Monday 20th June 11

Not too bad a day, got up at 9 despite really wanting a long lie in.  We were having a quiet morning when we got a phone call from the boys' previous school; one of our friends' children was ill, and we were the only people on his contact list who were contactable.  So Gill ordered a taxi and it picked her up, took her to school and picked up the ill boy, and came back here.  So that sort of scuppered any plans we had to make the raised bed down the garden.

Yesterday, one of my friends Melanie put in an order for the Suma delivery, but as she can't pay til two days after the delivery, I had to go into town and transfer £85 from my savings into our Suma account to ensure that the cheque we will pay the driver will be honoured.  A bit of a nuisance but I like cycling and I was only out of the house for an hour or less.  I took the opportunity to collect two sacks of compostables from Country Fresh on the way back.

I did a bit of compost-work in the garden and then got ready for work, a Fiddlesticks gig in Green Hammerton doing a one hour show with a Brownie pack.  I got the train at about 5 and was picked up by Jess, the 'Brown Owl', and she deposited me at the new Village Hall and made me a coffee as I got changed.

I had an audience of 24 youngsters and about 8 older girls and women.  The Circus Show and Workshop went very well and they all seemed to love it.  I was taken back to Hammerton station afterwards by Sarah and I got changed on the station platform as it was deserted.  I got home at about 8pm. 

I got some lovely messages from Jess and Sarah during the evening, made me happy.

Sunday 29th May 11

A lovely day with a leisurely late start. I didn't do much til after Gardener's Question time, when I went outside to do some real gardening of my own.

I first spent quite a while cutting back a load of shrubs which form a boundary between ours and next door... it's not really a hedge, more a border with assorted small trees, brambles, ground elder, Vinca and Alkanet.  I ripped and cut loads out, including a large Hebe which died over winter.

This made space for me to get to the back of the raised bed where I replaced a bean wigwam which had been in 2 years and was getting brittle. I wired together 3 long branches and made another.  Then I planted out quite a few of the Pea Beans in toilet rolls, two plants per leg of the wigwam.  I also planted out 9 curly kale plants, 6 sweetcorn, and got a load of seedling American Land Cress and Perpetual Spinach put in the pots they vacated and I'll either sell them down at Country Fresh or at some charity event.

So I was happy to have got some planting done.  In the evening I signed up to use eBay as I have a few things to sell, and spent some time getting a free business card deal together.  The company even offer an online version.

A very late evening as one of my friends was in crisis and I spent some time on the phone, after 2am.

Wednesday 4th May 11

Woken by my eldest who had knocked something onto the floor in the kitchen and it had smashed, so I gingerly found the broom and swept it up into a tidy pile which allowed breakfast activities to continue safely.

After I'd had my breakfast I dealt with a range of paperwork and admin type things, and at about midday, went to see if Debbie would be able to help do the eve-of-poll Green Party leaflet round which we often do together. She wasn't well so I did the round myself.  It only took an hour but then I had a long chat with my physicist friend Adrian about political matters.

After lunch I went round to Debbie's again and asked if she'd got her broken key replaced.  She hadn't as she's been unwell for a few days, so I offered to get the key replaced, if I could.  I went to town to the station to pick up the tickets I bought over the net, one set to go to Bristol this weekend and another set to go down to the Little Green Gathering in July. This is the first time I've got tickets out of a machine.

From here I went to the Credit Union to pick up a cheque to pay for this term at the Steiner School, and I cycled there and paid it in, plus cash to make up the full amount.

I then cycled back with our youngest and once home, popped round to the fix it shop on Lilac Avenue, who do keys.  They were able to put the two halves of the broken key in their machine and cut a new one.  I went back to Debbie's and it fitted, and she was delighted.

As I returned from her, John Bibby was about to unload another job-lot of wood.... some oak fencing, some tree roots, and other bits of tree.  A big messy pile.  It will need a lot of sorting out.  However, it is free heating and would have been burned in a bonfire, or taken to a landfill site, so I'm relatively happy to have it.

I spent an hour doing the smallest bits, cutting twigs from branches and breaking up small lengths of fence plank.  There are some much sturdier timbers to contend with, next week when I have more time.

Gill made a simple pasta tea and then at 6.45 I set out, on foot, with our eldest son, to town to attend the Cafe Scientifique meeting at City Screen, which tonight was all about food and flavours, with a Professor from the University of Hull called John Bradley.  He started with a bit about how the tongue senses tastes and how the olfactory epithelium deals with aromas and fragrances. Because these signals end up in the Hippocampus, there is a connection between emotions and smell, memory and smell, and it's even been found that people with a reduced sense of smell are more prone to depression.  He explained about herbs and spices and volatile molecules, and then the exciting subject of chirality, the way that some molecules are left handed and the same molecule can be right handed.  This has some profound effects on odour molecules... limonene smells like lemons with one enantiomer (shape of molecule) and of oranges with the mirror-image enantiomer. However, another molecule smells like passion fruit with one and like burning rubber with it's mirror image.  Fascinating.  He then finished with a look at combining flavours, such as carrot and coriander (although I prefer carrot and tarragon), caramelised cauliflower and cocoa, banana and parsley.

Following a question and discussion session, we walked home, getting in at about 10pm... a really lovely and interesting night out, with good conversation with my son, especially on the way back.

Lit the stove when I got in and did some more dried fruit and washing up.

Wednesday 6th April 11

Another good day, the morning mainly inside and a good bit of the afternoon outside.

At 3pm I went round to see Lynn, who had asked me to help her 'do' her compost bins.  The fullest one needed the top layers taking off, which I'm happy to do by hand... the stuff washes off, and doing it by hand means lumps can be broken up and bits of plastic removed easily.

So the top layers, with bountiful worms, went in the less full bin, and then Lynn found a dustbin with a lid which I filled with more or less finished compost.... I'll lend her a riddle and that will enable her (or her children!) to separate the fine compost from the unrotted sticks and plant stems. 

However I could only spend an hour there as Gill had gone to the Steiner School for a meeting with our lad's teacher, and so I had to get home to make sure our eldest was OK.  But instead of Yorkys or money, Lynn gave me several good sized leeks that she'd grown.  I was very pleased with this barter.

When I got home things were a bit fraught, Gill hadn't managed to get to the Steiner School and was wondering where the taxi was... it came and she got to school on time.  Our youngest came home in a taxi and Gill, after the meeting, took the usual two buses.    However, our eldest was happy helping a friend with his homework, so I went out the front to split logs, and got distracted by a possible chainsaw sound, which turned out to be a strimmer.  However, I collected the last of the sticks from Jamie... except he said there was another load coming, as he'd done a bit of tree surgery work for someone.  Suits me... except I have to sort out a chainsaw!  Argh!

I made myself some tea... the second lot of home-grown Shiitake mushrooms (had some yesterday too) fried up and put with a bit of couscous salad, some olives and a few bits of tomato, alongside a potato and chive salad, and an unwanted hommous sandwich rejected by one of the boys.

Then at about 9pm I loaded up my bike trailer with 4 sacks of compost, and one on the pannier rack, and cycled it down to St Clements.  I was back home 25 minutes later.

Had a peaceful evening, prepared melon slices for drying.

Monday 14th March 11

Another hard-working day.  I took my chainsaw over to John Bibby's as he had got an enormous log in his garden... I think it's been there for a decade, and a seat had been cut out of it, an L shaped cut.  However, John had indicated he wanted it removed (last year, actually, when I collected all of the chunks of wood from his garden which is now having a house built on it) so today, I'd arranged to go and see if I could do anything with it, using my little chainsaw. 

So I got there at about 10am and eventually we found an extension lead, and I started cutting part-slices out of it.  John only had a tiny axe, and I wished I'd brought my maul with me to clout the chopped chunks to break them off.  However, a few well-aimed kicks worked!

John was going over to the University, so he asked me to load up his car and he'd take it over to Hull Road, I'd unload and get on with my day.  So at about midday, I'd filled his car with big chunks and I cycled back with a trailer full of smaller ones and my chainsaw, which had done very well with the massive log.... I think I'd dealt with a third of it.

I had lunch and as usual, put my laptop on to get emails etc, and it just wouldn't get past the 'start' menu.  Frustrating.  However, I couldn't spend time trying to work out what to do, as at 2pm I was due to start work with David.  He wanted to go round town, and my role is to be his enabler/driver.  We went to the paper shop, his bank, Barnitts, the library, another paper shop to get a newspaper that the first one didn't have, and back to his place where I did some sorting out of his fridge, which had some very out of date items in.

I left soon after 4, and took a trailer-full of newspaper out of his bin to Sainsburys as they have paper banks, and I needed to do some shopping there anyway.  I got mayo and our favourite bread, and some dairy-free ice cream for Gill.  I met Debra in there and we had a chat at the checkout.

Home via Freshways, picked up 3 sacks, and came home to do a load of stacking, splitting and more stacking.  Jamie stopped by and chatted.

I enjoyed tea... Gill had made a pie for Pi day (3.14, ha!) and I had some of yesterday's pasta with it.

I phoned Ben and asked about how I might get my computer working... and he reminded me about 'safe mode (click F8 on start-up) and so to write this, I'm on 'Safe Mode with Networking'.  Ben suggested a hard-disc clean, and told me to save any documents I needed to save onto a dongle thingy.  We got a free one from Suma last year, so I'm going to do that, and Ben will deal with my over stuffed hard-disc.  Hope that helps!

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)

Tuesday 18th January 11

Another good day. Got a lot done. Up early and got busy outside the front to tidy up a bit, chainsawing a pallet and some recently acquired branches.  Also started stacking a new next-to-the-front door pile.

Gill went to the library with our eldest and I got a message from Nick, who wanted to come and pick up some riddled compost for his gardening work.  There was also talk of growing mushrooms on logs.

So he arrived just in time for a hommous sandwich and then we went down the garden and he picked up about 6 carrier bags of riddled compost.  He's bought a load of inoculated dowels from Adrian at Gourmet Woodland Mushrooms, of a native Yorkshire Oyster mushroom, so I gave him two recently felled Ash logs which I hope will make a good host.  I think he's going to give me one of them back with dowels in it. I will supply him with more logs as and when they become available!

So he left at 2pm and I got on with more work, digging out a compost heap into sacks, and then doing the same with a builder's bag, which I need to have empty as another compost heap needs turning/emptying as there's signs of life in the base, and I want them not to get too settled!

I came in as it got dark and put the tomato soup on the stove.  Gill made toasties.  This evening this meal tasted just perfect... the boys both enjoyed the soup and complemented me on it. I did a few apples still looking fine from the garden which had just been left in the preserving pan in the conservatory, put them for drying, and then later, got 5 free onions and a large carrier bag full of tomatoes and made a preserving pan nearly full of tomato and onion 'base'... which I think we'll freeze most of.  It can be used for soup, pasta sauce, nutloaves, all sorts.  This is the first time I've made so much, but it's because of the large number of over-ripe tomatoes thrown out by Freshways. 

So, a productive day.  But a late finish, just after 3am.  This is when I'm at my best, though.

Thursday 6th January 11

A fairly quiet day... I cycled round to the bread shop to get Yesterbake, and then to the Co-op to get goats milk for the people in the house who like dairy, cereal for me, margarine and paracetamol for the painful people, which today includes me, with a headache.

Stress today helped by a phone call from the school, asking where was our son?  I was absolutely gobsmacked... I'd given in a letter, by hand, yesterday, explaining why he was away before Christmas and why he hadn't gone in yesterday.  The communication within that school is abysmal!  So my head was full of schooling problems... I really don't want to have to deal with this.... the school should be good enough to send our children to without them feeling so much fear they can't go in. 

I usually feel better if I'm doing something outside the house, so I dismembered 4 waste pallets with my chainsaw and pure muscle, pulling the bits of wood apart to make stackable planks and nice long-burning cubes of wood with easy-to-pull-out nails in, once the cube is mostly charcoal.

In the afternoon, Gill had an appointment and I was just settling down for a late lunch when there was a knock at the door and there was my old friend Maggie, whom I haven't seen for ages, with two small dogs on lengths of string!  She said she'd walked up to B+Q for something and had walked past our house and recognised the logpiles.  She put the dogs in the back garden, tied to a bench, and came in for a coffee and chat.  We got to talking about a chap we both know, called Andy S. whom we both called a friend at one time.  However, he stole a bike from Maggie, and he's borrowed a large sum of money from one of my friends and not paid it back.  Maggie told me about someone else who Andy had possibly hoodwinked, so I sent this person a message on facebook to find out more.  What I want to do is to alert the police about this abuser so no-one else suffers in the future.  I'm wondering how to get the message out without being accused of slander/defamation or getting a brick through the window. 

I did a favour for Maggie who had taken out a stainless steel sink from somewhere and had it sitting in her back garden, and she asked me to put it on Freecycle.  By the evening I'd had 4 replies and sent them Maggie's phone number.  So I hope one of them gets it!

Anyway, Maggie stayed quite a long time and so I was unable to work with the boys as I'd planned to, after lunch, to get emails and letters sent off to family members to thank them for Christmas gifts.  However, our eldest didn't need much persuasion to email some thank yous, but letter writing is a completely different thing.  More stress.

Anyway, Gill came back, I did some more work outside til it got dark, and for tea I had a pile of old rice with a pool of pumpkin and parsnip soup in the centre, with some unidentified pickle on the side.

The highlights of the evening were watching a good programme on BBC4 about the brain, and finding an interesting forum called SelfSufficientish, which I joined, and read quite a few posts.  The site is run all or partly by my friend John Headstrong, whom I met whilst getting involved with the (We Love The) Earth Centre thing in spring 2010, and I loved this YouTube video about the Robin Hood Tax which he's put on his blog.

Finally, I was pleased to find out today who the mystery visitor was, with the Internet Service Provider based in Buckingham.  It is the spouse of an old friend whom I've known for a very long time, dealing with insomnia and getting ideas about domestic food and energy security, Transition communities and peak oil.  I'm delighted to have been 'useful' and to have helped an old friend.  So, 'hello' and your message made me smile!

Thursday 16th December 10

A busy morning, dealing with the arrangements for our youngest son's schooling. 

In preparation for today's event, Gill made a load of small quiches with goats milk and goats cheese, after I'd been out to buy the milk.  I grated cheese as we'd promised to bring that, and I collected together a bag of dried fruit together. 

The YorkDistrict Home Educators were gathering for a Christmas party at 1pm at Rawcliffe Pavilion in Clifton Moor.  This is really convenient for us, as it is less than 5 minutes walk from a bus stop on Rivelin Way, with the No. 6 bus, which also goes along Tang Hall Lane, which is 5 minutes from us.  The only disadvantage is that this journey with the No. 6 takes 50 minutes, winds it's way through Heworth, Layerthorpe, town, crosses the river, almost gets to the station before doubling back, crossing the river again, going past the hospital, through the Burton Stone Lane/ Burton Green area, and eventually gets to Rivelin Way. 

So I reckoned that if we left the house at about midday that would be about right, but there were major shenanigans and messing around, so I announced that I had got all the mini quiches, cheese and fruit and was ready, and went outside the front door, as I reckoned my presence inside wasn't helping my mental health OR that of any family member.  I stacked logs for half an hour whilst things calmed down and people got ready.  When the bus came, about 5 minutes after we got to the bus stop, I got a family Day Rover for £7.40.

We got to the event just after 1.30 and there were others still arriving.  Our eldest immediately found a group of boys his own age and was all smiles and laughter, it was so good to see.  Our youngest was determined not to enjoy any of the event and therefore didn't.  I enjoyed chatting to one of the other dads and a few mums, and helped by doing a short spot of 3 ball juggling workshop, and lots of clearing up at the end, taking 2 sacks of paper plates and food waste back home on the bus to put in the tumbler.  It was good to meet some other home educators, and although I'm only slowly coming to terms with this change in my life... and not really enjoying it, this event will have helped me move towards acceptance.

When we got back it was dark.  I lit both stoves as the house was cold.  Tea was yesterday's nutloaf and I made a sauce with the rems of the leek and potato soup and some dead pasta and cauliflower. It was delicious!

I kept myself to myself this evening, didn't interact with the children, thought it best not to, and just let them do as they wanted.  I fielded a phone call from Jonathan, a teacher at the Steiner School, about us coming to see the school and discussing our youngest going there.  I also had a crisis message from a friend who's an alcoholic and has an Aspergery boyfriend who had put the phone down on her as she'd admitted to having had a drink, which although he's a drinker himself, he disapproves of.  Complicated, and I'm not sure I was able to help much, but I did ring and listen, in case I was able to help.

Tuesday 26th October 10

A very full day.  I started by cycling down to Country Fresh with Gill's big pink rucksack to pick up 16 pumpkins, 15 for the St Nicks Pumpkin Carving Evening, and one for me to make a pumpkin loaf from, to take along for people to try.  However, the pumpkins this year are a bit smaller than last year, and I got 10 in my trailer and 3 in each pannier.  So I didn't need the rucksack.  I also picked up a box of compostables, and cycled along to St Nicks, put the pumpkins on the landing, and went to the Komp compost bin with the perspex front to put some of the compostables in.  There were a large number of pumpkin seeds and pulp in there, so I retrieved a few of the seeds as for me, these are a valuable resource, although time consuming to prepare. 

When I got back I did a bit of wooding, and then had lunch.  After lunch I went back down Heslington Road as I'd met Zaf earlier, and he'd massacred a Laurel bush which had a honeysuckle growing through it, and he'd asked if I wanted it.  I decided that although this material was only worth composting, having almost no woody bits, I'd tidy it up for him, and I took a big builders dumpy bag to put the stuff in.  I spent half an hour sorting that out and brought most of it back, although a sackful remains.  Then I spent a happy half-hour shredding, and now have a good few tens of kilos of slightly woody, fibrous stuff for layering on the current compost heap between the more putrescible fruit and veg 'resources'.  When I'd finished this, I cycled round to Keith in Burnholme and he gave me the wood which was not picked up yesterday.  This was another huge load.  Before it got dark I popped round to Janet's to pick up some more pears, and I gave her some dried pears and apples as a thank you for the last load of pears.  As it got dark, I went round to Mick and Judy's old house, where builders said I could pick up some logs from their devastated garden, and whilst I was there, Dylan T. arrived as he's living there at the moment, and we had a nice chat. I came back with another trailer load of stove-fodder.

I jarred up more dried apples during the evening and sliced a load more... it's a good production line!

Tuesday 19th October 10

Woken at 6am by banging, shouting and screaming.  I groggily tried to help with the situation .

I was woken again at 9 by a phone call from a nurse or public health professional called Jenny, who is presenting something about bacteria and the importance of washing hands to a reception class tomorrow, and is looking for some balloon models to represent the different sorts of bacteria.  She said she'd like to come and see me on the way into town, so I got up and washed and dressed and breakfasted... she arrived 45 minutes later and brought with her a sheet of paper with some cartoon images of different bacteria.  I agreed I'd have a go and she said she'd be back at 4pm.

Just before she left, there was a delivery from Cozmic Balloons, £85 worth of mixed colours Qualatex 260s, some clear 260s and a bag of Bee Bodies.  What a co-incidence!

I went to buy bread and medicines for the house full of ill people.

I decided to do the sculptures after lunch, and think about what to do in the meantime..

However, after lunch Gill asked me to get some bits and bobs of shopping and I thought I'd put in a cheque in and get a cheque out, and I went into town via Sainsbury's.  However, when I got to the building society I discovered I'd left my pass book at home.  Duh me.  I decided to call in on Alligator to pick up their unwanted resources, and they had just had a delivery of wonderful looking purple cauliflowers, so I brought one of those home...   Via Country Fresh, who had 3 boxes for me.  Lots of composting to do!

I got in sometime after 3 and immediately got busy with the balloons.  I made some Bee Bodies into an apple shape but hid the stalk in the middle, to make a series of roughly globular Bacillus.  I inflated 3 caterpillar balloons with sad or angry faces, and tied their knots all together and then twisted all 3 together so it looked like a load of rod-shaped cells, the top 3 with the faces on.  I tried to do a virus with some heart balloons all tied together and a pair of legs, but it wasn't that successful.  I also did another couple, I've forgotten the name of the bacterium but I used three 260s twisted together into lots of small bubbles and twisted these all together into a load of cells all together.  Jenny arrived at 4 and was happy with all of them apart from the virus-type things, and suggested that I use a caterpillar balloon and give it four legs, and this was really good!  She paid me £10 for doing these... a fun challenge!

After which I decided to chop up the pallets I'd rescued yesterday, and I brought some bits of old pallet up the garden and a plastic bucket which has 'kicked the bucket' and needed to be binned.

In the evening I jarred up a load of dried apple rings and chopped up 15 large juicy pears and balanced them on the racks for drying.  I watched a good HG Wells adaptation 'The First Men in The Moon' which I enjoyed, as when I was a teen I loved HG Wells books, but then watched a second film which portrayed his life 'HG Wells: War With The World' which I really enjoyed, as I felt some kinship with him.  Gill and I both watched this and she looked him up in her Cambridge Guide to Literature; it was a very stimulating programme.  Later still, one of my friends contacted me, needed to talk, as someone she knows and cares about was seemingly preparing to kill themselves, and my friend needed to talk about it, and I'm not sure if I was able to help or give any advice, but I'm glad I was available for this person.  What a sad situation. 

Monday 11th October 10

A mixed day, as had a fair few meetings and things to do.  My first appointment was at St Lawrence's to help Barry move the apple press, which had been left in the staff room since Saturday, out to his car, and I then cycled down to St Nicks and he drove... I got there first... and then we got a third person, a young lad volunteering at the Centre, to help us carry it in.  It is a big heavy piece of equipment, but three people can carry it easily. It will next be used for Apple Day on Saturday.

I cycled back home and then only had a short while to wait until a midday appointment to deal with and wrap up an incident I was involved with a few weeks ago, and then at 3, I met a friend in town who is experiencing quite severe mental stress and she'd asked me to meet her to bounce some ideas off, so we had 90 minutes together in a cafe, and I hope I was a good friend and was a good listener and helped.  But I had another appointment at 5, so zoomed home at 4.35 via Country Fresh and Freshways, and got in just as the Peter the Freecycler was ringing to say he was on the way.  He'd advertised that he wanted an electric bike, whether working or not.  Several years ago, I'd bought a 'Yamaha Easy' electric motor-assisted bike, second-hand, for £100. It needed a new battery, which cost another £100.  I used it a bit, but my trailer didn't fit on it as far as I can remember, and I lent it to a friend and it never worked properly after that.  So since then, it has sat in the studio just taking up space.

So, I hope that Peter is able to rectify any problems and get it back into use; I think it's for his wife, and I've asked to be told if it is brought back into working order.  I'd be really happy if it is used, and helps someone with increased mobility, rather than gathering dust and taking up space.

So after this I spent a few minutes building a logpile with some recently chopped dryish wood, and came in and lit the stove and flopped. 

I had the tea that Gill cooked yesterday but didn't eat, and then had a series of interesting conversations and phone calls.  I eventually got some time to chop up some fruit for drying, as I've emptied the racks and they are crying out to be refilled.

Sunday 10th October 10 10:10:10 Global Work Party Day

Well, a mixed day for me.  I was very sneezy and had a running nose, especially during the first part of the day.  Also, I'd offered to take one of the children swimming to help him with that, but no, he'd decided that the cycle to Yearsley Baths was too much.  I cannot understand why a 15 minute cycle is enough to put someone off.  In fact there were several parenting issues this morning and I felt like a crap Dad, and was glad to get outside and away from the house at midday.

Today has been on my radar for some while.  I am very positive about people making a special effort to 'be green' but I do it most days, my whole life is 'greener' than most.  So I hadn't planned to do anything special for the 350.org 10:10:10 Global Work Party.  But I thought about it and the nearer the date, the more keen I became to do something myself.

I only decided to run my event on the evening of the 8th, and it only went live on the website on the 9th, so although I posted it to facebook, there wasn't much publicity.


I wasn't expecting many people to come, and in the end, no-one did.
BUT I had a really good day managing my composting operations. I had rescued about 200kg of waste fruit and veg from the landfill bins on Thursday and Saturday, and cycled it back home in my bike trailer. I'd also pruned a lot of brambles which fruited earlier this year, so I was able to build good layers on two of my 40 compost heaps. I put the brambles on first, then cardboard, and the chopped wet and sloppy fruit and veg on top of that. The heaps are contained within pallets and material kept in with layers of cardboard up against the wooden pallets.
Additionally, I dug over a builder's bag (one tonne) of mature compost, removed uncomposted sticks and lots of plastic windows from envelopes which were given to me from a school last year for recycling. The plastic will unfortunately get landfilled and the sticks went into the top of one of the heaps I'm currently adding to. The builder's bag full will get bagged up soon in 20 -30kg sacks, and will end up being cycled round to a nearby raised bed being planned by Abundance York, who grow foodplants in public places in the city.

Gill mowed the top lawn and we worked together pruning overgrown shrubs and fruited brambles. That part of the garden is looking a lot tidier now.
However, just as I was finishing my work, Melanie and one of her friends came round and said they'd wanted to do a 10:10:10 action, and decided to plant trees. However, the garden centre was closed, so they drove round to me and asked if I might have any trees they could plant. I plant tree seeds every year, so I was able to give them a Horse Chestnut about 1m tall and a Walnut about 40cm tall, and they took these to the Buddhist Centre about 12 miles East of York, to plant there. This was an unexpected extra to the day for me, and I was really happy to have been able to help.

They came just as I was getting ready to go to the St Nicks Photo Exhibition at the National Trust Shop on Goodramgate.  So I didn't set off for that until nearly 6pm... but there was still plenty of food and wine left.  I met a nice Mexican composer called Claudia, and a chap who works in the shop called Nick, and an ex St Nicks Recycler called Sophie, plus quite a few of my existing friends.  Ivana had taken most of the photos, and there were also lots of the Haikus written during the birthday celebrations. I enjoyed the hour I spent there.

So this wrapped up a mixed day.  I'd enjoyed my composting activities despite feeling low with my dribbly nose and problems with the children, and was very pleased to be asked to provide trees for this 'special' day.