Sunday 6th February 11

Another fairly relaxing day.  I slept til about 10 and then got up for breakfast and watching Country Tracks, but I missed most of it as I had a long phone call.  But after lunch I got busy and did some tidying in the conservatory which has become a dumping ground, and then sorted out both my stacking wormeries (Can Of Worms and Worm Cafe) which both have healthy populations of worms in, despite freezing temperatures and no insulation over the winter.

I did some clearing up in the garden too, cut a couple of dead branches off apple trees and putting more stuff in compost heaps, including brambles, chopped into short lengths.  I cleared out the Envirocycle tumbler and refilled it with mushy potatoes and mummified apples plus sheets of damp cardboard.

I did yet more sawdust riddling... I've still got more to do!

In the evening I dealt with a bit of fruit and cleaned and chopped 3 very large new potatoes which had been thrown away as they had a developmental split in them, and presumably the retailer thought they looked funny so lobbed them.  They are now converted into potato salad, boiled briefly on the stove but left with some firmness.  I'll add chives or spring onion tomorrow, and probably mayonnaise.  That's one bit of tea done anyway.

Did the washing up before bed.  And watched interesting UFO videos on YouTube.  I'm a skeptic but still like trying to work out what they are. 

Sunday 20th May 07

Another weekend work day, this time a 10 or 12 mile cycle to Linton on Ouse RAF base, to entertain at a BBQ and family fun day. I was due to start at 2 so I set off soon after 12, after a quick email download and brief googlechat with my friend in the US, who had been out partying and hadn't gone to bed, it was 6am there!

I decided to go the quick way, along the cyclepath to Haxby Road, through Bootham Hospital grounds, up through Clifton to Skelton and out along the main road to where the Newton road turns off to the West, past the hotel/bar constructed of railway carriages and over the railway to the Beningborough turn. Cycled past Beningborough Hall and into Newton on Ouse where I had my sandwiches, at 1.15. Linton is only a mile or so beyond this and I got to the Air Force base well before 2 and signed in, I have been there before and was on their database, although the photo was a younger me.

Mike my 'handler' met me in the Officers' Mess and I got changed and gathered my audience, about 20 children and beyond them, eating and drinking, perhaps 60 adults. the show went well although 20 is the minimum number for a good show with plenty of participants, but we all had fun and perhaps 8 children had several goes at the skills I teach. One lad, a 12 yr old, was very steady on the 4 wheel and 2 wheel unicycle, and had a go on the one-wheeler, which was nice as I don't always have anybody good enough to do the one-wheeler.

Then the balloon activities, easy as not that many kids, and finished at 4, and was offered a drink and payment. Now when I was 20 I made myself a rule that I would not take alcohol during daylight, as I recognised my liking for it and my potential to become an alcoholic, however in my dotage I now and again break this rule. I enjoyed my Magner's Cider on ice, and was offered pizza and chips, which was a treat. Chatted to Chris, a teenage child of a Sargeant, and a beginner diabolo player, devilsticker etc, and admirer of some of my tricks.

Left at 5 and this time came home the long and wigly way, through Overton and the cycle path along the bank of the Ouse. Met with John and Sandra H, retired cyclists who had come out to Beningborough Hall and were heading back to York. He had been a Professor of Economics at York Uni and so we talked LETS, Credit Unions and Cooperatives, sustainability and the like. Sandra was once a researcher into fuel poverty so I enthused about my woodstoves and told her that a local authority (Hartlepool? Middlesborough?) had provided some woodstoves to a group of residents who were suffering fuel poverty, and I thought this was a really good idea.

Home soon after 6 and Gill gave me a little slice of home made quiche she'd made before going out to a party the boys had been invited to. They'd had a lovely day and had only been in for less than an hour.

After this second half of tea I did some shredding of hedge clippings donated by a neighbour, and filled up my 130 litre Canadian 'Envirocycle' composter which rotates and puts the juices into the base for collection for feeding plants.