Saturday 18th June 11

A fairly late start, and didn't do anything active until I cycled to the bread shop at midday, and then almost straight away on to St Nicks to the launch of Bearing Fruit, the new project there.

This meeting started at 1pm, in the Environment Centre, with an introduction from Jonathan, one of the Bearing Fruit team and the St Nicks Volunteer Co-ordinator.  The project is a local community orchard, funded by ecominds.  The basic idea is that there will be some fruit and nut trees, and soft fruit, all planted in various places around the nature reserve, and looked after, and available for local people to pick and eat.  The project is a partnership with the Community Recovery Team, and the aim is to help people who've experienced mental health difficulties to recover, using outdoor physical work, which has a value and meaning, and is connected to 'nature' and wildlife, and amongst people who understand the shared difficulties, so fostering a sense of community.

So far the project has done some mapping, looking at existing vegetation, soils and potential sites within St Nicks. A bit of planting has already taken place; however, the fruit trees planted in a recently cleared area next to Melrosegate were snapped off by vandals, and it's only the hidden trees which have survived, a few cherries and rowans in other parts of the site.  We talked about how to reduce the amount of vandalism, and including the local youth who use the site in the planting of trees was one idea, with some attempt at 'ownership', and another was to plant much smaller less conspicuous trees which won't get noticed, and would blend into the background more easily, hopefully escaping the attention of destructive youths.

Dave Broughton from Edible York and Abundance then gave a talk, with the history of the Edible landscape movement and Abundance projects.  He put the York Abundance map up on screen, which I've added to in the past, and said the various new Edible York raised beds would be added.  He told us that last year, between 2 and 3 tonnes of apples were distributed to various homeless shelters, the Red Cross, and at public events, plus some other fruit.  This year the project is going to decentralise and split into more locally run groups (like Planet South Bank and Haxby+Wigginton in Transition, for instance), and that allotment surpluses would be collected too. There's also a 'virtual orchard' planned.

We then had a walk through St Nicks to see the various places where fruit trees, nut trees, soft fruit and native herbs could be planted.  After which there was a chance to chat over the project whilst drinking apple juice and eating cake.

I got home in good time to go to work, at David's. I took him for a walk with him using his walking frame, which he's getting much better at, and then I took him in the wheelchair along to City Screen.  We sat next to some women who were chatting, and it turned out that one of them knew quite a few of David's family, in rural North Yorkshire.  They chatted animatedly and I was very happy.

I had something to eat at the same time as David ate, back at home at about 8pm (I'd brought a pasta salad with me, he had his microwaved fish stuff) and after that I went to Lynn's birthday party, and although I didn't spend long there, I wasn't in a fit state to complete my blog post on the day, so I caught up later in the week.  I really enjoyed the party though, and saw my friends Al, a participant in last year's WNBR, and Philip, whom I haven't seen for ages, and Anna, who thanked me for my support of her in the local paper recently.  I think Lynn enjoyed the party too.

Monday 16th May 11

Rose at the respectable time of 9am and got busy with I'm not sure what until about 11 when I went round to the bread shop to buy Yesterbake.

I did some bits and bobs in the garden, including chopping up the last of the ash branches delivered by Mark the gardener, and the usual housework.  At 4pm I headed off for a meeting at El Piano with a friend of a friend called Vicky, who worked for a local magazine last year, and is preparing to launch a new magazine and website in August.  She wanted to see if I was willing to contribute to their 'green' and ethical living section, either as a columnist/blogger or as some sort of consultant... I'm not sure.  I think the conversation we had was a 'getting to know you' session, a 'scoping' meeting.

At 6 I went to see David, who wasn't feeling like going out, but was happy that I'd bought 6 small screws to rehang two wardrobe sliding doors, which I did, successfully, with the help of some matchsticks to make the existing holes tighter.  I also dealt with the picture lighting stuff and think that just one picture light needs either repairing or replacing.

Another thing which has been worrying David is the levels of moisture in the cellar.  So I went to investigate and found two areas which need 'seeing to'.  I'll be dealing with these over the next few days, and getting Environmental Health involved.

I got his food to him and one or two other things, and left early at 7.40. I came home via Freshways which had some good fruity stuff for me, and I took that down the garden before having tea, which was a bit of nutloaf (the last bit), a bread roll and a bowl of DELICIOUS tomato soup made last night by me!

And a fairly normal evening ensued, various phone calls and emails and facebook conversations.  Enjoyed a TV programme on the problems with some unscrupulous recycling companies and electronic waste.

One of the highlights today was finding that a robin has built a nest in the current logpile, in a little gap overlooking the front garden right next to our front door.  There are 5 or 6 little eggs in the nest.  So I'm now going to take any fuel we need from the other side whilst these eggs hatch and the robins fledge and leave.  I love it when robins nest in funny places.... memories of one nesting in the garage a few years back.

When I came to publish my blog, something had gone wrong with the internet connection and I went to bed before publishing, which I did as soon as possible on Tuesday.

Tuesday 3rd May 11

Another good day... I went to the local Thomas The Baker and got a fiver's worth of 'Yesterbake', bread left over from a day or two ago and available at ridiculously low prices.  I got two small loaves, four bags of rolls, four 'naughty spirals' and some cheese straws.  Should keep us going for a few days.  I foresee a nutloaf coming on....

Gill went into town with our eldest, to the library to research oxbow lakes.... are there any in Yorkshire I wonder?  Or have all the mature rivers been so managed, there aren't any?

I went to the Building Society to put in two cheques and get out some cash to pay the Steiner School for this term.  Then I cycled down to the school and collected our youngest.  However, I was pleased to meet someone I've wanted to meet for a bit now, a writer called Kate Ravillious, who has done some cracking pieces for NewScientist.  She has a young daughter who'll be starting at the Steiner School soon... and an 11 week old son, which is why she's not writing at the moment.

Good cycle back with our lad, he's getting a lot better at cycling.  I had a short time at home... did a little bit of wood-management, but at 5.30 set out for town again to go to David's for my care work.  I was pleased to meet his cousin's daughter who helps with his accounts, and Richard, another cousin, is back from France, and it was good to see him too.  David wanted to see where his solicitor's offices were, so we explored Piccadilly, found the office block, and returned and headed to City Screen for a coffee.  We met one of David's friends Chris, who's a Professor at the University, in the Department of Education.

We didn't spend long there, but went back to David's place, where I cooked his tea and sorted him out, and was able to get away for 8pm.  I sped home and watched a really good programme on Channel 5, 'The King's Speech Revealed', followed by The Secret Millionaire on Channel 4, followed by Catfish on More 4, which i found really interesting, being in the 'online, facebook, GoogleMaps' generation!  A really interesting story. Gill watched these with me too, whilst I did more red peppers for drying.

Friday 1st April 11

Woke fairly early with headache which lasted all day, despite medication.

Spent the morning doing stuff in the house, including replying to my agent (which I later hand-delivered).

I went to buy bread and got a good 'yesterbake' deal from Thomas the Baker on Tang Hall Lane.  I chatted with the guy who delivers the unsold bread and rolls etc to this shop, where it's sold for half price and two for one, so effectively quarter price.  Anything still unsold after this goes to a dog biscuit manufacturer in Doncaster, I think he said.

On the way back I said hello to Jamie, who had 'news' for me... a tree had blown over in his garden overnight and he was busy chopping it up for me to take away!  He also showed me his petrol chainsaw which he is thinking of selling; he showed me how it worked, which it did first time.... but then it refused to start again. 

After lunch a BT Openreach van drew up and our next door neighbour explained that the cherry tree in our front garden had swayed around so much in the wind that it had pulled his phone line out, as the lines to his house and ours go through the tree's top branches.  The good thing is that since the tree is ours, and the damage to our neighbour's line, he doesn't get charged for the repair.  BUT if our wire comes off due to our tree, we'd get a large bill for the repair.  So I got my big stepladder which reaches up to 9 metres, and spent over an hour carefully lopping back quite a few branches so there were none brushing up against either of the wires.  Then I spent more time pruning these branches down into stove-length sticks and shreddable twigs.  The smaller sticks went into a paper potato sack where they'll sit for a year or more to dry off.

I collected our youngest son, taking his bike down on my trailer, via my agent's house which is near the Steiner School.

In the evening I cycled to the York Open Studios event at Bar Lane Studios. My good friend Jonathan, who is the artist Dexter, was showing his work, as were dozens of other people..... I met loads of my friends and really enjoyed myself.

Came home via Freshways and brought back a trailer full of compostable goodies. 

Aiming for another early night, as feeling ropey.

Monday 7th February 11

A good day, as I finally got the last of the sawdust riddled!  The huge pile which has accumulated in my logging area over the past 6+ months, on top of a blue plastic tarpaulin, has been separated into 13 sacks of fine damp dark sawdust, perfect for compost toilet cover, for compost heap carbon-rich layer, plus four sacks of larger bits of bark, twig and wood chips which didn't go through the riddle but are too small to try to dry off, and will go in layers on the compost heaps and in the tumblers.  Finally I got 4 paper potato sacks full of big chunks of bark, sticks, bigger chunks of wood which will dry over the next year in these paper sacks in the garage (which is well ventilated, unintentionally!) and will end up as kindling for the stoves.

This was the bulk of my outdoor work today.  But before lunch I went to Thomas The Bakers and got £2 worth of Yesterbake, ie two loaves and 4 bags of rolls.

After lunch I cycled down to town, battling the wind, to go and get a cheque out for Justin, our 'pet' electrician.  I called in to see Dylan and cycled back along the cycle track from Rowntrees all the way to Hull Road.  I picked up a few sticks on the way, plus one willow log.

For tea I had the potato salad with a fried egg sandwich, followed by an out of date and therefore free yoghurt.  I'd never buy yoghurt, as it conflicts with my 'wannabe as close to vegan as possible' lifestyle, but I'd rather eat the yoghurt than put it on the compost heap or let it go to landfill.

Then soon after 7pm I cycled down to the Seahorse to attend the monthly LETS meeting.  I was pleased to meet Melody locking up her bike, and inside already, Will and Kay.  We had a fairly quick and very upbeat meeting, and then a good chat to sort out forthcoming social events, which will include a seed swap at Melody's, a possible Equinox party out at Escrick, and a Multicoloured SwapShop party at Kay's in May, on my birthday...

Melody and Kay went, Will and I stayed and chatted, and another two chaps came in to have a drink.  We overheard something they were saying, having found a leaflet about the Quilt Museum, so Will and I both had a bit of a story about that, and then they overheard our conversation about my youngest going to the Steiner School.  Turns out that one of them, Tom, had gone to the Steiner School and had loved it.  He was really positive about it.  It also turned out we have some friends in common.

We left at about 10 and I came home knowing that I had to wash up our 'Le Creuset' casserole dish and use the onions and tomatoes I'd saved from the Freshways bags I'd just picked up on the way back from the LETS meeting.  So that's what I did between 11pm and 1am, but this made all the rest of my regular evening routine an hour later, so went to bed after 3am.  But at least my family will have some delicious wholesome tomato soup to eat tomorrow. Or is that later today?

Thursday 6th January 11

A fairly quiet day... I cycled round to the bread shop to get Yesterbake, and then to the Co-op to get goats milk for the people in the house who like dairy, cereal for me, margarine and paracetamol for the painful people, which today includes me, with a headache.

Stress today helped by a phone call from the school, asking where was our son?  I was absolutely gobsmacked... I'd given in a letter, by hand, yesterday, explaining why he was away before Christmas and why he hadn't gone in yesterday.  The communication within that school is abysmal!  So my head was full of schooling problems... I really don't want to have to deal with this.... the school should be good enough to send our children to without them feeling so much fear they can't go in. 

I usually feel better if I'm doing something outside the house, so I dismembered 4 waste pallets with my chainsaw and pure muscle, pulling the bits of wood apart to make stackable planks and nice long-burning cubes of wood with easy-to-pull-out nails in, once the cube is mostly charcoal.

In the afternoon, Gill had an appointment and I was just settling down for a late lunch when there was a knock at the door and there was my old friend Maggie, whom I haven't seen for ages, with two small dogs on lengths of string!  She said she'd walked up to B+Q for something and had walked past our house and recognised the logpiles.  She put the dogs in the back garden, tied to a bench, and came in for a coffee and chat.  We got to talking about a chap we both know, called Andy S. whom we both called a friend at one time.  However, he stole a bike from Maggie, and he's borrowed a large sum of money from one of my friends and not paid it back.  Maggie told me about someone else who Andy had possibly hoodwinked, so I sent this person a message on facebook to find out more.  What I want to do is to alert the police about this abuser so no-one else suffers in the future.  I'm wondering how to get the message out without being accused of slander/defamation or getting a brick through the window. 

I did a favour for Maggie who had taken out a stainless steel sink from somewhere and had it sitting in her back garden, and she asked me to put it on Freecycle.  By the evening I'd had 4 replies and sent them Maggie's phone number.  So I hope one of them gets it!

Anyway, Maggie stayed quite a long time and so I was unable to work with the boys as I'd planned to, after lunch, to get emails and letters sent off to family members to thank them for Christmas gifts.  However, our eldest didn't need much persuasion to email some thank yous, but letter writing is a completely different thing.  More stress.

Anyway, Gill came back, I did some more work outside til it got dark, and for tea I had a pile of old rice with a pool of pumpkin and parsnip soup in the centre, with some unidentified pickle on the side.

The highlights of the evening were watching a good programme on BBC4 about the brain, and finding an interesting forum called SelfSufficientish, which I joined, and read quite a few posts.  The site is run all or partly by my friend John Headstrong, whom I met whilst getting involved with the (We Love The) Earth Centre thing in spring 2010, and I loved this YouTube video about the Robin Hood Tax which he's put on his blog.

Finally, I was pleased to find out today who the mystery visitor was, with the Internet Service Provider based in Buckingham.  It is the spouse of an old friend whom I've known for a very long time, dealing with insomnia and getting ideas about domestic food and energy security, Transition communities and peak oil.  I'm delighted to have been 'useful' and to have helped an old friend.  So, 'hello' and your message made me smile!

Monday 13th December 10

Got a phone call first thing from Gill saying that after the ward round, and the issuing of some paperwork, she'd be getting in a taxi and coming home.  And had I got money to pay the taxi?

So, within an hour or two, Gill appeared and got a very warm welcome, and I payed the happy taxi chap.

I went round to Thomas the Baker for Yesterbake bread... except on Mondays it's Yesteryesterbake, from Saturday.  Still a bargain, still very edible.  Makes great nutloaf midweek.

I hadn't given blood since May 2009 for some reason... the National Blood Service hasn't contacted me in all that time, and I haven't been proactive and prodded them.  But today was my 25th donation, and I hadn't been able to make an appointment so I arrived at the lovely Merchant Taylor's Hall 10 minutes before the session started, and had to wait 10 minutes... but I was first, and was processed quickly, and I squeezed my pint out in 5 minutes 20 seconds.  I was also given my 'Silver Award' for donating 25 times, a certificate, a thank you letter and a tiny badge/lapel pin thing.

I then went to Salisbury's and had a free mince pie, bought bread, marge, goats milk, cheapish sun-dried tomato salad and two cheap Toblerones for the boys' Xmas stockings.  Came home via one of the many logpiles I know about, and then Freshways where I got a huge overloaded sack of stuff, a third of which i had to decant into another plastic sack which i just happened to have in my pannier.  And home, to take a wheelbarrow full of sacks down to the working compost heaps, one of them running at about 20 Celsius, compared to the ambient temperature of zero.

Then I cycled down to the University to pick up the last of the pine logs, a big load, just managed to get them all into the trailer, panniers and pannier rack.  Probably about 100kg.

I made tea.... rice with carrot and squash, boiled together on the back room woodstove, and in the front room, in a frying pan, a mix of leek, onion, red pepper and tomato, all the frying pan materials were completely free, rescued.  (OK, not the olive oil, bouillon or dried basil)  The family enjoyed it when it came, at 5.45pm, and I had mine quite quickly as I had a meeting, a social, at Delphine's, at 6.30.  I wanted to be there in good time as I had another diary entry for 7.30, York in Transition at Edward's.

I enjoyed talking with Delphine, and then others arrived, and Luke, my University of York Green Party friend... but I had to go and cycle over to Edward's.

But Edward had forgotten the meeting, as I think had everybody else.  I chatted with JZ and Edward for a bit and then went, cycling to Heslington via the Millennium Bridge, and picking up MORE logs, spotted on the way back from the earlier logpile expedition.  And these are oak, a good find.

Gill told me that my friend over the road was being terrorised by someone so I went over and tried to give her some confidence and advice, and spent about an hour with her.  The person she is frightened of didn't turn up, fortunately, but had they done so, I would have dealt with the situation.

When I came in, towards 10pm, the boys were just getting ready for bed and I was glad to be able to wind down a bit.  Quite a day.  Good to have Gilly back.

Tuesday 7th December 10

A late start but quite a good day.

Probably the highlight of the day was unblocking a waste water pipe which runs from the downstairs toilet to the toilet downpipe... but the pipe goes through the wall and then goes nearly horizontally towards the sewer down pipe.  There is a little bend in it before it enters the sewer pipe, but the shallow gradient means that water flows slowly along it...and our guest must have left the tap dripping, so the very low temperatures froze the trickle within the pipe.  So I removed the U bend and emptied as much of the water out of the system as possible, and then put it back together and filled the sink with very hot water off the top of the woodstove.  I then slowly poured a kettle full of boiling water over the external pipe.... and this worked, and the sink full of hot water disappeared, hopefully washing away some gunge too.  To stop this happening again I'll have to replace the kink at the end with a straight bit, and then plug it straight into the sewer pipe, which will make a steeper gradient.  Also, the tap must not drip when it's way below freezing outside!

I did a quick cycle to Thomas The Baker for a bag full of Yesterbake bread before lunch, but the next time I went out was to go to the Guildhall for 4pm, for the Environment Forum, the first meeting with our new chair, Kate Lock.  Before the meeting I asked her if she thought we'd have time to have AOB, and if so, whether the balloon launch issue was something she'd be happy for me to discuss briefly.  But luckily, a new member of the Forum, Councillor Dave Merrett, who's a Labour Party member, had obviously had some sort of discussion with Cllr. James Alexander, and he indicated that there were possibly plans to do something different with the balloons... perhaps the release is being re-thought?  I'd like to think that Cllr. Alexander has had a think about how this stunt might look to the majority of the population who don't like the idea of killing wildlife with litter.  I am very hopeful.

The Forum meeting went well... we spent most time discussing the future of the Forum, and I didn't say anything about the balloons, as Cllr. Merrett's hint was enough to make it less of an issue.

Gill phoned me during the meeting and told me the Planning Panel meeting had been called off due to the treacherously icy pavements.  So I cycled home, found two pallets on the way, and arrived hungry for the pastie I bought from Thomas The Baker earlier.  There were some cold vegetables left which I had too.

And a quiet evening, trying to get on top of some assorted admin stuff, writing up minutes, etc.  But at 9pm I watched a BBC4 programme called The Joy of Stats about statistics with our eldest, who is very into science and maths subjects.  A good programme. I sent a link to my son's email address for a fab website called Information is Beautiful, which has some of the images used on the programme.

Monday 23rd August 10

Gill and I both woke fairly late, 9ish, as our eldest son had requested that he see in his birthday, and stay up til midnight. This meant that his little brother was also up... and they didn't get to sleep for quite a bit after that. Excitement!

So, a birthday, and we now have a teenager! He hadn't wanted to go anywhere or do anything in particular, so it was a low-key day.

I did a variety of jobs... went to get bread from Thomas the Baker, and was lucky with a good selection of Yesterbake, unsold bread from Saturday, available at half price and two for the price of one, essentially quarter price. Better for the company than having to pay to throw it away, though!

On my way back from the baker, I noticed a big branch in Hull Road Park, so a bit later, I cycled round to the 'Fast Pack' shop on Lilac Avenue which sells all sorts of nuts, bolts, tools and much more, as one of my unicycle saddles had lost some nuts fixing it to the metal shaft. I got the right size nuts and then went on to the park to chop up the branch with my bowsaw. This was a trailer-full of nice Ash logs.

Later, I used a climbing rope I found a few months ago on a road near Durham to pull the walnut tree more vertical; Gill asked me to do it as it is leaning over, and there are so many walnuts on it that it is weighed down somewhat. Oh, the squirrel trap has had it's first victim. So, more nuts, fewer predators!

I spent a bit of time pruning the tomatoes in the conservatory... taking out unwanted side shoots and the tops of the plants, so they put more of the energy into fruit. I picked about 20 tomatoes too.

I got a Fiddlesticks booking for late September at a Housing Association do, and got a reminder from Book of Green about a bill for the iPhone application.

After tea, which was a lovely nutloaf, tagliatelle, green beans and tomato sauce creation, I cycled round to Nick, a Freecycler, who had put a large television up for grabs, and we'd asked for it as our small TV in the front room is not that good for doing the Wii with... and this reason was enough for him to choose us as the lucky recipients. I took an old duvet with me and this meant I could balance the huge TV on my trailer.

Later in the evening I chopped up more pears for drying. They are SO tasty!

Monday 10th May 10

I got up in time to say bye to the kids.

Then it was paperwork time... I finally managed to get some admin done which I've been avoiding for a while, and posted it off. Went to the bread shop for a large bag of 'Yesterbake' rescued bread... this was baked on Saturday, not sold on that day, and available at quarter price today.

I did a lot more dried fruit, some washing up, a bit of outdoor gardening (OK, composting, I confess!), and some pallet smashing.

Then I tried an experimental tomato planting experiment, inspired by Tracey Smith.

How to do Upside Down Tomato Plants with Tracey Smith from Tracey Smith on Vimeo.
I had rescued 3 large plastic milk bottles last night from someone's recycling on Thief Lane (!), the biggest sort, and washed them out with hot water off the stove. Then today I cut off the bottoms with scissors and carefully filled the first few centimetres around the pouring hole with home made seed compost (not too rich) and then above that, richer soil. I laid this on it's side, and carefully made a small hole in the seed compost. Then I took a side shoot off a tumbler tomato and inserted it into the compost. I'm hoping that these will root and then be able to be hung up. I did this with two bottles and two side shoots, each less than 2 cm long. Then I took the mother plant, squashed the root ball and cut the milk exit-hole a bit to allow the insertion of the root ball... and then I put a load of compost mix in the bottle around the roots. I'd made some holes in the base of the bottle (the top, if upside-down) and used re-used string from potato sacks to make a hanging device... and then hung this in the conservatory. I expect the big one to do fine, but don't know about the cuttings.

I enjoyed Gill's mushroom omlette and asparagus, and then went to Ben's for a LETS meeting... actually a seminar to learn about the new YorkLETS website, which is really good. Ben talked us through what the non-logged-in visitor would see, what a logged-in member would see, and how to use the site. Then he explained about the different levels of access... member, committee member, administrator, and we had a go at uploading the newsletter, doing things to peoples' accounts and doing some trading. Magic... this makes LETS come right into the 21st Century and is a lot more user-friendly. And I enjoyed Jill's home-made ickle cakes... yummy!

Home at about 10pm, to do assorted computery-based activities until my usual bed-time of well past 1am.

Thursday 22nd April 10

Another good day. I got up at 8.30 and did assorted things around the house, and Gill went to the GP as she's had a very painful foot for months and months. She has often wondered if she has broken a bone in there.

I washed up. I found a way to get the solar hot water through without the boiler kicking in. Firstly I checked the temperature on the tank in the loft... the incoming temperature from the solar panel was 80 degrees Celsius. So this was hot enough to bypass the boiler and be mixed down with cold water to a reasonable temperature for it to come out of the tap. But we don't think the system is working properly, as when we turn the hot tap on, even with the tank so hot, the boiler goes on. I need to contact the installers to get this checked. So what I did was to turn the hot tap on with a low flow, too low a flow to make the boiler kick in. A few litres later (water for the Papyrus plant!) the water ran warm, enough to do the pots, pans, plates and cutlery. I was very pleased. When Gill came in she said she'd been having showers like that for a while! I checked the temperature afterwards, back up in the loft, and despite the sun still shining fully on the panel, it had gone down to 76, proving that some of the hot water in the tank had been replaced by cold. Result!

I went to the bread shop and got two small loaves and six bags of rolls and some Danish pastries and some flapjack offcuts... all for £4. That's the beauty of Yesterbake!

On the way back I couldn't help seeing several builders vans outside a house, which was having a huge log cabin built in the back garden. There were loads of offcuts already available, actually I think it was packing wood.. as the planks were fixed to steel bands, fortunately easy to pull off the planks, so I asked the builders and they were very happy to see the stuff go. I took one trailer load before lunch and at about 2pm, went to pick up a second load. There were also a vast quantity of thin slivers of wood, again, something to do with the packing, so I brought those home too, and I broke each one of those into about 4 pieces and popped them into a sack... I got 5 potato sacks full of kindling. Excellent. They also said I was welcome to have the pallets.

When our youngest came in from school he had a friend with him and we all chatted together about the things they have done, as he's been on a special day up at Manor School and seen a video about electrocution, and not playing on the railways, and various other things. Apparently it was 'pretty random'.

I dug out about half of the metal-sided compost bin into the builders sack. I riddled another sack of mature compost dug out of the builders bag yesterday. I had a lot of interest from some robins, and I put a small yellow centipede on the palm of my hand and held it out... and one of the robins came and pecked it off my hand. Hand-feeding robins! Lovely!

I had fried egg sandwiches for tea. We have more eggs than we need, some out of date ones, so I used those.

Later I finished breaking up the kindling and watched the politicians debate on BBC2 after it had gone out on Sky which we don't have. I think they are all grey parties. None of them inspire me. Caroline Lucas inspires me. I will be voting Green.

Thursday 11th March 10

A quiet indoor morning until I cycled round to the bread shop, got lots of 'Yesterbake' but also two veg pasties and two 'Yorkshire Pizzas'.

I then did loads of work in the garden... got a lot more sawdust sieving done... and filled several more sacks of fine sawdust, for compost toilet cover, several paper sacks of larger chunks of bark, small sticks, and bits of burnable stuff... it just needs to dry off. Also several sacks of material which is too small to bother drying off for fuel, but too big to make compost toilet cover... but perfect for ordinary compost heaps, which is where some of it headed... and all the rest went into plastic sacks for future use. So, the logpile waste all mixed up is useless, but split into 3 streams it is very useful, and it's worth spending time on (perhaps 8 hours every 6 months) to get it sorted.

Down the garden I tidied up two raised beds, the ones made of bay-window radiators. Both of them need refilling or topping up before planting up for this year's crops, but needed old roots removing and the soil de-compacting... and I found the yams which I put in last spring as tubercles the size of peas, now up to hens egg size. I'll replant them quite near the surface of the soil so they don't head down right to the bottom of the raised bed... they had put themselves about 10 to 20cm down as it was! They are very brittle and need gentle excavation to remove them... any pulling and they just break.

I came in after 6 as it was getting dark, and had a tea made up of leftovers. During the evening Gill and I made a decision about our summer holiday, which will be in South Wales, in a village called Mumbles, near Swansea.

Saturday 21st November 09

The day started well and got better, despite Gill being not very well. Once I was washed and dressed, I went to the bread shop and got some 'Yesterbake' bread plus a couple of pasties which will make tea easy to do.

Mid afternoon I went to Country Fresh to pick up tickets for tomorrow's gig... I'm the Compere so I don't need a ticket, but I've been asked to get two tickets for a couple of friends. Richard, who works there and is the drummer of The Falling Spikes, who are playing at Sound Mind at The Duchess to raise money for York Mind. He told me that the venue, who are going to make loads of money on the bar, and had originally said that the venue would be free, have just announced that they'll be charging £250 for the venue. So that's £250 less for York Mind. I am unhappy about this as all the performers are appearing for free, and the idea is to raise money for a worthwhile charity, not to make extra profits for a venue. Maybe they'll change their mind... I'll certainly be asking the management tomorrow.

I collected a sack and a half of recyclables from Richard, plus some veg and fruit, and a bag of apples and pears for Debbie who I'd popped into on the way down there.

Gill was feeling very poorly... her leg was aching and had swelled up so she rang NHS Direct, but they were too busy and cut her off. She rang the emergency doctor and a GP rang back. His advice was to go to Accident and Emergency, so when I got back from the greengrocers she rang a taxi and went to the Hospital. But she rang me from there saying the place was absolutely full of coughing and sneezing and spluttering people, some of whom had been there since 1pm (over 3 hours) so she got a bus back home.

Whilst Gill was out, we finished the game of Scrabble which was started with the boys last night. I won, but both of them got some awesome words and good scores.

I cooked some potatoes and Gill did the cauliflower, and we had a simple tea.

More fruit drying during the evening... yet another three thown-away pineapple sliced and placed carefully on the racks on the woodstove. They only take about 24 hours to dry, and are greatly improved by the more concentrated flavour. I'll be taking a jar of mixed dried fruit to the Sound Mind gig tomorrow as a raffle prize.

Enjoyed a programme on More 4 about Antony Gormley. I like sculpture... he's not my favourite sculptor, but he's pretty good!

Saturday 17th October 09

Not too early a start but as soon as I got up I went to do yet more work in the garden. This hedge removal and processing seems never-ending but it is gradually getting done.

Gill went into town with both boys on the bus to get assorted clothes. They are growing fast, and our youngest is going on a fieldtrip next week so he needs some more clothes.

I cycled round to the bread shop and bought £3 worth of 'yesterbake' bread, baked yesterday but not sold. So then it's all brought to the Tang Hall Lane Thomas the Baker and sold ridiculously cheaply, effectively at quarter of the full price. An excellent way of reducing waste. On the way back I cycled up to Harris Builders and gave them the 25% deposit cheques for the solar panels and chimney removal.

I contacted the Freecycle privet roots people and after lunch, one lady came round to pick up 25 of them, and a chap from near Easingwold is coming tomorrow to pick up all the rest.

I finished taking out the hedge, and put aside about 100 roots for the chap tomorrow. He'll be delighted. My sons also helped me start to chop up the sticks, of which there are a huge number, using loppers. This was lovely as they generally aren't interested in any garden activities. It made me very happy to work with them, although it was only half an hour maximum. Our neighbours are also very happy that I've removed the hedge so swiftly. The wall and fence will be put in soon.

Chatted on the phone to my friend Anita, who with her hubby Tim will visit early tomorrow morning. I found bus times for them as although they've got a car in Reading, they have decided to come up by train. They've a friend in York who's having a birthday. I haven't seen them for perhaps 10 years or so. Maybe more! I used to go and see them when I went to the WOMAD festival when it was held in Reading. It'll be lovely to see them again. I have lovely memories of WOMAD and it was there where I learned to do Devilsticks for the very first time.

During the evening Gill and I had a game of Scrabble. It was very close, score-wise, and whilst Gill took her goes, I did emails and wrote my blog. I won by 4 points.

Monday 14th September 09

No lie in this morning... Gill wasn't feeling like taking our youngest into school so I cycled in with him. On the way back I collected more aluminium cans from Windmill Lane, about another 20 or so, plus some plastic bottles. I'm glad to pick them up but really mystified why people think it's OK to throw them into the hedge and verges.

Anyway, it made the early start a bit more useful, but I didn't do much for an hour or so after that, just spent time with Gill, washed up, did the recycling, the usual household chores. I had a phone call with Karen who knew Austin and was as shocked as I was to hear what happened.

In fact, had a very quiet day, did a significant amount of work on the computer (if you call emailing 'work'?) but this included some York Rotters stuff, Fiddlesticks stuff, various bits and pieces. Oh and I went to the bread shop and got 'Yesterbake' and found some stuff in a skip which I put on Freecycle. I picked some beans for tea and washed some potatoes. Gill made tea though.

I collected our youngest and spent some time outside after that, digging out last year's leafmould pile and bagging it all up, about 10 sack's worth, leaving the wire netting enclosure ready for this year's harvest. I'll soon be riddling last year's bagged-up stuff, ie leaves collected in 2007, and using it in next year's potting mixes.

After tea I went to a hastily organised Car-Free Day meeting, as some members of York in Transition are preparing for a stunt next Tuesday, which is International Car Free Day. More info posted here when things are finalised. Home by 9.30, in time to say goodnight to the children, light the stove, get water for washing up and hopefully dry some plums.

Wednesday 26th August 09

Up early as a house full of children and a day at Knaresborough planned, although I wasn't actually very keen on going.

However, niece Lellie phoned and as the day was wet, Gill decided with her that it might be better to meet up at the National Railway Museum at midday. I went online to check bus times and we had a pretty chilled morning until a few minutes before the bus was due, when it did get a bit hectic and shouty, but then all was quiet and I was alone in the house.

I went to Thomas' and bought lots of Yesterbake bread.

I did a big wash-up, and prepared a nut loaf to add to the soup I made last night. This nutloaf was the standard pattern: breadcrumbs mixed with peanut butter and mixed nuts, then assorted vegetables added... this time I used one raw grated beetroot, one raw grated carrot, one chopped onion, some finely chopped cooked sweet potato, one egg, a slurp of red wine and a dash of soya sauce, some bouillon and herbs. I lined the baking dish with seeds stuck to a wipe of margarine. I microwaved this and when the families came home, turned it out onto a metal tray and bunged it in the oven to crisp up.

I whizzed the carrot soup with the hand-held blender. This I tasted and found it was delicious! I lit the stove despite it being warm and summery as I wanted to cook the soup and I have 11 red peppers sliced up and drying, plus I don't know how many windfall apples (James Grieve) sliced and drying. There are three racks of apple rings balanced on top of each other...

I also had several Fiddlesticks calls... some booking enquiries for the autumn, and a Freecycle visitor to pick up 8 potato sacks. I popped down to see Raj at Freshways and picked up a sack of compostables, and on the way home picked up a lot of recyclable litter, mainly aluminium cans.

The family group came back on the bus and were glad to find a meal ready. Gill made a pasta salad with the remnants of yesterday's pasta, some tomatoes out of the conservatory and the penultimate cucumber from the conservatory.

All the children ate well, despite the youngest (6 years old) not eating anything with tomatoes or courgettes (the carrot soup had tomatoes and courgettes in) and all were rewarded for eating slices of pear afterwards by having chunks of carrot cake that Gill made for our eldest's birthday on Sunday.

Then we discussed what we are doing tomorrow, and everybody settled down to watch The Gods Must Be Crazy. I slipped out at 7pm to go to an informal York in Transition meeting at The Hansom Cab, which was productive. Home before 10pm and another huge load of washing up facing me. I decided to do my emails and blog first though... so the washing up will be done well after midnight.

Tuesday 2nd June 09

I got up quite early as I knew I had quite a bit to do today, and I settled down to try to do my Community Care blog, but I failed as I couldn't concentrate. And then I got a phone call from a friend who I met at the Northern Green Gathering, who'd posted a 'status' on Facebook asking for information on 'green funeral options', and I'd replied and said we ought to have a chat. She was wanting to plan her own funeral and convey those wishes to her solicitor. So, I went through the 4 legal and available methods of body disposal, and their relative carbon costs, and social aspects, as a funeral and/or place to remember the deceased is important for those who loved that person. I ended up telling her about the 5th method, not yet available, Promession, and hopefully she'll be able to make a decision as to which she would prefer for her own body.

Gill headed off to town soon after getting back from taking our youngest to school, as she had a dental appointment. I went to Thomas's for Yesterbake bread, the Co-op for cereals and flour, and to deliver a cycle helmet, on loan, to Lynn who'd asked last night if she could borrow one. I had a chat with her... her garden was looking good.

On the way back I noticed a skip with a large amount of turf in it, some rolled up, unused and ready to be stacked up and made into loam. I spoke to the owners who enthusiastically invited me to take the lot... and said I could sort through some other items as well! I took four trailer-loads plus what could sit on my pannier rack. The other items I rescued were some unopened toiletries and cosmetics, a mirror in a gold coloured frame and an old phone which I will put in the WEEE area at Hazel Court next time I go. But the turf will be most useful to me. It did take a while to bring it back and get it stacked neatly down the garden.

Later in the day, I was getting ready for the Green Festival meeting and I realised I had forgotten the Planning Panel meeting, so I fired off an apologetic email... my life is too busy, too unstructured and I'm probably trying to do too much. I expect a telling off from my colleagues for messing them around. I missed this one because I had to book the next block of meetings at Tang Hall Community Centre, I hadn't done that and the dates had not gone in my diary. No excuse really.

So at 7 I cycled off to the Green Festival meeting at St John's, and it was a really good meeting, very productive. It now looks like we have an event co-ordinator, so in my mind, this event is now more likely to happen rather than not.

Home before 10 and Gill had had a tough evening. She asked me not to go out on Wednesday evening.

Friday 24th October 08

Cycled into town with Gill, which was lovely... had a hot choc with her and visited the Futon shop to get a cover for the futon Gill got in the summer. Then I went to Cycle Heaven to book both our bikes in for some TLC next week, and I came home via the Thomas's Bread Shop to get their 'Yesterbake' deal which makes life so much cheaper.

Lunch and did a bit of work in the garden before going to get our youngest and was very pleased to see the pumpkin monsters on sale, alongside Green Thumbs Biscuits, which sold out. I couldn't help but buy one called 'Viletta, who loves compost' made with the pumpkin and four pears plus other bits of veg... and two weren't sold so I was given them, so pumpkin soup tomorrow!

Had a peaceful evening still doing the reminiscence artwork prep for Dexter and Ali.