Friday 25th June 10

Another good day... Up early enough to help the kids get out of the house peacefully and then persuaded Gill to spend some time with me which was really nice.

Later, we were downstairs and we had the conservatory door open and we heard a pretty distinctive noise, so we looked outside and yes, it was a thrush breaking a snail shell on the path, to get a bit of escargot lunch.... that's a first right outside the back door. Over the past few weeks, we've had a family of blackbirds coming into the conservatory through one of the top-light windows, which have been wide open... and they've been eating assorted fruit which I've brought back to the house for drying. The first one to come in was a young one with a big bald patch on it's back and a lump on the side of it's beak, and it has brought the rest of the family with it, so we've had up to 4 in there at once! The nicest thing is, that one of them sits and sings loudly in there! We feel so lucky with our wildlife-friendly garden.

After lunch I decided to go to Country Fresh to get fruit and veg... but as I'd be halfway to Cycle Heaven, and I was rung up about them having a leather saddle with springs in the shop for me, I decided to go and get that, as my plastic saddle has begun to seriously fall to bits. The busy people at Cycle Heaven couldn't find the black Brooks saddle mentioned in the phone call... but found me a brown one which was old stock and therefore cheaper! Yay! Still expensive though, but it ought to last for years. I was told that it might be uncomfortable at first as it moulded to my shape, but it wasn't, it was fine. I'm very pleased with it.

I did some work in the garden, assorted compost-based stuff, until 3 when Gill went to school, and I got ready to go to St Nicks for a meeting with John and Edward to catch up with the progress of rehabilitating me into York Rotters, as the current situation is still causing me anguish. Yesterday I attended a private meeting with a friend and two of his neighbours, but was told beforehand that I wasn't allowed to be a volunteer Rotter, but to go as 'John the Composter', because I am currently banned from doing the core Rotters work of giving home composting information to groups as I upset a couple of people at a stall we had late last year with my over enthusiastic and inappropriate humour. It is important that York Rotters is seen to be a professional group offering mainstream messages, and talk of compost toilets or composting funerals is strictly a no no. So today was an update on where St Nicks had got to in helping me back into the role I'm really good at, and due to some staff changes, they haven't got very far in finding me a 'buddy', but they have set a date for some 'diversity training' which will help people understand about disabilities including Aspergers, which should be interesting. Also, the Rotters newsletter has got a section 'meet the Rotter', a chance for people to introduce themselves, a mini autobiography . I've submitted mine and I sincerely hope they will print it word for word, as I was very careful to put stuff in which will help people understand my, ahem, 'special needs'! There was also a suggestion that I should perhaps concentrate on my (paid) John the Composter work, rather than the voluntary York Rotters role. However, Edward saw how passionate I was about the group and the work we do, and how proud I was about how successful it is, and he made it clear that he could tell how much I really love York Rotters, which I hope helps the other managers and volunteers welcome me back soon.

I added a small sack of goodies to the public composting area, which hasn't had any deliveries of sawdust from the pet shop for a while, which is a pity, and cycled home. I then spent a good two hours dealing with an old heap which has had 'visitors' and I bagged up all the mature compost and will rebuild the structure in a way to make said visitations much more difficult, ie on a pallet with a solid base, and up on top of another pallet to make lodging underneath less attractive.

I came in after 7pm for tomato soup. Then went and spent an hour doing Ben and Jill's compost bin, scooping stuff out from the base and putting it through the rotasieve, removing uncompostable 'contraries' and putting uncomposted sticks and bits of Yellow Pages back in the top. I'll get paid in Yorkys for that, which is nice.

I spent most of the rest of the evening with Glastonbury Festival on BBC2, and it brought back really good (albeit hazy) memories of 10 Glastos I attended or worked at when I was younger. Those were the daze!

Saturday 2nd May 09

Thanks to Dave Hampton 'The Carbon Coach' for this:
What did the Climate Change Activist say about the Frequent Flyer?
'The Swine Flew'.

A good lie-in today til 10ish and at about that time Simon came to pick up our eldest to go on a picnic down at the Outgang with Simon's son. Our youngest played on the computer for a bit, and I lit the stove and did a large amount of washing up, but soon the lovely weather drew us all outside.

Gill got the electrical cable out so I could mow the lawns... I did this and also cut a hedge, riddled some compost, emptied a dalek compost bin ready for riddling and refilled it from the one next to it, did some weeding, tidying piles of now-dry hedge sticks which have been sitting in piles for a year or so.. they need to be broken up and chopped up and bagged ready for next winter's stove needs, and also cut back lots of brambles and shredded them. A really hard-working day, got lots done and Gill was very pleased with the change she saw when she came down the garden. I was kept company all afternoon by robins... they have no fear of people and came very close whilst I was moving stuff around and managing the compost heaps. Their favourite food is centipedes, as far as I can tell from watching today. They are also adept at catching several wiggly beasties despite having one or more already in their beak. I love these robins. I love the assorted songbirds too... I've had a very pleasant afternoon.

I had tea at about 7pm and then did another hour until it was too dark to do anymore. Exhausted! Played Scrabble on Facebook, washed up, watched telly.

Thursday 2nd April 09

Gill left to go to visit her sister in West Yorkshire at just after 8am, so I took our youngest into school and came back via Fastpack on Lilac Avenue, which has an impressive range of nuts and bolts, tools and building materials. They sell bow saw blades, and I'd agreed to get a new one for Pauline's 24 inch bow saw as hers was blunt. Then I cycled down to Cycle Heaven where they have had a new wheel hub waiting for me for ages, and I left my bike with them whilst I walked round to Pauline's, had coffee and chats, chopped a little bit of firewood for her, and got back to the bike shop by 10.40. They had sorted out my back wheel, brakes and a brake cable.

Then to the main Post Office, as someone has sent me a package with not enough postage on it, and to the Council to give in the Planning Panel paperwork. Walked through the footstreets and then, cycling down Walmgate, saw a 'ripe' skip containing some good-looking wood, so stopped and chatted to the builders who were happy to help me load up some very old oak beams. Then, on Hull Road, as I was pulling up to the traffic lights, a van overtook me with a good pile of tree-prunings in the back, including some huge cherry logs. I pulled up alongside and asked them if they would like to drop off some of them just up the road. They asked where, and when I said it was just a minute away, they said they'd follow me, so I sped off, despite my heavy load, and they followed. Well worth it, as they gave me some massive chunky and dead-dry cherry logs, one trunk is about 50cm in diameter!

Stopped for a few minutes for lunch, but then got going again, sorting out some of the wood at the front and then started to prepare tea, ingredients for a lasagna. I did a roux and added lumps of cheese for a cheese sauce, and brought some sliced carrot and cauliflower up to the boil to take off the crunch before adding it to the lasagna. When I got back from school I layered up the sheets of pasta (no-pre-cook type), dollops of butternut and leek soup, slices of tomato, slices of carrot and cauliflower florets and the cheese sauce. I only put the cheese sauce in one of the bottom layers and all over the top, and then microwaved it for 10 minutes. Then, to finish it off and crisp the top, I bunged it in the gas oven for a few minutes. Gill arrived in and after saying hi to us all, tottered off upstairs to go to bed; she needed an hour's rest after going over to Ilkley and seeing her nephew's new baby and their delightful toddler too.

The lasagna was really good, both boys loved it, and so did I. I don't cook as often as I used to, and should do more really. At least I don't leave it all to Gill to do... and I won't let her do any washing up as I'm definitely better than her at that!

We had some fruit for pudding and then the boys went outside to play. Gill came down and I put the remains of the soup on the stove for her, this is what she had said she wanted. I went out to finish off the shredding. I was nearly done when our next-door neighbour Ken shouted at me to come and look at something. He showed me his lawn, which had two patches of pigeon feathers on it, and Diane, his wife, told me she'd watched a Sparrowhawk pulling the feathers off the pigeon and eating the whole thing up. There were literally only feathers left. It is fantastic to know that this urban environment supports a top predator like this. I've not seen the Sparrowhawk here, but Gill saw it swoop towards our bird table a while ago, but it didn't get anything that time.

I showed the boys the evidence of the Sparrowhawk, and then it was time for their supper, and at about 9 they were both heading for bed, having had a happy day. Looking forward to the holidays!

Wednesday 14th March 07

Woke feeling just a little sad at last night's email from the Yorkshire Post, but glad I'd responded politely as I like to keep options open and not burn boats.

When I was offered my column I contacted my friend Kate who writes a column for the York Press and asked her if she'd give me some tips and advice. In return, she asked me to help her with her compost bin which she's had for just over a year, and needs some management. Of course I was happy to help with her composter, and even if she now no longer needs to give advice to this non-columnist. I dug out the bottom of the dalek, the material was mostly well rotted and will need a short while maturing before it is used in her garden. The plastic and unrotted bits were taken out and put in their respective places (dustbin and top of compost pile) and the semi mature stuff put in a polybag for revisiting soon, when I'll Rotaseive it, a hand-powered mechanical riddle which separates small particles from larger sticks, etc.

I didn't have time to sit and have a coffee or a chat about the gutter press, as I was due at Askham Bryan Agricultural College for a short course about trees, evaluating the amenity value of trees and evaluating the different calorific value and burning quality of different types of wood. This latter issue is close to my heart, as all these blogs are written in front of my 4.5kw Clearview smokefree woodstove, which heats the front room and the bedroom above. So I learnt less from the second worksshop, apart from some numerical stuff such as how many BTUs (British Thermal Units) are in different species of tree's wood, fresh cut, air dried and kiln dried. The amenity value evaluation was completely new to me, a rather complicated and not very precise set of calculations called the Helliwell Method. However we were novices and if done by someone who knew what they were doing, it is a reasonable way to calculate an objective value of a tree from factors which are mostly subjective. Different people value trees for different things... an artist will see the shape and form, a biologist will see the ecological value, a timber merchant or woodburner will see something else. The method also enables a value in pounds sterling to be made, for compensation claims perhaps. We went into the grounds and attempted some amenity evaluations, then retired to the classroom to ccompare notes and discuss. Very interesting.

Then bombed back into York and filled up the cycle trailer with compostables and got home in time to meet up with a zoologist/entomologist from the Yorkshire Museum, who had been very interested in my find of some Minor Stag Beetles in a partially rotten log which I'd split. Often I put obviously rotten logs under a hedge in the garden so that beasties get a chance to live and breed, but this log didn't appear that bad, as it was mostly sound and would be good for burning. However when it split, a load of juicy woodboring beetle larvae fell out, plus a couple of adults, easily identifiable and in my book, rare and not found north of Nottingham. Pip the bug lady told me that they had actually been found as far north as Edinburgh and were found in the York area. Still a nice record for them, and Pip enjoyed the stroll down the garden and was pleased to see our Goldcrests which love the trees above my fruit-fly infested composters, and feast on the little blighters. How nice it feels to take materials which would otherwise be landfilled and lost for ever, and turn them into Britain's smallest bird plus a material which traps carbon into the soil and helps us grow delicious squashes and sweetcorn.

Our garden also has good populations of blackbirds which enjoy turning over mulches and flicking them around, also pecking at unsold apples which I often deliberately throw onto the lawn for them, and robins which love it when I move bags of compost around and reveal worms and other invertebrates which they hop down and eat. When working in the garden I always have their company. I'm not good at identifying other birds, but Gill has identified Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, House Sparrows and Dunnocks, Blue/Great/Long Tailed/Coal Tits, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Siskin, Starlings, Collared Dove and Wood Pigeons, Magpies, Wren, Treecreeper, Redwing, Blackcap Warbler, Fieldfare, a Kestrel (swooping towards the bird table) and Mallard Ducks visiting next door's pond.

It is very satisfying to have so much life enjoying our land, of which we are temporary stewards. The garden looks messy to people but is a haven for animals, plenty of nesting areas and ecological niches.