An odd day as we have decided to home educate our eldest child, as of today. Gill spent quite a bit of time doing the required admin with the Local Education Authority and the school, and we'll be contacting the local home schooling group which is very active. I've done a party for them, and I hope we can get involved in this group.
I'm not brilliant with major changes like this but I expect I'll get used to it. Between us, Gill and I have a lot of expertise and learning, and we have a lot of contacts who could do some specialist teaching. I am extremely disappointed that the school has been unable to accommodate our child's needs and has been unable to deal with the dreadful behaviour of some of the other pupils.
Anyway, we look forward to exciting and positive times ahead, and most important, happy times.
I did quite a bit of work outside... stacking logs, filling the leafmould pile, a bit of compost heap management, taking down bean vines and bringing in more dry beans. I even found a meal's-worth of potatoes. I had an appointment with the GP practice nurse for an asthma check and flu jab. On the way back I collected a large sack of gubbins from Freshways.
In the evening I had a use-it-up meal and did some more apple prep for the dried apple production line. I watched a great programme on the ultimate environmental absurdity, bottled water. I had an email enquiry from a Tesco marketeer asking me to do a blog post about how Tesco is green. I could hardly believe it! I'll consider writing this up over the next few days.
Showing posts with label leafmold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leafmold. Show all posts
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Saturday 6th November 10
A funny day for our 11th Wedding Anniversary! I slept for 9 hours, woken by Gill at 11am, with a phone call from Candy, offering to come and look at the bathroom lights for us. So she said she'd come round at 1pm, with her son who is friends with ours.
So, after breakfast (!) Candy arrived and after a coffee, she came up to the bathroom and when I got a stepladder tall enough, and turned off the upstairs lighting main, she extracted the existing halogen downlighters, and told us the good news, they are the sort which run off the normal 240 volt supply; there are no transformers to 12 volt bulbs. This was good as she had with her two new Supalite Mini GU10 7 Watt lamps, which replace the 60W halogen GU10s which gobble up the power, wasting most of it as heat. This will save us quite a bit of electricity in the long run... we don't spend a long time in the bathroom, but over the years, the savings will mount up.
Candy had bought these lamps for between £9 and £10 each, for use in her own house, but I think they were surplus to requirements. We gave her £20 for them, and an old brass and cast iron kitchen balance which we were going to freecycle or take to a charity shop, and she was really happy to be given that. She stayed with us as her lad was enjoying the company of our two plus another of their friends, and she chatted to me as I made a log wall, and a bit later, as I filled sacks with the last of the leafmould collected in 2009. She was happy to spend the afternoon with us as her husband was with a friend, and showing her round the City walls as a touristy experience.
Later on, after tea, our boys had another visitor and he stayed til after 9pm. I listened to Tracey Smith's Slow Down and Green Up show and did the washing up.
Later, I went out on my bike to collect leaves for the recently emptied leafmould enclosure. I have a good way of doing this... using my Wellington boot-clad foot I scrape up a load of leaves from the gutter by riding fast towards the leafy gutter, and then putting my boot into it, aiming to get a large pile by the time I come to a stop. So I collected 9 bin-bags full... and then went to pick up a trailer load of hazel logs too, getting in at half ten.
I had a bath and washed my hair, as I'm working tomorrow and want to look clean.
So, after breakfast (!) Candy arrived and after a coffee, she came up to the bathroom and when I got a stepladder tall enough, and turned off the upstairs lighting main, she extracted the existing halogen downlighters, and told us the good news, they are the sort which run off the normal 240 volt supply; there are no transformers to 12 volt bulbs. This was good as she had with her two new Supalite Mini GU10 7 Watt lamps, which replace the 60W halogen GU10s which gobble up the power, wasting most of it as heat. This will save us quite a bit of electricity in the long run... we don't spend a long time in the bathroom, but over the years, the savings will mount up.
Candy had bought these lamps for between £9 and £10 each, for use in her own house, but I think they were surplus to requirements. We gave her £20 for them, and an old brass and cast iron kitchen balance which we were going to freecycle or take to a charity shop, and she was really happy to be given that. She stayed with us as her lad was enjoying the company of our two plus another of their friends, and she chatted to me as I made a log wall, and a bit later, as I filled sacks with the last of the leafmould collected in 2009. She was happy to spend the afternoon with us as her husband was with a friend, and showing her round the City walls as a touristy experience.
Later on, after tea, our boys had another visitor and he stayed til after 9pm. I listened to Tracey Smith's Slow Down and Green Up show and did the washing up.
Later, I went out on my bike to collect leaves for the recently emptied leafmould enclosure. I have a good way of doing this... using my Wellington boot-clad foot I scrape up a load of leaves from the gutter by riding fast towards the leafy gutter, and then putting my boot into it, aiming to get a large pile by the time I come to a stop. So I collected 9 bin-bags full... and then went to pick up a trailer load of hazel logs too, getting in at half ten.
I had a bath and washed my hair, as I'm working tomorrow and want to look clean.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
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.
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.
Monday, 14 September 2009
Monday 14th September 09
No lie in this morning... Gill wasn't feeling like taking our youngest into school so I cycled in with him. On the way back I collected more aluminium cans from Windmill Lane, about another 20 or so, plus some plastic bottles. I'm glad to pick them up but really mystified why people think it's OK to throw them into the hedge and verges.
Anyway, it made the early start a bit more useful, but I didn't do much for an hour or so after that, just spent time with Gill, washed up, did the recycling, the usual household chores. I had a phone call with Karen who knew Austin and was as shocked as I was to hear what happened.
In fact, had a very quiet day, did a significant amount of work on the computer (if you call emailing 'work'?) but this included some York Rotters stuff, Fiddlesticks stuff, various bits and pieces. Oh and I went to the bread shop and got 'Yesterbake' and found some stuff in a skip which I put on Freecycle. I picked some beans for tea and washed some potatoes. Gill made tea though.
I collected our youngest and spent some time outside after that, digging out last year's leafmould pile and bagging it all up, about 10 sack's worth, leaving the wire netting enclosure ready for this year's harvest. I'll soon be riddling last year's bagged-up stuff, ie leaves collected in 2007, and using it in next year's potting mixes.
After tea I went to a hastily organised Car-Free Day meeting, as some members of York in Transition are preparing for a stunt next Tuesday, which is International Car Free Day. More info posted here when things are finalised. Home by 9.30, in time to say goodnight to the children, light the stove, get water for washing up and hopefully dry some plums.
Anyway, it made the early start a bit more useful, but I didn't do much for an hour or so after that, just spent time with Gill, washed up, did the recycling, the usual household chores. I had a phone call with Karen who knew Austin and was as shocked as I was to hear what happened.
In fact, had a very quiet day, did a significant amount of work on the computer (if you call emailing 'work'?) but this included some York Rotters stuff, Fiddlesticks stuff, various bits and pieces. Oh and I went to the bread shop and got 'Yesterbake' and found some stuff in a skip which I put on Freecycle. I picked some beans for tea and washed some potatoes. Gill made tea though.
I collected our youngest and spent some time outside after that, digging out last year's leafmould pile and bagging it all up, about 10 sack's worth, leaving the wire netting enclosure ready for this year's harvest. I'll soon be riddling last year's bagged-up stuff, ie leaves collected in 2007, and using it in next year's potting mixes.
After tea I went to a hastily organised Car-Free Day meeting, as some members of York in Transition are preparing for a stunt next Tuesday, which is International Car Free Day. More info posted here when things are finalised. Home by 9.30, in time to say goodnight to the children, light the stove, get water for washing up and hopefully dry some plums.
Saturday, 8 November 2008
Saturday 8th November 08
Was lucky to have to have a bit of a lie-in, before lighting the stove so I could have a bath as I'm working today. But as the water was getting up to bath temperature, I went to put a couple of sack's worth of compostables into the Compostumbler. One sack was just watermelons, about 7 of them.... so cut them into chunks and added them with several cardboard boxes. Emptied some collected juices (from a ex-loft water-header tank under the Compostumbler) onto the leafmold pile, to help that rot down, although it seems not to need much help as it's very hot in the middle.
Then had a shave, bath and hairwash to get spruced up for my Knaresborough gig. Gill made sandwiches and ironed my costume, I loaded up my bike trailer and got to the station by 12.45 to get tickets and onto the 13.11 train. I was met in Knaresborough and driven the mile or so to the Community Centre where I was entertaining at a 9 year old's party: a one hour circus show and workshop, followed by a freeplay workshop where they could try out any of the skills I'd brought with me. The 18 boys and one girl all had a great time, as did the Dad, he said on the way back to the station. Very pleasing.
Home soon after 6pm. Gill said that Dexter had just rang, inviting me to a preview of an art show at the Chapel at the York Cemetery which is on all of tomorrow I think. He had been invited to provide some atmospheric lighting, and wanted me to come and see the collection. So I had some tea and went out again! Dexter's lighting was in fact a couple of tables of coloured glass, and clear glass containers (bottles and jars rescued from old landfill sites mainly!) containing coloured water, and lots of candles and night-lights making them look very pretty. This was just outside the doors of the Chapel, making it quite inviting. Inside it was well lit with a selection of display boards with various artworks attached. The organiser, Graeme Martin, was displaying some curious mutated toys and plastic objects mounted in frames, plus a huge (well, maybe 70cm high!) Trojan Horse made out of waste wood, surrounded by tiny plastic toy soldiers, with a weird message which I cannot remember. There were a few paintings in a 'naive' style which had some resonance with me as they were connected to carbon emissions and capitalism, and some work from my old friend Fiona who's been into Dragons ever since I've known her, over 20 years now... She does drawings of mythical monsters, mainly Oriental dragons, and also embroidered fire-screens with landscapes and dragons. I had a good chat with Catherine Scriven who makes paper and original art, especially digital photos, very creative. I also met a 'punter' called Pete, who I probably met many moons ago at the John Bull pub, knocked down a long time ago, replaced by a car showroom. Pete was telling me about his being involved in the starting of SUMA and how the current management had 'rewritten history' and conveniently forgotten how the company actually started, and his work making kites and other fabric items.
I had a lovely time but came back home by 9pm and helped put the children to bed.
Had a nice Skype chat with Ali.
Then had a shave, bath and hairwash to get spruced up for my Knaresborough gig. Gill made sandwiches and ironed my costume, I loaded up my bike trailer and got to the station by 12.45 to get tickets and onto the 13.11 train. I was met in Knaresborough and driven the mile or so to the Community Centre where I was entertaining at a 9 year old's party: a one hour circus show and workshop, followed by a freeplay workshop where they could try out any of the skills I'd brought with me. The 18 boys and one girl all had a great time, as did the Dad, he said on the way back to the station. Very pleasing.
Home soon after 6pm. Gill said that Dexter had just rang, inviting me to a preview of an art show at the Chapel at the York Cemetery which is on all of tomorrow I think. He had been invited to provide some atmospheric lighting, and wanted me to come and see the collection. So I had some tea and went out again! Dexter's lighting was in fact a couple of tables of coloured glass, and clear glass containers (bottles and jars rescued from old landfill sites mainly!) containing coloured water, and lots of candles and night-lights making them look very pretty. This was just outside the doors of the Chapel, making it quite inviting. Inside it was well lit with a selection of display boards with various artworks attached. The organiser, Graeme Martin, was displaying some curious mutated toys and plastic objects mounted in frames, plus a huge (well, maybe 70cm high!) Trojan Horse made out of waste wood, surrounded by tiny plastic toy soldiers, with a weird message which I cannot remember. There were a few paintings in a 'naive' style which had some resonance with me as they were connected to carbon emissions and capitalism, and some work from my old friend Fiona who's been into Dragons ever since I've known her, over 20 years now... She does drawings of mythical monsters, mainly Oriental dragons, and also embroidered fire-screens with landscapes and dragons. I had a good chat with Catherine Scriven who makes paper and original art, especially digital photos, very creative. I also met a 'punter' called Pete, who I probably met many moons ago at the John Bull pub, knocked down a long time ago, replaced by a car showroom. Pete was telling me about his being involved in the starting of SUMA and how the current management had 'rewritten history' and conveniently forgotten how the company actually started, and his work making kites and other fabric items.
I had a lovely time but came back home by 9pm and helped put the children to bed.
Had a nice Skype chat with Ali.
Sunday, 26 October 2008
Sunday 26th October 08
A quiet and relaxing day mostly. Was late getting up, watched Countryfile with Gill whilst the boys had 45 minutes each on the computer. Gill made brownies and a quiche and I did a vast wash up, the only downside of so much home cooking.
Listened to Gardeners Question Time and we giggled to hear a question from a chap with 'just' 18 compost heaps in his garden. After which I went down the garden to add some bags of leaves to my leafmold pile and clear up the old squash vines, pick some bean pods and the last of the sweetcorn.
Finished making the soup started yesterday... added bouillon and herbs and whizzed it up with the handheld blender. Then reheated it on the stove. Gill bought a 20 pence loaf at Scummerfield and made some of it into croutons and that's what we had for tea... pumpkin soup, croutons, broccoli quiche and raw carrot, followed by brownies, fruit and ice cream. Blanched the sweetcorn and peeled the kernels off for tea tomorrow.
I developed a bit of a stuffed-up head and runny nose so went to bed for a couple of hours, but came down for 9pm to see the first installment of the Barbara Cartland dramatisation, as I am curious about her life as we share an ancestor (my middle name is her maiden name), but it didn't grab me that much. Gill loves dramas but I get a bit lost and sometimes find the plot difficult to keep up with. Good acting though.
Listened to Gardeners Question Time and we giggled to hear a question from a chap with 'just' 18 compost heaps in his garden. After which I went down the garden to add some bags of leaves to my leafmold pile and clear up the old squash vines, pick some bean pods and the last of the sweetcorn.
Finished making the soup started yesterday... added bouillon and herbs and whizzed it up with the handheld blender. Then reheated it on the stove. Gill bought a 20 pence loaf at Scummerfield and made some of it into croutons and that's what we had for tea... pumpkin soup, croutons, broccoli quiche and raw carrot, followed by brownies, fruit and ice cream. Blanched the sweetcorn and peeled the kernels off for tea tomorrow.
I developed a bit of a stuffed-up head and runny nose so went to bed for a couple of hours, but came down for 9pm to see the first installment of the Barbara Cartland dramatisation, as I am curious about her life as we share an ancestor (my middle name is her maiden name), but it didn't grab me that much. Gill loves dramas but I get a bit lost and sometimes find the plot difficult to keep up with. Good acting though.
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Wednesday 22nd October 08
I took our youngest to school and came back with four sacks of leaves.
A quiet day in the house mainly... more chores whilst Gill went to Art in Osbaldwick, proudly showing me a lovely 'negative' artwork when she got back. They'd been given a couple of chairs to draw, but had been told to draw everything but the chairs, so the gaps between were there but the chairs themselves were just silhouettes.
Before and after lunch I spent a good long time cutting back this year's fruited loganberry canes and tying in the ones which have grown this year and will fruit next year. This is a tricky job, gloves would make it completely impossible so I used bare hands and secateurs, but quite a few of the tiny prickles and spines found their way into my hands, so I spent a bit of time during the evening chopping them out like I do with splinters, using my very sharp penknife scissors.
Continued with the work I'm doing for Ali's project, which will convert into a 'Dexter' artwork. It's a list of words from my first 40 years, memory joggers. I need about a thousand, so only another 800 to go then!!!
I met up with Julia from Green Thumbs at 3.40 at Country Fresh, so she could buy and take away 20 pumpkins which the youngsters will make into creatures, rather than carve with sharp knives which we think wouldn't be a good idea from a safety point of view. I'm grateful to the guys at Country Fresh for the very reasonable deal on the pumpkins!
A cosy evening with Gill once the boys were in bed, which took time as the homework situation had caused a lot of anger.
A quiet day in the house mainly... more chores whilst Gill went to Art in Osbaldwick, proudly showing me a lovely 'negative' artwork when she got back. They'd been given a couple of chairs to draw, but had been told to draw everything but the chairs, so the gaps between were there but the chairs themselves were just silhouettes.
Before and after lunch I spent a good long time cutting back this year's fruited loganberry canes and tying in the ones which have grown this year and will fruit next year. This is a tricky job, gloves would make it completely impossible so I used bare hands and secateurs, but quite a few of the tiny prickles and spines found their way into my hands, so I spent a bit of time during the evening chopping them out like I do with splinters, using my very sharp penknife scissors.
Continued with the work I'm doing for Ali's project, which will convert into a 'Dexter' artwork. It's a list of words from my first 40 years, memory joggers. I need about a thousand, so only another 800 to go then!!!
I met up with Julia from Green Thumbs at 3.40 at Country Fresh, so she could buy and take away 20 pumpkins which the youngsters will make into creatures, rather than carve with sharp knives which we think wouldn't be a good idea from a safety point of view. I'm grateful to the guys at Country Fresh for the very reasonable deal on the pumpkins!
A cosy evening with Gill once the boys were in bed, which took time as the homework situation had caused a lot of anger.
Monday, 20 October 2008
Monday 20th October 08
A good day... took our little one into school and came back via lots of windblown leaves, and filled 3 sacks for the leafmold pile...
I spent the whole day inside, doing a load of washing up and fruit drying whilst Gill went to the dentist again. I spent quite a lot of time playing Scrabble on Facebook, between pots and pans and apple slices.... I must remember to choose a long time for goes as I had a short bit of game with a stranger and it was on a two minute timer, and she forced a win against me as I ran out of time... not really fair, but I've learnt from this! Most of my games are on a 24 hour or 7 day timer... much more civilised!
Gill went to school to fetch our youngest and at 4.20 I went to 'Meet the Teacher' as Parents evening is now called. Our youngest is doing well, good reading and writing scores, maths too, so we're proud of him.
I came back with four large sacks of leaves... the leafmold enclosure is looking pretty full now, but I'll build the sides up with cardboard whilst it sits down a bit!
A toasty evening with a big log on the stove and boys being relatively well behaved. More Scrabble as Gill snoozed... and then did my paid blog on a solution to the 'Credit Crunch'.
I spent the whole day inside, doing a load of washing up and fruit drying whilst Gill went to the dentist again. I spent quite a lot of time playing Scrabble on Facebook, between pots and pans and apple slices.... I must remember to choose a long time for goes as I had a short bit of game with a stranger and it was on a two minute timer, and she forced a win against me as I ran out of time... not really fair, but I've learnt from this! Most of my games are on a 24 hour or 7 day timer... much more civilised!
Gill went to school to fetch our youngest and at 4.20 I went to 'Meet the Teacher' as Parents evening is now called. Our youngest is doing well, good reading and writing scores, maths too, so we're proud of him.
I came back with four large sacks of leaves... the leafmold enclosure is looking pretty full now, but I'll build the sides up with cardboard whilst it sits down a bit!
A toasty evening with a big log on the stove and boys being relatively well behaved. More Scrabble as Gill snoozed... and then did my paid blog on a solution to the 'Credit Crunch'.
Sunday, 19 October 2008
Sunday 19th October 08
Quite an early start, to go into town to help Ali get off back home, so got to the station at about 11 and she got the 11.28, and I came back home.
Tried to use my computer to do a variety of things and and some seemed to have stopped working, which is annoying... but not the blog which I'm happy about.
Had lunch and started to get ready for work. My gig today was a 6yr old's birthday party in the cafe at Rowntree Park... just my circus skills show, no balloons today. As usual, the show went well despite a couple of mistakes... the ceiling is almost too low for me to balance a devilstick on my nose so I had to stoop slightly to do the trick and it is hugely more difficult like that.... but as the trick is a crucial part of the show, I have to do it.... and managed third time around.
After that, went to the Winning Post to get my deposit money back from the Transition event a couple of weekends ago, and came home via Country Fresh to pick up a fairly small dose of compostables.... luckily as I couldn't carry much more!
I had a few minutes relaxation inside before getting changed and went down to the leafmold enclosure to finish digging it out and putting last year's leaves in plastic sacks, so the chicken wire enclosure is ready for this year's harvest. I had already got about 5 sacks of autumn leaves ready for it, so they went straight in, half filling it up. They will bed down to a much smaller volume, and I'll probably be able to put in between 6 to 10 times as many before the enclosure is full.
Did a bit of stacking logs before being called in to have tea and try to help the boys with their homework. I did bathwater fot our youngest and a relatively peaceful evening ensued.
Maria sent me this link
http://3rings.designerpages.com/2008/02/26/dutchtub/
wow!
Want one!!!
Tried to use my computer to do a variety of things and and some seemed to have stopped working, which is annoying... but not the blog which I'm happy about.
Had lunch and started to get ready for work. My gig today was a 6yr old's birthday party in the cafe at Rowntree Park... just my circus skills show, no balloons today. As usual, the show went well despite a couple of mistakes... the ceiling is almost too low for me to balance a devilstick on my nose so I had to stoop slightly to do the trick and it is hugely more difficult like that.... but as the trick is a crucial part of the show, I have to do it.... and managed third time around.
After that, went to the Winning Post to get my deposit money back from the Transition event a couple of weekends ago, and came home via Country Fresh to pick up a fairly small dose of compostables.... luckily as I couldn't carry much more!
I had a few minutes relaxation inside before getting changed and went down to the leafmold enclosure to finish digging it out and putting last year's leaves in plastic sacks, so the chicken wire enclosure is ready for this year's harvest. I had already got about 5 sacks of autumn leaves ready for it, so they went straight in, half filling it up. They will bed down to a much smaller volume, and I'll probably be able to put in between 6 to 10 times as many before the enclosure is full.
Did a bit of stacking logs before being called in to have tea and try to help the boys with their homework. I did bathwater fot our youngest and a relatively peaceful evening ensued.
Maria sent me this link
http://3rings.designerpages.com/2008/02/26/dutchtub/
wow!
Want one!!!
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Thursday 9th October 08
I took our youngest to school and came back via a logpile and therefore with a big load of dry and ready-to-cut logs...
Spent a couple of hours chatting to Gill who seems to be slowly recovering from her tooth abcess, and did emails and writing. I have been asked by BBC Radio York to do a piece on reducing food waste for their website, so this took an hour or so. Then went out to wrangle logs... excellent!
Lit the stove as a child needs a bath. Enjoyed my lunch, my good mood seems to have reappeared, thank goodness! This was compounded by a phone call from ITV 'Britain's Got Talent' as I'd been spotted on the local news unicycling at Harrogate Car-Free-Day, and the ITV lass invited me to apply to be on Britain's Got Talent. I haven't seen this programme so she explained what happens, and I asked her opinion about whether she thought my show/skills etc was suitable for the expected 3-minute format. Once I'd put the phone down I couldn't stop giggling about this... I found it absolutely hilarious to think of going on the show. But I've decided not to bother. My entertainment career doesn't need any help, I don't want to win any money and it sounds like a bit of a bear-pit audience-wise. But it was good to be asked!
Went down to school at 3.15 to help out with Green Thumbs... I took a group of 6 or 7 kids and about 10 ceramic pots which had been painted by children last week, showed them why a crock was needed over the hole in the base (they went to find stones etc for this and placed them in) and used compost from the planters which have had crops growing in them all summer to half fill these pretty pots. Then they placed 3 or 4 Narcissus bulbs in each pot and filled them up to the top with more growing medium. Then they watered them and that was the 45 minutes taken up, and I cycled home via the logpile I've recently discovered, near some new development where some trees have been taken down.
I had a brief time at home and then went into town to meet a friend and had an interesting evening, we ate at El Piano and walked down to the Millennium Bridge and then up to the Youth Hostel. I've learned quite a lot about historical re-enactment, and how in the 'Dark Ages' people had to make their own clothes and cutlery (for instance) and this means that objects were valued more than in today's society, and being in a re-enactment group helps you learn skills which in a 'greener' world, we'd be doing more, not just relying on being able to buy stuff so easily and replace stuff if it goes wrong or breaks. I'd never thought of this 'by-product' of being a re-enactor. Infact I'd not given much thought to the whole re-enactment scene at all!
On the way back to home after the pubs shut I picked up four huge sacks of leaves which had been tidied up from roads (I think!) and just left for the binmen to pick up... so my leafmould pile 2008 is starting today.
Spent a couple of hours chatting to Gill who seems to be slowly recovering from her tooth abcess, and did emails and writing. I have been asked by BBC Radio York to do a piece on reducing food waste for their website, so this took an hour or so. Then went out to wrangle logs... excellent!
Lit the stove as a child needs a bath. Enjoyed my lunch, my good mood seems to have reappeared, thank goodness! This was compounded by a phone call from ITV 'Britain's Got Talent' as I'd been spotted on the local news unicycling at Harrogate Car-Free-Day, and the ITV lass invited me to apply to be on Britain's Got Talent. I haven't seen this programme so she explained what happens, and I asked her opinion about whether she thought my show/skills etc was suitable for the expected 3-minute format. Once I'd put the phone down I couldn't stop giggling about this... I found it absolutely hilarious to think of going on the show. But I've decided not to bother. My entertainment career doesn't need any help, I don't want to win any money and it sounds like a bit of a bear-pit audience-wise. But it was good to be asked!
Went down to school at 3.15 to help out with Green Thumbs... I took a group of 6 or 7 kids and about 10 ceramic pots which had been painted by children last week, showed them why a crock was needed over the hole in the base (they went to find stones etc for this and placed them in) and used compost from the planters which have had crops growing in them all summer to half fill these pretty pots. Then they placed 3 or 4 Narcissus bulbs in each pot and filled them up to the top with more growing medium. Then they watered them and that was the 45 minutes taken up, and I cycled home via the logpile I've recently discovered, near some new development where some trees have been taken down.
I had a brief time at home and then went into town to meet a friend and had an interesting evening, we ate at El Piano and walked down to the Millennium Bridge and then up to the Youth Hostel. I've learned quite a lot about historical re-enactment, and how in the 'Dark Ages' people had to make their own clothes and cutlery (for instance) and this means that objects were valued more than in today's society, and being in a re-enactment group helps you learn skills which in a 'greener' world, we'd be doing more, not just relying on being able to buy stuff so easily and replace stuff if it goes wrong or breaks. I'd never thought of this 'by-product' of being a re-enactor. Infact I'd not given much thought to the whole re-enactment scene at all!
On the way back to home after the pubs shut I picked up four huge sacks of leaves which had been tidied up from roads (I think!) and just left for the binmen to pick up... so my leafmould pile 2008 is starting today.
Saturday, 16 February 2008
Saturday 16th February 08
Started the day by completing the front garden clear up, and got it done by the time the parents rolled up in their Toyota Prius. They seemed pleased I'd made a space for them to park, although I still don't understand what the problem is about parking on the verge between the pavement and the road... everyone else does who comes here in a car, unless they park round the corner on Lilac Avenue, off the main road. Anyway, they arrived and we had a hot drink and a nice chat, and after a lunch of sandwiches we went for a walk to Hull Road Park where there was a bit of footie and frisbee and playing on climbing equipment.
They left fairly soon after this and I got on with some leafmold riddling in the garden.
Had a good evening with Gill, beat her soundly at Scrabble but she didn't mind....
They left fairly soon after this and I got on with some leafmold riddling in the garden.
Had a good evening with Gill, beat her soundly at Scrabble but she didn't mind....
Thursday, 1 November 2007
Thursday 1st November 07
A good day for me, took the kids to school and met the headteacher in the playground after the kids went in... she went to the kitchens and got a plastic dustbin she'd got some time ago as a collection receptacle for playground compostables, and I said I'd provide some words for a notice to put on the side of it, and some for the other playground bins, one of which should be for 'dry recyclables' such as tetrapacks/drinks cartons, plastic bottles, cans etc. I hope this is a new system!
Came home and spent some time managing my leafmould container, this is just a chicken wire enclosure about 1.5 metres square and about a metre high. Last year's leafmould was in the bottom, in a layer about 20 or 30 cm deep. I scraped this about with a garden fork and shovelled the nearly finished leafmould into plastic sacks, removing sticks for recomposting, contaminants (litter from the roads where I got the leafmould) for the bin and ground elder and nettle roots for the hot compost pile, where they will not be able to grow away like they could in a cold pile.
I collect freshly fallen autumn leaves in a curious way. They collect in gutters at the side of the road, Windmill Lane is a good example as it has loads of trees along one side, and it's on a slight slope. This helps with my collection method! I cycle quite fast and then put one foot down, usually with a wellington boot on it, and scrape it along the gutter, pushing several metres of leaves into a pile. I then get off the bike and shovel them into my trailer or into a plastic sack. Simple really, but a good method. These leaves then simply get piled up for a year to rot down, and they turn into something a bit like peat, low nutrient value, fibrous, good to handle, holds water well, and good to mix with nutrient rich garden compost and loam (from turves stacked up and left for at least a year) to make a potting medium for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers etc etc.
So I had a good day in the garden, and collected the children at 3... well I got one and waited for the other but he didn't appear. Then the other child told me he was in the school hall standing in a circle, so I went to look and eventually he came to tell me he was doing drama club, til 4.15. I didn't know about this, so went home with one child and then cycled back to pick the second up... lots of cycling and lots of opportunities to scrape up leaves for my newly emptied leafmould enclosure...
During the evening I did my usual email download, and one was rather interesting as it was a response to my blog on Community Care last Sunday, where I discussed wearing a white poppy instead of a red one. A person calling themself 'Walter Wall' posted a comment saying my stand was disgraceful.. and that both his grandfathers were badly injured during the war and that they fought so that I could lead the life I lead. He said that I might not agree with the fighting of wars but that they are fought and servicemen and women do their duty and many do not survive. He finishes with his view that wearing a white poppy is an insult to their memory. I decided to publish this comment as it shows the strength of opinion on this issue. I guess that Walter Wall represents many and as it's an ethical dilemma, well issue at least, I am happy to publish criticism.
Came home and spent some time managing my leafmould container, this is just a chicken wire enclosure about 1.5 metres square and about a metre high. Last year's leafmould was in the bottom, in a layer about 20 or 30 cm deep. I scraped this about with a garden fork and shovelled the nearly finished leafmould into plastic sacks, removing sticks for recomposting, contaminants (litter from the roads where I got the leafmould) for the bin and ground elder and nettle roots for the hot compost pile, where they will not be able to grow away like they could in a cold pile.
I collect freshly fallen autumn leaves in a curious way. They collect in gutters at the side of the road, Windmill Lane is a good example as it has loads of trees along one side, and it's on a slight slope. This helps with my collection method! I cycle quite fast and then put one foot down, usually with a wellington boot on it, and scrape it along the gutter, pushing several metres of leaves into a pile. I then get off the bike and shovel them into my trailer or into a plastic sack. Simple really, but a good method. These leaves then simply get piled up for a year to rot down, and they turn into something a bit like peat, low nutrient value, fibrous, good to handle, holds water well, and good to mix with nutrient rich garden compost and loam (from turves stacked up and left for at least a year) to make a potting medium for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers etc etc.
So I had a good day in the garden, and collected the children at 3... well I got one and waited for the other but he didn't appear. Then the other child told me he was in the school hall standing in a circle, so I went to look and eventually he came to tell me he was doing drama club, til 4.15. I didn't know about this, so went home with one child and then cycled back to pick the second up... lots of cycling and lots of opportunities to scrape up leaves for my newly emptied leafmould enclosure...
During the evening I did my usual email download, and one was rather interesting as it was a response to my blog on Community Care last Sunday, where I discussed wearing a white poppy instead of a red one. A person calling themself 'Walter Wall' posted a comment saying my stand was disgraceful.. and that both his grandfathers were badly injured during the war and that they fought so that I could lead the life I lead. He said that I might not agree with the fighting of wars but that they are fought and servicemen and women do their duty and many do not survive. He finishes with his view that wearing a white poppy is an insult to their memory. I decided to publish this comment as it shows the strength of opinion on this issue. I guess that Walter Wall represents many and as it's an ethical dilemma, well issue at least, I am happy to publish criticism.
Monday, 26 February 2007
26th Feb 07
A day with not much on, so a late start and then my usual monday cycle into York to collect compostables from Out Of This World ethical supermarket, via Richard the greengrocer, who was a happy recipient of a super selection of home-made dried fruit, as a thank you for his sorting out materials for me... and keeping them out of landfill. So OOTW had about 40kg for me and on the way back, Richard gave me another 15 or 20 kg. I know the approx weights as when York Rotters got its first funding, DEFRA requested information about weights of materials being diverted away from landfill. I bought a pocket-sized spring-balance from Barnitts and weighed my compostables for months and months, and recorded the weights and types of material (ie from our kitchen; commercial fruit/veg; cardboard; neighbours garden materials; my compost toilet materials) and so I know approximately how heavy any particular bag or brewing bucket is. So today I diverted about 55 or 60 kg from landfill into my lovely compost heaps.
I know I've got OCD (Obsessive Composting Disorder) but at least it's a healthy pro-sustainability obsession. I also love doing my dried fruit on the logstove. I gave Richard a selection including blackberry and apple leather, pomegranate and apple leather, pear slices, apple rings, experimental dried lychee blobs, melon strips, mango slices, a single strip of pawpaw, a jar or stove-dried raisins and ditto of stove-dried bananas. Richard wanted to have a snack which was healthier than biscuits, so he was happy with the delicious fruit.
When I got home I bunged some of the manky stuff on the current heap and then I started to prepare the leafmold for this year's seed compost. I collect aunumn leaves from the side of roads, Windmill Lane is good as I can cycle fast down it and then put my booted foot down in the gutter and scrape up a big pile of leaves as I come to a halt. Then I put this pile in the trailer and do another acceleration and foot down scraping action for another load. All these leaves are collected in a chicken wire leaf-mold holder and left for a year. Before I collect the next year's autumn crop, I put the partly rotted leafmold into plastic sacks, removing 'contraries' as I do this (fag ends, plastic bits, broken glass etc) and also sticks which go into the fruit/veg compost. A year later these bags are rotaseived into a 'dalek' composter, layered with comfrey leaves to add some nutrients. This well rotted and by now very fine material is an excellent alternative to peat, and I use it in seed compost as the major constituent, and in my potting composts as a third of the mix. So I got together a sack of ready-to-use leafmold and also riddled (with the rotaseive) some fresh stuff into the top of the dalek. No comfrey at this time of year, but it isn't essential.
I went to the school with my wife to meet with one of my boy's teachers, to discuss how he was doing. Apparently his behaviour is OK at school, and he keeps his loud outbursts for us at home. This is very common, as other parents have mentioned it. Both boys requested 'bundles' when they got home, so I obliged after a half hour of bow-sawing some oak logs. I like to do a bit of logging fairly often. The bundling was a little rough but tea being served put a stop to it.
Tea was omlette done on the woodstove, even though Gill said it wasn't hot enough and would make a rubbery omlette. If I lived by myself I wouldn't eat omlette, infact I probably wouldn't eat eggs, as I would probably go vegan. A vegan lifestyle is the lowest carbon diet, and of course it's the most respectful of animals. It's funny, I love animals but would prefer not to see them in the fields or being used as pets or for entertainment, unless they were wild animals such as birds in the garden and other wildlife. I like the spiders and the silverfish sharing the house with us, though. But not mice, which I admit to trapping and composting. Mice in the house are not acceptable, mice in the compost heaps are. Rats in the compost heaps are not acceptable and I disturb them to encourage them to go elsewhere. It's odd, I have different standards!
I know I've got OCD (Obsessive Composting Disorder) but at least it's a healthy pro-sustainability obsession. I also love doing my dried fruit on the logstove. I gave Richard a selection including blackberry and apple leather, pomegranate and apple leather, pear slices, apple rings, experimental dried lychee blobs, melon strips, mango slices, a single strip of pawpaw, a jar or stove-dried raisins and ditto of stove-dried bananas. Richard wanted to have a snack which was healthier than biscuits, so he was happy with the delicious fruit.
When I got home I bunged some of the manky stuff on the current heap and then I started to prepare the leafmold for this year's seed compost. I collect aunumn leaves from the side of roads, Windmill Lane is good as I can cycle fast down it and then put my booted foot down in the gutter and scrape up a big pile of leaves as I come to a halt. Then I put this pile in the trailer and do another acceleration and foot down scraping action for another load. All these leaves are collected in a chicken wire leaf-mold holder and left for a year. Before I collect the next year's autumn crop, I put the partly rotted leafmold into plastic sacks, removing 'contraries' as I do this (fag ends, plastic bits, broken glass etc) and also sticks which go into the fruit/veg compost. A year later these bags are rotaseived into a 'dalek' composter, layered with comfrey leaves to add some nutrients. This well rotted and by now very fine material is an excellent alternative to peat, and I use it in seed compost as the major constituent, and in my potting composts as a third of the mix. So I got together a sack of ready-to-use leafmold and also riddled (with the rotaseive) some fresh stuff into the top of the dalek. No comfrey at this time of year, but it isn't essential.
I went to the school with my wife to meet with one of my boy's teachers, to discuss how he was doing. Apparently his behaviour is OK at school, and he keeps his loud outbursts for us at home. This is very common, as other parents have mentioned it. Both boys requested 'bundles' when they got home, so I obliged after a half hour of bow-sawing some oak logs. I like to do a bit of logging fairly often. The bundling was a little rough but tea being served put a stop to it.
Tea was omlette done on the woodstove, even though Gill said it wasn't hot enough and would make a rubbery omlette. If I lived by myself I wouldn't eat omlette, infact I probably wouldn't eat eggs, as I would probably go vegan. A vegan lifestyle is the lowest carbon diet, and of course it's the most respectful of animals. It's funny, I love animals but would prefer not to see them in the fields or being used as pets or for entertainment, unless they were wild animals such as birds in the garden and other wildlife. I like the spiders and the silverfish sharing the house with us, though. But not mice, which I admit to trapping and composting. Mice in the house are not acceptable, mice in the compost heaps are. Rats in the compost heaps are not acceptable and I disturb them to encourage them to go elsewhere. It's odd, I have different standards!
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