Monday 24th Janurary 11

Up early as a busy day ahead.  I'd arranged to go and help Tim Jones, the local vicar on Tang Hall Lane, with processing a pile of garden trimmings.  I put my electric shredder in my trailer and he found his extension lead so we could use it on a concrete pad.  Tim had done a lot of garden clearing, pruning galore, so the pile of shreddables was a lot bigger than I'd remembered.  But this also meant that I had a bigger pile of sticks out of the deal! 

However, I had to leave there at 10.30 as at 11 I wanted to be at Stella Rawson's funeral.  I went home to get changed into tidy clothes, and Gill informed me that some friends/colleagues from St Nicks had rang asking where the funeral was.  I hadn't discussed this with Gill so she wasn't able to tell them.  However, after the funeral, I spoke to them and they'd googled her name and come up with my blog post which I'd deliberately put the details of when and where the funeral was.  I was pleased about this.

So, anyway, poor Stella's funeral.  The 'back story' is really sad; she'd had a weight problem for a long time and was determined to reduce it, but dieting hadn't worked so she'd opted to have a gastric band put in, to limit what she could comfortably eat.  She suffered complications, and after several weeks, passed away.  I didn't know Stella well, although I'd met her several times when working with Robin on his solar panel installation and when he'd showed me his super woodstove which runs his central heating.  I feel most sorry for the children.  Losing your Mummy must be really hard to cope with.

The church was packed but I did find a place.  Stella was very involved with the church so it was a normal Christian funeral.  As usual, the best bit of the event was where family and friends say a few words about the person, as that gives you a much better idea of their life.  Stella was very well liked, loved, respected and valued.  It really is a terrible loss.  Afterwards, the close family went to the Crematorium, and other guests went to a buffet lunch... I came home as I needed to get back to Tim's to finish off the shredding.

There wasn't much more to do, so we cleared up and then had a coffee and chat for an hour, covering diverse subjects including Aspergers, counselling, several mutual friends, chimney balloons and more!

But, once again, I had to get away as I wanted to be in Newcastle by 5.30.  I'd been invited to the launch event of the Cultural Partnership between the RSA and Northumbria University.  I managed to get to the station for about 4.45 and there was soon a train heading North, scheduled to take an hour.  When in Newcastle I decided to get a taxi to the venue.
(tbc)

Sunday 23rd January 11

A good day which started with a lie-in and then Country Tracks on telly with my breakfast branflakes and muesli.  I spent some time researching my evening tomorrow, an RSA meeting in Newcastle.  This doesn't start til 5.30, which means I will be able to attend Stella Rawson's funeral at 11am at Holy Trinity Church in Heworth, on the corner of Melrosegate and East Parade. 

After lunch I serviced my youngest son's bike, as it needed oiling and a puncture repaired.  I also cut the front privet hedge, as we've used up all the logs which are usually stacked next to it so it's accessible, so 20 minutes with the shears and it was looking a bit less shaggy.  The very cold weather has taken off many of the leaves, so I'm looking forward to it growing again as it looks dreadful.

I visited Richard down at Country Fresh and discussed whether I could get a lift to London for the Falling Spikes gig at the beginning of February, and Rich thinks I could get a lift back but not down there, as a couple of people are going down with them but not coming back.  This probably makes it unlikely that I'll go.  But there are more local gigs planned.

I did a bit of chainsawing, some pallets, a few recently acquired logs, but not much as Gill came out and told me I was being loud and some time ago I'd agreed with a religious neighbour down the road that I wouldn't split logs on a Sunday.  Well I wasn't splitting logs, but the chainsaw on the pallet was fairly loud.

Later I went on a foraging expedition and came back with 4 pallets and a few logs.

When the children were asleep we filled in the forms for the Steiner School, as they need to know our income and expenditure, to work out how much the donation is that we should give.  This was complicated but I think we got most of the information together.  Now we need to photocopy loads of it to present to them.  I don't like paperwork.