 11

2011-08-31T04:16:00.000+01:00

A slow start to the day, as didn't need to leave the house til after midday. I got my kit moved from my bags which I use to carry stuff on the train to the Curver Box which goes in the bike trailer. And then, got the costume put in my pannier and four-wheeled unicycles in the other pannier... had my sandwiches and jumped on my trusty steed and headed to Poppleton Library.

The rain started. I got soaked. But it only took 35 minutes to cycle up to Poppy and I got to the library at 1pm. My show was due to start at 1.30, so plenty of time to dry off, get changed and unpack my gear.

We had a 'full house' with at least 20 children and about 8 mums and dads, and we had a really good show, lots of participation and laughter; I really enjoyed it. After my routine I did a circle game, throwing and catching, and then 35 minutes of free play.

We finished at 3.30 and by 4 I was cycling round the village to see Kate Houghton, who is an 84 year old who was great friends with Gill's mother, Betty Adelaide. I had a coffee and a chat, and then another friend of hers popped in and it was 5pm, and time for me to go, as I was supposed to be working for David at 6pm.

I got to Stonegate before I needed to go and see David, so I went to chat with Purpleman, who last week suffered an unprovoked attack. He's OK though, and resilient, and quoted Gandhi.

I got to David's a bit before 6 and he was pleased to see me and wanted to go to City Screen for a coffee. There were quite a few people there whom we knew, gathering for a film about the history of railways. We went to sit upstairs and got a lovely view of the river, and chatted briefly with various people. But when the film started, we went for a wander, down Coney Street and then retraced our steps to go to Museum Gardens, went through and round onto Marygate and down to the river and back through the Gardens, and then to the Minster, round the back and along past St Williams College and along Goodramgate, where we bumped into Claire from Grace Preserves, and her husband whom I've not met before, and eventually home to David's, where he was very happy to get some tea, which was waiting for me to microwave for him.

Monday 15th August 11, 'Just Do It' film

2011-08-31T04:15:00.000+01:00

A good day, a bunch of positive things happened.

Not sure why I woke up when I did but soon after I got a phone call which rang off after I failed to get to it on time, so rang back and it was my Mum, arranging a meeting for a family trip out in their canoe, at the Pocklington Canal, and we needed to fix a date; we're all busy people! I'll be cycling out to the canoe launch site, Gill and the boys will be collected from Pocklington bus station and have a short car journey to the launch site. I'm quite looking forward to it!

My computer has had some problems with a loose connection to the power supply, and it has been getting worse, so I visited two local computer shops for a verdict. One said it would be £80 to go inside and take out the DC port, and £10 to replace it, and £40 for a new power pack, and £40 to £100 for a new battery pack, since that too is old and only gives me 20 minutes battery time. The other shop said £60 to go into the computer, and £15 to £40 for a power pack (they said they'd look on Ebay) and an unknown price for a battery (again, this shop uses Ebay). I was a bit dismayed at the potential cost, so I emailed Ben to ask his opinion. He rang me back quite soon and said that he'd be happy to look at it, to confirm whether he agreed with the diagnosis. I walked round and left the laptop there and within the hour he'd tightened up the connections inside and done a little re-soldering on the plug which goes into the back of the box.... and the problem is (temporarily) solved! He wants paying in £10 worth of dried fruit and a £5 note! Wow!

I then cycled our eldest son over to his friend's house in Fulford, and noticed a pile of waste logs so once son safely delivered, I cycled back past them and brought some back with me.

When, towards 5pm, I went back to pick him up, I collected another load.

I had a bread and soup tea and then towards 7pm headed to City Screen to meet up with Nick, who had agreed to go to see Just Do It with me. I've been looking forward to this film for quite a while, as it is about a movement I care a lot about, admire, and am, in a small way, part of. Also, it was really good to see Nick, I'm very fond of him. We always have great conversations. And whilst having a pint with Nick, David Ward Maclean came to say hello.

This film is about a group of people I feel close to, people who care enough about our planet to put themselves in situations of personal danger and risk in order to try to highlight the issues and reduce the perceived problems. I feel close to them not because I do what they do, but because they are equally passionate about the same things. My way of 'doing direct action' is to live every day of my life in a low carbon, ethical manner, rather than get involved in noisy colourful protests and camps, although I did attend a Climate Camp at Drax. They may have lifestyles which emit more (or less!) carbon than me, but they get involved in direct action with Climate Camp, Climate Rush, Plane Stupid and other groups and actions. I have HUGE respect for these people, and the film followed a few of them for a year, including getting busy at the Copenhagen Conference in 2009 and the Vestas factory on the Isle of Wight.

The film was very inspiring and I hope moves people to get involved with actions which have positive effects for future generations of people and other species on this planet. I believe that anthropogenic climate change is the biggest challenge that Humanity is facing, and in order to turn the problem round, we have to not only drastically reduce the rate of CO2 emissions, which continue to rise year by year, but we should find ways to reduce the actual amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, which has risen from a generally accepted 270 parts per million pre Industrial Revolution, to 392ppm today, primarily because of the amount of fossil carbon we're emitting through burning fuels, plus the reduction in forested land and increase in other activities which emit CO2, such as draining peat bogs. So far, there is no tried and tested way of sequestering atmospheric carbon in the amounts needed to reduce the concentration..... but we need to stop emitting so much as a starter!

After the screening, Emily James the Director answered questions, and there was a chap from the Free Frank Fernie campaign too. I was amused when Emily noticed someone filming this speaker and was holding the camera on 'portrait', and she grabbed the camera and turned it to 'landscape' which, as she is a film-maker, she knows gives a much better picture.

I loved Just Do It. I think it will be a testament to those who heeded warnings and took the action they thought necessary. Whether they/we are successful in these endeavours, only history will tell.

Sunday 14th August 11

2011-08-25T02:00:00.000+01:00

A work day but not an unpleasantly early start; had to be in Leeds to be picked up by Alan at 1pm. So I set off for the 12.15 train at 11.45, although a minute into my journey I realised I'd left my rucksack with costume and balloons in back home, so I turned round and went and got it.

But I got to the station in plenty of time, and bought my day return and was waiting at the meeting area for 12.50.

The weather was not perfect for doing outside entertainment, as just as my audience were gathering at Middleton Park, it began to rain. It isn't possible to do devilsticks in the rain, and wet diabolo string doesn't behave as expected, either. So I changed the order of my shows and did the balloons first, filling the time when I was blowing up balloons for the workshop with getting volunteers out of the audience to try to blow one up. It is nearly impossible for an ordinary person t inflate modelling balloons (260s anyway!) with their lungs, so whilst I blew up about 40 of them, a succession of mainly children failed to blow any up. There is a knack to it, but basically it's strength, pure diaphragm and chest muscle power.

So the balloon workshop went well and was attended by over 60 people. I didn't have enough balloons to go round with the ones I'd shoved into the spokes of my unicycle, so I had to blow up more to accommodate the large numbers of participants. At 3 I did a shortened version of the circus show, and we had about 35 minutes left to have a free-play workshop. Everybody had a good time, and Alan, the chap who books me, seemed happy.

Alan took me back to Leeds station and I got the York train 10 minutes after getting there. I was back in York soon after 5pm.

When I got back home I immediately got the big ladders out and picked a load of Jargonelle pears... lots are falling off the tree and therefore they're ripe. The wasps and butterflies are having a great time! I picked 2 buckets full but also took out a lot of dead wood and climbing hop and honeysuckle which has got somewhat over vigorous. I spent over 2 hours up the tree.

During the evening I sorted out lots of the pears, setting them to dry, as they don't keep at all.

Saturday 13th August 11

2011-08-25T01:59:00.000+01:00

A really enjoyable day, showing Loony around York... her first visit here. I collected her from the Bed and Breakfast and we got a bus to Clifford Street, then walked to Parliament St to wait at the fountain to meet Grant. I chatted to a chap with a huge sandwich board with a message offering a reward of £50,000 for information about corruption in the West Mercia Police. He was quite an interesting person to talk to, but I didn't have long as Grant turned up, and we all went for some lunch.

Then we wandered over to Coffee Yard and visited David, and had a coffee and a chat, made David's day a bit more interesting anyway! Then Grant parted company with Loony and me and we went to see the Minster, and then to Monkgate Bar to go along the wall to Bootham Bar. By this time, Loony had done enough walking so we got a bus to Rougier St and then a Number 10 to Hull Road, and Loony had a cuppa and met Gill and the boys, and walked down the garden and back, before we went to the Co-op and on to her Bed and Breakfast on Heslington Road.

I didn't stay long as we were both tired, and I have work tomorrow and she has a long bus journey back to Bristol.

Friday 12th August 11

2011-08-25T01:58:00.000+01:00

Mick the Brick arrived to finish off the job he started yesterday. He put a final layer of render on, making it really smooth and it looks lovely, both inside and out. I paid him and by 11am he was gone.

I did a small amount in the garden and more in the house, working with Gill a bit to get the conservatory more tidy and usable.

At 4.15 I cycled down to town, via Country Fresh, to meet Loony off the bus which was due in at 5pm. We walked all the way through town to Heslington Road, where her Bed and Breakfast was, and when she'd got herself together after such a long bus trip from Bristol, we got a taxi into town.

We went to El Piano as a birthday treat for Loony, where Bob the chef was doing an offer, if you bought a drink, you got a tapas dish with it. So we sat outside, under a huge umbrella awning, and had a couple of drinks each and 3 tapas dishes between us... a tomato salsa and tortilla chips, a refried beans and corn fritter dish, and finally, vegan sushi... my first experience of sushi! Loony had a sugar free and fat free pudding too, made from banana and coconut.

Thursday 11th August 11

2011-08-25T01:57:00.000+01:00

Woken comparatively early considering the late night, by 'Mick the Brick' who had come to do our little bricklaying job. He had lost our contact details and that's why he hadn't rung us to forewarn us.

He did a great job, first removing the wooden battens which covered the gap between the back of the house and the wall which was there before we built the conservatory. He used bricks which I'd been given by Gillian round the corner, left over from building the raised bed down the garden. He laid the bricks slightly recessed from the existing front surface, with the intention to cover the bricks (which don't match the 'clamp bricks' of the house or free-standing wall) with a cement render, to make it look like a pillar or something. All the wires and things he put in the cavity between the bricks.

Gill and I were delighted that this will stop any rodent ingress and it feels a lot more secure with bricks not wood, which was eaten through by a rat several years ago... and I had to pile bricks up against the outside to make it rodent proof since then.

Our youngest's 24 hour party came to an end at midday and all involved had enjoyed it. The sleepover in the tent, with 5 of them, was obviously very exciting and fun.

I went to work at David's at 6 and we went to City Screen and had a nice chat with a solicitor and a physiotherapist from Elvington, I think. David likes it that I have an uncanny knack of being able to strike up a conversation with just about anyone! When we got back to David's I sorted out his washing machine and got him his meal, and left him to it.

Wednesday 10th August 11

2011-08-25T01:56:00.000+01:00

I got up at 8 as I had to be on my bike by 9 and at Huntington Library by about 9.40 latest. It was raining hard. I got there in about 25 minutes, including the slight diversion when I almost took my bike into the GP Surgery next door, by accident!

The librarian let me in once she'd seen me at the door, and I had a look around the venue to check it was OK to wheel my bike in. As it had a wooden floor, the wet bike was no problem, so in it all came. I got changed and talked through the format of the morning.

At 10 the punters arrived, a gaggle of children with Mums. I was introduced by the librarian and then proceeded to do my usual 'warm-up-act' where I invite an 'entertainer of the future' to come and try out their skills (usually a joke or a cartwheel or something similar!) and then I got on with my show. I particularly enjoyed the workshop, as one of the Mums proved to be really good, quite unexpectedly, at first the diabolo, then she did devilsticks surprisingly well, and when I suggested she might want to try juggling, she said 'no, I could never do that' but she was doing a three-ball cascade within a matter of seconds. I was astounded, and I think she was too, although she wasn't one to express her emotions much. She was just a complete natural, but had never, ever been exposed to a situation where she could try these skills. I cycled home feeling very emotional.

In the evening I met Catherine, a student, in the Three Legged Mare, for Green Drinks, as she wanted to interview me about green groups in York. Several other people arrived and it became a more open discussion.

Tuesday 9th August 11

2011-08-23T00:09:00.000+01:00

Working for David. I met up with him at 2.30 and took him to the Theatre Royal to see Peter Pan. This had been organised by Carolyn, who had brought her two grandchildren with her.

It was a good production, and David enjoyed it a lot, which was far more important than what I thought. I did enjoy it somewhat, but it was aimed at children, mainly.

I started to try to catch up on the backlog of assorted paperwork, blog posts, etc, and all the other jobs which don't get done when on holiday!

Monday 8th August 11, Return to York

2011-08-22T03:30:00.000+01:00

I took the tent down, not easy with windy weather. But I was helped. Then we got shoehorned into Rob's car, we only just fitted! He took us to St Austell station, where we had quite a bit of time to kill, so I walked into town with the boys to find lunch and spotted an internet cafe, so I returned and had a short time using their WiFi to catch up on emails etc.

Then we got a series of trains, one to Plymouth, and a quick connection to the Leeds train, where at Birmingham, a pair of young men got on and got out their Nintendo DS machines, and our boys, who both have one as well, connected with them and had some fun racing Mario Carts and various other games. These chaps were even able to share some software to let our two play a game which wasn't installed on their DSes. This made this part of the journey go very quickly.

Finally, a train to York, getting in after 10.30pm, so we got a taxi back home. The taxi driver, when prompted to tell us what if anything had happened in York over the past week, told us there'd been a hurricane in Dunnington. Our eldest tried to explain that it wasn't possible to have a hurricane in Yorkshire (although possible to have hurricane force winds) but the guy assured us it was a hurricane. Later, looking through the newspapers, I confirmed that it was a tornado, not a hurricane.

It was good to get back and find everything as we'd left it. Happy to be home and have comfy beds!

Sunday 7th August 11, 9th and final day in Cornwall

2011-08-22T02:48:00.000+01:00

Today was another fab day.... we'd been invited to go back to the marquee for midday to have a pastie lunch.

However, I had to organise the transport back to either Truro or St Austell tomorrow, and I discussed the bus situation with the chap in the office. He explained that there wasn't a good connection between one bus and the next, and that one stopped in Veryan and then we'd have to walk a mile to Ruan High Lanes to catch the one to Truro. So we asked about getting a taxi to the bus to Truro... or all the way to Truro or St Austell. When I explained that we wanted to travel tomorrow, on Monday, he said he was happy to take us into St Austell, if we thought we'd fit in his car. Well we were very grateful, as this made the journey much easier, and we said we'd see him at midday tomorrow.

So, with this sorted, we wandered along to the field with the marquee, and it was a much less organised and formal day. The DJ had gone, and the caterers too, just leaving the marquee and tables, and kids playthings.

A good selection of pasties were supplied, and some cakes too, and lots of opportunities for conversations and getting to know people, deep discussions with our nephew Jonny about the introduction of a new green technology, and great games of frisbee with Dankie and family, mainly.

We spent all afternoon there, just having a really super social time. However, it started to get thinner on the ground and eventually the marquee was going to be left done up so it could be taken down the following day. We walked up the road to the campsite, and just as I was thinking about Robin Harford and how that tomorrow morning I wouldn't have time to go to his foraging workshop, and there was a car driving into the site and it reversed and Robin leaned out of the window and said 'Blow me, it's Cossham' (or words to that effect!)... and then apologised for swearing with my family there.... and I introduced him to Gill and the boys.

A bit later, I went on a short walk with him, and then took the boys down to the beach for a little wander (we had fun throwing a golf ball up a cliff to see it randomly bounce down) and then, after dark, Gill and I went for a coffee with Robin and his wife, who was really nice.

I think this is what happened today anyway!

Saturday 6th August 11, Helen and Jason's Wedding

2011-08-21T13:25:00.000+01:00

A really lovely day. We got all our gear ready to go in the taxi to Portscatho, or more accurately, Treloan Coastal Holidays Campsite, south of Gerrans. The taxi chap had arranged to meet us up the hill where it wasn't quite so steep, at 10am. He had had difficulty last time on the steep slope and it was easier for us to lug all our gear up to him than him drive down to us and risk getting stuck.

So, we took the taxi the 13 or so miles to the campsite... it took half an hour and cost £35... but this was much quicker than (and probably a similar cost to) getting a bus to St Austell, a train to Truro and a bus to Portscatho... and later, we realised there is no direct bus from Truro to Portscatho, you have to get off one and walk for a mile to catch the connecting bus between Veryan and Ruan High Lanes, which is a complete nonsense when it comes to accessible public transport. So we were very happy to have a quick door-to-door service, and Carl the taxi man was nice.

We got to the campsite before 11am and our pitch was not yet vacated, so whilst the other campers were striking camp, I explored the site, and was surprised to find a poster featuring my friend Robin Harford, the wild food forager, who was running a short foraging workshop on the following Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I was pleased to see this but saddened as we were due to be going on the Monday morning, so I wouldn't be able to attend.

I erected the tent almost single-handedly. As it was quite windy, I pegged it down before putting in the poles, which was sensible as it was at risk of blowing away once the poles were in. It took less than an hour to do it... this was just the second time I've put it up, and last time I had lots of help.

Soon after I'd done this, it was time to go and wait for the bus that Helen and Jay had organised, so I got changed into my smart clothes in the tent, as did the others, and we went to the campsite office. There was already a well-dressed gent there, and we asked if he was going to the wedding, and yes... he was waiting for his family to join him too.

The bus came...it was a preserved vintage one from King Harry Coaches, really beautiful and special-looking, with a wedding ribbon on the front. There were already quite a few people on it, and we picked up others along the way, including Linda, Gill's sister, and her daughter Nancy with her boys... all looking very smart and happy.

It didn't take long to get to St Just in Roseland Church, down a narrow leafy lane, looking almost tropical in its abundance. The church is down some paths through gardens, and the church overlooks the sea... well, a wooded inlet which is really pretty. All the guests milled around and chatted, and then after quite a wait, we filed in and as we were the Bride's family, we sat on the left of the church... which gave us a great view of the couple when they were going through the ceremony.

Helen was walked down the isle by Mike, her father, and she was smiling and giggling and obviously revelling in the moment. The vicar who presided over the ceremony was a very humorous woman, just perfect for Helen, who is renowned for her sense of fun. Jason is slightly more sober and sensible and I'm sure helps balance Helen's giddy personality.

After the ceremony, we all filed outside where a pair of photographers got all the different groups of people to line up for the official photos. I took a few as well, these are my favourites:

From the church we all got back in the two old buses and we wound our way back to Portscatho and a field just beyond Treloan, where a large marquee had been put up.

This was a wonderful reception venue. There was Pimms served and then a lovely meal, and the traditional speeches. Children had straw bales to play on/with, and frisbees, footballs, cricket equipment and more. I think it was the best reception party I've been to, and I really enjoyed meeting our new relatives, Jason's side of the family, as well as the relatives we already know and love.

The party continued til midnight... there was a brief rainstorm and a rainbow, and plenty of sunshine, fun, conversation, food and drink, and later, music and both Gill and I danced.

I dedicate today's blog post to Jason and Helen Kenneally. I hope they have a long and happy life together.