A very full of paperwork day, and general sorting.
I put 3 cheques in the post, which was good. I did a lot of deleting of inbox stuff as it was full AGAIN!
I had some communication with a BBC researcher who is wanting to do a carbon footprint piece for (I think) Look North to go out during their 'green week', and she's coming tomorrow to do a bit of filming.
I decided to do a bit of tidying up outside, some sacks of rubble to go to the rubble skip at Hazel Court. I went via St Nicks where I needed to discuss with the Rotters management about whether I was allowed to mention composting with the BBC person, and I had a good little discussion there, and decided that I wouldn't be mentioning composting.
I went to Hazel Court Civic Amenity Site to put my rubble in the recycling skip (well, the rubble skip... not sure it's recycled) and got a talking to from a very pleasant chap about the mortal danger I am putting myself in by being on a bike with trailer up at the top of the area where all the, shock, horror, CARS are. I was very polite and told him I had no intention of tipping my rubble out at the pedestrians area, as I paid my Council Tax to use the skips not to employ the staff to clear up after me, and that I was happy to be there 'at my own risk'. He did his job well, and I explained that he could note me down as someone who wasn't afraid of polite civil disobedience in the face of stupid regulations.
I then cycled on to Country Fresh to see Richard and picked up 3 sacks of assorted compost-to-be. And back home via Freshways where I was offered another sack of mixed unsold veg and seven very aromatic Pakistani melons. I had some of these before and didn't like it to eat fresh but think it will be quite good dried. so that's a rack-full to do later this evening...
I made a nutloaf for tea using some spare granary bread, peanut butter, a plateful of yesterday's rice and beans, chopped mixed nuts, a leek, a grated carrot, two eggs, a slosh of red wine, some soy sauce, bouillon and herbs. This was very well mixed, and turned into a greased dish with sesame seeds round the edge. I microwaved it for 10 minutes and turned it out onto a baking tray and put it in the gas-oven for 20 minutes to crisp up. Gill did potatoes and sprouts.
Another delicious meal enjoyed by all the family. I washed up and started on the fruit, and tidying around the stoves because of the camera coming tomorrow. I can't be seen to be untidy! (hoots with laughter!)
Showing posts with label Nutloaf Recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nutloaf Recipe. Show all posts
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Wednesday 26th August 09
Up early as a house full of children and a day at Knaresborough planned, although I wasn't actually very keen on going.
However, niece Lellie phoned and as the day was wet, Gill decided with her that it might be better to meet up at the National Railway Museum at midday. I went online to check bus times and we had a pretty chilled morning until a few minutes before the bus was due, when it did get a bit hectic and shouty, but then all was quiet and I was alone in the house.
I went to Thomas' and bought lots of Yesterbake bread.
I did a big wash-up, and prepared a nut loaf to add to the soup I made last night. This nutloaf was the standard pattern: breadcrumbs mixed with peanut butter and mixed nuts, then assorted vegetables added... this time I used one raw grated beetroot, one raw grated carrot, one chopped onion, some finely chopped cooked sweet potato, one egg, a slurp of red wine and a dash of soya sauce, some bouillon and herbs. I lined the baking dish with seeds stuck to a wipe of margarine. I microwaved this and when the families came home, turned it out onto a metal tray and bunged it in the oven to crisp up.
I whizzed the carrot soup with the hand-held blender. This I tasted and found it was delicious! I lit the stove despite it being warm and summery as I wanted to cook the soup and I have 11 red peppers sliced up and drying, plus I don't know how many windfall apples (James Grieve) sliced and drying. There are three racks of apple rings balanced on top of each other...
I also had several Fiddlesticks calls... some booking enquiries for the autumn, and a Freecycle visitor to pick up 8 potato sacks. I popped down to see Raj at Freshways and picked up a sack of compostables, and on the way home picked up a lot of recyclable litter, mainly aluminium cans.
The family group came back on the bus and were glad to find a meal ready. Gill made a pasta salad with the remnants of yesterday's pasta, some tomatoes out of the conservatory and the penultimate cucumber from the conservatory.
All the children ate well, despite the youngest (6 years old) not eating anything with tomatoes or courgettes (the carrot soup had tomatoes and courgettes in) and all were rewarded for eating slices of pear afterwards by having chunks of carrot cake that Gill made for our eldest's birthday on Sunday.
Then we discussed what we are doing tomorrow, and everybody settled down to watch The Gods Must Be Crazy. I slipped out at 7pm to go to an informal York in Transition meeting at The Hansom Cab, which was productive. Home before 10pm and another huge load of washing up facing me. I decided to do my emails and blog first though... so the washing up will be done well after midnight.
However, niece Lellie phoned and as the day was wet, Gill decided with her that it might be better to meet up at the National Railway Museum at midday. I went online to check bus times and we had a pretty chilled morning until a few minutes before the bus was due, when it did get a bit hectic and shouty, but then all was quiet and I was alone in the house.
I went to Thomas' and bought lots of Yesterbake bread.
I did a big wash-up, and prepared a nut loaf to add to the soup I made last night. This nutloaf was the standard pattern: breadcrumbs mixed with peanut butter and mixed nuts, then assorted vegetables added... this time I used one raw grated beetroot, one raw grated carrot, one chopped onion, some finely chopped cooked sweet potato, one egg, a slurp of red wine and a dash of soya sauce, some bouillon and herbs. I lined the baking dish with seeds stuck to a wipe of margarine. I microwaved this and when the families came home, turned it out onto a metal tray and bunged it in the oven to crisp up.
I whizzed the carrot soup with the hand-held blender. This I tasted and found it was delicious! I lit the stove despite it being warm and summery as I wanted to cook the soup and I have 11 red peppers sliced up and drying, plus I don't know how many windfall apples (James Grieve) sliced and drying. There are three racks of apple rings balanced on top of each other...
I also had several Fiddlesticks calls... some booking enquiries for the autumn, and a Freecycle visitor to pick up 8 potato sacks. I popped down to see Raj at Freshways and picked up a sack of compostables, and on the way home picked up a lot of recyclable litter, mainly aluminium cans.
The family group came back on the bus and were glad to find a meal ready. Gill made a pasta salad with the remnants of yesterday's pasta, some tomatoes out of the conservatory and the penultimate cucumber from the conservatory.
All the children ate well, despite the youngest (6 years old) not eating anything with tomatoes or courgettes (the carrot soup had tomatoes and courgettes in) and all were rewarded for eating slices of pear afterwards by having chunks of carrot cake that Gill made for our eldest's birthday on Sunday.
Then we discussed what we are doing tomorrow, and everybody settled down to watch The Gods Must Be Crazy. I slipped out at 7pm to go to an informal York in Transition meeting at The Hansom Cab, which was productive. Home before 10pm and another huge load of washing up facing me. I decided to do my emails and blog first though... so the washing up will be done well after midnight.
Thursday, 20 September 2007
Thursday 20th September 07
Quite a good day, Gill took the boys to school and I got up at a reasonable time and did a load of stuff on the computer, with a lot of chat with my friend in America who's been working all night, and was still working at 4am.
I then went to the allotment to dig up the rest of the onions and deliver some wool carpet which has been donated to me for use as a weed suppressant. I dug onions, removed weeds, chopped back brambles intent on a takeover and built another good layer on the compost heap. This included a layer of halved oranges and coffee grounds from Millers Yard, which I visited yesterday. Cam home with about 30 onions.
Late lunch, then a quick cycle down to St Nicks where I had a good chat with Jo and a bit of a telling off from John, one of the other York Rotters managers. Apparently I have overstepped the remit of York Rotters by talking on telly about stuff which is not strictly home composting WHILST wearing one of my York Rotters tee-shirts! I might have brought the group into disrepute by mentioning the composting of human bodies with the tee shirt on. Apparently some of the councillors might not like it, and we need to ask for more funding, so I've got to be careful and appropriate, and appropriate can be difficult for me.
At 3, went to school and picked up the boys. I stayed in the house as they were meant to be doing homework, so I made a nutloaf for us all, and we tried to get them to do some work, quite a battle. Lots of shouting, it really winds me up, I have to work hard not to shout back and I feel like giving them a punishment for such atrocious behaviour. But I kept my calm, just.
I certainly do not want to spend any time with them tonight. I feel awful even thinking this.
However we all ate together very soon after this posting and the meal was enjoyed, foodwise, and we had an interesting discussion about etiquette, how to hold the knife and fork (if got both) and the fork (if on it's own) and we all agreed that they are not based on logic, but probably history and that they have something to do with different cultures and people in groups all behaving in the same way, creating a sort of solidarity, connectivity between individuals. Quite a deep conversation to have over nutloaf, sweetcorn and peas with boiled potato!
After tea it was time to do homework, which wasn't done beforehand. One had a small number of spellings to copy, the other had quite a lot of maths. Neither of them wanted to do the work and the noise and aggro was too much for me. I tried to intervene and it just exacerbated the situation, with both of them yelling at me. I consider such behaviour punishable and gave them several warnings. Gill got upset, but I didn't want to just leave it, they had their homework to do, I feel it is my responsibility to ensure they do it. Gill disagreed, as if they don't do it, it is the boys themselves. She sent the boys up to their rooms to do their work at their own desks, and we agreed that this is what we'll do in the future, not have them do homework downstairs.
I went outside and continued stacking some split logs and then got ready to go out to the CRAG meeting. Got to Priory St, where the meeting was due to take place, and found the room locked. My friend Mary turned up, and I told her that the door was locked, and she explained that room bookers had to get the key before 4pm. I had no idea about this, and of course, could do nothing about it now. The problem might have been me not reading the small-print, or perhaps CVS not giving me the info, I don't know. We made a decision to go to a pub... decided to use the Brigantes Bar, on Micklegate, as they have an upstairs room we've used before.
A notice was put on the door to let latecomers know, and we all trouped along to the Brigantes. The meeting was well attended, 21 people including our 2 speakers, Anna and Jonathan, both transport experts. We put the chairs in a circle and when all settled Alex did a little introduction and then Anna spoke about cutting car use, her speciality. She gave us some very interesting facts, including the link between car use and ill health, the pollution that car users are exposed to within the car, which is three times that people cycling on the side of the road are exposed to, and the costs of car use. The average UK family spends 18% of their income on their car use, more than on housing or on food! She also spoke on the injuries and deaths caused... there are 26,000 people hospitalised or killed by cars in the UK every year. She compared the UK experience with that in the Netherlands and Switzerland, where, for instance, when there is a collision between a cyclist and a motor vehicle, the motorist has to prove they were driving carefully, whereas here the cyclist has to prove that they weren't cycling dangerously. Also, when a motorist kills someone, they very rarely get prosecuted for it, despite it often being their fault. This developed into a discussion, which had to be forestalled as we had a second speaker, Jonathan. He is an expert in public transport, and informed us about several rail issues, some stuff about freight which we didn't know, and comparisons between planes, trains, buses and cars. Then there was more discussion, comments, questions, all in all a very interesting meeting.
I popped in to Out Of This World to pick up any recycling and came home, lit the stove and did some emailing, blogging and googletalking. I was delighted to recieve a comment from this blog, following my woes about having to censor my blog to be more ethical towards my children. The comment was from Peter, who writes a brilliant blog called Earthquake Cove, which has been voted as one of the top 100 green blogs. (http://earthquakecove.blogspot.com/) I had a trundle through this blog, and feel I could learn a lot about how to make a blog more interesting and user friendly. I'll ask Peter for some tips!
I then went to the allotment to dig up the rest of the onions and deliver some wool carpet which has been donated to me for use as a weed suppressant. I dug onions, removed weeds, chopped back brambles intent on a takeover and built another good layer on the compost heap. This included a layer of halved oranges and coffee grounds from Millers Yard, which I visited yesterday. Cam home with about 30 onions.
Late lunch, then a quick cycle down to St Nicks where I had a good chat with Jo and a bit of a telling off from John, one of the other York Rotters managers. Apparently I have overstepped the remit of York Rotters by talking on telly about stuff which is not strictly home composting WHILST wearing one of my York Rotters tee-shirts! I might have brought the group into disrepute by mentioning the composting of human bodies with the tee shirt on. Apparently some of the councillors might not like it, and we need to ask for more funding, so I've got to be careful and appropriate, and appropriate can be difficult for me.
At 3, went to school and picked up the boys. I stayed in the house as they were meant to be doing homework, so I made a nutloaf for us all, and we tried to get them to do some work, quite a battle. Lots of shouting, it really winds me up, I have to work hard not to shout back and I feel like giving them a punishment for such atrocious behaviour. But I kept my calm, just.
I certainly do not want to spend any time with them tonight. I feel awful even thinking this.
However we all ate together very soon after this posting and the meal was enjoyed, foodwise, and we had an interesting discussion about etiquette, how to hold the knife and fork (if got both) and the fork (if on it's own) and we all agreed that they are not based on logic, but probably history and that they have something to do with different cultures and people in groups all behaving in the same way, creating a sort of solidarity, connectivity between individuals. Quite a deep conversation to have over nutloaf, sweetcorn and peas with boiled potato!
After tea it was time to do homework, which wasn't done beforehand. One had a small number of spellings to copy, the other had quite a lot of maths. Neither of them wanted to do the work and the noise and aggro was too much for me. I tried to intervene and it just exacerbated the situation, with both of them yelling at me. I consider such behaviour punishable and gave them several warnings. Gill got upset, but I didn't want to just leave it, they had their homework to do, I feel it is my responsibility to ensure they do it. Gill disagreed, as if they don't do it, it is the boys themselves. She sent the boys up to their rooms to do their work at their own desks, and we agreed that this is what we'll do in the future, not have them do homework downstairs.
I went outside and continued stacking some split logs and then got ready to go out to the CRAG meeting. Got to Priory St, where the meeting was due to take place, and found the room locked. My friend Mary turned up, and I told her that the door was locked, and she explained that room bookers had to get the key before 4pm. I had no idea about this, and of course, could do nothing about it now. The problem might have been me not reading the small-print, or perhaps CVS not giving me the info, I don't know. We made a decision to go to a pub... decided to use the Brigantes Bar, on Micklegate, as they have an upstairs room we've used before.
A notice was put on the door to let latecomers know, and we all trouped along to the Brigantes. The meeting was well attended, 21 people including our 2 speakers, Anna and Jonathan, both transport experts. We put the chairs in a circle and when all settled Alex did a little introduction and then Anna spoke about cutting car use, her speciality. She gave us some very interesting facts, including the link between car use and ill health, the pollution that car users are exposed to within the car, which is three times that people cycling on the side of the road are exposed to, and the costs of car use. The average UK family spends 18% of their income on their car use, more than on housing or on food! She also spoke on the injuries and deaths caused... there are 26,000 people hospitalised or killed by cars in the UK every year. She compared the UK experience with that in the Netherlands and Switzerland, where, for instance, when there is a collision between a cyclist and a motor vehicle, the motorist has to prove they were driving carefully, whereas here the cyclist has to prove that they weren't cycling dangerously. Also, when a motorist kills someone, they very rarely get prosecuted for it, despite it often being their fault. This developed into a discussion, which had to be forestalled as we had a second speaker, Jonathan. He is an expert in public transport, and informed us about several rail issues, some stuff about freight which we didn't know, and comparisons between planes, trains, buses and cars. Then there was more discussion, comments, questions, all in all a very interesting meeting.
I popped in to Out Of This World to pick up any recycling and came home, lit the stove and did some emailing, blogging and googletalking. I was delighted to recieve a comment from this blog, following my woes about having to censor my blog to be more ethical towards my children. The comment was from Peter, who writes a brilliant blog called Earthquake Cove, which has been voted as one of the top 100 green blogs. (http://earthquakecove.blogspot.com/) I had a trundle through this blog, and feel I could learn a lot about how to make a blog more interesting and user friendly. I'll ask Peter for some tips!
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Tuesday 28th August 07
Another fairly late lie-in til 9, a lazy morning including TV and some 'bundling', our name for child/father wrestling or play-fighting. However the bundling got a bit intense and our 10 yr old got angry and ran away after he had cut one of my fingers with his toe-nail, by accident. He returned and was persuaded to have his toe-nails cut, which I did as usual with my Swiss Army Knife scissors.
Had lunch in the caravan and then went on the little train to Wells to do some shopping, starting with worming tablets, then food and posting cards. Went to look for books for Linda's birthday present, she would like a book of plants showing good images as she's got a commission to draw some pictures of dye plants for a forthcoming book. So Gill found her a small book with good drawings in a cheap bookshop. But later, in another shop (owned by the same people, apparently) she found two large volumes of 'botanically correct' photos and descriptions of many species, with photos by Roger Phillips, one of my favourite photographers. Originally £50 each, these 'seconds' were just £15 each, a bargain, so I suggested she get them both for Linda. I found a couple of Roger Phillips books, one called Herbs (with Nicky Foy) and another called Trees in Britain, Europe and North America. I also found something fun, Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds, about 'Rave Music and Dance Culture', which I've been on the edge of since it's inception, although never been really involved with, and I've never taken 'E' so cannot really know what it's all about. But I have really good memories of brilliant raves in the 1990's, mainly in Leeds whilst I was an Environmental Health student. The children got some books too, we spent well over £50 on books today!
Then went to the grocers, and found an outlet for 'The Norfolk Cider Co' which was good, as cider is my favourite drink, so got two bottles. With all this stuff, got the train back to the caravan site.
I made a nutloaf from some dead bread, couscous, peanut butter, onion, carrot, etc, and prepared some samphire I found yesterday, steamed with broccoli. Gill made a chocolate sponge in the microwave, and we had a lovely meal.
However the boys started getting boisterous and hitting each other, so when they didn't respond to my asking them to stop, then telling them to stop, I sat between them. This made the elder sibling very angry and he ran out of the caravan. The younger one followed him, ignoring my telling him to come back. I didn't follow or chase them, as they would only play hide and seek around the caravans. When the 8 yr old came back, he got a single smack on the hand for disobeying me. When the older one came in I told him off for running away and he started shouting at me at the top of his voice, stuff like 'I'm going to kill you', so I told him that it wasn't acceptable to say that sort of thing. He tried to attack me, so I held his arms to stop him, and told him I'd hold him like that until he stopped behaving in the unacceptable way. We had a difficult half hour... I told him I was going to let go of his wrists on several occasions but when I let go, he started hitting me again, so I held him again. But finally he realised I wasn't going to give up, so he calmed down and I was able to let go. His wrists were red, I felt really bad.
A few minutes after this, he came to me and told me he was very sorry, told me he loved me and Mum, and them Gill read to them both before they went to sleep. An eventul day!
Had lunch in the caravan and then went on the little train to Wells to do some shopping, starting with worming tablets, then food and posting cards. Went to look for books for Linda's birthday present, she would like a book of plants showing good images as she's got a commission to draw some pictures of dye plants for a forthcoming book. So Gill found her a small book with good drawings in a cheap bookshop. But later, in another shop (owned by the same people, apparently) she found two large volumes of 'botanically correct' photos and descriptions of many species, with photos by Roger Phillips, one of my favourite photographers. Originally £50 each, these 'seconds' were just £15 each, a bargain, so I suggested she get them both for Linda. I found a couple of Roger Phillips books, one called Herbs (with Nicky Foy) and another called Trees in Britain, Europe and North America. I also found something fun, Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds, about 'Rave Music and Dance Culture', which I've been on the edge of since it's inception, although never been really involved with, and I've never taken 'E' so cannot really know what it's all about. But I have really good memories of brilliant raves in the 1990's, mainly in Leeds whilst I was an Environmental Health student. The children got some books too, we spent well over £50 on books today!
Then went to the grocers, and found an outlet for 'The Norfolk Cider Co' which was good, as cider is my favourite drink, so got two bottles. With all this stuff, got the train back to the caravan site.
I made a nutloaf from some dead bread, couscous, peanut butter, onion, carrot, etc, and prepared some samphire I found yesterday, steamed with broccoli. Gill made a chocolate sponge in the microwave, and we had a lovely meal.
However the boys started getting boisterous and hitting each other, so when they didn't respond to my asking them to stop, then telling them to stop, I sat between them. This made the elder sibling very angry and he ran out of the caravan. The younger one followed him, ignoring my telling him to come back. I didn't follow or chase them, as they would only play hide and seek around the caravans. When the 8 yr old came back, he got a single smack on the hand for disobeying me. When the older one came in I told him off for running away and he started shouting at me at the top of his voice, stuff like 'I'm going to kill you', so I told him that it wasn't acceptable to say that sort of thing. He tried to attack me, so I held his arms to stop him, and told him I'd hold him like that until he stopped behaving in the unacceptable way. We had a difficult half hour... I told him I was going to let go of his wrists on several occasions but when I let go, he started hitting me again, so I held him again. But finally he realised I wasn't going to give up, so he calmed down and I was able to let go. His wrists were red, I felt really bad.
A few minutes after this, he came to me and told me he was very sorry, told me he loved me and Mum, and them Gill read to them both before they went to sleep. An eventul day!
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Tuesday 3rd April 07
An active day, a fair amount of housework during the morning, and a SUMA delivery. Gill and I have for several years been running a food co-op for ourselves and some friends, and we get a few regularly-used items like peanut butter, loo paper, muesli base, pasta. As we buy it in bulk it means we can afford to buy organic, supporting agricultural practices which do less damage to the environment and are better for wildlife, and fair trade, which gives a better deal for the producers.
After lunch went to St Nicks as agreed with John the Centre manager, to chop some logs. I'd suggested I could do this for St Nicks, as I sometimes take logs off the pile which is regularly added to by tree-surgeons offloading their unwanted tree wastes, and it is only fair if I give something back. A poplar had come down and been sawn up into rounds, and needed splitting.
The centre has many visitors, today it had a group of youths, teenagers, who had come into contact with the authorities through anti-social behaviour or misdeeds, and were under the care of 'Crossroads'. I know nothing about this, they seemed like fairly ordinary young adults to me, and I was assigned several volunteers to teach how to split logs and stack them. These tasks may seem simple but there is a knack to both. For instance, rounds with a side branch split best when done in line with the side branch, so it splits too, rather than at right-angles to it which can be more difficult as the knot may extend into the log. Rounds with side branches also split best from the lower cut surface, ie with the log upside-down as the branch leaves the round at an angle and having the split start where the branch begins to leave the trunk seems best to me.
Also stacking a logpile is quite an art if it isn't to fall down. The activity attracted a queue of participants, male and female, all wanting a go at smashing the rounds in two. Even the leaders had a go. We also had to use the centre's 'log grenade' too, a wedge in a sort of pyramid shape which is incredibly effective at blowing apart difficult to split rounds.
We all had a lot of fun, I gave lots of positive feedback and encouragement, and just occasional direction, mainly putting the rounds in the right orientation for easiest splitting, and getting out of the way quick. I was pleased to meet a friendly leader, Chris from Crossroads, who seemed fascinated by my lifestyle and told me he'd invite me out for a drink, I hope he does. He said that the youth service should be paying me for the help I'd given, and I gave him my Professor Fiddlesticks card as I may get some paid work with the group.
I'd cycled to St Nicks with my boys, my mate Simon and his son. Simon spent time with the three boys, playing, exploring, keeping the peace. I am very grateful to Simon for being a lovely responsible grown-up with my boys, I couldn't have done the logsplitting work without his help.
Got home and quickly made a nutloaf with bread, peanut butter, onions, rice, grated carrot and seeds, bound with egg and microwaved and then put in the oven along with a chocolate cake Gill was baking. Had this with a cheese sauce and new potatoes.
Put the boys to bed early as we've a busy day tomorrow with an early start.
Enjoyed learning about the connection between Tourettes and creativity. I have an interest in such disorders as I have many of the traits of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and I am a very active, enthusiastic and creative person. I haven't had a diagnosis but I would love to know if I do have ADHD. Lots of the people who know me think I do, and I feel more comfortable with that label than what I have previously been called, such as 'eccentric'. ADHD is thought to be connected with lowered levels of dopamine in the frontal lobes of the brain, and Tourettes is also connected with dopamine, but increased levels in temporal and frontal lobes. Interesting stuff.
After lunch went to St Nicks as agreed with John the Centre manager, to chop some logs. I'd suggested I could do this for St Nicks, as I sometimes take logs off the pile which is regularly added to by tree-surgeons offloading their unwanted tree wastes, and it is only fair if I give something back. A poplar had come down and been sawn up into rounds, and needed splitting.
The centre has many visitors, today it had a group of youths, teenagers, who had come into contact with the authorities through anti-social behaviour or misdeeds, and were under the care of 'Crossroads'. I know nothing about this, they seemed like fairly ordinary young adults to me, and I was assigned several volunteers to teach how to split logs and stack them. These tasks may seem simple but there is a knack to both. For instance, rounds with a side branch split best when done in line with the side branch, so it splits too, rather than at right-angles to it which can be more difficult as the knot may extend into the log. Rounds with side branches also split best from the lower cut surface, ie with the log upside-down as the branch leaves the round at an angle and having the split start where the branch begins to leave the trunk seems best to me.
Also stacking a logpile is quite an art if it isn't to fall down. The activity attracted a queue of participants, male and female, all wanting a go at smashing the rounds in two. Even the leaders had a go. We also had to use the centre's 'log grenade' too, a wedge in a sort of pyramid shape which is incredibly effective at blowing apart difficult to split rounds.
We all had a lot of fun, I gave lots of positive feedback and encouragement, and just occasional direction, mainly putting the rounds in the right orientation for easiest splitting, and getting out of the way quick. I was pleased to meet a friendly leader, Chris from Crossroads, who seemed fascinated by my lifestyle and told me he'd invite me out for a drink, I hope he does. He said that the youth service should be paying me for the help I'd given, and I gave him my Professor Fiddlesticks card as I may get some paid work with the group.
I'd cycled to St Nicks with my boys, my mate Simon and his son. Simon spent time with the three boys, playing, exploring, keeping the peace. I am very grateful to Simon for being a lovely responsible grown-up with my boys, I couldn't have done the logsplitting work without his help.
Got home and quickly made a nutloaf with bread, peanut butter, onions, rice, grated carrot and seeds, bound with egg and microwaved and then put in the oven along with a chocolate cake Gill was baking. Had this with a cheese sauce and new potatoes.
Put the boys to bed early as we've a busy day tomorrow with an early start.
Enjoyed learning about the connection between Tourettes and creativity. I have an interest in such disorders as I have many of the traits of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and I am a very active, enthusiastic and creative person. I haven't had a diagnosis but I would love to know if I do have ADHD. Lots of the people who know me think I do, and I feel more comfortable with that label than what I have previously been called, such as 'eccentric'. ADHD is thought to be connected with lowered levels of dopamine in the frontal lobes of the brain, and Tourettes is also connected with dopamine, but increased levels in temporal and frontal lobes. Interesting stuff.
Friday, 16 March 2007
Friday 16th March 07
Just a normal day really, a bit of gardening, getting ready for the spring crops, and some compost heap management, woodpile management, cooking, spending time with Wife and friends, and several bike trips.
So, as usual, Gill got up early and got the boys ready for school, which today involved spraying their hair red for Red Nose Day, when the school encourages them to have a 'bad hair day' and contribute a pound to raise money for charity. I got up just in time to help Gill spray some of her hair red too, she looked either really groovy or really silly! She took them in and cycled back to join me upstairs again. We are so very lucky to have found each other, we complement each other, and, keeping the relationship vibrant, compliment each other regularly too!
At 10ish we got a phone call from a friend who participates in our food coop, asking if we'd like to have some spare flour which she over-ordered and hasn't used and needs to get rid of as she's having a clearout. I offered to pick it up on the way back from my usual Friday compost collection, so I set off within minutes and went straight to Out Of This World to pick up about 20kg of unsold veg and peelings and stalks leftover from soup making, as they have a little cafe.
When I arrived at my friend's, her father was there as he's been unwell and is staying with his daughter whilst the medics find out what's wrong. He and I got into a good conversation, and it seems he approves of my ethical approach to life and we rather left his daughter out of the conversation, but she was busy with various things and didn't seem to mind. He declared he was bereft of stimulating company at the moment, and did I drink wine?
So I invited him around to tomorrow's evening of Scrabble with Will and his friend Fiona, who is apparently quite a Scrabble fiend. The gentleman's name is Taj and he is a mathematician and economist and engineer. Should be interesting, as Will is a maths person so stimulating conversations should ensue.
Home for lunch and some garden activities afterwards, including emptying a 'New Zealand Bin' of partly composted material into another (known as 'turning the heap' in composting circles) and continuing to fill the Compostumbler with chopped materials and chainsawdust. Also some weeding, as the Ground Elder and Nettles are beginning to grow. Some people say not to put these types of weeds in compost, but there are 3 ways that they can be added. Put them in a hot heap, and as I have several, that's what I do. The heat, generated by the large volumes of rotting materials, quickly destroys any living plant material, including pernicious roots. However, letting them dry out before composting also works, as does putting them in a bucket of water for a few weeks and then tipping the resultant smelly gunge onto the heap. This latter method also kills weed seeds, whereas drying doesn't.
Half an hour before having to go to school to pick up the boys, I made a nutloaf for tea. This is something I make quite often and it's a really easy recipe.
Here it is:
Ingredients: Breadcrumbs, chopped veg, peanut butter, chopped nuts, optional cooked rice/bulgar wheat/other cooked food, optional egg/s, optional moisteners such as red wine, yesterday's soup, etc.
Method: I make breadcrumbs in a blender from old crusts or bread not eaten and not yet mouldy! Put a generous spoonful of peanut butter into the breadcrumbs and wipe this in so it is well mixed up and no PB is left recognisable. Then add other 'dry' ingredients such as leftover grain, chopped onions, grated carrot, chopped nuts, seeds etc. Then add the 'wet' ingredients such as chopped tomatoes, yesterday's soup or curry sauce, and egg if you want to help the mix bind together. Mix very well and season with herbs and bouillon powder or soy sauce (for saltyness).
Grease a pyrex dish or baking tray and I often sprinkle some sesame seeds onto the margerined surface before putting the mix into the bowl. I press it in hard with the back of a fork, and microwave to cook, or put in an oven. I use the micro as it uses far less energy than conventional ovens, but today I turned it out when partly cooked and it went in the gas oven as Gill was already using it to make scones. In the conventional oven it gets crispy around the edge which is nice.
This recipe is infinitely adaptable as it uses up leftovers and can be flavoured with whatever you fancy. Sometimes I do two mixes, one with spinach or chard out of the garden, and another with baked beans, and make a layered nutloaf, or 'terrine' type invention. I've been making these for over 20 years and love them. Great with a sauce!
So the boys had some of this for tea, with new potatoes, peas and sweetcorn and a cabbage salad. After I finished off some outside jobs we had carrot soup and nutloaf for tea. Later in the evening my good buddy Simon came round and as my computer was on, he showed me how to 'cut and paste' which several software programmes have asked me to do and I've been too much of a computer novice to be able to do. Cheers Simon!
So, as usual, Gill got up early and got the boys ready for school, which today involved spraying their hair red for Red Nose Day, when the school encourages them to have a 'bad hair day' and contribute a pound to raise money for charity. I got up just in time to help Gill spray some of her hair red too, she looked either really groovy or really silly! She took them in and cycled back to join me upstairs again. We are so very lucky to have found each other, we complement each other, and, keeping the relationship vibrant, compliment each other regularly too!
At 10ish we got a phone call from a friend who participates in our food coop, asking if we'd like to have some spare flour which she over-ordered and hasn't used and needs to get rid of as she's having a clearout. I offered to pick it up on the way back from my usual Friday compost collection, so I set off within minutes and went straight to Out Of This World to pick up about 20kg of unsold veg and peelings and stalks leftover from soup making, as they have a little cafe.
When I arrived at my friend's, her father was there as he's been unwell and is staying with his daughter whilst the medics find out what's wrong. He and I got into a good conversation, and it seems he approves of my ethical approach to life and we rather left his daughter out of the conversation, but she was busy with various things and didn't seem to mind. He declared he was bereft of stimulating company at the moment, and did I drink wine?
So I invited him around to tomorrow's evening of Scrabble with Will and his friend Fiona, who is apparently quite a Scrabble fiend. The gentleman's name is Taj and he is a mathematician and economist and engineer. Should be interesting, as Will is a maths person so stimulating conversations should ensue.
Home for lunch and some garden activities afterwards, including emptying a 'New Zealand Bin' of partly composted material into another (known as 'turning the heap' in composting circles) and continuing to fill the Compostumbler with chopped materials and chainsawdust. Also some weeding, as the Ground Elder and Nettles are beginning to grow. Some people say not to put these types of weeds in compost, but there are 3 ways that they can be added. Put them in a hot heap, and as I have several, that's what I do. The heat, generated by the large volumes of rotting materials, quickly destroys any living plant material, including pernicious roots. However, letting them dry out before composting also works, as does putting them in a bucket of water for a few weeks and then tipping the resultant smelly gunge onto the heap. This latter method also kills weed seeds, whereas drying doesn't.
Half an hour before having to go to school to pick up the boys, I made a nutloaf for tea. This is something I make quite often and it's a really easy recipe.
Here it is:
Ingredients: Breadcrumbs, chopped veg, peanut butter, chopped nuts, optional cooked rice/bulgar wheat/other cooked food, optional egg/s, optional moisteners such as red wine, yesterday's soup, etc.
Method: I make breadcrumbs in a blender from old crusts or bread not eaten and not yet mouldy! Put a generous spoonful of peanut butter into the breadcrumbs and wipe this in so it is well mixed up and no PB is left recognisable. Then add other 'dry' ingredients such as leftover grain, chopped onions, grated carrot, chopped nuts, seeds etc. Then add the 'wet' ingredients such as chopped tomatoes, yesterday's soup or curry sauce, and egg if you want to help the mix bind together. Mix very well and season with herbs and bouillon powder or soy sauce (for saltyness).
Grease a pyrex dish or baking tray and I often sprinkle some sesame seeds onto the margerined surface before putting the mix into the bowl. I press it in hard with the back of a fork, and microwave to cook, or put in an oven. I use the micro as it uses far less energy than conventional ovens, but today I turned it out when partly cooked and it went in the gas oven as Gill was already using it to make scones. In the conventional oven it gets crispy around the edge which is nice.
This recipe is infinitely adaptable as it uses up leftovers and can be flavoured with whatever you fancy. Sometimes I do two mixes, one with spinach or chard out of the garden, and another with baked beans, and make a layered nutloaf, or 'terrine' type invention. I've been making these for over 20 years and love them. Great with a sauce!
So the boys had some of this for tea, with new potatoes, peas and sweetcorn and a cabbage salad. After I finished off some outside jobs we had carrot soup and nutloaf for tea. Later in the evening my good buddy Simon came round and as my computer was on, he showed me how to 'cut and paste' which several software programmes have asked me to do and I've been too much of a computer novice to be able to do. Cheers Simon!
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