Monday 14th June 10

Up at a reasonably early time... early enough to see the children anyway, and then spent the morning doing a York in Transition facebook page update, and then a message about all the forthcoming events. I had a few Scrabble moves, a couple of phone calls about Fiddlesticks bookings and WNBR stuff. General 'paperworky' stuff!

During the afternoon I did a bit of chainsawing but I'm finding my chain is not really able to cut properly, despite my sharpening the teeth on it with a special little file. So I phoned Shannons/Kutters, the bike and lawnmower shop, and they found my chainsaw model and said they would order a new chain, for £18 plus VAT. I said go ahead. I could buy this part over the internet, but I like the fact that this local shop will repair things, and I've had my shredder and chainsaw repaired here, so I'll continue using it.

I cooked tea... the Chicken of the Woods, cubed, with an onion and flour to make a white sauce, and a few flavourings, and this made a 'Chicken of the Woods Fricassee' which could be reheated later.

Then I did quite a bit of work in the back garden, moving the compost heap from where the bee hives are going to go. I also wanted to move the Sun Mar 400 'CompostFlow' and I pulled it... and the cylinder came out of it's supporting cradle, trapping my finger and damaging some skin. However, I extracted it and then emptied the cylinder by hand, putting the contents into a builders bag. I'll find another position for this tumbler, where it will remain horizontal.

Then I did a lot of weeding/plant removal from where the pond will be... one day. I pulled out brambles and ground elder. I also planted a few more yams and beans in the radiator beds.

The compost removal had made me really dirty, so I came in at 8pm and had a shower. Gill and the boys had eaten... the boys didn't like the mushroom dish so Gill made them an omlette, but Gill had eaten some of the thing I'd made, with potatoes, carrots and peas. She wasn't feeling that brilliant. I microwaved a plateful and had some potatoes too, but within an hour I was feeling sick. Gill was sick, and felt much better.

I looked on the internet for bad reactions to Chicken of the Woods... and yes, apparently the older specimens, and ones growing on certain types of tree, can occasionally cause a mild stomach upset and headaches, dizziness, etc. Although I've had Chicken of the Woods many times before, this was the first time I'd had a bad reaction... indeed it's the first time ever that I've had a bad reaction from any mushroom. Once I'd vomited, I felt a lot better.

So, an unusual end to a good day.

Monday 12th November 07

A busy day, starting with a trip down the garden to put a load of materials collected last night into my new compost tumbler, the 400 litre CompostFlow. Our youngest son was suffering from a cough all night so he stayed at home, so Gill popped out to the bread shop and I did chores in the kitchen.

When she came in again, I cycled down to town to go to Out Of This World, to pick up some of the stuff following the shop's closure, and also went to Cycle Heaven to get some cycling gloves for me and the boys, who were complaining of cold hands recently, and won't use ordinary gloves as they cannot grip properly, apparently.

After lunch, I took the gloves to the school as our eldest is taking part in some cycle training, but he wasn't at all thankful about my bringing some gloves for him.

I collected him at hometime.

During the evening, my friend Sue came to give me a booking letter for this coming Saturday, when I'm doing some advertising for a 'Zentist' alternative health practitioners' fair in St William's College. It was lovely to catch up, as she's known me for a long time.

Wednesday 7th November 07

A reasonable day... first thing Gill went to see if the money that CompostFlow had taken out of our account had been put back in... it hadn't. So checked with our bank... and there was no sign of it coming in. So I phoned CompostFlow and informed them that I would be starting proceedings with the Trading Standards as they hadn't contacted me with an apology, or information, and they'd still got money of mine they shouldn't have. The very pleasent telephone operator said he's ask a manager to contact me, and then phoned back and said someone would ring at 1pm.

I had to go out to meet Frank at the allotment, to give him my seed order (seeds, spuds and onions) and then spent some time chopping back brambles and putting them on one of the 4 compost heaps on my lottie.

Gill stayed in, mended the flat tyre on our youngest's bike, and painted some cards for various relatives' birthdays. She did a lovely picture of an orchid and another of an arum lilly. The CompostFlow people didn't ring up, so when I got in I rand Trading Standards and they said get back in touch if the company hadn't responded for 2 weeks after recieving our letter!

I got the kids and there was a booksale on... ended up them both getting a book each, costing £12, then cycling home.

Enjoyed a programme on Silbury Hill on Freeview whilst shelling pumpkin seeds.

Monday 5th November 07

Quite a good day, as woke to a quiet house.... the boys had a peaceful morning before school and so I wasn't woken by shouting. Gill took them to school and I went back to bed, she joined me when she got back. So good to have a lazy morning!

Spent some time building a new logpile and draining a watwerbutt which has developed a leak... I think the tap on the base has been bumped and the seal damaged. Then my new composter arrived..... a 400 litre CompostFlow, made by SunMar who also make compost toilets. I started soring out a place to put it, which meant emptying a 'dalek' into another larger 'sit n wait' container.

I got the kiddies, coming home with another load of leaves.

I had a YorkLETS meeting in the evening at the Seahorse on the Fishergate Gyratory, it was a quick and businesslike meeting, finishing at about 8.30, and the 5 of us who turned up all went back to our homes. A quiet evening. Did a load of paperwork, invoices, forms, cheques to send.

Wednesday 31st October 07

A better day! Had a fairly relaxed first few hours, then cycled down to town to have my teeth cleaned, via the post office where I sent the bank paperwork to CompostFlow plus a covering letter expressing my disappointment.

Came back via my friend Debs who needed to chat.

In the evening, both boys went out to do Hallowe'en activities, involved lots of cycling around and taking them places, collecting them afterwards.

This evening there was very interesting news, about cancer and lifestyle choices. The most important thing they've said is that being overweight increases the risk of cancer, and it says to stop eating all processed meat, including bacon and ham. Wow! This from a big study by the World Cancer Research Fund. Excellent news for greens, as meat is a very unsustainable foodstuff, so any information which reduces consumption is a good thing!

Tuesday 30th October 07

Not a brilliant day. Gill took the kids to school and then, as we were due to pay our TV licence today, so Gill went to the Co-op and interrogated the ATM (hole-in-the-wall-machine) only to find we had only £14 in the bank, and there should have been several hundred. This news made her very worried, we wondered if we'd been the victims of identity theft, been robbed...

However, a phone call to the bank told us what had happened. I had bought a new tumbler composter over the phone, a 'CompostFlow' 400, and they'd taken two lots of money not just one. I rang CompostFlow and they said, 'No, it can't be, one of them is the authorisation, the other is the money taken out'. So I rang the bank again and they confirmed two lots of money to the same company went out. So got back to the CompostFlow folks and asked if they'd replace the money. They said, send a statement to prove it. I asked them to look at their own bank details to prove it, but the chap insisted that I send something. I rang the bank again and asked if they could send a statement, they suggested my going to the York branch and getting a statement.

So I cycled down and went to my bank, got paperwork, went to the building society and got money out to pay the TV licence, and visited Out Of This World and Martin's for compostables.

I felt pretty low after this trip into town, but went to pick up the boys.

I had some time in the evening to reflect on a phone call which I had during the morning, from an old friend from teenage years, who's remained in touch with my sister, and has made contact with me again. It is amazing to be able to re-visit memories from so long ago, and to have a chance to put right some wrongs, well, not put right, but explain, apologise, and hopefully put a line under. Truly amazing, and all due to the computer and ability to reach out and communicate so easily.