Monday 15th December 08

Both boys OK to go to school which was good... I took our youngest but also my 'compost mate' tool as I knew that the school compost bin would be full and in need of management.

So once the children had gone in, I turned the third bin, taking out sticks and putting them aside. Then I took the material out of the second bin with the compost mate and put it into the third, again removing uncomposted stuff like some paper and card, plus sticks, and the inevitable few plastic bags, twist ties and chocolate wrappers. Then transferred most of the material from bin one to bin two, adding layers of sticks and paper removed from the older compost. This took about an hour but left the first compost bin empty for the next batch of fruit skins and partly eaten apples.... the whole object of the exercise...

Home and straight out again at Gill's request to get bread, and picked up a huge bag of sad bananas from Freshways.

Lunch was civilised and enjoyable and all too soon it was 3pm and time for me to go and pick up the little one.

When I got back, Gill had received a phone call from Catherine at York Rotters asking if I'd visit a lady just a little further up Hull Road who has a compost bin which was allegedly too full for anything else to put in. I rang the lady, Betty, and she was happy for me to visit immediately. So I got back on the bike and took the Compost Mate and visited her... and her 220 litre 'dalek' bin. This was not completely full, but her son in Law had put a load of soil into it, which I took out so she could use it to put on her raised beds. I turned the rest very thoroughly with the Compost Mate and there was then enough space for her to put her specially saved-up bags of peelings into it... a result! She was a very grateful 83 year old... invited me for a cup of tea but I said I'd better get back, but gave her my number so she could call me sometime in January when I said I'd check her compost again, possibly do some more sorting, AND have a cuppa...

Back home via a newly found logpile (it's that time of year again... tree-pruning time!) and back into our cosy but untidy house. Ate tea alone though as I wanted to watch the news but the rest of the family didn't... and at 7.30 set out for the York Green Festival 08 Review and 09 Planning Meeting at Pivo Bar, which I chaired in a fairly disorganised way (ie no formal agenda, Bob started chairing at one stage, etc!)

This was an excellent meeting, and we came to the decision that we'd have a greener York Green Festival next year, with less noise pollution! And we'd stay with Rowntree Park.

Had a really good chat with Bob afterwards, which was most welcome as I don't have that many male friends and I think Bob could be quite a good buddy... we have quite a lot in common.

Wednesday 10th September 08

I took our youngest into school and asked the school secretary about hiring the hall for the forthcoming York in Transition 'Open Space event. She said she'd find out prices and availability.

Then into York to spend the morning with Ali, as she'd spent the night in a hotel... so we continued our chats and went for a wander through town towards the station, where she got the train back to Sheffield.

Home for lunch and then via a circuitous route to school to 'do' their compost bins. Emptied the oldest one onto sacks, using my 'Compostmate' corkscrew tool, removing a few uncomposted sticks for a base for the next one... These sacks of finished compost will be good for next year's gardening. I then transferred the contents of bin number two into the third bin, just with the garden fork. Then I emptied the contents of bin number one into the second bin, leaving number one empty for this year's fruit waste...

I spent nearly two hours doing this and got home between 4.30 and 5pm, just in time to have some pasta and home grown green beans before my next meeting. This was Jenny from York in Transition plus Melody, who is a funding expert, and we talked through our issues surrounding funding for an hour.

Then I cycled down to Heslington to attend, hey, even participate in the Green Thumbs committee meeting in the Deramore Arms. It was a good meeting, we reviewed the past year and planned the next year's activities. Our chair got the meeting finished quite quickly and I cycled down to see David a fellow YorkLETS member, who had invited me to help produce a poster to put up, to try to get some new members. Just spent about 40 minutes there and got back home well before 10pm where one of our sons was shouting at Gill, the homework issue AGAIN. I was able to distract him and we had a cuddle, and I think he forgot he'd not completed his homework and after Gill read him a story, he went to sleep.

A fairly quiet and late night.

Thursday 18th October 07

An odd day as when I came downstairs Gill was having problems getting the boys ready and because of their behaviour they did not go to school this morning, and missed a fun morning with a fair-trade event and school play, plus a birds of prey demonstration. We had a visitor in the morning and the boys did their spellings and actually behaved really well whilst this was happening. They went to school in the afternoon.

During the afternoon Gill went to town and I cycled in to get out a cheque to rejoin Garden Organic and pick up compostables, and I got back in time to pick up the boys.

I did some piling of stuff on the current hot heap, and used my 'Compost Mate' screw-thread tool, it's fantastic! Works really well to stir up and aerate the heap. What a pity they're made in Australia not somewhere more local.