I was happy to get a lie in, and Gill and I listened to The Archers in bed. Lovely.
I watched Country Tracks after this whilst having breakfast, and got a phone call from Barry Potter who told me he'd be passing my house within the hour. He wanted to come and check out the brewing stuff delivered a week or so ago, as he does a lot of brewing. I got dressed and he arrived, bearing gifts of cyder, metheglin, mead and some honey, as he has some bees.
He went home with six plastic buckets, three 1 gallon demijohns, two half-gallon demijohns, some airlocks, crown corks and straining bags, net curtains etc. Also, very pleased that he took two plastic crates for holding bottles. So I've managed to give away all the unwanted brewing stuff. Excellent!
So, a late lunch, listened to Gardener's Question Time and then went down to Country Fresh in a complete blizzard, and it was really nice to see Richard and we had a laugh, I did a bit of shopping and took away a sack of recyclables, although I won't be able to process them today as it's far too cold and snowy. I might chop them up in the garage tomorrow and take them down the garden ready to put on the most accessible heap. I called into the Co-op on the way back and was glad to get home with the assorted goodies.
I spent the rest of the day inside, not doing a lot, bar kitchen stuff. Hoping for an early night.
Showing posts with label Barry Potter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barry Potter. Show all posts
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Friday 19th November 10
A really good day, included a fair bit of house management... washing up, as usual, and fruit, and preparing some squash for tea, and taking compost down the garden, and 3 sacks of leaves which mysteriously appeared in the front...
I waited in for a Freecycler Ian to come round and picked up some of the remaining demijohns, buckets and corks, siphons etc. Then I got a phone call from Barry asking whether I had any plastic buckets... I laughed and said 'you're in luck, I've just taken delivery of a load of them' and he said he'd come and collect. But then he rang again and said his car had broken down, so he wasn't coming. He'll come next week.
I zoomed into town to put in a cheque and on the way back called in on Rich and picked up a couple of bags of stuff which I condensed into one.
Sometime after 5pm, our friends Jennifer and Mark came round with their delightful 4 year old son, and they had tea with us. I had to get ready for a gig so I wasn't particularly sociable and left with all my gear, and in costume, at 6.45. The gig was in Bedern Hall, a lovely venue, for Barbara who was celebrating her retirement. I knew a few of her guests, which felt odd, as I was working... doing a few circus workshops with anyone who would try, being saucy with the yoyo balls and balloon models, joking, chatting... about an hour and a half of fun, and then at 8.45 the meal was served and I departed with my cheque. Nice!
So back soon after 9pm, and had a bit of Gill's quiche and got ready for going to Bristol tomorrow.
I waited in for a Freecycler Ian to come round and picked up some of the remaining demijohns, buckets and corks, siphons etc. Then I got a phone call from Barry asking whether I had any plastic buckets... I laughed and said 'you're in luck, I've just taken delivery of a load of them' and he said he'd come and collect. But then he rang again and said his car had broken down, so he wasn't coming. He'll come next week.
I zoomed into town to put in a cheque and on the way back called in on Rich and picked up a couple of bags of stuff which I condensed into one.
Sometime after 5pm, our friends Jennifer and Mark came round with their delightful 4 year old son, and they had tea with us. I had to get ready for a gig so I wasn't particularly sociable and left with all my gear, and in costume, at 6.45. The gig was in Bedern Hall, a lovely venue, for Barbara who was celebrating her retirement. I knew a few of her guests, which felt odd, as I was working... doing a few circus workshops with anyone who would try, being saucy with the yoyo balls and balloon models, joking, chatting... about an hour and a half of fun, and then at 8.45 the meal was served and I departed with my cheque. Nice!
So back soon after 9pm, and had a bit of Gill's quiche and got ready for going to Bristol tomorrow.
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Saturday 28th February 09
Had a mini-lie in... til after 9. But then zoomed into the garden to continue riddling mature compost so I could take some down to the veg shop for distribution. I got just 5 carrier bags worth ready and took them down to Country Fresh, getting some provisions at the same time, and then heading off to St Nicks for their 5th anniversary of the surrounding area being designated a Nature Reserve.
Met Jean Claude my new Chilean friend, who bought my last Carbon Detox ticket off me... that means I've sold 18, not including mine and Gill's. I'm pleased with this. There is now a special deal on at the Theatre Royal, two tickets for the price of one... a 'Buy One, Get One Free' offer! so any folks still thinking about whether to come to see George Marshall's one-man stand up comedy show can now come with a friend for a tenner... see you on Tuesday folks!
The event at St Nicks was good, soup and bread, coffee and good company. Gill and the boys came down, and some of the boys' friends appeared which was a blessing... A photographer took some commemorative pictures and there were speeches from Pat Hearn, chair of the Friends of St Nicks, Barry Potter, chair of York Natural Environment Trust and Andrew Waller, leader of the Council, who just happens to be a trained Rotter and keen composter too!
I didn't have time to go on the new Tree Trail guided walk, as I had to get back home to tidy myself up, get changed, circus stuff packed and cycle off to Osbaldwick to do a party at 3pm. It was, as usual, a good party. The children were on the lively side of average... quite a noisy audience but lots of participation and fun, and the mum commented on my ability to hold their attention. Several of the youngsters said to me afterwards that they wanted to have a Professor Fiddlesticks party, so I told them to tell their parents! Finished on the dot of 5, having had a 55 minute circus show and workshop and 40 minute modelling balloon activity.
Later, at about 11pm, I popped out to retrieve the wood from that skip, quietly. Two cycle trailer loads... excellent!
Answered several composting queries on Facebook, and prepared an interesting fruit leather... about 15 passion fruit which had been rejected by one or other of the shops, plus maybe 15 bananas... liquidised together and pushed through a sieve and the resultant smooth pulp put in a tray for drying on the woodstove. Smells heavenly!
Met Jean Claude my new Chilean friend, who bought my last Carbon Detox ticket off me... that means I've sold 18, not including mine and Gill's. I'm pleased with this. There is now a special deal on at the Theatre Royal, two tickets for the price of one... a 'Buy One, Get One Free' offer! so any folks still thinking about whether to come to see George Marshall's one-man stand up comedy show can now come with a friend for a tenner... see you on Tuesday folks!
The event at St Nicks was good, soup and bread, coffee and good company. Gill and the boys came down, and some of the boys' friends appeared which was a blessing... A photographer took some commemorative pictures and there were speeches from Pat Hearn, chair of the Friends of St Nicks, Barry Potter, chair of York Natural Environment Trust and Andrew Waller, leader of the Council, who just happens to be a trained Rotter and keen composter too!
I didn't have time to go on the new Tree Trail guided walk, as I had to get back home to tidy myself up, get changed, circus stuff packed and cycle off to Osbaldwick to do a party at 3pm. It was, as usual, a good party. The children were on the lively side of average... quite a noisy audience but lots of participation and fun, and the mum commented on my ability to hold their attention. Several of the youngsters said to me afterwards that they wanted to have a Professor Fiddlesticks party, so I told them to tell their parents! Finished on the dot of 5, having had a 55 minute circus show and workshop and 40 minute modelling balloon activity.
On the way home I spotted a skip with some good big chunks of untreated wood in, so I stopped and knocked on the door, and asked if I might later go and retrieve them to recycle them, to which the answer was of course!
Home soon... and needed to collapse as the concentration and unicycling around is hard work, and both my sons were both very cuddly and loving, which was unexpected and very welcome! Watched 'You've Been Framed' and 'Harry Hill's TV Burp' which are definite favourites in this house!Later, at about 11pm, I popped out to retrieve the wood from that skip, quietly. Two cycle trailer loads... excellent!
Answered several composting queries on Facebook, and prepared an interesting fruit leather... about 15 passion fruit which had been rejected by one or other of the shops, plus maybe 15 bananas... liquidised together and pushed through a sieve and the resultant smooth pulp put in a tray for drying on the woodstove. Smells heavenly!
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Thursday 6th November 08
Our wedding anniversary... 9 years married, 15 years since our first kiss... aaahhhhh xxx
I took out little 'un to school and came back and spent some time with Gill, but then went into the garden to put some mature compost into sacks for our friend Alison who's making raised beds. Whilst doing this, I was thinking of something which I did yesterday which led me to feel quite upset and angry.
I had recieved an email from The Carbon Account reminding me to input my gas and electricity meter readings, so my graph of carbon emissions could be updated. I do this at the beginning of every month, and the website software calculates/estimates my annual carbon footprint. I really like this way of presenting the information, as I can see the different levels of carbon emissions from different activities over time. For instance, in August, as we were away for a week, our household emissions visibly dipped very slightly. So, yesterday, I read the meters and put in the new figures, and I decided to do something I had vowed to do back in September when I was expecting a visitor from America. I do not fly, for reasons of high carbon emissions being incompatible with my low carbon lifestyle. When my friend flew over last year to see me and other friends in the UK, I was a bit upset about it as I was contributing to the problem by agreeing to see this friend, and if I hadn't of agreed to spend some time with her, she might not have travelled. So when she indicated she'd like to come and see me again this autumn, I was not that happy and tried to put her off. However, she was intent on visiting and quite pushy and forceful, and I'm not the sort of person who tries to prevent people doing what they want to do. So she flew over and I agreed to spend some time with her. I also said that I would take moral responsibility for one of her flights, carbon-wise. So yesterday, I inputted a single journey from Manchester to Atlanta into my Carbon Account figures and was ASTONISHED to see how much carbon was emitted! My annual electricity emissions are about 250kg and annual gas emissions are just over 60kg... but the one way flight emitted a whopping 1947kg, making 86% of my yearly emissions. I was angry and upset. Not only has this wrecked my lovely graph (which you can see by going onto the site, clicking on 'people' and forwarding to the 'J' section and clicking on the pic of me and Caroline Lucas... you can see how much the spike of aircraft emissions dwarfs my household footprint by clicking on the small-print which says, 'Your emissions (including flights- click here to exclude them)'.
Interestingly, perhaps fortuitously, the visit dd not go well and I won't be seeing the American lady again. This is not due primarily to the fact that to see each other she has to fly, it's because we didn't get on. But the flights thing is an issue and I look forward to next November when that emissions spike disappears from my graph..... It will take longer for those carbon dioxide molecules to go from the atmosphere though, and I apologise to anyone who cares about this planet for re-igniting that friendship (we met as teenagers) and being part cause of those emissions (actually 1947 kg times four, nearly 8 tonnes). Dreadful! I won't even begin to think about my parents who have decided to visit New Zealand. Flying completely wrecks any good we do by recycling or using the bus rather than the car. If you fly, you cannot call yourself 'green', as if you do you are a complete hypocrite, and this is how I feel about myself for agreeing to see this friend. I'll try to put the whole sorry episode behind me.
Barry came to deliver the press and crusher, looked down the garden and drove away with the compost for Alison.
I continued to work in the garden in the drizzle... lovely!
Gill went to town on the bus to get shoes and came back with boots.
I went to school at 3 to help with Green Thumbs. I took a small group and we prepared a mushroom kit in a box.. a layer of straw with mycelium running through it, and a casing layer on top. We then had a good chat about decomposition, and all the types of organism which help... fungi, bacteria, slugs, worms, woodlice... my fave subject!
Home to a happy household, children voluntarily doing homework (a first for everything!) and all peaceful! Totally wow!
I made tea on the woodstove... slices of crook-neck squash, grown in the conservatory, and sweet potato from Country Fresh, and chestnuts from Poppleton Road.. all this along with my son's salad created at school today, yum!
A happy evening too, spent quite a bit of time on the phone with a helpful caller from Tiscali, trying to help me sort out a problem I'm having with emails bouncing back from certain email addresses, many thanks to Anup from Maharashtra who was very good to talk to, professional, and he got the problem more or less sorted (ie the problem is not with Tiscali, it's with, probably, The Phone Co-op... so will contact them next!)
But also had a good game of Scrabble with Gill. I won, just.
I took out little 'un to school and came back and spent some time with Gill, but then went into the garden to put some mature compost into sacks for our friend Alison who's making raised beds. Whilst doing this, I was thinking of something which I did yesterday which led me to feel quite upset and angry.
I had recieved an email from The Carbon Account reminding me to input my gas and electricity meter readings, so my graph of carbon emissions could be updated. I do this at the beginning of every month, and the website software calculates/estimates my annual carbon footprint. I really like this way of presenting the information, as I can see the different levels of carbon emissions from different activities over time. For instance, in August, as we were away for a week, our household emissions visibly dipped very slightly. So, yesterday, I read the meters and put in the new figures, and I decided to do something I had vowed to do back in September when I was expecting a visitor from America. I do not fly, for reasons of high carbon emissions being incompatible with my low carbon lifestyle. When my friend flew over last year to see me and other friends in the UK, I was a bit upset about it as I was contributing to the problem by agreeing to see this friend, and if I hadn't of agreed to spend some time with her, she might not have travelled. So when she indicated she'd like to come and see me again this autumn, I was not that happy and tried to put her off. However, she was intent on visiting and quite pushy and forceful, and I'm not the sort of person who tries to prevent people doing what they want to do. So she flew over and I agreed to spend some time with her. I also said that I would take moral responsibility for one of her flights, carbon-wise. So yesterday, I inputted a single journey from Manchester to Atlanta into my Carbon Account figures and was ASTONISHED to see how much carbon was emitted! My annual electricity emissions are about 250kg and annual gas emissions are just over 60kg... but the one way flight emitted a whopping 1947kg, making 86% of my yearly emissions. I was angry and upset. Not only has this wrecked my lovely graph (which you can see by going onto the site, clicking on 'people' and forwarding to the 'J' section and clicking on the pic of me and Caroline Lucas... you can see how much the spike of aircraft emissions dwarfs my household footprint by clicking on the small-print which says, 'Your emissions (including flights- click here to exclude them)'.
Interestingly, perhaps fortuitously, the visit dd not go well and I won't be seeing the American lady again. This is not due primarily to the fact that to see each other she has to fly, it's because we didn't get on. But the flights thing is an issue and I look forward to next November when that emissions spike disappears from my graph..... It will take longer for those carbon dioxide molecules to go from the atmosphere though, and I apologise to anyone who cares about this planet for re-igniting that friendship (we met as teenagers) and being part cause of those emissions (actually 1947 kg times four, nearly 8 tonnes). Dreadful! I won't even begin to think about my parents who have decided to visit New Zealand. Flying completely wrecks any good we do by recycling or using the bus rather than the car. If you fly, you cannot call yourself 'green', as if you do you are a complete hypocrite, and this is how I feel about myself for agreeing to see this friend. I'll try to put the whole sorry episode behind me.
Barry came to deliver the press and crusher, looked down the garden and drove away with the compost for Alison.
I continued to work in the garden in the drizzle... lovely!
Gill went to town on the bus to get shoes and came back with boots.
I went to school at 3 to help with Green Thumbs. I took a small group and we prepared a mushroom kit in a box.. a layer of straw with mycelium running through it, and a casing layer on top. We then had a good chat about decomposition, and all the types of organism which help... fungi, bacteria, slugs, worms, woodlice... my fave subject!
Home to a happy household, children voluntarily doing homework (a first for everything!) and all peaceful! Totally wow!
I made tea on the woodstove... slices of crook-neck squash, grown in the conservatory, and sweet potato from Country Fresh, and chestnuts from Poppleton Road.. all this along with my son's salad created at school today, yum!
A happy evening too, spent quite a bit of time on the phone with a helpful caller from Tiscali, trying to help me sort out a problem I'm having with emails bouncing back from certain email addresses, many thanks to Anup from Maharashtra who was very good to talk to, professional, and he got the problem more or less sorted (ie the problem is not with Tiscali, it's with, probably, The Phone Co-op... so will contact them next!)
But also had a good game of Scrabble with Gill. I won, just.
Sunday, 2 November 2008
Sunday 2nd November 08
A nice quiet morning... watched Countryfile as usual and did assorted emaily things.
Soon after 1pm I got myself on my bike and heading over to see Barry Potter and his orchard... he's right on the other side of town but I bombed along and arrived in just under 30 minutes very hot and sweaty, but not late!
Quite a few others turned up, all local and all interested in apples, orchards or cider making... or all three! Barry's garden on Knapton Lane, like many other areas just on the outskirts of York (including our garden) is on the site of an old orchard... planted at least 100 years ago, and with many of the old trees still standing and fruiting.
Barry has got quite a big garden with at least 6 large apple trees, and he's carefully pruned them and kept them in good shape. We learned a little about different sorts of pruning and what it does for the tree, and management such as tying long shoots down to horizontal to get fruiting buds to grow. He showed us how he keeps his harvest and his grafting experiments. There were three sorts of graft he's succeeded with... bud grafts where just a tiny bud and bit of bark is transplanted, a stick graft where two twigs of a similar size are put together, and a rather wonderful experiment where he'd grafted many twigs onto a large existing tree, onto the trunk and into cut ends of large branches... amazing! He also showed us a pear he's grafted onto hawthorn stock and explained about the various rootstocks available and the different vigour they confer to the scion, or bit grafted onto it. I was transfixed... I'd love to have a go at grafting and may do next summer. But this winter I have to prune all my apples!
Then we moved to Jane and Tony's garden... on first look it's just an ordinary semi but behind is a large 'market garden' which has taken over much of the interior of the block, and they have loads of greenhouses and beds, all very productive. My Vigo fruit press and apple crusher had been installed into one of the greenhouses with a display of apples, all named, and some delicious apple cake, apple and tea bread, apple pie and apple flapjack. A group of us set to and chopped the apples for juicing in two and popped them into the crusher, which when held down by two or more people, can be operated by another person rotating the wheel and toothed rollers. Soon the press was full of pulp and I got the boards on top and the screw-threaded ratchet thingy going round, gradually increasing the pressure and squeezing out over a gallon and a half of juice.
I left before it got dark as I wanted to see how the crop of sweet chestnuts was getting on outside Manor School. There were some down, but it's just a bit early and this year they are a bit smaller than in previous years. Still managed to collect about a kilo of them... good for a nutloaf. Came home via Museum Gardens where I was too early to see the illuminations but I may pop down later after tea, if I feel like it...
And I did... after 10 I made myself go and see the artworks in Museum Gardens... and I'm so glad I did. See Ross Ashton's website for an idea of what it was like. The piece was about 15 minutes long and was a trip through some of the collection of objects and artifacts in the Yorkshire Museum, from fossils to tapestries, masks to stuffed animals, plus images of DNA and magic numbers like Pi, lightning, computer code, books, and LOADS more... all set to music, strange sounds and poetry. Two screens were used, the front of the Yorkshire Museum and the ruins of St Mary's Abbey. I do wish I'd been able to persuade my children to come and see it.
Soon after 1pm I got myself on my bike and heading over to see Barry Potter and his orchard... he's right on the other side of town but I bombed along and arrived in just under 30 minutes very hot and sweaty, but not late!
Quite a few others turned up, all local and all interested in apples, orchards or cider making... or all three! Barry's garden on Knapton Lane, like many other areas just on the outskirts of York (including our garden) is on the site of an old orchard... planted at least 100 years ago, and with many of the old trees still standing and fruiting.
Barry has got quite a big garden with at least 6 large apple trees, and he's carefully pruned them and kept them in good shape. We learned a little about different sorts of pruning and what it does for the tree, and management such as tying long shoots down to horizontal to get fruiting buds to grow. He showed us how he keeps his harvest and his grafting experiments. There were three sorts of graft he's succeeded with... bud grafts where just a tiny bud and bit of bark is transplanted, a stick graft where two twigs of a similar size are put together, and a rather wonderful experiment where he'd grafted many twigs onto a large existing tree, onto the trunk and into cut ends of large branches... amazing! He also showed us a pear he's grafted onto hawthorn stock and explained about the various rootstocks available and the different vigour they confer to the scion, or bit grafted onto it. I was transfixed... I'd love to have a go at grafting and may do next summer. But this winter I have to prune all my apples!
Then we moved to Jane and Tony's garden... on first look it's just an ordinary semi but behind is a large 'market garden' which has taken over much of the interior of the block, and they have loads of greenhouses and beds, all very productive. My Vigo fruit press and apple crusher had been installed into one of the greenhouses with a display of apples, all named, and some delicious apple cake, apple and tea bread, apple pie and apple flapjack. A group of us set to and chopped the apples for juicing in two and popped them into the crusher, which when held down by two or more people, can be operated by another person rotating the wheel and toothed rollers. Soon the press was full of pulp and I got the boards on top and the screw-threaded ratchet thingy going round, gradually increasing the pressure and squeezing out over a gallon and a half of juice.
I left before it got dark as I wanted to see how the crop of sweet chestnuts was getting on outside Manor School. There were some down, but it's just a bit early and this year they are a bit smaller than in previous years. Still managed to collect about a kilo of them... good for a nutloaf. Came home via Museum Gardens where I was too early to see the illuminations but I may pop down later after tea, if I feel like it...
And I did... after 10 I made myself go and see the artworks in Museum Gardens... and I'm so glad I did. See Ross Ashton's website for an idea of what it was like. The piece was about 15 minutes long and was a trip through some of the collection of objects and artifacts in the Yorkshire Museum, from fossils to tapestries, masks to stuffed animals, plus images of DNA and magic numbers like Pi, lightning, computer code, books, and LOADS more... all set to music, strange sounds and poetry. Two screens were used, the front of the Yorkshire Museum and the ruins of St Mary's Abbey. I do wish I'd been able to persuade my children to come and see it.
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Thursday 30th October 08
Gill got me up fairly early as she'd suggested to our child who's had homework set over the half term holidays that he ought to do some today, and he immediately started arguing and kicking off. This is so depressing.
However, things calmed down once I'd come and sat amongst them, but when the subject was raised again with the idea that if he did a bit this morning, he might be able to go and play with a friend this afternoon, the same crap behaviour erupted. He did eventually get down to some, ie researching the shape of some musical notation, a 'rest sign' or something. I tried to help him with a couple of Google searches but he is so incredibly resistant to being helped. We are in a difficult situation, with not being allowed to help and him not knowing how to find the info but not accepting help.
After lunch, Gill went out and I sorted pumpkin seeds from the flesh by putting the whole lot in a bowl of water, and taking the floating seeds off the top and popping them on sheets of paper to dry off.
The boys played nicely but as soon as Gill came back they kicked off again! Why is this? We had a nice tea... lasagna which used some of the pumpkin soup, and was delicious.
Barry Potter came as arranged at 7pm to pick up my large fruit press and apple crusher prior to his orchard event on Sunday, and I invited him in to see the stoves which were going at full tilt, as the weather is very cold so we've got both running. He was impressed and perhaps a little closer to getting his own stove, something he's been preparing for for a little while...
I went out a few minutes later, to go to the York in Transition visioning meeting at The Stables. Laura Potts, an experienced 'green' and facilitator had agreed to help us find common ground and look at ways forward for the group. It was a good meeting... I think we did move forward and I met a nice guy called Ian whom I hope to meet again.
Home just before 10pm and the house was lovely and warm, smelling of apples and pumpkins.
However, things calmed down once I'd come and sat amongst them, but when the subject was raised again with the idea that if he did a bit this morning, he might be able to go and play with a friend this afternoon, the same crap behaviour erupted. He did eventually get down to some, ie researching the shape of some musical notation, a 'rest sign' or something. I tried to help him with a couple of Google searches but he is so incredibly resistant to being helped. We are in a difficult situation, with not being allowed to help and him not knowing how to find the info but not accepting help.
After lunch, Gill went out and I sorted pumpkin seeds from the flesh by putting the whole lot in a bowl of water, and taking the floating seeds off the top and popping them on sheets of paper to dry off.
The boys played nicely but as soon as Gill came back they kicked off again! Why is this? We had a nice tea... lasagna which used some of the pumpkin soup, and was delicious.
Barry Potter came as arranged at 7pm to pick up my large fruit press and apple crusher prior to his orchard event on Sunday, and I invited him in to see the stoves which were going at full tilt, as the weather is very cold so we've got both running. He was impressed and perhaps a little closer to getting his own stove, something he's been preparing for for a little while...
I went out a few minutes later, to go to the York in Transition visioning meeting at The Stables. Laura Potts, an experienced 'green' and facilitator had agreed to help us find common ground and look at ways forward for the group. It was a good meeting... I think we did move forward and I met a nice guy called Ian whom I hope to meet again.
Home just before 10pm and the house was lovely and warm, smelling of apples and pumpkins.
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