Wednesday 29th June 11

I got up early to load up my trailer with the shredder.  Then at 8.30 I cycled in with our youngest and when he was in school I got the school extension cable and ran it from a socket in the sports hall to the path next to the compost heap.  A few weeks ago the school was decorated with a vast amount of vegetation, which before I arrived would have just been thrown in a pile and forgotten, once it had been taken down.  However, I asked for it to be put next to the compost bin I built, and today was the day to process it into something compostable.

I spent about 3 hours dealing with it, and also started to manage the existing compost bins, a pair of New Zealand bins, full to overflowing with uncomposted sticks and quite a lot of soil, and ants.  I pulled out lots of sticks and shredded these too.  I'll be riddling all of this material quite soon, so that Dave the gardening teacher can have some nice composty soil to do things with.  He commented that it looked a bit time intensive, so I told him it would make great compost and not need riddling, like the unruly pile of soil and sticks would... and that will take some time!  I got quite prickled with the bits of rose stem in amongst the shreddables, and bitten a lot by the ants.

I chatted to several people whilst working, all pleased to see something being done with the compost.  I'm glad the school are positive about it!  Much better than Lord Deramore's; that was a battle.

I came home for lunch and spent an hour on the computer before going back to pick up our little cyclist.  I went via Country Fresh and collected about 80kg of stuff, some of which I put on top of the woody shreddings, to help rot them down.

When I got home I did another batch of riddling, compost and loam, to make a potting mix for some tomatoes and cucumbers, which I proceeded to plant up.  I also did some weeding under a hedge in preparation for cutting it soon.

So a productive day outside.  In the evening I lit the stove and did a massive wash up, and prepared 24 'Chiquita Minis' for drying, tiny and very sweet bananas, from Country Fresh.

Wednesday 18th May 11

Despite going to bed at 3am last night, I got up before 8 and cycled our little-un into school, and I took a pair of secateurs and a builders bag, as I had said that I'd do some gardening to Dave Fryer, and he'd suggested pruning out some low-growing roses and other shrubs... prickly ones low down needed removing to reduce the possibility of a child getting scratched and prickled.

I found some sycamore saplings which I removed, and a whole bunch of nettles, and quite a bit of other stuff... including rose suckers.  I chopped it all up and took it through the school in the builders bag and investigated the compost heap I created before Easter.  Over the holiday someone had put a whole load of quite thick ivy and other climbers on it, whole, and then covered this with a thick layer of grass clippings.  Composting fail.

I had to redo the heap, pulling the ivy etc up, breaking up the thick layer of grass clippings and cutting the ivy into shorter lengths.  I hope that whomsoever did this bit of 'lazy gardening' won't do the same again.  Maybe I'll offer a composting workshop and share the knowledge that stuff needs to be cut up and mixed in order to rot down well.

I spent a couple of hours doing the gardening stuff (and also helping move stage block boards from downstairs up to the Eurythmy room) and then got fed up... and tired, so I came home, but via Alligator and picked up a trailer-load of biodegradables.

I did some sedentary stuff at home, before and after lunch, but before collecting our son again, I went to the building society and paid in two cheques.  I collected some fruit and veg scraps from Country Fresh and took them to the Steiner school to add to their rather dry compost heap, to act as an activator.  Next time I go in I'll take a garden fork and give the pile a good stir.  There's a mature pile too, which needs riddling.  I'm wondering which riddle to take in to deal with this.  I'd quite like to take the motorised one, which would do it quickly and painlessly, but not sure how it would transport.

We got home easily and I then got on with a bit of outside stuff, another load into the Compostumbler and I watered the beans and tomatoes in the conservatory.

Gill made a pile of rice and veg for tea which was simple and filling.  I set off soon after for the Green Party meeting in the Guildhall, the 'post election' meeting, with analysis of how we did.  Although we didn't increase the numbers of Councillors, we came second in Micklegate, Guildhall and Clifton, and did well in other places too.  It was a good meeting, but I was pleased to get away at 9.30.  I did pick up a pallet on the way home though....

Tuesday 15th March 11

A good day, busy busy busy....

I wondered if I was going to go to Edwina's but I got a message first thing saying she'd be at home tomorrow, not today, so that meant I had a free day... more or less! 

Gill took our youngest into school by bike, and I waited in for the Suma order to be delivered.  I lit the stove so our eldest could have a bath and hair cut.  I washed up and stacked some wood, visited Jamie and collected another 4 sacks of smoke-free 'Homefire' coal which he wanted me to have.  I initially refused, when he asked about the logpile, saying that I didn't burn coal, so he said he'd take it down to the boat moorings and see if he could sell it there.  But when I saw him yesterday, he asked me if I had a fundamental objection to using coal, and I ummed and erred... he said that he really didn't want to drive it down to the moorings to see if he could flog it, and he'd much rather I had it, 10 sacks for £10.  Well at that price, and with that story, I couldn't refuse.  I do have one sack already, which was rescued from a skip several years ago, and I just haven't got round to using it.  Anyway, this long-lasting coal will supplement the wood, and I'll use it when it's very cold, and to keep the stove going overnight (which I can do with wood anyway!).

I helped do the lugging around of the Suma delivery.  Later, Marian came to pick up her single item, and look at my usable wood collection in the garage; she picked 2 pieces which she'll be able to use.

After lunch I went down to the Steiner School with pliers, wire, screws, Maurice's rawplugs and masonry drills, and some paperwork for the school, and using his battery-driven drill, I made 2 holes in the wall behind where the new compost bin is, to attach it to the wall, so that if/when a Steinery child climbs on the pallets, they don't come away from the wall and fall on the kid.  I hope!  I sorted a bit of roughage into the base prior to dealing with the assorted dalek bins which need wire netting putting underneath... so yes, their contents will be put in layers in the new bin, with the very woody material overflowing from the school's New Zealand bins.

At 3.30 I cycled home with our youngest. We passed a ripe skip and I asked the builder about the piles of wood in it; he was happy for me to have that, so I went back and filled up my trailer twice with lots of planks and dismantled pallets.

I had an early tea, rice-based, and got ready for work.  I had a booking for St Chad's Scouts group from 7.15 til 9pm.  I did a quick show and then there was 50 minutes for free-play workshops.  This all went well.  I'll be doing another session either in a week or 3 weeks, depending on what Tracey Smith comes back to me with about a possible gig next week.

So a good day.... apart from the disturbing news of mass homelessness, thousands killed and now the radiation leaks in Japan.  Very sad, shocking.

Thursday 3rd March 11

I woke early with a sort of sense of urgency... not sure why, although I did have several meetings today, and I'm awareI haven't got 50 sacks of compost ready to be collected next weekend and I really need to get that done!

But I didn't dive into the garden, as I had various things to do inside.... lighting the front room stove, as we had a meeting scheduled in there, and the back room stove, as it was cold and we needed washing up water.

Then I washed up.  At 10.30 we were expecting someone to visit, one of their roles was to see how our eldest was getting on with home education.  She didn't turn up... and then we got a phone call... she was expecting us to go there.  However, she hadn't said this.  She came in a taxi, with her guide dog, as she is blind, and spent well over an hour talking with us.

I had another meeting at 1pm, so I grabbed an early lunch and bombed off into town.  After this one, I went to the Steiner School to start the compost bin build.  I leveled some ground a bit and placed two pallets at right-angles against a wall which was also a corner, so forming the other two sides to the heap.  Maurice said he'd bring in a drill with a selection of masonry bits... I'd then choose the right sized bit for purchasing (or finding!) a screw, hook or one of these plus a rawplug to help it stay in the wall.  This will allow the pallets to be fixed to the wall, for safety, as Steiner Kids are all brilliant at climbing and will definitely try to climb on the compost bin.  However, I did sort out a bit of stuff for the base, some assorted twiggy bits.

After this I had a conversation with Angela, one of the teachers, who has a pupil in her class who is trying to learn the 'walking ladder', and has asked me if I'll go in and give them some feedback.  I agreed, despite not being able to do the walking ladder myself!  So that's on Monday.  Should be interesting!

I came home via Alligator, and the Waterstones, where I picked up my 48 copies of Mark Haddon's 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' for World Book Night. Later, I got an email with the 48 unique codes of my books, so I wrote them out in the back cover, so that wherever they end up, my book can be traced back to me as a giver.  However, I had real problems trying to log into their website. 

I enjoyed today, was a good one.  Tomorrow promises to be just as busy!

Wednesday 19th May 10 The Day I Fell In Love With A Ridan

Today I went to Durham by train... I got the 8.30 and was in Durham by 9.15, with my bike, minus trailer. I'd been on Googlemaps the previous evening to work out about travel, and had seen that Houghton Le Spring was only 7 miles from the train station in Durham, so I took my bike (but not my trailer, as these aren't welcome on trains).

I'd memorised the route and it didn't take long to get to where I thought I needed to be, but I took a turning off the main road a bit early, and cycled through an office estate before going back to the A690 and going a bit further North. I was looking for a sign to the A1052, but it wasn't advertised on the A690 so I cycled past that exit, thinking it must be the next one! But there was a steep hill through a cutting and I walked up this, and asked a local, who told me I'd overshot the mark, so I went back and soon found Dairy Lane and Houghton Kepier Sports College, where Dan from Ridan was due to install his lovely Ridan Composter. Terry King the Estates Manager met me and proudly showed me round... first to the readout from the newly installed wind turbines. This readout shows how much they are generating now, how many Kwh they have generated, and how many kilos of carbon they have stopped going into the atmosphere. Then Terry took me to see the gardening area, with greenhouse and raised beds, and a few food plants, and then to the field next to the A690 where the wind turbines, capable of generating 6Kw each, are situated. These were put up in February (see Sunderland Echo) and underneath, they've planted an orchard of mini fruit trees, and some soft fruit in a fruit cage.

As we were walking away from here, and Terry was telling me about the automatic light switcher offers in the classrooms, he got a message saying that Dan from Ridan had arrived.

He had driven from Devon with two Ridans, one in the van and one on a trailer. Several Sunderland City Council people arrived, as funding has come from them. I helped carry the Ridan out of the van... it was quite light, just 60kg, and it was placed in the bins area just outside the kitchen door. There was a raised area next to where the machine was placed, which means that access to the entrance hatch won't need a stepladder. The second stage of the process requires a fairly long 'sit and wait' in a compost bin called a worm bin, and one of the two supplied was installed next to the Ridan. The other will go up near the wind turbines in the orchard, although the idea is to fill one, then the other and let the first rot down. I wonder if the school intends to dig out the one nearest the machine and bucket it over to the second one? I'm sure they will work something out!

So, what is it about the Ridan that I love? It's the simplicity and the sturdiness. It is a plastic tube with a volume of 400 litres. This is double skinned with an air gap between the two... and then surrounded by an insulating blanket about 5 cm thick. Along the length of the tube is an axle with a series of arms which sweep through the material when the handle at the end is turned.

A nice design feature is that this handle is geared, meaning that it is easy to turn, and about 6 turns of this handle gives just one rotation of the inner axle. When the unit is full of a third of a tonne of material, this system should make aerating the material reasonably easy.
For every bucket of food waste... and it will take meat and cooked/processed foods too, an equal volume of woodchip needs to be poured in. Ideally, if it receives 150 litres a week, the material will take about a fortnight to pass through and fall out of the exit hole at the other end. This won't be fully composted but will easily rot down in the static compost bin. The Ridan should easily enable the contents to get to 60 degrees Celsius for several days, pasteurising it and rendering it down to an easy to compost worm food, and thence on to a brilliant soil-improver.

Dan did a brief training session.... it's hardly complicated... and then he had to get off to his next delivery, a National Trust property in the Lake District. I cheekily asked if I could have a lift to as far as the A1(M) so I put my bike in the van and got that lift. From there it was a quick cycle down into Durham, getting to the station at midday, just 3 minutes before a Southbound train pulled in. I was home for lunch just after 1pm.

I didn't do a lot during the afternoon, until the children came home, and then I got busy in the conservatory, filling up a couple of the planters ready for tomatoes and cucumber plants, which will go in tomorrow.

I will do a report for York Rotters and City of York Council about this composter, as I think it is well worth trying out here in York, probably at a school, or perhaps the Environment Centre. Of course, I'd love one, as it would be a lot easier than having all the different smaller tumblers and dalek bins. For me, this composter has overtaken the Rocket in my affections... it is lots cheaper, doesn't need electricity, and can still legally 'do' cooked food.

Thursday 1st April 10

Gill woke me just before 10 by telling me it was midday.... and then said 'April Fool'. She came to bed and then I got up and had breakfast. I went up just before midday and said, right I'm going to go and get our youngest now (fooling her that it was 3pm!) and we had another good laugh.

I spent most of the morning enjoying April Fool jokes posted on facebook... there were loads. I easily spotted the Garden Organic peas with faces one, the student living in the library one, the excellent 'Google translate for animals'(love the videos with this one!), making string out of Runner Beans, and my favourite, the AA Jet Pack one, which also has very well done videos. However, the April Fool by the Council for British Archeology had me thinking for a few minutes and therefore was the best, as it did have me fooled for a short time. I enjoyed them all. One of my friends posted something about Reiki, and I thought that was one too....

I enjoyed Anita Sancha's animation for The Big Green Idea, and the new campaign from Yorkshire Water, Edna and Mary 'Ow Much? . I also had a phone conversation with someone from this campaign, about all the ways I reduce my water use, and I said I would do something on this blog to explain what I do. I'll do that soon, in the 'Pages' section, top right.

Anyway, I came off the computer and got on with helping Gill move something heavy and then I did some stuff outside, and then at 3 I did actually go down to school to pick up our youngest.

I was extremely happy to see that Lord Deramore's School have finally bitten the bullet and got some compost bins installed!!!! Only 6 years or so after I suggested it might be a good idea, and tried to encourage them to do it!!!! The volunteer parent who was putting something into one of them didn't really welcome my offer of a suggestion that it would be better if the bin wasn't balanced on top of the soil surface, and my offering to put it down slightly into the soil, by digging a little channel for the 'foot' to sit in. This makes it slightly more rat resistant and also more stable. I guess that I'll just have to leave them to find out, by trial and error. Or I might indulge in some 'guerrilla composting' and bed the bins down for them. I did go back to my old ways and rescued some fruit bits and bobs from the bins, and put a load into the new compost bin... I just cannot help myself. The two bins there will be joined by one more, but this won't be enough for the 8kg/day the school produces. Also, they are positioned in a North-facing area, and will never get any direct sunlight, so decomposition will be slower than when mine were installed in full sun. But, again, they'll learn, I'm sure. They might even ask me what my advice is... I wonder? I doubt it somehow, I'm pretty sure they are completely pissed off with me.

I cycled my little one home and did a bit more outside work, before cycling down to La Tasca for 5.30pm, to meet Ali, her daughter and PA, who have spent the day in York, and invited me to share a meal with them. It was lovely... lots of different Tapas, and I had a bottle of cider. I did a little errand after the meal; cycled round to the station and collected Ali's suitcase from left luggage, and took it to her hotel room. I was really pleased to see my friends' daughter Emily Rhodes Bernays working there... I last spoke to her when she was a little girl and was one of the biggest Professor Fiddlesticks fans. She is now a beautiful young confident woman... what a difference 10 years makes!

And back to La Tasca, and Ali came with me to the Black Swan for a meeting of York Abundance, which is an offshoot of Edible York, which itself formed following a York In Transition 'Food Open Space' event. This was only the second meeting of Abundance. The idea is to find existing fruit trees and to ensure that any spare fruit is put to good use, and goes to local people who need it most. It was a fairly unstructured meeting but very productive. An abundance of bright ideas. Ali and I both contributed positively, and I managed not to volunteer, well done John.

I went back to Ali's hotel with her and spent a bit of time talking before cycling back home, where Gill was enjoying Sliding Doors on the TV. She'd had a good evening too.

Tuesday 14th July 09

I woke and was aware that our eldest did go to school but our youngest had a cough and sniff and was very tired, so he stayed at home. I used the good weather to do some tidying up in the garden... a wheelbarrow full of compostables from the greengrocers which needed to be roughly chopped up and loaded onto the latest pallet-heap, also some shredding, hedge material from last week, and some sacks that Gladys from Thief Lane has saved for me, including Berberis which is prickly.

I got a message form Lynn saying that she'd like to ask Freshways for a raffle prize for the LETS Healthy Living Event. I agreed to meet her outside the shop just after 11 to give the letter to Raj; he wasn't at work today but one of his employees said they'd give it to him or his brother. I then went on to Country Fresh with another letter and poster, and Richard said no problem to providing us with a prize. What a generous guy! I'll collect it next Wednesday.

On this leg of the journey I met a chap called Paddy who is an estate worker, who's role it is to do various jobs around the small bungalows between Lawrence St and Heslington Road, and he was cutting up some elder branches with secateurs and putting the bits in a bin bag. I stopped and said hello and asked if I could have the cut stuff, and he was only too happy. I had the cut branches and the sack of chopped up stuff... which was heading for 'the bin'. We had quite a long chat and I gave him my card and invited him to contact me if he was in a similar situation again. I also said I might be able to help him find a solution to this bad situation.

I came home and shredded this material... took about two minutes. It all filled just one small sack when shredded and made a layer on one of the current heaps.

I had a go at deleting loads of emails over lunch and found one from the chap in charge of waste and recycling in York, Geoff Derham. He had taken charge of the sorry situation with Lord Deramore's School's approach to my composting attempts. I sent him an email asking if anything had happened... had there been a meeting? Were the school going to improve their 'eco-credentials'? What had happened to my compost bin the alleged Health and Safety advisor had ordered to be removed? I got a fairly swift reply. There had been a meeting. The school was going to undertake some process of greening, but this would take time. My compost bins will be returned to me by lorry in the next couple of days. I have received no thanks or any communication from the school regarding the years of waste-reduction work and composting, nor the work I put in with Green Thumbs. I do feel hurt and angry, yet I also see this situation as having a potentially positive outcome as this school might, just might develop ways of being a 'shining example of sustainability within the community' which has always been my aim. Just a pity it should happen with them virtually excluding me.

I picked our first two courgettes and we had these for tea, with nutloaf croquettes, potatoes and corn on the cob. I had to rush out to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel, meeting at the Tang Hall Community Centre, where I was due to hand over the Clerk's role to Vicky... something I'm sure she'll do a much better job of than me. We did go through several applications though, and I got away shortly before 7.30 and headed down to Green Drinks.

This is an idea which started in 1989 in London, where like-minded environmentally conscious people meet up for a drink and a chat. Simple really. This was York's first.. upstairs at the Yorkshire Terrier on Stonegate, made reasonably accessible with a stairlift, but along narrow corridors. It was well attended and I was pleased to meet Susanne, an archaeology support worker, and Pam, a newbie to York but Green Party member, plus various friends including Dave and Andy, Lynn, Rich and Ivana, Bryony, Katie, Jennie, and others. Had some good chats.

I left fairly early... before 10 anyway as I was tired.

Wednesday 20th May 09

A quite relaxing day, in many ways. Gill went to Art and I eventually went to the allotment with some chitted potatoes and got two rows in! Hurrah! I also pulled out more nettles, by hand (there really isn't any point wearing gloves as part of the love of gardening is being in contact with the soil and plants) and deconstructed a compost heap which fertilised the potato rows.

Home for lunch and then spent the afternoon with Gill, before she went out to have a stitch removed, left from her gall-bladder removal, this one got left behind! I went to school to get our youngest, and took a large plastic sack to collect a dose of school fruit waste. Came back with over 30Kg... would have been thrown away if I didn't rescue it. I wonder when they are going to address the composting situation? I've heard nothing since a 'Health and Safety' **** said 'composting isn't allowed in schools' and my working compost bin was removed.

Gill came home, minus a 1cm long piece of thread in a jar. Greatly relieved! She skimmed the small ads in the Press and saw someone was selling a unicycle for £15, so I rang up and it sounded fine... except it was up in Wigginton, about 5 miles North of here. I decided to go and get it, so cycled up through Haxby, popped into the Cemetery to see a tree I planted in memory of a friend Lin. The tree and plaque I bought were not there. I was a bit upset, but wrote down the details of the people to contact, and will write to them both, just to see if it has been moved...

I then cycled on to where the young man was selling the unicycle. He'd bought a bigger one, with handles on the saddle, to catch when falling or jumping off. I chatted with the whole family, and demonstrated unicycling backwards, paid the asking price (a bargain!) and cycled away with it in my trailer, down the Wigginton Road this time. Near Clifton Moor I found a pallet in the hedge (a rather larger piece of litter than most I pick up!) so brought that back too, coming along the cycle track from near the Hospital all the way to Hull Road, where I picked up a sack of biodegradables from Freshways, and as usual, some friendly banter with the gentlemen who work there.

Home for some squash soup, which was delicious! Had a couple of bread rolls with it... and that was a perfect tea. A relaxing evening, but starting to get ready for going away tomorrow.

Nice bath with woodstove water.... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Tuesday 12th May 09

Got up late and spent time on the computer during the rest of the morning.
Through my 'Feedjit' widgit (which still thinks I'm in Leighton Buzzard!) I found http://cabalamat.wordpress.com/ 'Amused Cynisism' and http://www.charlescrawford.biz/ which have links to my 'How I Compost' photo post. Both these blogs have a lot of stuff worth looking through. I enjoyed some self-indulgent Facebook stuff, playing Scrabble whilst cooking the carrot soup on the woodstove for tonight's tea. I have over 20 games going on...

Also had a lot of emails to answer and various other things to do... research for my next column, which has a deadline next week.

A quiet inside afternoon... I went to school to pick up our youngest and was approached by a teacher who knows I'm somewhat keen on recycling, offering me a huge sack of envelopes to compost (at home) so I cycled back with about 20Kg of assorted envelopes and about 20Kg of fruit waste... since I've stopped composting at school they've been throwing away about 7Kg/day of fruit and veg material, this was a completely full plastic rubbish bin which I've been using to collect compostables in. By now, the school head teacher will have had a meeting with the Council waste people so I'm hoping to hear from either of them soon with a way forward. Only then will my anger, despair and disgust subside. If a school cannot recycle, what chance do we have for the future, when children see all the recyclable materials being thrown away.

I've another gripe with the school... there is a pre-school group based within Lord Deramore's, and they have milk in small drinks cartons. They would like to recycle these cartons, and the Council DOES have facilities... at the main civic amenity sites, such as Hazel Court. So, the pre school group asked me if I could collect these and take them for recycling. I said yes, could they be placed in a receptacle in the bins area? The pre school people asked the school if this could happen... and guess what? Apparently, someone from Health and Safety says they cannot! Can you believe it? I would happily deck the Health and Safety person at the school I'm so angry. So I will have to collect the sack of milk cartons as and when I can, the pre-school doesn't want them in the classroom as they might smell, and I think the obvious place to collect them is in the bins area which already has a bin for paper recycling (although it often has other things dumped in it, their quality control is so poor). What a shambles!

Anyway, came home and washed up, helped Gill get tea ready. Ben came round to dispense advice about the childrens' 'dongle' which has stopped working, and the reason my ADSL usage is so high... blame it in the BBC iPlayer which has been doing 'Peer to Peer' stuff and using my computer to send stuff on, apparently. Ben showed me how to turn off that function. At 6.15 I headed off to Tang Hall Community Centre for the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel. Four of us turned up, and had a really good discussion about the different planning applications, mainly house extensions to make (we assume!) student houses.

Then cycled over to the Groves to pick up a Freecycled clip-frame, and cycled slowly down my old street, Emerald St, where I lived for 13 years. Memories!

Back via Freshways where I had an accident with the clip frame. Damn. I did clear up the mess though... what a waste. Silly me.

Back home, all was peaceful and tea had gone down well... the boys got off to bed pretty easily and I stayed up working til after midnight, as usual with Gill snoozing beside me... lovely!

Tuesday 3rd March 09

a busy day... will update this on Wednesday to report on Carbon Detox and several other events.

It was indeed a busy day, although it had a slightly later start than I expected... Gill walked to school with our youngest before I got up.... nice! She then went on into town by bus and from there up to the other school to deliver something and from there to visit Ashley for lunch... so I had the morning to myself and I did a variety of jobs around the house.

At 1pm I was booked into a seminar at the Biology Department of the University of York, entitled 'How Can We Communicate Climate Change Better?'with George Marshall, who is performing his stand-up comedy 'Carbon Detox' tonight at the Theatre Royal. George has a fascinating and honourable 'history', including being one of the founders of Rising Tide and working for Greenpeace and the Rainforest Foundation, as well as the governments of Papua New Guinea and Germany! Then he joined Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN) which amongst other things trains people in how to communicate about climate change, helping them with public speaking, interesting ways of getting complicated information over and the like.

So this seminar was packed, and I got a lot out of it, despite it being a one-day training packed into about an hour! We first looked at various messages used by advertising agencies to try to achieve change, and rated them as good or bad. Then looked at various parts of the process, including the message, the messenger, the medium, the audience and the action,all of which have to be considered when trying to get a message across. He showed us several adverts including Don't Mess With Texas and viral videos like Greg Craven (for instance....) and we discussed why they work and why others don't. One of the key factors is 'peer to peer' information... one of the reasons York Rotters has been successful.... people listen to their friends, family and workmates more than to experts or Governments.

That finished shortly before I had to go to school to pick up our youngest, so I went straight from there to school, feeling quite elated and happy. I had taken a load of paper plates from the seminar (there was some nosh available) to put as a carbon-rich layer in the compost bin I manage at school....but when I arrived, the bin I am currently filling had been moved and the contents disposed of, I know not where. I found the empty bin round the back of the school so I went to speak to the school secretary about what had happened. She told me that a Health and Safety person had said that composting wasn't allowed in schools, and had ordered it to be removed. I was furious, but remained polite as the messenger in this case should not be shot (just the H+S idiot). On the way home I was furiously composing a letter in my head to fire off to a number of people, but I couldn't do it immediately as I'd invited Richard around for 4pm so I had a nice chat and a cuppa with him instead.

Soon after he went, to close the shop, I had some tea and then cycled off to the Theatre Royal, stopping by at a friend's who'd asked me to pop in, as she needed to talk to me, and indeed she did have some very sad news to share, very upsetting. What a rollercoaster of a day.... already!

My role at the Theatre was to stand behind a table and sell books... George's Carbon Detox book, and Rob Hopkins' 'Transition Handbook' which is a must for Transitioneers. Gill was due to follow me down there by bus once our lovely babysitter Simon had arrived. She actually arrived about 10 minutes into the show, as the bus was late or something.

So, the long-awaited Carbon Detox stand-up-comedy show. Well, although I'm no a fan of this kind of thing, it was good.... it certainly helped me get my head around the subject just a little more. He has some great analogies and interesting ways of looking at the subject. He suggests that climate change is a bit like a rollercoaster that we're all on... some of us know it and are getting prepared, many others will suddenly wake up at the beginning of the ride and it may very well be scary. I liked his way of describing the average Brit's carbon footprint, using our friend Candy who volunteered, and asking her to take quite big strides across the stage.... two for heating, two and a half for food, various smaller steps for assorted car journeys, 6 strides for a flight to America etc etc, and then taking one and a half steps back for getting renewable electricity, three inches back for unplugging phone chargers and switching off standby buttons, quarter of an inch back for using re-usable bags... a great way to communicate the different impacts of our various behaviours and choices. Nice one George!

I had a cider in the interval, and got a beer for Gill and our friend Sarah, who is moving to Bristol at the weekend. We will miss her, as she is one of the lovliest people we know.

At the end of the show I raced out to get our book sales table ready for the inevitable rush, and George signed copies of his book (and at least one copy of Rob's book, hahaha!) I had a good chat with Verna about the nonsense which has happened at school, and chatted with another of my favourite people, Sam, who had two of her daughters with her.

Right at the end of the evening, George was in a tizzy as he'd lost his bike lock key.... I do hope he managed to find it!

I cycled home, getting in just before 11pm, and then managed to get my thoughts down in a polite email which I sent to the school, the lovely people at Green Thumbs Gang, several city Councillors, the sustainability officer, Verna who is on the board of governors, and others. The school HAS to get itself into the 21st Century and take on board what the Government has said they must do, which is to be a 'Beacon of Excellence in the centre of their community' re Sustainable Development... it's called ESD. (excellent links here) I didn't finish on the computer til nearly 4am.

Wednesday 14th January 09

I cycled into school with our youngest, and in the playground had a nice chat with a new Dad, Peter from Taiwan. On the way back I collected lots of litter from Windmill Lane... mostly aluminium cans but also plastic bottles... all will be recycled (well, I'll put them for recycling; what the council and metal merchant do with them is their business!)

Gill went to her art class and I was a good househusband and continued the tidying she started yesterday and washed up. Went to Thomas's and bought their excellent value 'yesterbake' bread... two loaves, four packets of rolls, 4 danish pastries and some flapjack offcuts... all for £3.75. Excellent! This is stuff which didn't sell yesterday, and the shops all send the unsold things back to the Tang Hall Lane shop, where it is sold at half price and two for the price of one... so actually, quarter price. So a loaf selling yesterday at £120 would be 60p, but you can have 2 for 60p. Excellent, and they don't have to be the same item, so today for instance, I got a white loaf and a seedy loaf and four different packets of rolls. Good on yer Thomas's of York!

Gill came back soon after 11 and we spent some time together trying to plan the next few days... Gilly got on with some cooking and I got on with something else before Neil the Thomson Local rep came to discuss my advertising package for next year. He was very nice and we went off at a tangent/off topic on several occasions, but we eventually got to agreeing the words and signing the document.

The rest of the afternoon was spent sorting out a new woodpile outside the front door AGAIN... but hey, we've been very cosy during this cold patch and not used any more fossil fuel than we normally do. Just loads of logs.

I picked up our youngest, and as usual managed the compost bins I've installed at school to recycle some of their stuff they throw away and don't bother to recycle themselves. However, children are often really wasteful themselves and throw away fruit they don't want to eat, rather than take it back home to face their parent/carer who would (perhaps!) sternly say 'Why didn't you eat that?' So I often find uneaten bananas, apples, pears and sometimes unopened packets of crisps or dried mango. This is my reward! I bring the fruit home, wash it and mostly dry the stuff for my cereal... or the kids gobble it up as they love the dried fruit so much! I leave dried fruit out on the racks and it just disappears. I've told them they don't ever have to ask to take it... and it just goes. Great!... I bring more home just about every day to slice up and bung on the racks above the stove, and this snack is much more healthy than sweets or biscuits (although they sometimes have these as well).

I went to visit Richard at Country Fresh and he gave me a huge load of seconds tomatoes, so I'll sort them out and make soup for the coming couple of days. Yummy!

Popped in to Freshways too... and oh no, they had tomatoes as well. So, I wish I had a cauldron. I might make a batch of soup-base and freeze it... A busy evening awaits.

Did have a busy evening. The boys kept busy too, on their computer (thank you Uncle Tom!) but somehow the screen went upsidedown and enlarged. I wanted to laugh but had to appear concerned, serious etc or there would have been an outburst. I offered to help but my solution didn't work, so I rang Simon and he talked our eldest through it... and solved it! Well, I think so...
Enjoyed 'It's Not Easy Being Green' but I don't think this series is as good as the first. Not enough Brigit!!! Hahahahaha...

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.

Friday 14th November 08

Got up early and took our youngest to school... and as he was performing in the assembly at 9.15, I'd taken my 'Compost Mate' tool in and I turned the contents of the two dalek bins with the most mature compost in, taking sticks out and making a layer of them on the growing heap, and taking out the inevitable plastic contraries... sweet wrappers, cling film. bits of toy off the playground...

The assembly was lovely, with a time travelling boy (my son!) arriving at the Greeks and then several Greek God stories, all with great costumes and props.... and I took Gill's little camera in and filmed the parts with our boyo in. I would have liked to film the whole thing, but this camera can only do about 5 minutes of moving stuff, so I got the beginning and end. I just hope I've done it right and Gill and the boys have something to watch!

Gill got back from the hospital just after lunchtime with news that she needs to have her gall bladder removed, pretty urgently. This is quite frightening when looking at the long list of possible side effects and things which might go wrong.

I cycled down to school to get our little un and came back in time to go down to Freshways and Country Fresh. I also did a bit of chainsawing today, and splitting some huge rounds which I couldn't split earlier in the year, but today I did an initial chainsaw cut which got the splitting started, and I was able to use the log grenade to split chunks off. Hard work, got very hot.

A quiet evening, boys had a good session on the computer with their new game, which was a prize on Wednesday at the quiz, and we busyed around the house.

Later in the evening Gill and I had a game of Scrabble and I thrashed her. She doesn't mind, it's the playing that counts, and she does win sometimes. I had a rare defeat on Facebook Scrabble tonight, Jennifer (a Scrabble friend found by chance through the application) beat me, reducing my stats to just 88% won. Dreadful!

Tuesday 16th September 08

I took our youngest into school as Gill had been up from 6.30 getting packed lunches together and the boys' bags, persuading them to get dressed, etc.

In the playground I had a chat with Mrs P. the headteacher, primarily about the four sacks of finished compost that I removed from the final compost bin where it had been all summer. I needed to know if it was OK to leave it with the other Green Thumbs stuff or whether there was a better position for it. The reason is that the school grounds are not secure in the evenings and youths often use the grounds, and if they were injured or harmed by the sacks of compost or their contents (!!!) they could possibly sue the school. Ridiculous I know, but that's the situation...

However, another very interesting situation has progressed over the summer. The Health and Safety Executive (and local Environmental Health) visited the Japanese Garden which was constructed last year. Regular readers will remember that as the old, tarry sleepers were being unloaded from the contractors lorry, I told the school that I was fairly sure that old railway sleepers were not meant to be used in Children's playgrounds or schools. The next day I gave a letter into the school with the details of the EU legislation (Directive 2001/90/EC) which states this. The contractor was either told or worked out that it was me who had done this and gave me loud publc death threats in the playground, which was most upsetting. The work continued, despite the warnings that I thought that it was illegal. (See also UK Statutory Instrument number 721)

So, the HSE sent a letter (which I haven't seen yet) telling the school that they would have to remove the smelly and possibly carcinogenic sleepers and replace them with untreated ones. However, their reason for this wasn't that it was against the law, but apparently because I had reported that my son was "made to eat his packed lunch off one of the sleepers by Mrs P." which is totally untrue. I had reported to the HSE person that my child was made to (or asked to) eat his packed lunch in the newly opened Japanese Garden and he that afternoon reported to us that the smell of the sleepers had made him feel sick and that's why he hadn't eaten his lunch. So the HSE people had got the story completely twisted up and wrong, and very unfairly blamed the situation on the Head. If I get a copy of the letter, I will write to the author/s and ask for a correction as this situation has given the Headteacher a lot of stress over the summer. The reason they should have given is that the work contravenes an EU Directive. I don't feel that good about it as I'm partly responsible, and I'm sure the head feels bad about it as she ignored my initial advice, before the sleepers were installed. However, I am glad the garden will be made fit for use, although I'm sorry that this will cost so much more than if the situation had been sorted right at the beginning.

In searching the net about information offered to members of the public, I found this site which is offering illegal advice to use treated sleepers in gardens as planting containers. http://www.railwaysleeper.com/railway%20sleeper%20treatments.htm I had an email discussion with one of the people at this site about the way it seems to suggest that it's ok to use treated sleepers as plant containers, and was assured that they communicate the facts of the legislation to all customers. However, I was still unhappy to see photos of raised beds growing vegetables made with creosoted railway sleepers on this website, when this is explicitly prohibited.
So my advice is to only use UNTREATED sleepers if you have any doubts as to the suitability of their purpose. They cost a bit more (ie they are not 'waste'!) but don't smell awful, leach carcinogenic chemicals onto skin or clothes, or run you the risk of being told to replace them.

I had a low-mood day as I've been feeling unwell, headache, tummy ache, tired. I went to bed for a while and haven't eaten much... Gill persuaded me to have a fried egg sandwich but I ate it without enthusiasm.

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 5th June 08

I took the boys to school and when the children were all in school I turned all 3 compost bins, putting the oldest material in sacks for maturing, the next oldest in the third bin and the recently interred material in the second bin, leaving the first nearly empty for refilling.

Came home for just after 10 and did some stuff around the house before lunch, including getting a message from Green Thumbs Julia saying she is unwell and is not at school, and could I head-up this afternoon's gardening club, and she gave me a list of things to do, well, suggestions! After lunch I sorted out some planting media as one of the things suggested was to plant some more seeds. However when, after school, I facilitated gardening club, we did things like weeding the large pots of veg we planted 3 weeks ago, and digging over some borders, adding rich garden compost and planting some of the veg in which we potted up 2 weeks ago... Someone found a 1906 penny, someone else found a tiny air-gun pellet, and another person found a sheep's molar tooth... We also found worms, a ladybird larva and a beetle. We all had a good time.

I tidied up and got home by 4.45, in time to have some pasta and get my bike ready and my eldest son's bike ready to cycle to the other side of town to attend the briefing meeting of the 'Gifted and Talented Summer School' to which he's been invited. We set off at 5.10 and got to Manor school at 5.40, just half an hour, not bad. Better than the bus, much better. It was a good meeting and my lad is keen to explore Mathematics further as his main topic, so let's hope it isn't too oversubscribed and he loses out in a lottery, which was suggested as a fair way to choose people if there's more applicants than spaces. A good cycle home, took less than half an hour as there's more downhill on the way back! Seems like it, anyway.

I had half an hour in the garden putting a load of stuff in one of my tumblers, before coming in and watching the first part of Big Brother 9 on Channel 4... which Gill and I both enjoyed, and I did washing up followed by a lot of peeling, coring and slicing apples for drying.

Some good late-night chat with K on Skype, getting easier after some differences of opinion and fallings out, but we both want to remain on good terms so both working at it.

Thursday 10th April 08

A good day, Gill went out and I got a lot done on the computer ... did a lot of deleting from my inbox of over 1000 messages whilst offline and then, when online, dealt with some more composting enquiries through Facebook and looked at the first results for my questionnaire... so far just 12 answers, but some good quality answers with some really interesting info. I feel very pleased with the way the results are presented.

I got a phone call from my friend Pippa whom I've known for well over a decade but only get to see every two years on average... and she's coming up to visit us, which will be really good. She'll stay in a B+B for a night towards the end of the month.

I had lunch and then Gill came in and she had hers, we chatted and it was 2pm very soon... I had planned to go and plant some onion sets but there wasn't time as I also had to do some more digging at the Green Thumbs plot at school. As I arrived, the head-teacher came out and asked me into her room as she had something to tell me. The news is that the plot we have prepared may not be where the garden ends up, as the two mobile classrooms nearby are due to be demolished, and the new classroom may be built where the garden now is! So there's to be no more work on the plot until the surveyors tell the school where the classrooms are to be. Therefore she asked me to dig over an area next to the playground, where we might plant some stuff. I cut away some dead twiggy bits and removed lots of litter which had accumulated, mainly the dreaded assorted plastic. That didn't take long so I did some compost management of the school compost bins.

Then the children came out and Gill came down from home to pick up our boys and a friend's son... and I gathered the children who are part of the Gardening Club and took them to see the plot, along with Nigel who has offered to survey the area and make a computer-aided-plan of it. At about 4pm Kate from CVS who I'd invited to give us advice on making a Child Protection Policy arrived and three of us met with her and she talked us through what we should do, our obligations, the training we can get etc etc. But I had to rush off as soon as she was done, as I had my second meeting to get to.

I had a brief tea and went into the garden to collect samples of various types of compost, leafmould etc for my third meeting later, plus the rotaseive which I'll need.

I cycled down to Fulford Road where a Rotters enquiry has come from. A couple who moved in over a year ago and have a single dalek bin in their garden, which had been well used by the prevoius occupants and was full and pretty solid at the base. They'd watered it and added more stuff at the top, but hadn't managed to get it to go down at all. This I found was because it was almost full of mature compost... so I used my Compost Mate corkscrew thing to extract a huge amount of really good compost, the whole of the base of the heap, whilst they watched and picked out contraries (bits of plastic!) from the mature and fibrous mass. I think I must have pulled out about 100 litres of compost... they were well pleased, and will top-dress their borders with it. They were even more pleased when the bin contents settled down and I broke up the rest of it so there was plenty of space to add more stuff. That all took about 40 minutes and I then shot off to my third meeting, at the Scout Hut on Lorne St in Southbank.

My friend Jo was there, getting the two big old compost bins ready for the 'Panthers' (A type of cub/scout person) to have an 'activity' with. She'd brought her wormery and I'd brought a selection of composts and leafmould, also some very well rotted humanure/sawdust compost. I took half of the group and did a short talk on composting, then got them to have a go with the riddles (Jo had got her rotaseive too) but the job was difficult as firstly the heaps were mainly grass mowings and some layers were not rotted down at all, they were anaerobic and smelly and looked like sileage, and the rotted stuff was a little too moist to riddle well. The groups swapped over and I did it all again. That all came to a stop just before 8, I got packed up and shot off into town for my fourth meeting.

Which was at the Black Swan where I met my friend Chinky, propping up the bar and being jovial, as usual. The meeting was a group of five other earnest chaps, members of York Eco Action, three were from the student group 'People and Planet'. We had an agenda writing session and then spent a couple of hours going through, discussing various things including climate camp, the Fairtrade movement, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Kingsnorth Power Station, Heathrow, the Northern Green Gathering and quite a few more things. A good meeting, always lovely to be with Graham and Richard, and I think I've made another friend from P+P.

But glad when it finished as I was whacked! Knackeronied! Virtually shagged even... and when I got back I wanted to relax and watch Johnny Vegas in 'Ideal', my favourite current TV series, but also had got a Skype chat booked with K, who likes to be regular, every other day, to keep up with what's happening. I only just lasted the hour we have negotiated we have... and fell into bed so willingly afterwards!

Friday 21st December 07 Winter Solstice

Once again Gill was feeling grotty so I took the kids in, they are definitely needing some time off school and this the last day of term can't be over quickly enough!

I got permission to install the third compost bin next to the others, although I was asked not to do compost bin things whilst the children were in the playground as they crowd around wanting to know what's happening. So I went in after 11am after their morning playtime. I decided to donate one of mine, as the school compost bin is tiny, just about 200 litres and I have a 330 litre bin which I took off the top of a finished heap in the garden, cycled it down to school and cut out a circle of turf from the grass on the edge of the playground to partly bury the edge of the bin... stops it getting knocked over. I then put the stuff which has been collected and put in one of the two existing bins in the new one, with layers of sawdust to help, and then used the 'compost mate' tool to take out some nearly finished material from the other bin into the recently vacated one. This left a bin empty and ready for filling next term.... and starting with yesterday's and today's materials.

Good news from school, they have agreed to separate the blue paper towels from the toilets to compost them, and they are planning to have a gardening club... and I've been made 'vice chair'!
These two tidbits of info have made me happy.... the school now appears to be moving in the right direction. A long way to go before they're and 'ecoschool' but first steps are beginning to be taken towards being more sustainable.

I spent til after 12 doing the composting... well worth the time as already the school bins realise over 6kg/day of banana skins, orange peel, apple cores, pear, carrot etc, from the 'fruit4schools' scheme. The children aren't very efficient at eating the fruit, so much of the stuff which is put in the compost bin is good fruit only partly eaten, just a couple of bites nibbled out. It's a big waste and I would like to see the school give the children lessons in how to eat fruit. But one step at a time!

A lovely lunch and then helped Gill do some clearing up as we've got her sister and brother-in-law coming at 4pm to deliver and collect Chrismas stuff. They are far tidier and more conventional than us, and Gill feels the need to clean the house before they come. No bad thing really, but extra work.

I did some sorting out in the front garden which has developed a rash of plastic bags... mainly with bark which falls off some of the logs, and I collect it for shredding and composting or put it in paper sacks for using on the stove when dry, it's a good firelighter/kindling material.

I brought the little darlings home, after giving 4 of the teachers and the lovely crossing lady whom we're fond of a box of fair-trade chocolates from the Co-op as a thank you for being so good with our sons.

Our visitors came on time and we all got on well, they stayed for an hour and enjoyed the warmth of the stove and the boistrous behaviour from the boys.

For tea I had the remainders of the tomato and parsnip soup I made a couple of days ago on top of some pasta, very easy and filling. I tried to keep my head down during the evening as I am not coping very well with the noisy and rude behaviour, and telling them off just seems to amplify the noise and bad behaviour. I went to bed for an hour until woken up by them shouting, and just felt resigned to the role of a dad whom is ignored and disobeyed, which leaves me wondering how to instill good behaviour into them. Parenting is very difficult.

Friday 20th December 07

A good day, productive but tough. I took the kids to school because Gill wasn't feeling like it, and had a word with Annette about the very full compost bin and the one which needs turning/emptying and the one which needs installing, preferably next to the other two. She told me she'd have an answer by end of school today.

I came home and thought I'd have enough time to do my emails... but they still weren't working... I got just one message from Tiscali saying I'd put in my password incorrectly... however I hadn't put in any password and I then tried to sort out the problem by following various instructions, but this is something I find difficult and I couldn't get it sorted properly so I gave up... and got ready for work. Today is an unusual gig... a 'corporate' appointment in a call centre in York, to help thank the staff for their first year of working in this centre.

I found it, the Ryedale Building, 7th Floor, best view in York, apparently! The client was Guoman Thistle hotels, who were providing the thank you for one of their partners, Superbreak. I met the management... one dressed in a 'Superman' outfit (actually a 'Superbreak Man' outfit) and managed to get a plug in for sustainability and 'greening your business', in an appropriate way, I hope! Then I did a very short announcement to introduce the Guoman Thistle team, and Superbreak Man did the rest. I did some devilsticking and then lots of balloon modelling, doing most staff on the top floor and some on the floor below, did perhaps 80 or 90 models in all, finishing at 2pm, knackered but well paid.

Went to pay in cheques, visited Martin's on the way home and got back at 10 to 3, just time enough to make a sandwich and then go and get the kids, which I did in Fiddlesticks costume as I'd had no time to change, lunch being more important. I was told I could install the third compost bin next to the playground, hooray! But not tomorrow whilst the children were at school.... which is a bummer as I was going to do it in the morning.

Our youngest went home with a friend, I came back with the other one... and then back at 6pm to pick up the other... loads of cycling!

Managed to get my email problem sorted... for now anyway! Hooray!

I had an interesting and anonymous message from 'Dr Evil' which sheds light on her problem with me, well two problems perhaps. She doesn't like my allotment being untidy and considers me lazy. Which is fair enough, but she perhaps doesn't know or realise that it's been a bad year for growing my preferred lottie crops, pumpkins (they didn't do anything much) and this lack of cover allowed the weeds to grow. But more than that, was I took on organising the York Green Festival which took up far more of my time than I'd imagined, and the lottie, with it's brambles doing well in the rain and the pumpkins, squash, sweetcorn etc doing badly. Her second problem is that she thinks I have done sonething inappropriate to her, and for this perception I apologise. It would be better if she would say something to my face when/if something like that happens, rather than post comments anonymously on my blog. I want to add that one of her comments was particularly ignorant, as I feel it is inexcusable to criticise someone who may have a condition which they cannot help. ADHD and Aspergers Syndrome are both disabilities, and whichever one I've got (and I still haven't heard from the Maudsley with their final decision) I don't feel it's fair or acceptable to be rude about. An ethical person doesn't make comments about a wheelchair user not being able to use their legs, or a sight-impaired person being unable to see as well as someone with full vision. Someone with developmental behavioural differences shouldn't have to get anonymous negative comments about those behaviours. I also think that anonymous comments on blogs are cowardly and this is why I have chosen not to publish any of these. I would still like the chance to explain a couple of things to this person, and if she decides to reveal who she is to me, I will be as understanding and uncritical as I can, as an 'ethical man' should. After all, her anger and reaction to me might have been potentiated by something earlier in her life which wasn't her fault, and you cannot 'blame' anyone for having been damaged. So I extend a hand of friendship to this person, also forgiveness, and an apology for doing something, without realising it, which upset her. Good luck to her, maybe she will perhaps let the dust settle and decide not to post any more anonymous comments.

Thursday 1st November 07

A good day for me, took the kids to school and met the headteacher in the playground after the kids went in... she went to the kitchens and got a plastic dustbin she'd got some time ago as a collection receptacle for playground compostables, and I said I'd provide some words for a notice to put on the side of it, and some for the other playground bins, one of which should be for 'dry recyclables' such as tetrapacks/drinks cartons, plastic bottles, cans etc. I hope this is a new system!

Came home and spent some time managing my leafmould container, this is just a chicken wire enclosure about 1.5 metres square and about a metre high. Last year's leafmould was in the bottom, in a layer about 20 or 30 cm deep. I scraped this about with a garden fork and shovelled the nearly finished leafmould into plastic sacks, removing sticks for recomposting, contaminants (litter from the roads where I got the leafmould) for the bin and ground elder and nettle roots for the hot compost pile, where they will not be able to grow away like they could in a cold pile.

I collect freshly fallen autumn leaves in a curious way. They collect in gutters at the side of the road, Windmill Lane is a good example as it has loads of trees along one side, and it's on a slight slope. This helps with my collection method! I cycle quite fast and then put one foot down, usually with a wellington boot on it, and scrape it along the gutter, pushing several metres of leaves into a pile. I then get off the bike and shovel them into my trailer or into a plastic sack. Simple really, but a good method. These leaves then simply get piled up for a year to rot down, and they turn into something a bit like peat, low nutrient value, fibrous, good to handle, holds water well, and good to mix with nutrient rich garden compost and loam (from turves stacked up and left for at least a year) to make a potting medium for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers etc etc.

So I had a good day in the garden, and collected the children at 3... well I got one and waited for the other but he didn't appear. Then the other child told me he was in the school hall standing in a circle, so I went to look and eventually he came to tell me he was doing drama club, til 4.15. I didn't know about this, so went home with one child and then cycled back to pick the second up... lots of cycling and lots of opportunities to scrape up leaves for my newly emptied leafmould enclosure...

During the evening I did my usual email download, and one was rather interesting as it was a response to my blog on Community Care last Sunday, where I discussed wearing a white poppy instead of a red one. A person calling themself 'Walter Wall' posted a comment saying my stand was disgraceful.. and that both his grandfathers were badly injured during the war and that they fought so that I could lead the life I lead. He said that I might not agree with the fighting of wars but that they are fought and servicemen and women do their duty and many do not survive. He finishes with his view that wearing a white poppy is an insult to their memory. I decided to publish this comment as it shows the strength of opinion on this issue. I guess that Walter Wall represents many and as it's an ethical dilemma, well issue at least, I am happy to publish criticism.