Thursday 2nd June 11

Such a busy day!  I had postponed the visit to Brunswick Organic Nursery from yesterday and I also had to deliver the 'hard copy' press releases for the World Naked Bike Ride which the Press and Radio hadn't responded to after they were sent by email.on the 27th May.

So that was my first trip out.  I set out with the two press releases and then returned 3 minutes later as I'd forgotten the fliers.  I then bombed down to Gillygate to the Radio York building and gave in the press release and discussed how best to publicise the event through the radio.  From here I popped round to Millers Yard and Dylan was happy to have the fliers.  Then a swift walk through the centre of town to the Press office.  I had a look through the paper which had just been published; they hadn't responded to our press release but had printed the letter I sent in a couple of days ago.   Then I had a chat with Dan, a reporter, who took the press release and fliers and said he'd try to get something in on Saturday.

From here I shot off down Fulford Road, over Millennium Bridge and out to Bishopthorpe.  I was pleased to meet friends at Brunswick, including Adam, and gave out a few fliers for the WNBR.  I found a good selection of squash plants and one or two other things, including some Marigolds for Gill, by request.

Then home, for a late lunch and a bit of a sit down and then off again to see if I could get a better quality 'Micro SD' card for my little camera.  I saw a YouTube video of a 'before and after' with the Micro SD which came with the camera (jerky, not the best quality) and then after a SanDisk SD card replaced it.  Much better, a smoother film.  I cycled to Staples and they had a replacement 8GB card for £18... but not from SanDisk, but Lexar, which they said was a good quality product.  I wanted the 8GB one as that's what the camera came with... I could have got a SanDisk 2GB or 4GB for considerably less... but I bought the £18 version, and was told that if the quality was not what I wanted, I could bring it back.  I put it in the camera and did a test film on the way home.

At 6 I cycled out again, to a Freecycler who had offered some Basil seedlings.  I offered to swap them for a bean or two, so took two toilet-roll grown Pea Beans over to her.

After tea, which was linguine with home grown spinach, we put up the new tent.  We bought this last year and hadn't tested it, so it was a group exercise to erect it.  So, team effort and one hour later, we had the 4-person tent up, only just enough space, but much excitement from the boys.  They wanted to sleep in it with their friend who's spent much of the day with us.

So Gill and I got it ready for them to spend the night there, and by 11.45pm, all was quiet there... apart from the duck in the next garden quacking intermittently.

Saturday 17th July 10

A work day today, had to get over to Huddersfield quite early, so was up well before 8am and then on the bike at 8.25 to get the 8.58 over to Leeds and beyond. I had a quiet journey, reading the latest Resource magazine which arrived a minute before I left. There was a very good article explaining about the different sorts of 'energy from waste' technologies which is very timely, as this is being discussed locally at the moment.

So I was soon in Huddersfield, it takes less than an hour, and I waited on the steps outside the station for someone called Neil to come and find me. He did... but he wasn't driving as he'd had been drinking the previous night, so his daughter Amy was the driver. The event I'd been booked to work at was Meltham Memories, an annual 1940s weekend where lots of people dress up in period costume and remember the Second World War and many of the things which happened. I was delivered to the Wagon and Horses pub in the centre and greeted by Sam, who described herself as Pam's partner, and I'd been told to ask for Pam. Sam said that Pam was dressed as a Wren... and of course in my mind I immediately thought she would be dressed as a small bird.... duh! Anyway, Pam turned up and showed me the road closure they'd organised, with tables and chairs for the children to have their lunch on. I helped move some of the tables and chairs to allow them to see the performance area, and then waited for the first one, supposed to start at 11.30. I had a coffee in the pub and chatted with locals.

At 11.10 I went to get changed and then went to the road closure.... and it was raining. I cannot do devilsticks in the rain... they don't work if wet. Also, asking children to sit in the wet and eat lunch isn't very nice either. So we scurried along to where there was a marquee, and it looked ideal. However, someone else came along saying there was a back room of a hall available, and it would be unlocked in 10 minutes, so we went there and I waited whilst the organisers went to get the food for the kids lunches.

They put the start time back to midday, and by midday I had got myself ready. I hadn't expected to be inside, so I hadn't taken my feathers which only work inside. So I inflated a dozen balloons fully and made 'balancing worms' to allow the show to have easy to balance things suitable for inside use. The children arrived, got their lunch and I started the show once they were all sitting down, finishing at 12.50. Then a repeat performance from 1pm til nearly 2. Both shows were good, enjoyed by audience, performer and organisers. I was given some sandwiches and crisps for lunch, and I went to get changed, was given my cheque and got the bus back to Huddersfield.

I missed the train by a minute and had 30 minutes to wait for the next one. I finished my Resource magazine, and read some NewScientist. On the train I dozed. Quick cycle home via Richard who showed me the Press, and the nearby Spar's Press A-board proclaiming 'call to pedestrianise city centre' or words to that effect. My letter sent in response to Phil Shepherdson's letter hadn't been used on the letters page, but as the basis of an article. As expected, the comments on the website were a mixture of supportive and immature, stupid, offensive rubbish written by idiots hiding their real identity behind names like 'piaggio', 'theendoftheworld' and 'yorkbornandbred'. They seem to take delight in being as offensive as possible. Glad I've got a strong constitution!

I had an hour sitting with the laptop and then spent a bit of time in the garden, but it was a quiet evening. Bed a bit earlier than usual as I've got work tomorrow.

Thursday 10th June 10

I had to get going fairly early... I had been asked to get the York World Naked Bike Ride leaflets from York Community Print, and at 10.30, Hugh was meeting a photographer/film-maker from the Yorkshire Post and I wanted to support him, as no-one else had said they were able to go.

But, during breakfast I checked my emails. Last night, at something past 2am, just after I'd turned off the laptop, I checked the York Press. On the front page was a small paragraph titled 'Naked Ambition' and with a line saying 'Full story: page 17, so I had a quick look through the paper and ended up on Page 17, where the full article about our ride was. I was horrified by the mistake Richard Harris the reporter had made. We'd spent ages getting a good Press Release together and the silly numpty had not read it properly, and said we'd be leaving from Museum Gardens, whereas we are actually leaving from Memorial Gardens, the other side of the river. We are returning to the Museum Gardens, but obviously, we want people to know where we're leaving from, so they can join us.

So, I put my laptop back on and fired off an email and a letter to The Press. I also looked on the Press website and left a correction under the article.

This morning I got an apology emailed to me and a promise to print my letter.

So, my first trip to Holgate Villa. This is a 1960s concrete office block, and currently houses York Green Party and North Yorkshire Credit Union amongst many other groups. I had agreed to meet up with Andy Chase to pick up some York World Naked Bike Ride fliers, with an image of David on them and information about the ride.

Then I went to meet Hugh at Clifford's Tower and the Yorkshire Post people arrived and did a bit of filming and photography. Both of us were interviewed.

I then called in on Alligator to pick up compostables, and left fliers there. Then to Country Fresh, and left some leaflets there. Then to St Nicks, where I had several conversations and left some WNBR leaflets.

I got home after 12 and had lunch.

Later I did some work in the garden and disposed of all the compostables, as I won't be able to do any tomorrow as I'm heading over to Manchester for their Naked Bike Ride and the Spencer Tunick 'Everyday People' exhibition at The Lowry on Saturday.

Friday 9th April 10

A busy morning... got up soon after 9am to be ready to take the spare seeds from the York in Transition seed swap along to the YUMI Community Garden.

So, after breakfast and a shower I cycled along to the Danesgate Skills Centre on Fulford Cross and arrived on the dot of 10.30. Sasiki and her colleague Helen Hays, a garden designer, were there waiting, and Nick Haines, the organiser of the seed swap, had just arrived. The idea was to hand over the seeds and get some photos of the handover. A handful of users of the garden arrived; a Mexican woman who's been in York for just one week, to learn English and do her MSc, and two Chinese women and a small boy.

The Press didn't turn up, so we took our own photos and will submit these with some extra copy and hope the Press will run a story next week about our two organisations working together.

I came back via Country Fresh, St Nicks and Freshways, getting home at about 12.30, to find a peaceful household.

I spent the afternoon in the garden, taking stuff down from the conservatory which Gill is tidying, and then I got stuck down there, digging out a compost heap. But halfway through the afternoon, our youngest came down and said we had a visitor... it was Alan Leach, who used to live next door to us in Emerald St, with his three children. I spoke to him on facebook yesterday... he asked if he could drop off a bag of kitchen biodegradables. So it was really good to see him, as haven't seen him for a while.

So they all had a wander down the garden, but didn't stay long. I got on with my rearranging my heaps... I dug out one pallet heap and turned it into a 1 cubic metre builders bag which fits into a wooden holder, and dug out both my Compostumbler bins. All the tumbled material needs to sit in a 'New Zealand Bin' (pallets lined with cardboard) for quite a while before it's ready to use as compost. The adverts saying 'makes compost in 14 days' are complete nonsense. Also, I'm going to have to retire the largest Compostumbler as the metal sheet sides have corroded and now flex so much that the door catches bulge out and prevent the cylinder revolving all the way round. I might be able to purchase new metal bits... the plastic end pieces are fine, it's the sheet metal which is rusting. This is a disappointment as it cost a lot and I'd have hoped it would last a decade or so, but it's only lasted about 6 years I think.

Gill had made a nutloaf mix for tea, and using a plastic tub, formed it into rounds and fried them, making home-made burgers, which we had in bread rolls, with baked beans and mushrooms.

Later in the evening I blanched some grapes to make raisins, and chopped up more pears to dry them.

I got a message from the journalist at The Press saying that the story about YiT and YUMI would probably be in the paper early next week.

Wednesday 7th April 10

A busy and productive day... mainly paperwork type stuff.

I cycled down to town in the afternoon via St Nicks where I picked up the box of seeds left over from the seed swap, which are destined to be donated to the YUMI international community garden on Friday, and in town I got out a pile of cheques, two for advertising (Thomson Directories and Yell), £75 of balloons from Cozmic Balloons and a very exciting one, for RSA Membership as I've been nominated to apply for fellowship of the RSA. This means, if accepted, I will be able to 'label' myself as 'John Cossham FRSA'! I also transferred cash to our current account to pay our annual electricity bill with Good Energy... this is £250 for power (5 units/day) and £60 for the daily admin charge, making our annual bill £310.

I also wrote a press release about the seed handover, and popped into the York Press office to chat to a journalist about it, and request a photographer. I spent quite a bit of time making sure all the people mentioned in the document were happy with what was said, about them and their organisations.

At 5pm I bombed down to the station to get the train to Sheffield, as I've been booked by Ali. I took the laptop and managed to get a few emails deleted from my inbox... but not many as the journey is only 50 minutes!

Monday 4th January 10

Another low-key day with not a whole lot happening. I got up before 10 in order to ring one of my Fiddlesticks clients from last year and there's an outstanding payment, and a few other things to discuss. I had a bit of other paperwork to do too.

Last night I remembered that I had forgotten to give Gill a present I'd bought her in early December... I'd found a shop, on Bishopthorpe Road, which sold second hand things and antiques, and I spotted some flat irons... the type which sits on a hot surface and is used in the same way as an electric iron is these days. Earlier last year, Gill took the bus all the way to Easingwold to pick up some flat irons advertised in the back of the Press but they were in poor condition and rusty, and the sandpaper and glasspaper and 'wet and dry' I got to smooth down the base hasn't been used. So the ones I got in the Bishy Road shop were great... nice flat bottoms and in good condition. The gentleman did say that they would have been blacked up and would need a good clean before use.

Anyway, I'd left them in the garage and forgotten them. So this morning I got them down from their hidey hole and gave them to her. She was SO pleased! Gill does do quite a bit of ironing, and if she could do it using less or no electricity, that would be good. We have our woodstoves going for quite a few months of the year, it makes sense to use that heat for as much as possible.

So that was a good thing. Gill went into town with both boys to go and use some vouchers or tokens or something. That was a good thing too as when they came back they had pooled their money and vouchers and got a large lego car... remote control I think. They were both happy with this. But not happy that today is the last day of the holidays.

I went to a LETS meeting in the evening; just 3 of us but it was a good meeting and I had a good chat to Lynn about all sorts of things afterwards, especially what her vicar Father Tim Jones has been getting up to recently. The Press has reported it reasonably well, and to their credit, have reproduced the whole sermon, but of course there has been a lot of misunderstanding amongst some of the other media. I'm glad what he has said has got the whole issue of UK poverty back onto the agenda, and how society treats its poorest.

I came home and peeled and prepared 51 bananas for drying! I've still got perhaps 100 left... will they last until I can dry them all? I wonder!

Tuesday 13th October 09

Up at a civilised time... 8.30am. I had breakfast and did emails and waited in for a chap from Harris builders who said they were coming round at 10am to collect the contract for our solar hot water system. Gill went out to go to Priory St for something, and I waited... and waited... wanting to go out into the garden and do more hedge. At 10.50 I rang the company and left a message saying I wasn't happy with being told I'd be visited at 10am and was waiting in... and I am too busy to be messed around. I got an apologetic message back saying the chap had been held up in Harrogate (so why didn't he ring me?) and would be here at 1pm.

I went into the garden and dug up more hedge. Just before 1pm I came in for lunch and awaited the builder. He actually came at 1.45. I suppose I'll have to get used to 'builder time'. The York Press had already arrived and I was delighted to see that they had published an article about the Charity Fancy Dress Ball, including David's photo.

I had a bit of time in the garden but towards 3pm I got my bike ready to go and get our youngest, as Gill had had a 'ladies who lunch' meeting in town and was only just getting the bus back home (she rang me to check I was collecting him) I arrived a bit early, despite collecting my first two sacks of autumn leaves on Windmill Lane. I had an extra plastic sack so when I got to school I couldn't help but check the playground bins. The school is STILL not recycling the huge volumes of fruit the children throw away. In just 5 minutes I filled a plastic sack with half-eaten apples, banana skins, raisin packets, paper towels. I weighed it with my spring balance when I got home... 17 and a half kilos. I also retrieved 12 uneaten apples, two uneaten bananas, one unopened orange, one uneaten peach and a bag of grapes, uneaten. These were all thrown away and NOT RECYCLED. I will wash these and eat them myself. I also checked the big bins and these were full of mixed waste including plenty of recyclable material such as metal cans and cardboard and paper. The dedicated paper bin was overflowing but had some non-paper items in it. This means it will probably be rejected and will go to landfill.

Shame on you Lord Deramore's School. I started trying to get you to compost your fruit for schools waste in 2001. And 8 years later, you have removed the bins you grudgingly let me install, have lost several parts of my bins, making them useless, and are now putting about 8Kg/day easily biodegradable fruit waste into landfill. Shameful. I am SO ANGRY.

I am also very angry with the City of York Council for letting this crap situation continue. I let them know I don't know how long ago, and was promised that there would be some changes and that Lord Deramores School would be dragged in to the 21st Century and be taught how to behave in an appropriate manner when you are a school teaching children who will have to cope with catastrophic climate change caused precisely by the kind of ignorance and lack of care that the school is demonstrating. I am FURIOUS. I even spent many hours helping to start and then volunteering with Green Thumbs, primarily to facilitate a composting area or project... and now Green Thumbs isn't happening and the children aren't learning about gardening. I think they should give the money back to the Co-op who would re-allocate it to a worthy project.

What more can I do? I want to embarrass them into action. I want them prosecuted. I need to tell them and the world what I think of their attitude. Schools exist to prepare the next generation to get by in the world. They teach various skills. They should set a good example. This school is showing the children that they just don't care. This is quite plainly wrong.

I cycled home with my load of leaves to make into leafmould, sack of compostable fruit stuff and the bag of nice fruit which I'll have over the next few days with my muesli.

I then spent another two hours getting hedge out, cutting off the tops and shredding the thinner twigs for composting, cutting up the larger sticks for drying and recycling into heat, and putting the roots (35 today) into a plastic sack so another Freecycler can have them and plant a new hedge. I came in at 6pm and had a nice plate of Bulgar wheat with roast veg, watercress, carrot-sticks, baked beans and a cheese straw. Not bad!

At half 6 I headed off to the Millennium Bridge, as Councillor Andy D'Agorne had invited me to see the new lighting possibilities there. When the bridge was built, it did have some good lighting but then vandals discovered they could easily destroy the lights, and also, repairs and replacements meant the bridge had to be closed. So, the Council have teamed up with Philips Lighting, and this evening were looking at a variety of lighting solutions. To cut running costs and reduce the frequency of replacing them, the bridge will have LED (light emitting diode) technology. This will allow very dynamic colour changes, for special occasions, or white light for normal use. When Philips re-did the lighting on a bridge in, I think, Newcastle, the cost of lighting the structure dropped from several tens of thousands of pounds a year to just £4k, if I remember the quote correctly. There were some interesting conversations about renewable electricity and some of the lighting choices. The reduction in overall energy use is the greenest thing about the project.

I had to leave at 7.20 as I was due at a York in Transition meeting at The Stables.

This was a good meeting, with a visitor from Spofforth and a small bunch of the committed Transitioneers. It was a relaxed but productive meeting, one which leaves me with a few jobs to do... including working on the supporters leaflet. I had a chat with Di afterwards, and agreed to visit her in a couple of weeks to plan a first meeting of the Huntington and New Earswick Transition Initiative. I decided not to go to the pub afterwards as I was tired.

Home soon after 10pm. Despite tiredness, stayed up til 2am writing and watching the last episode of Electric Dreams on BBC4.

Saturday 18th April 09

A very busy day.

Got up quite early and both felt like doing some spring cleaning and sorting out. Gill made a start on the conservatory, which has become somewhat cluttered, and I did some washing up including a load of storage jars which have been building up.

Gill also rang a chap who'd advertised two flat irons in the back of the Press. She's been wanting to have a couple of these to heat up on the stove so she doesn't have to use electricity (despite it being from renewables, and us not using very much, it still costs, so using less would be good!). Gill isn't into ironing everything, but the school uniforms and my work clothes need to look good, and the electric iron is quite heavy on the juice. So a pair of flat irons will be a good addition to our low carbon lifestyle. The old fella wanted a fiver each, as they were antiques, but was happy to hear they'd be used. He lives in Easingwold so Gill might take the bus out there next week to get them, or he might deliver if he's coming down the Hull Road.

Soon after this telephone conversation, we discovered our phone handset wasn't working... it was completely dead. Gill tried to 'ring home' with her mobile but only the base rang, not the handset. So, with the phone being important for my work, it was essential that we get it sorted. So, within the hour I cycled down to town to take it to where we bought it to see if they knew what was wrong with it, or maybe buy another handset. I felt a bit daft when the chap in the shop told me t was just the batteries which had expired. I thought they were rechargeable, but apparently they don't keep recharging for ever. I bought new batteries... and a second pair for when this happens again!

I also visited the Friends Meeting house where the old AVP computer has been waiting for me to pick it up and bring it home to erase the hard disc data, before taking the whole lot to the recycling depot at James Street. The monitor is huge! It only just went in my trailer but with bungees, it came home safe and sound. I set it all up and tried to run the DBAN 'boot and nuke' floppy disc that Ben had supplied, but I didn't quite understand the commands so I phoned Ben and asked him if he could pop round and press buttons in the right order.

Gill was doing wonderful things with the conservatory and I helped too, being ruthless about throwing stuff away, for once! Ros came round with her son, and she stayed and had a coffee and chatted about some of the stories from when she was a customs officer. Our boys played happily all together.

Ben came round and found that the software would work if the computer was tweaked slightly first, and so he reset a password by doing something to the innards and then set the disc to AUTONUKE and completely wipe the hard disc. He also showed me how to take out the disc afterwards and extract two very strong rare-earth magnets, which make excellent fridge magnets. After 40 minutes nuking, the monitor declared it was now 'done', so I switched the whole thing off and extracted the hard disc (actually 3 of them in a stack) and the two magnets. The rest of the hardware will be going to Hazel Court tomorrow for recycling.

I then found time to sort through seeds and plant some courgettes, squash, pumpkin and basil. This felt extremely satisfying. All three boys ate together and then played til 9pm when I took our visitor back up the road to Ros. I spent some of the evening peeling some giant pumpkin seeds I found from last year, and sorting out old seed packets from newer ones which I will hopefully plant up soon.

A very productive day. And destructive too, with the mangling of the old computer and throwing away of loads of unrecyclable and unusable stuff. Satisfying!

Wednesday 15th April 09

Excellent day... went first to Bishopthorpe to visit Loretta who had asked me to go with log splitting equipment to split a load of holly logs she had got. I split all these, plus some other logs (elder, pine) and had a look at her compost bin, at her request, and round the garden looking to identify some plants Loretta could not...

Then on to Brunswick Organic Nursery to get some vegetable seedlings. But they are not quite ready for sale yet, except the Calabrese. I bought some lunch and ate it there, and had a brief chat with Adam the chief honcho which was nice.

Then on to see Pauline... but I stopped on Bishopthorpe Road where a vehicle had come off the road a while ago, uprooting a stretch of hedge, which I trimmed with my bowsaw and took the biggest chunks in my trailer. Then cycled to Pauline's to chop a few of her logs, with my big bowsaw, which has a log blade on it, whereas hers has a blade which is better suited to dried wood. Had a coffee and chopped her logs, chatted to her grand-daughter who was helping her with some painting.

Then towards 3pm, to 'York Beach' which is under Ouse Bridge, on the Queens Staith side of the river. Members of York in Transition had arranged to meet a Press photographer here to publicise the Age of Stupid showing at City Screen on 26th April. He arrived and had quite a few suggestions about what and what wouldn't work, so Edward, Candy and I did a variety of poses for the camera! We then all went to City Screen to get another few.

We had just finished when I met my friends Trish, Dexter and Miladdio, which was nice.

Then onto Country Fresh with an AoS poster, and St Nicks with my second AoS poster and flyers.

Then home! The family had gone into town to go to the Warhammer shop, as both boys are getting into these little models, and they came back and started painting them up and gluing them together. I spent some time with them and had a word game with my eldest.

Minimal tea, enjoyed Newsnight as it was Ethical Man's second USA outing.

Monday 10th March 08

Woken at 7am by Gill wanting me to come and help downstairs as our child had shoved everything off one worksurface onto the floor. I came down and helped clear up after making him go to his bedroom.
Things did calm down and breakfast got eaten, I took them into school and spoke to the OFSTED chap about the help and support we've been given about the difficulties we are going through right now.
Home to do some tidying as at 11am, was expecting a Press videographer to come and take a tour to see how we live our low carbon lifestyle.

This took about an hour and resulted in this:

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/audiovideo/video/index.var.21681.0.0.php

which I'm pleased with.

I got the children back from school.

We had a quiet and well behaved afternoon and evening.... all of us!

Late on we had a visit from a friend who was in a bit of a state, with alcohol and feeling unable to help their aging parents, mentally ill sibling and nearly adult child who is making their own decisions about life.... however we heard them out and listened and were good solid friends, which is all we could do and was what was needed.

Saturday 8th March 08

Quite a good start to the day but a simple disagreement between the boys developed into a huge angry outburst which resulted in a mug getting broken. But I had to get ready and go to the Fair Trade Festival which I'd said I'd go to support as Professor Fiddlesticks and do an hour of entertainment for free. But I went with a heavy heart, it's difficult to be jolly and funny when you're depressed.

So arrived in town at about 10.30 and met up with two of the organisers Richard and Sarah and very soon the Lord Mayor and her posse arrived, and we had our photo taken.

Then I did an hour and a half of circus and balloons, a mix of juggling and devilsticks and unicycle, with balloon models being given to the younger ones. Had quite a good time, and was pleased to meet an old friend called Robin, whom I met whilst at Leeds Metropolitan University doing Environmental Health... who's now doing Health and Safety at North Yorks County Council.

I finished at 12.15 and came home via the fruit shop, told Richard I'd come by later when I was coming back from Foxwood, where I had wanted to go to get my bicycle microchipped. However when I arrived home Gill and our youngest were in tears because of the other difficulties going on. Gill asked me not to go to Foxwood. So I had lunch and things calmed down, and so to distract away any further crap behaviour, she took them to town to use a book voucher. I reluctantly let them go, and I just felt like going to bed and crying.

However things got better and I perked up a bit during a quick Skype chat (thanks K!) and then the family came back with a pile of books and some lego, which kept them occupied and happy. I went out to split some logs, tidy up sawdust for my compost loo, put sacks of sticks away before it rains and also did some composting and weeding, getting in at 5.30, feeling much happier as this kind of busyness is just what I need to keep me sane in a difficult world.

I had a simple pasta and tomato/leek/bean tea... and was delighted to see the Press had published the article about my Oxfam competition win, with a lovely photo of me next to a logpile.

My dear friend Mary M. rang me up and congratulated me, which was lovely as we have a mutual admiration relationship as I really appreciate her work with projects like York Fanteakwa Link and various other things connected with developing countries, poverty etc etc.

The boys had a good evening with near perfect behaviour, and once they were in bed, Gill and I had a good game of Scrabble, a tough one which Gill just won by 7 points. Made her feel a lot better...

I went on the Press website to see what had been said about the article and posted a reply to correct some misaprehensions and thank supporters...

Friday 8th February 08

Soon after Gill got back from taking the kiddies to school I went with her round to Sarah's house, to install a compost bin for her. I wanted Gill to meet Sarah as she has offered to babysit for us if we want her to... so the first stage of the process was for Gill to meet Sarah.... and if all was well, then for Sarah to meet the boys, which will be next week.

Installing the bin was easy... swept up loads of leaves and stuff from her yard, and put it in the bin which is standing on slabs in the yard, then a layer of shredded hedge from my huge pile of hedge materials, then a 'seeding' colony of semi-rotted compost teeming with worms and other beasties and fungi, and then Sarah put in several bags and containers of collected stuff which she's been putting by since the time she came to put a load of stuff on one of my heaps.

Then a coffee, chat and looked at the Press Website and watched the York Rotters vid which was good.... certainly better than what I was able to do!

After this I cycled accross town to visit a friend I haven't seen for some time, and came back past Martin's to pick up a large sack of shop stuff.

Enjoyed a peaceful lunch before having to make a phone call to someone I may have upset. Such are the problems of being hyperactive and not perfectly socially skilled!

However the phone call went well and I was told I had responded appropriately to something, I thought I'd put my foot in it! But I didn't know, I still feel that many aspects of life are an experiment! I apologised for any indiscression and poor communication and this was accepted. Thank goodness!

During the afternoon, before going to school and picking up the boys, I got the new(ish) compost riddle out and rolled it down to a compost heap which needed riddling and I did a good hour of it... wonderful! I really enjoyed it, and the pile of fine and riddled material looked lovely when I'd done! The stuff which passed through the cylinder needed sorting into throw-aways, re-compostables and oversized particles/clumps which could either be used as mulch, re-composted or put through the riddle again after a good stir, which would break up some of the lumps. A good piece of kit, will save a lot of time.

Got the kids, they were looking forward to half term.

I did a little bit more riddling but at 5.15 came in to get ready to welcome a much wanted visitor, Ben from Freecycle and LETS, who's a real whizz with computers and volunteered to sort me out with my hard and software. He dived straight in and got the broadband fixed, email sorted, skype installed, webcam (which had been thrown away!!!) plugged in and a microphone attached... so I feel as if I'm truly in the 21st Century! In return he has asked me to move some stuff with my trailer on Monday... which I'll do most willingly!

A good tea with the family, spaghetti veganaise.

Enjoyed watching dolphins on the telly with the boys, then watched my old secondary school, Lancaster (Boys) School, Leicester which has a new choir... and it felt weird, knowing I was in the LBS choir in the late 70's.

Did quite a lot of computery stuff. Had a quick chat on Skype with my friend in America, then got soundly beaten by Gill at Scrabble, whilst watching 'The Birds' from 1963, which we both had a good laugh at because of the corny special effects, lack of real plot and rubbish ending. However I still think it was pretty good how they (Hitchcock et al) got the birds to do what they did.

Wednesday 24th October 07

Woke feeling very grotty and snotty, wondered if the flu jab yesterday had given me something? Or is it just a coincidence? So had a relatively quiet day with just one appointment at 3, a couple, Angela and Ralph, who'd contacted York Rotters with a query about recycling a feather bed. Angela knew that feathers could be composted, but this duvet/mattress thing was so big that she didn't have the capacity. So her details were passed to me, I rang up and said that I liked a challenge and would take in the huge duvet and get it's contents composted. So they had a tour and I gave them some Jack Edwards Pea Beans and a couple of carrier bags of finished compost as a thank you for the feathers.

At 3.45 there was a 'Street Sports' thing at school which I cycled my eldest lad to, as he enjoys cycling up and down ramps, and he took his skateboard too. The street sports activity is provided by City of York Council every fortnight in the school playground, but as it's half term no-one else turned up. I left him to play and went to do my Martin's pick up of compostables, and then went immediately back down to school, this time having persuaded my youngest son to come with me. So he had an hour of cycling around, and we all came back for 6pm, to enjoy pizza which Gill had been making all afternoon, the dough proving next to the stove.

Tried to do some writing during the evening, as I've another paid blog to do this week, but didn't get much done as was feeling so grotty. But I did reply to a letter in the York Pres by Mike Usherwood (loves planes, hates bikes) suggesting I might be a hipocrite by pointing out the irony of a local airport (Elvington) installing food waste composting. I had written in praising the company for this innovation (Compost Doctor scheme) but just to stir it a bit had mentioned the green and non-green aspects sitting side by side. I am looking forward to seeing my latest letter published as it could help to prolong the debate and inform people about the huge impact that flying has on the atmosphere.

Friday 8th June 07

As Gill's legs still hurt following the physio, I took the boys to school.

The morning was mainly concerned with creating a placard for Santa to carry whilst unicycling on the World Naked Cycle Ride. Gill and I finished the poem, which was started with help from our eldest son:

OH, OH, OH,
How will I cope
With not enough snow?
It won't be as nice
With much less ice.

Ho, HO, HO,
A solution I like
Abandon your car
And get on your bike
Take the train or bus
Or travel my way...
Unicycle or reindeer sleigh!

This was carefully written on a large piece of cardboard and the backs of posters found outside the Lloyds TSB, put for landfill!

Also did various bits of housework and garden jobs. Early on our Polish roofer Artur arrived to repair the tarry sheets on the studio roof, which had perished. Some of the wooden batons underneath have perished and will need replacing, but he reckons that it will be ok for another 10 years.

Next door are having scaffolding erected to replace soffit boards, finish their loft conversion and do some repointing. Good banter with Lee the scaffolder, who has a stove for sale. Contact TB scaffolding for this!

During the middle of the day Ken our neighbour popped round to tell us we had a swarm of bees in our garden... infact it is 8m up a conifer in the other next door's garden, overhanging our garden. Barry, friend of Ken, suggested putting a box with honey smeared inside, and a hole or two in, which might attract the bees so they could be taken away and rehoused, but by nightfall they had not found this and were a tight ball in the tree.

At 2, a lady who advertised in the back of the Press came and had brought round her son's 2 yr old bike, suitable for a 10 yr old. Our eldest who has wrecked his bike needs a new one so we bought this for £30.

I took it down to the school (pushing it whilst riding mine) and he was delighted and promised to look after it. Came home with D and J, friends of our boys, as their mum is unable to pick them up until 5pm, which she did.

I left shortly after this and took my unicycle on my trailer, plus costume and placard, and parked in the Out Of This World car park, and unicycled to the Memorial Gardens to get dressed up as Santa Claus. Lots of seminaked and bodypainted folks, and minutes from leaving lots of people went totally naked for this local expression of a global protest/celebration. The route was fairly gruelling for a unicyclist in a Santa outfit, quite a sauna.

Afterwards went for a pint at the King's Arms, which was lovely and refreshing.

Home and I created a quick tea of onions, vegetarian black pudding and goat's cheese, with rems of quiche from yesterday. Ate this at 10pm, collapsed after and watched a bit of TV, then did a quick email and blog, and watched Joolz Holland with Paul McCartney and Bjork.

Weds 18th April 07

A nice day. Was rung quite early by a Press photographer wanting another photo, because they're going to run a story about composting human bodies, so I said that now was fine and in 20 mins the chap was here. He got a series of photos and was off in 30 minutes, and then it was time for me to go to my dental appointment next to the Minster, a brief clean. I was very happy to hear that I am looking after my teeth well and they required less scaling and polishing than usual, and was told to rebook in 6 months.

Home via Sainsbury's (got a new toothbrush and a 3 for 2 toothpaste offer!) and then Richard at the fruit shop, lunch and a good chunk of afternoon in the garden, more riddling. 3pm came oh so quickly, so picked up the kids and they cycled home very quickly. Then went into town again to see Pauline and go to Out of This World. Pauline had asked me to come and try her new Freecycled bowsaw out on some skip wood she'd retrieved for her Clearview stove, and the saw turned out to be very good... it had a blade protector and was sharp and quick to cut. I also helped her with a couple of composting jobs, and was rewarded with a delicious Magnum ice cream and our usual friendly banter. OOTW had about 15kg of stuff for me and it went on the trailer no problem alongside Pauline's prunings.

Home again, had a good tea of pumpkin and cauliflower with cheese sauce plus two past sell by date 'sea cakes', tofu and seaweed thingies from you know where... another cheap and fulfilling meal cooked entirely on the woodstove (well, all the stuff I cooked).

Made up my muesli, using organic muesli base from the 10 kg bag from Suma and a generous mix of home-dried apple, banana, pineapple, nectarine, kiwi and raisins, home grown pumpkin seeds toasted and popped on the stove, and brazil nuts, supporting sustainable forestry in Amazonia, and a treat, yoghurt-covered raisins.... what a delicious muesli. I eat this twice a day, first thing and last thing...

Weds 11th April 07

A lovely day weatherwise so got started early with some Green Party local election leaflet deliveries. I went with Debbie who enjoyed the round last time and had asked that she could help again. This delivery was Fishergate Ward, but a different area, someone elses round. It didn't take long with the two of us and we visited some housing we hadn't seen before, new flats and small houses off Hull Road.

I cycled into town to do my Wednesday compostables pick up, and got some vegan ice cream for Gill who reacts badly to cow's milk products. Vegan products also have less of a carbon footprint too, as cows produce loads of methane and use lots of resources such as water and feed, which has it's own carbon footprint. The 'Swedish Glace'ice cream also tastes lovely, but is a lot more expensive than dairy.

I also visited the Yorkshire Museum with the Morel fungus I found over the weekend on the allotment. Pip Strang the expert there says she will identify it... I was suprised to hear from her that there are 18 British species, my book lists just two! She'll contact me with a identification in a couple of weeks.

During the afternoon I did a lot of riddling of finished compost, to make the stuff usable and separate the uncomposted sticks and non-compostables (stones, little bits of plastic) from the fantastic crumbly rich particles of 'humus' or biologically active carbon-rich matter, perfect for adding to growing media for healthy plants and crops. The seeds are in, I need lots of compost to add to leafmold and loam to grow them in. So I'm bagging up the riddled stuff ready for this season. My riddle is a sheet of chicken wire mounted on a wooden frame, about 1.5m square. I also have a 'rotaseive' which is smaller and has smaller holes, producing a finer grained compost.

This afternoon's York Press had our letters published, mine about the lack of response from Lloyds TSB about my offering to help them with reducing waste, and one from Gill saying she considered me an Eco-Lover not an Eco-Warrior.

In the evening I attended the first meeting of York CRAG, Carbon Rationing Action Group. This was interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. The basic idea is to help citizens to reduce their carbon emissions and save resources for future generations. This will be done by offering a carbon calculator to measure annual emissions, and setting a target to try to aim for (or under!). There will be regular meetings to inform, educate and encourage, perhaps themed to get people with different interests involved and on board. We may perhaps set a penalty for those who go over the target, a financial penalty per kilo, which would be paid into an account and used to offset those extra emissions. The offsetting could be local, such as helping to pay for insulation or energy efficient lightbulbs for a CRAG member who's finding the target difficult to attain. We're meeting in a fortnight and will debate and agree Mission, Aims and Objectives plus discuss (and agree?) the structure of the group.

I got home just in time to see the Newsnight 'Ethical Man' special, in which I featured, helping Justin Rowlatt with composting and helping Ethical Man go on his way ethically, by composting him. It was a good programme and I think was a fitting end to his year-long project. And I've benefitted as I now have a column in Community Care magazine (starting at the end of the month) and a new career begnning.

What a day!

Sat. 7th April 07.

Went to the lottie in the morning, to prepare for the spuds going in. I wanted to take both my boys as Gill wanted to pop into town to get some 'little fiddles' (as she calls presents) for the boys to put in their reusable papier-mache easter eggs, to go with their Dubble 'fair trade' chocolate ones. However, our 9 year old refused to come with me, and I don't like taking just the younger one as he gets bored by himself, won't help on the lottie and needs lots of management, and then whines or cries. He's only 7 and still quite babyish in many ways. If they both come, they play together, sometimes spend a few minutes helping with something and are generally easier to deal with.

So I 'laid down the law' with my bigger bolshier one, and, much shouting later, he grumpily went to bring his bike to the front, as I'd got it out so he could come. He found it had a flat tyre so he couldn't come. So they both stayed at home, and because of the shouting at me, they won't get any extra presents tomorrow. Gill mended his tyre, she's getting good at it.

On the lottie I didn't manage to do much prep for potatoes. I cut back lots of old dead brambles and chopped them up onto one of the compost heaps (always a priority with me!) and did some digging out of dandylions and clumps of grass in the place where I thought the spuds could go. They probably still can, but not yet. More work to do.

One brilliant thing, though, I found a Morel, a rare fungus which in theory is edible, except this one had been alongside a weed and was damaged and covered in soil particles. It's the first Morel I've ever found. I brought it back and will try to identify it, whether 'common' or 'edible', except they are both edible and apparently delicious.

Home for lunch, house smelled lovely as Gill was making leek and sweet potato soup (yesterday's compostables included a large pile of leeks with some slightly yellowing leaves, the stems were fine!) and she'd done the bike, just needed help getting the tyre back on.

The boys wanted to go to the woods where Simon had taken them a few days ago, so we three set off and they took me to beyond Heslington, past the 'Outgang' and down a track to a small patch of woodland. The dens made by Simon's son were there, one a 'lean to' of sticks against a tree and the other a 'bender' with interwoven sticks. We played a bit, and I picked up a load of beer cans which had been left lying around, so I could bring them home for recycling.

When we got home, the Press had been delivered and I was in it with my Lloyds TSB rubbish bag story and photo. Then there was a phone-call, a woman wanting to remain anonymous, but congratulating me on 'doing the right thing'. She said she was nearly 80 and regularly picked up litter for recycling, and was right behind me with my direct action. How nice of her to ring with her support! She said that she expected me to get some flack over it, so she was ringing with 'a bouquet'. Later, when I went to the front door, tucked up against it was a box with a pack of four fruit and yoghurt deserts. They'd been left there, as a gift. Was this the same person? Was it someone else, with a positive response to the media report? Was it unconnected with the Press article... We may never know!

The sweet potato and leek soup was stupendous, with olive bread and toasted cheese. Followed by Strawberry flan and raspberry trifle and one of the fruit desert things, once again Gill said, 'don't we live well?' This always makes me laugh, I'm glad she's happy. We all are, it's the real 'Good Life'.

Friday 6th April 07, A 'Good Friday!'

Today really started with a phone call from a photographer from the Press who was supposed to come at 10am but rang wanting to come earlier... so he arrived at about half past nine to get an image of me with a bin bag I took off the pavement outside Lloyds TSB in order to find out what kinds of materials they were throwing away, and if there was any personal information that people could get at... I found lots of recyclable materials and evidence of very wastful practices, so I recorded the evidence and wrote to the bank complaining. I copied the letter to the council to keep them informed, and eventually recieved a reply which thanked me for my committment to waste reduction and warned me that if I removed bin bags off the pavement again I could be prosecuted. This juxtaposition warrented more publicity so I contacted the Press.

Soon after he went, my friend Suzanne arrived, with her daughter who's in our youngest son's class on Fridays, as she goes to another school for the rest of the week. She has dyspraxia and recieves special help in the other school, but when she goes to the secondary school she'll do better if she has some friends there. Suzanne came round to see the garden and recycling, and I gave her some plants ('Poached Egg', Limnanthes) which are good at attracting beneficial insects. Had a really nice chat and cuppa, she left at midday.

I went into town after lunch, to deliver some leaflets about next Thursday's CrUST meeting about the Green Festival, and to pick up the compostables from Out Of This World. Whilst cycling round to give out the posters about the meeting I visited Miller's Yard in Gillygate, wher my friend Dylan and his partner have set up a healthy living centre. I used to work in the same buildings nearly 20 years ago, when Gillygate Wholefood Co-operative was there. I had one summer's employment and fell foul of the two feminist lesbians who ran it. One morning I greeted them with 'Hello Ladies' and they took umbridge and growled at me that they weren't ladies, they were women. I didn't understand, but this confrontation led me to discover a bit about sexual and gender politics, feminism, and from there, discovered the Green Party and 'environmentalism' (later known as sustainability)and the rest is history.

I hope Dylan's venture succeeds. He has a cafe which just sells hot drinks and juices so far, and a series of treatment rooms and a meeting room and a yoga/pilates room. He's invested everything he has into it, and he's the lovliest, gentle, kind chap. I hope to be able to have some meetings there.

So home with compostables to process, which included a large number of punnets of strawberries, each with about half the fruits inedible and going soggy, and the other half perfect for making into fruit-leather. So at midnight, after having much trouble trying to write my blog and failing to get it to publish (lost an hour's worth of typing, very annoying) I chopped up the strawberries and some apples, liquidised then, rubbed the puree through a seive and poured the slop into one of the non-stick trays we have primarily for drying fruit. This was balanced on the stove for an overnight drying. It should take just a couple of days befor it is dry enough to turn out onto another non-stick sheet and finish off the drying. Then I'll get busy with the scissors and create a jar-full of delicious strawberry snacks...

Friday 30th March 07

Last day of term before the Easter Holidays... and Gill took the boys into school, and came back to inform me that as our youngest arrived into school, he got a puncture. So during the morning I cycled down, asked at the office, and unlocked his little bike and popped it on my trailer so the puncture could be repaired.

At midday, I had a visitor, Christina, who is organising the York Green Carnival on May 6th. There's to be a carnival procession with samba bands and choirs and jugglers, around the streets of the centre of York, followed by stals and live music in Parliament Street. I'm working on that day between 2 and 4, but am willing to be involved before and after work. I showed Christina the garden, shiitake mushrooms on logs, compost bins, compost toilet and the logpiles. She came in for a hot drink from the stove top, and asked lots of questions and told us all about the plans for her event. I shared my plans for the Green Festival on 29th July, I feel we will probably work together. She's studying Politics and Economics at the University, and is very keen to see how sustainability fits in (or doesn't, at the moment) with these subjects.

I had lunch towards the end of our meeting, and so she didn't feel left out, she had some stove-dried fruit. I then shot-off to the emergency York Rotters meeting. We have been offered another year's funding from City of York Council, but our wonderful worker, Keely, has had to resign and so we, the management group, have to advertise the job post, shortlist down to half-a dozen applicants or so, interview and choose our new project manager. We had to work out our timetable and some of the details of this process. York Rotters is a partnership between CoYC and Friends of St Nicks, so the selection team is one of the St Nicks trustees Pat, John the St Nicks manager, me and one of the CoYC wast minimisation team, recycling to most people.

So exciting times ahead, but sad to be losing Keely, although we're not losing her as she has said that she'll continue as a volunteer on a regular basis. This is good.

I cycled swiftly off to town to go to the bank to deal with our Suma Food Co-op account, as we're having a delivery next week. Then onto my friend Jean, in her care home on Poppleton Road. I gave her watch back, with replaced battery. She wasn't in her room as it was being cleaned after 'an accident', she was settling down to have some soup and sandwiches in the canteen. She was more confused than before, but very pleased to see me. So were two of the other ladies (they're mostly women) and I was attempting to have several conversations at once, with several deaf and not-always-making-sense women. It was quite distressing, seeing how they were. I really don't want to get old and end up like that, it's not the way anyone should live their life, it's not really living, it's waiting to die. I felt quite sad and contemplative cycling away, but happy that I'd visited and lifted their spirits for a while.

Then I collected the two remaining water-butts that were advertised in the back of the Press last week for a fiver each. One on the trailer, one on the bike rack. Popped in on my friend Y and had a good chat and a cup of nettle tea, my first I think. Then onto Out Of This World to pick up the compostables, and home with a heavy and bulky load, arriving about 7pm.

I had a 'use it up' tea, cooked on the woodstove, and watched some gardening telly with the family. My boys like watching Gardener's World but by the end of it their eyes were drooping and they needed help getting to bed. Gill was very tired after two trips to school, mending the puncture and cooking the boys' tea, so I did emails including a person researching LETS and Green issues in York.

Excellent programme about the amazing life of John Lennon late on at night. What a pity he's not around now. He is sorely missed. I'm too young to have been an original fan, but I recognise he was a really great man with his ethical, uncompromising attitude regarding the evils of war. I wish war was over. It is the least sustainable of all human activities.

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.