Saturday 8th November 08

Was lucky to have to have a bit of a lie-in, before lighting the stove so I could have a bath as I'm working today. But as the water was getting up to bath temperature, I went to put a couple of sack's worth of compostables into the Compostumbler. One sack was just watermelons, about 7 of them.... so cut them into chunks and added them with several cardboard boxes. Emptied some collected juices (from a ex-loft water-header tank under the Compostumbler) onto the leafmold pile, to help that rot down, although it seems not to need much help as it's very hot in the middle.

Then had a shave, bath and hairwash to get spruced up for my Knaresborough gig. Gill made sandwiches and ironed my costume, I loaded up my bike trailer and got to the station by 12.45 to get tickets and onto the 13.11 train. I was met in Knaresborough and driven the mile or so to the Community Centre where I was entertaining at a 9 year old's party: a one hour circus show and workshop, followed by a freeplay workshop where they could try out any of the skills I'd brought with me. The 18 boys and one girl all had a great time, as did the Dad, he said on the way back to the station. Very pleasing.

Home soon after 6pm. Gill said that Dexter had just rang, inviting me to a preview of an art show at the Chapel at the York Cemetery which is on all of tomorrow I think. He had been invited to provide some atmospheric lighting, and wanted me to come and see the collection. So I had some tea and went out again! Dexter's lighting was in fact a couple of tables of coloured glass, and clear glass containers (bottles and jars rescued from old landfill sites mainly!) containing coloured water, and lots of candles and night-lights making them look very pretty. This was just outside the doors of the Chapel, making it quite inviting. Inside it was well lit with a selection of display boards with various artworks attached. The organiser, Graeme Martin, was displaying some curious mutated toys and plastic objects mounted in frames, plus a huge (well, maybe 70cm high!) Trojan Horse made out of waste wood, surrounded by tiny plastic toy soldiers, with a weird message which I cannot remember. There were a few paintings in a 'naive' style which had some resonance with me as they were connected to carbon emissions and capitalism, and some work from my old friend Fiona who's been into Dragons ever since I've known her, over 20 years now... She does drawings of mythical monsters, mainly Oriental dragons, and also embroidered fire-screens with landscapes and dragons. I had a good chat with Catherine Scriven who makes paper and original art, especially digital photos, very creative. I also met a 'punter' called Pete, who I probably met many moons ago at the John Bull pub, knocked down a long time ago, replaced by a car showroom. Pete was telling me about his being involved in the starting of SUMA and how the current management had 'rewritten history' and conveniently forgotten how the company actually started, and his work making kites and other fabric items.

I had a lovely time but came back home by 9pm and helped put the children to bed.

Had a nice Skype chat with Ali.

Tuesday 4th November 08

I got up just before 8; Gill had been up since before 6 with our son, still trying to get his homework finished. He finished most of it at 8.20. I took our youngest to school at 8.30.

I got home and had a short while with Gilly before my meeting with Ali at the station. We first checked her return journey times and then went on into town to try to find a pen which writes in italics for her project, and ended up in a pen shop in Fossgate where the woman inside was very dismissive of the difficult access into her shop. She didn't apologise for the lack of ramp, just made some feeble excuse about most people not needing it or something like that. Neither of us felt we had the time or energy to stop and explain that as her shop wasn't very accessible, she wouldn't have that many wheelchair users coming in......

Onto El Piano for a hot chocolate and some filming about the list of words plus much tangental chat. Then on to the City Art Gallery which had let us use the Studio for the interview with Dexter and me. Ali and I had lunch... soup and a panini for me, Ali had quiche and salads. A nice little cafe. Then at 1pm we were able to move into the studio and set up... Dexter arrived soon after 1,30 with his partner, good to meet her properly. Dexter explained about the start of his interest in graffiti, 'retrograffiti' and reminiscence art. He'd brought along a small piece of his Dexterworld artwork, based on the life and work of Andy Warhol and some postcards and other reproductions of his larger pieces. We talked about my ideas about having the words different sizes and colour coded.

Ali got a train home soon after 3 and I bombed home. Early in the evening a housebuilder called Clive knocked on the door offering me some joist ends for the stove, and telling me about the green building group he's joined.

I went to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel meeting at Tang Hall Community Centre which I'm 'acting Clerk' of, and four of us looked through and discussed at least half a dozen planning applications, several of which were enlarging houses from 2 bedroom to 6 bedroom, almost certainly for student houses. There was also a huge pack about the new University campus, too chunky to look through in the hour we have, so one of the group will look through it and we'll have another meeting next week about that.

Home to a warm house, children peaceful, wife sleepy, I set to writing my paid blog which I'm happy with.

Monday 27th October 08

Woke up soon after 6 thinking about Dexter's artwork and how I'd like it to look, but also with a headache and running nose, so came down and lit the stove off last night's embers and had a hot chocolate and paracetamol.

I didn't go back to bed as intended but mooched around and was generally around as the family got up, and all was happy and pleasent until suddenly it wasn't, with the word 'bored' being bandied around. No-one wanted to go on a cycle ride with me and eventually, after lunch, Gill took them to the Tang Hall Library to find a couple of books each. They get through so many!

I did a little bit of garden work, sawing little logs (with bowsaw), splitting a couple of rounds with my axe and then cutting up a big pile of sticks with secateurs into three potato sacks. These will dry easily and be kindling for future stoves.

Not too bad an evening, although there were several huge outbursts which we took in our stride.

After the children went to bed, I did my paid blog on a good website called Worldometers and draught-excluding snakes, see http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/ for today's entry.

Still sniffly this evening, so took it easy, stayed warm.

Wednesday 22nd October 08

I took our youngest to school and came back with four sacks of leaves.

A quiet day in the house mainly... more chores whilst Gill went to Art in Osbaldwick, proudly showing me a lovely 'negative' artwork when she got back. They'd been given a couple of chairs to draw, but had been told to draw everything but the chairs, so the gaps between were there but the chairs themselves were just silhouettes.

Before and after lunch I spent a good long time cutting back this year's fruited loganberry canes and tying in the ones which have grown this year and will fruit next year. This is a tricky job, gloves would make it completely impossible so I used bare hands and secateurs, but quite a few of the tiny prickles and spines found their way into my hands, so I spent a bit of time during the evening chopping them out like I do with splinters, using my very sharp penknife scissors.

Continued with the work I'm doing for Ali's project, which will convert into a 'Dexter' artwork. It's a list of words from my first 40 years, memory joggers. I need about a thousand, so only another 800 to go then!!!

I met up with Julia from Green Thumbs at 3.40 at Country Fresh, so she could buy and take away 20 pumpkins which the youngsters will make into creatures, rather than carve with sharp knives which we think wouldn't be a good idea from a safety point of view. I'm grateful to the guys at Country Fresh for the very reasonable deal on the pumpkins!

A cosy evening with Gill once the boys were in bed, which took time as the homework situation had caused a lot of anger.

Monday 8th September 08

An early start as had been asked to be in Knaresborough for 10.30 for a photoshoot at 11. As the train got in at 10.35, I got the one before, to ensure I was at the venue in good time. So I arrived in Knaresborough at 9.35 and took just 10 minures to walk to King James High School... and had 45 minutes of unfettered reading time, George Marshall's 'Carbon Detox', an excellent book.
At 10.45 other Co-op and Knaresborough Car-Free Day photoshoot people started arriving, and my role was to be a unicyclist... an alternative means of transport, eye-catching, unusual! So I was in a static pic for the newspaper and did some action shots for the Co-op photographer.

I got the train back soon after midday... again, plenty of time for reading.

I called in on the Council Finance Centre to pay the second half of our Council Tax and Country Fresh just in case there was any recycling... which there wasn't.

Home after 1, lunch and emails, and then at 2.30, went to the City Screen to meet with Jackie from Northern Green Gathering, for a coffee and a chat as she was in York for a meeting. I had more time with Carbon Detox... it's a brilliant book, very easy to read, and wasn't unhappy she was late. We went to El Piano and chatted for over 2 hours, all sorts of subjects, nothing seemed off limits. I carried her luggage in my bike trailer towards the station and then cycled home, past queues of almost stationary traffic as there'd been some kind of blockage somewhere.

Home at 6ish, home-grown potatoes for tea with tomatoes from the conservatory, lettuce from the garden and cheese from the Co-op!

Quiet evening, did paid blog on Dexter's Art and IPCC suggesting not eating meat for one day per week...

Saturday 6th September 08

Busy busy day... although a fairly relaxed morning.

I had to decide whether to do a gig in Haxby in aid of SNAPPY.. I'd been invited to go but the organiser rang back saying they couldn't afford to pay me even my (officially) lowest charity fundraiser fee. But I sometimes do my Fiddlesticks work for nothing and I said if the weather was ok, I could go up and do some balloon modelling to add fun and colour and perhaps make a few pounds on donations for the balloon models. Chris my contact said if I did go up and do that, he'd give me an 'expenses' type cheque, but I wasn't contracted to go up, and he wouldn't expect to see me if the weather was poor.

So as the weather was good I got myself into costume and at midday was ready to go to the charity football match on the Ethel Ward Memorial Playing Fields in Haxby, 5 miles North of York. The spot I had to work in was tiny, a bit of hard-standing in front of the changing rooms, but enough space to do some devilstick workshops and juggling, but only one person wanted a balloon model so I found Chris and told him I'd go. Everybody was there for the football!

I came home and decided to go to Anna's Street Party in aid if 20's Plenty and York in Transition with my colourful Fiddlesticks costume on, and taking my entertainment stuff with me. However, I knew that the City of York Council were installing their wind turbine at the eco-depot, something they've had planned for well over a year. The eco-depot is the biggest straw-bale building around (not sure if that's just UK, Europe or in the World, but it is big) and has a huge array of photovolteic cells on the roof. The wind turbine was planned to complement this design. When I arrived I met Kristina P, the ex-sustainability officer who has moved on to work for another authority and responsible for the installation. 'Twas good to see her again, she still lives in York but now commutes by train. The turbine is 15 metres tall to the nacelle (where the blades are attached) and will be 3 or 4 metres higher than the surrounding buildings. It has a maximum output of 15 Kw, and using electricity prices from a year and a half ago, was due to pay back it's financial cost in 16 to 20 years, based on the measured wind speeds at the site. But if it gets windier or electricity prices go up, this payback time will come down. And of course, it's giving us carbon neutral electricity (once the equivalent of it's embodied energy has been generated) and helps us reduce our carbon footprint. Excellent stuff.... I want one!

And so on to Anna's street party which turned out to be excellent, a big turn-out, lots of people watched the film The Power of Community and heard Edward Harland speak about the Transition movement and York in Transition in particular. The children had a fun time drawing in chalk on the road, and cycling up and down. Two police officers attended and gave out some information to help residents avoid being burgled. I unicycled and blew up balloon models for a donation to YiT... raising more than the SNAPPY event this morning! The event was supposed to be 4pm til 6, but I didn't leave til 6.45, when the rainclouds were ominously gathering...

Later in the evening, I spoke to my good friend Jonathan who I hardly ever see anymore and he invited me round to spend a couple of hours with him. I watched a couple of programmeswith my eldest son about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN on the French/Swiss border which is due to go live this week, and at 9.45 headed off to see my buddy. He earns his living as a nurse but has ambitions to be an artist, which seem to be coming true. There's lots of interest in his work, which aims to help people reminisce and remember their past. He's known as Dexter in the art world and his fun website can be seen here.

Had a lovely chat and a can of cider, got back soon after midnight.

Thursday 29th March 07

Well, another busy day. Even though it was a bit damp out, I had a pile of Green Party leaflets to deliver in Fishergate Ward, where we have two Councillors already and want to retain them. Cllr Mark Hill is standing down but Cllr Andy D'Agorne is standing again. Standing with him is Dave Taylor, an experienced activist and a very committed Green and already doing good work representing various interests. I think he'll be a very good Councillor if he gets in. And these leaflets should help him get in. I popped round to my friend Debbie who had offered before to help deliver leaflets and asked if she would be willing to do so this morning.

As she was we set off on foot at about 10.15 and did the 300 leaflets in 40 minutes. We had a cuppa together afterwards, and she offered to do another round when we have one.

After lunch I visited a skip I'd spotted on the delivery round, and asked the builders if I could have some of the contents to reuse. Of course they were happy for me to do this, and I came back with a well loaded cycle trailer, with some building-quality wood, some stove-destined wood and some aluminium cans which I collect and sell to a metal merchant from time to time.

I also visited Alligator for some vegan ice-cream and some emergency peanut butter, as we're out pending our next food co-op delivery, which should be next week.

Our youngest child had come off his bike on the way to school this morning as the chain came off. So before collecting them from school I sorted his bike and then took it to school on the trailer so he could cycle home. On the way back from school there was another skip, again I asked if I could have some of the contents. I got some new turf offcuts, which I stack into a low wall for a year or two and then use for loam in my containers, mixed with garden compost and leafmold.

I did some logging whilst Gill cooked tea, a good cauliflower and broccoli thing with mushroom sauce and mashed potato on top. The boys enjoyed it too, and we all ate together, with French stick warmed on top of the stove wrapped in aluminium foil to prevent it burning.

Then I had to go out as I had a CrUST/ Green Festival meeting. A pleasent guy called Rob turned up, a DJ known as Green Renegade, and keen on having a DJ area within the York Green Festival. He's offered to help co-ordinate this side of things, which is good.

Then went for a rare meeting with my best friend in York, probably my best friend on the planet. When I lived in Emerald Street he was just round the corner and we saw each other often, but now it's only every few months. He works as a nurse, doing 3 nights a week, but loves his work as the artist 'Dexter'. He does text-based pieces, his first was called Dexter's World of the 60s and it has hundreds of words from his experience of the 1960s. He's also done one on the 70s and several private commissions. He used to do something called 'Retro Graffiti', recreating graffiti from the past, but in biodegradable flour and water paint. A very creative chap, and we supped Innocent blueberry and blackberry juice and chatted about our current projects.

And guess what, on the way home I cycled past another skip, wasn't able to ask this time but the planks found their way home for re-use. Down with landfill!

Enjoyed the second offering from the second series of It's Not Easy Being Green which Gill had been good enough to record.