Wednesday 21st September 11

Up earlyish again and quite a good day... cold receding, cut getting better.

I did assorted admin, including chasing up the whereabouts of my fruit press (should be arriving back on Thursday eve, to be used again on Friday) and ordering £80 worth of modeling balloons. 

Took delivery of 5 sacks of apple bits from the people who borrowed my crusher and press over the weekend, and they gave me a bottle of apple wine from last year as a thank you.

I did some compost heap loading, mainly the apple pulp, and guinea pig bedding. I love being outside, really good for my mental health!

At 4pm I went to the Ecodepot and took part in the first Snow Warden training. The Council wants to help volunteers all over the city deal with snow on footpaths this winter, if we have snow... and gave us training and a snow shovel, hat, gloves and hi-viz jacket.  The training was hilarious, with a very over the top health and safety risk assessment and dead-pan humour from the officer delivering the training.

At 10pm I went to Priory St as my friend Jackie said she was coming out of 5 rhythms dance then, but her train was at 11.15, so would have time to chat.  But when she came out she was deep in conversation with her friend Vicky, and they went for something to eat, so I came home again, via some thrown out wooden chairs, two of which are broken, so are for firewood, and one is in good nick so it will get used.... or put on Freecycle.

Friday 18th February 11

An interesting day.... our youngest wasn't well so he didn't go to school, but Gill was volunteering in the shop so she went in, and then went to town afterwards to visit charity shops.

Our eldest wasn't feeling great either so he didn't go to Maria's, so we all had a very quiet morning.  I did a pile of washing up and assorted online stuff.

I then spent quite a bit of time down the garden.... I emptied a pallet heap into a builder's bag (over a cubic metre) and then dismantled the pallets and sorted out the rodent home underneath.  Much though I like nature and animals, I intend to make life as difficult as possible for unwanted beasties under my compost heaps.  I've found that if they are raised up on top of other pallets, they are less of a comfortable place to live.  So I bagged up a load of finished compost and moved stuff around so I can reconstruct a rat-proof compost bin.  I had a constant companion with a robin, and I enjoyed listening to all the other birds.

I came in as it got dark and had tea.  Gill took our eldest down to see Simon for his computer graphics lesson.  I had a phone chat with a student called Daniel, who's doing a dissertation about greening festivals.  We chatted for an hour, I answered his questions and I was very pleased to have helped him. He said I was the most enthusiastic person he'd interviewed, and knew most about the issues!

I got a phone call from a woman involved with a special school in East Yorkshire, wanting to book me for next Tuesday.... which is great, apart from I'll miss a workshop on the same day called Climate For Change.  How annoying.

I sent off a bunch of emails and facebook messages to London-based friends asking them if they'd like to host me at the end of March, as I've been invited to talk at UK Aware about urban composting.

At midnight, I went to wait outside the house as two of my student friends had invited me to go 'skipping' with them.  There's a supermarket which deliberately leaves it's gates open so that the bins are accessible; I think the stuff which is taken means they pay less for their landfill charges, or maybe they have a conscience.  It was just amazing what had been thrown out; bread, cakes, sandwiches, wrapped biscuits and cakes, a luxury curry in protective atmosphere packaging, in date, loads of potatoes, Cauldron veggie sausages and curries, cranberry juice, onions, plums, raspberries, little oranges, apples, cashew nuts, a tub of hommous, a tub of mango chunks, a bunch of lovely fresh carrots, a shrink-wrapped cabbage, lots of ready to eat salads, bunches of roses, and vast numbers of bananas, about 3 bin bags full.  The students planned to cook up a big meal and share it with their friends.  We cycled home to their place to share it out... and I was home before 1am and then had a lot of sortig to do!  Freeganism is fun, but I have mixed feelings.  I'm saddened, no - disgusted -  by the amount of waste just on this one night.  This is multiplied by 365 every year, and by I don't know how much by the number of supermarkets and shops that have this kind of waste.

Thursday 21st October 10

Woken early and a dreadful start to the day, but despite the headache the day got better.  I gathered paperwork together and headed for town to put in a cheque, get out a cheque and pay a bill.  I went via Heslington via a gent who offered a couple of rhubarb roots on Freecycle.  I took him a sack of compost as a present. 

I came back home via the almond tree, which had given up more of it's bounty, and then passed a large skip brimming with logs and mature privet.  I knew I'd be revisiting this later.  I had lunch and did some work preparing stuff for tomorrow.  Then I went back to the skip and there was no problem... a garden clearance with several lilacs, laburnums and cherry trees.  I took six trailer loads, including some thick privet trunks which I chopped down with loppers.  This made me very happy.

Back at home during the evening I chopped the membrillo into cubes and boxed it up in a plastic tub.  Both boys tried some and loved it... it will be an occasional treat, as it's 50% sugar.

I've been thinking long and hard about the upset I partly caused earlier in the week and this evening I sent a carefully worded apology to the two family members involved.  I'm hoping that polite and friendly relations can be regained.  I don't set out to cause problems.

I had a bath as I need to be shiny and fresh tomorrow.

Tuesday 26th January 10

A much better day. I got a lot done. I spent most of the morning sorting out the paper part of my accounts, getting them ready for electronic submission.

I popped out at lunchtime to get bread and pasties from Thomas The Baker, and then after lunch, in response to an email which was offering Freecycled materials for a forthcoming York in Transition Beehive Making day, I cycled down to town.

On the way I stopped at a skip and the man emptying the house said I could have a look through, and I found a large number of low energy lightbulbs in their boxes, a toasting fork and a freeview box. I also found a passport, so I took that in order to send that to the passport office, but a nosey neighbour over the road came out of her front door and shouted at me to not take the passport or she would tell the police. I gave it to the man cleaning out the house... I wonder what he will do with it? In retrospect I ought to have told her to mind her own business and taken it to the police myself.

I went via Alligator to get peanut butter, mayonnaise (yummy vegan stuff!) and marmalade for Gill, and then on to Kings Manor, where Dave, an archaeologist, met me, and showed me the materials he was happy to get rid of. These were four very large sheets of hardboard. I tried to get them on my trailer but they wouldn't go on without dragging on the ground... so after two tries, I broke each sheet in two and reloaded them. I still had difficulties getting these to St Nicks for storage... very unwieldy and good at slipping off. But, slowly and carefully, I cycled up to St Nicks and asked Ivana where they could be stored, and disposed of them. Whilst there I met Sarah, another Freecycler, which was nice.

Home via Freshways, and back to home where the dreaded paperwork was waiting. So I did half an hour chainsawing to use up the daylight.

After tea I went onto the computer again and worked slowly through the hmrc self assessment stuff... too slowly for the website as I had to re-log in twice, as I was reading explanatory notes. Also it was very frustrating as I tried to put some notes in boxes where it asked if I wanted to put more information... but it wouldn't accept my text. Eventually I had to put my notes in a file and attach it to the submission. I was able to pay my tax online, and by 11pm I had done it all!

A very good feeling, relief and happiness, a weight off my shoulders. Gill fitted the freeview box to the TV in the front room, and it works fine, although there isn't a remote for it, so we have a single remote control for two TVs. I think that needs sorting!

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.

Sunday 2nd August 09

Quite a late start, but got up quickly as the boys were bubbling over with energy and needed to do something, so I took them (my eldest and two of his friends) to the nearest park with a frisbee, a football and some fruit juice, and left them to it.

I popped in to Freshways to see Raj and he gave me loads of compostables, and then went to collect some logs from the house on Millfield Lane which has had it's garden cleared, and in a skip found an unopened packet of underlay sheets, so I took them to put on Freecycle. A neighbour round the corner asked me if I wanted a large dining table, so after seeing it and measuring it, I put this on Freecycle too. Good to keep stuff out of landfill and get it reused. A very enjoyable hobby.

So, a happy day dealing with my logpiles, visiting skips, chatting to neighbours, replying to Freecycle messages wanting the underlay, preparing more nectarines for another fruity-tea-pudding.

Gill took four boys to the newly refurbished cinema 'Reel' to see 'G Force' and I got the chainsaw out and did a substantial amount of cutting up the chunky logs from Woodlands. I'm cutting them quite short as the type of wood is really difficult to split, so short logs will be easier to split. I'd love to know what sort of trees they were, but they died standing up so the timber is dry. Different timber has different properties... so beech splits well when green but when dry is really difficult to split. But this tree isn't a beech, it has rough bark (which is falling off) and a very dense grain.

Watched 'Man on Wire' on telly with both my boys and our visitor, we all enjoyed this, although Gill gets vertigo and couldn't watch some bits!

Tuesday 2nd June 09

I got up quite early as I knew I had quite a bit to do today, and I settled down to try to do my Community Care blog, but I failed as I couldn't concentrate. And then I got a phone call from a friend who I met at the Northern Green Gathering, who'd posted a 'status' on Facebook asking for information on 'green funeral options', and I'd replied and said we ought to have a chat. She was wanting to plan her own funeral and convey those wishes to her solicitor. So, I went through the 4 legal and available methods of body disposal, and their relative carbon costs, and social aspects, as a funeral and/or place to remember the deceased is important for those who loved that person. I ended up telling her about the 5th method, not yet available, Promession, and hopefully she'll be able to make a decision as to which she would prefer for her own body.

Gill headed off to town soon after getting back from taking our youngest to school, as she had a dental appointment. I went to Thomas's for Yesterbake bread, the Co-op for cereals and flour, and to deliver a cycle helmet, on loan, to Lynn who'd asked last night if she could borrow one. I had a chat with her... her garden was looking good.

On the way back I noticed a skip with a large amount of turf in it, some rolled up, unused and ready to be stacked up and made into loam. I spoke to the owners who enthusiastically invited me to take the lot... and said I could sort through some other items as well! I took four trailer-loads plus what could sit on my pannier rack. The other items I rescued were some unopened toiletries and cosmetics, a mirror in a gold coloured frame and an old phone which I will put in the WEEE area at Hazel Court next time I go. But the turf will be most useful to me. It did take a while to bring it back and get it stacked neatly down the garden.

Later in the day, I was getting ready for the Green Festival meeting and I realised I had forgotten the Planning Panel meeting, so I fired off an apologetic email... my life is too busy, too unstructured and I'm probably trying to do too much. I expect a telling off from my colleagues for messing them around. I missed this one because I had to book the next block of meetings at Tang Hall Community Centre, I hadn't done that and the dates had not gone in my diary. No excuse really.

So at 7 I cycled off to the Green Festival meeting at St John's, and it was a really good meeting, very productive. It now looks like we have an event co-ordinator, so in my mind, this event is now more likely to happen rather than not.

Home before 10 and Gill had had a tough evening. She asked me not to go out on Wednesday evening.