Saturday 10th April 10

A really good day, with more fun than most days. I got up soon after 9 and all was peaceful. A good start.

I wanted to join my friends in town at 11ish who were staging a 'Jam today, Jammed tomorrow?' stall in Parliament St. The York's Jammed campaign is being coordinated by York and Ryedale Friends of the Earth and they had invited people down to join in.. and suggested bringing circus toys down, so I decided to take my devilsticks (two sets). But I also had three sacks of Freshways 'resources' on my bike, so I took them, a garden spade and my composting knife to St Nicks where they have a composting area and copious volumes of sawdust (from a pet shop), and I spent half an hour chopping up aubergines and oranges, and covering them with sawdust and limp herbs. I washed my hands at the Environment Centre which was open, as it was an Eco-Active day.

Then down to Parliament St where the FoE stall was being set up, and boxes of sandwiches and scones all with jam were on offer. I spent a happy hour or so doing my devilstick, and there was a small boy who's mum was collecting for charity, and he had a go with my second set. Jennie did some poi as well. I chatted to a woman called Liz or Betty from Rotherham who was working with a Cliff Richard tribute singer... she was collecting for charity and giving out balloon models. I made her a couple of my favourites, the 'dog's dinner' and the 'weeble' which she was very taken with.

I left at about half past 12 and went to Sainsburys as I'd had an order for their very nice multigrain bread. Got home at 1, and got into the garden as soon as I could as it was a lovely day. Gill was still tidying and sorting... I took some of the stuff (my dumped mess mainly) down the garden for sorting, and the boys happily destroyed several wooden fruit boxes which I'd piled up in case they came in useful. They are now useful... kindling.

I did loads in the garden... more compost heap turning, some weeding, and later on, shredding.

Gill decided that she had been working so hard that she didn't want to cook... so she bought a pizza, some garlic bread, oven chips and frozen peas. This might seem 'normal' but in our house we generally cook from simple ingredients rather than buy ready-made.

So I came in at about 6.30 to have my share of pizza etc, and as usual, put my laptop on (especially as the incomprehensible Dr Who was on!) and was on facebook, and my facebook friend Tracey Smith sent me a message, saying she was doing her 'internet radio show' on Taunton Hospital Radio, and did I want to tune in? It's called Slow Down and Green Up, so I thought I'd give it a go. After a few minutes, during which we'd exchanged a few messages, she suddenly started talking about chatting to someone on facebook, and how she didn't really know how to use facebook so she was going to experiment and find out a bit more about who she was chatting to. So she said hello to me and clicked on my profile info page and started reading out my favourite music and quotations... and found this blog's URL and I thought she was going to start reading out my blog... but she ran out of time as her show finished at 8pm. Most unexpected.

I decided to use the last of the daylight to finish off some tidying... and within the hour both boys came out and we all had a go on the trampoline. We spent so long there that Gill brought the boys' supper out, and we stayed down there for quite a while until it was really dark and we could see the stars.

So a mixture of fun things, enjoyable activities, and warm sunny weather.

Sunday 25th March 07

Well I got my lie-in, although it looked better on the clocks than it really was, as last night I put the clocks forward to BST. So a lie-in til 9 was officially 10am. Great!

Gill needed to have more rest as feeling ropey and I spent the morning with the boys, including a cycle to the Co-op shop for some provisions and a 'training cycle ride'. Made lunch and welcomed Gill down to the land of the living, she was determined to take the washing out of the machine and hang it on the line outside but I made her take it easy and I did it. She doesn't trust me not to drop stuff... rightly so as I did drop one bit of underwear, but it was OK as she didn't see!

During the afternoon my eldest son agreed to help me put up an octagonal composter which I was given over in Blackpool at a 'Master Composter' event last year, and has been on loan to St Nicks for a while. It is made of 16 green plastic panels which interlock and fit together and are held by 8 rods which thread down the joints. Having two people to make it is a lot easier. We placed it on top of a wooden pallet with added slats to (hopefully) make it less easy for rats to get into it. They shouldn't be able to get in through the plastic sides but they will use the gaps in the base pallet to find shelter. I'm on the lookout for solid wood pallets and will replace the slatted ones gradually, to reduce the access. I didn't have a rat until this winter, but now there's some evidence of activity. What they don't like is disturbance, so I need to dig out the one they're in and make life uncomfortable before they breed. I co-exist with mice in the garden but have a different attitude to rats.

Then I put up the trampoline as the boys were wanting to do soething active. We leave the frame up permanently but take the fabric off sometime befor bonfire night so that a firework doesn't damage it, and over winter it gets less use anyway. But now the weather is getting better for outside stuff the trampoline is now in operation again.

Gill had got better enough to make pizza dough, and as is traditional in our house, the boys made their own pizzas. Gill used some of the tomato/onion/pepper stew I made yesterday as the base part of the pizza toppings, and we opened a jar of olives as a treat. Whilst Gill did this, I planted some tomato seeds in a seed tray, perhaps a bit late but I've done it in March before and got crops. The pepper seedlings are looking good, the cotyledons (seed leaves) are all open and I hope they won't 'damp off', so I'm watering from below, not overwatering, and using tapwater as it will have fewer fungus spores in it.

I got some Fiddlesticks enquiries, one for a gig in Hull on a Sunday morning. I will be unable to get to it using public transport, so I'm considering going through on the Saturday night in order to do the work. I got a phone call from a friend Linda, who has given me logs on several occasions and I've lent her some gardening books and given her beans. She'd got some willow logs for me, and some laurel branches. I went round and picked them up in the cycle trailer and her husband Duncan brought the rest round in his wheelbarrow.

By now bathwater was hot on the stove and our youngest was the recipient of a hot bath, whilst I washed up. Ah, domestic bliss!