Wednesday 10th October 12

An excellent day, as I didn't spend too long inside and got out and did loads of stuff.

So, firstly I got my bike out as I was due to meet Hazel and her friend Jason, who is a 'wannabe' freegan and wants to quiz me about my lifestyle, at St. Nicks at 12.30.  I noticed my back wheel was loose so I rang Cycle Heaven and Ash said bring it in to be looked at.

I then collected a rooted loganberry cutting - well, a new plant which grows when the terminal end of a long shoot touches the ground towards the end of the year... as John and Hazel were interested in having one in their garden.

Gill had gone out to pick up prescriptions and go to the Co-op, and soon after I left the house, we met as she was coming back, and she told me that she'd been into a charity shop and found a bright yellow day-glow jacket which was my size, and she'd asked for it to be put aside for me.  I went in, tried it on, liked it and bought it for £7. 

I then cycled on to St Nicks and found Hazel, but no Jason, who'd got waylaid by something. I gave her the loganberry  and cycled on to Cycle Heaven where Ash dealt with my back wheel in about 90 seconds.

And so, back home, and as the walnuts were beginning to fall out of the tree, I decided to pick them all. I got the big stepladders out and picked nearly all of the nuts in under an hour. It's a good crop:

So I spent some of the evening dealing with some of these, taking the green husks off, and I'll be making them into charcoal, and will make sure the nuts themselves are really dry so they don't go mouldy.

Wednesday 28th September 11

A fun day with good social interaction.  I got up fairly early but spent quite a time on the computer.  Gill went round to Maria's and I had an early lunch before heading off into town to meet a new friend Antonella, whom I'd offered to show the Millennium Bridge.  She's not from York and didn't know the walk from the centre down to the bridge and up through Rowntree Park, and it was really nice to be able to show her.

We parted in the Clifford's Tower car park and I foraged a few sweet chestnuts.

Came home via Richard at Country Fresh.  I then had a final session picking walnuts off the tree.  Those I couldn't quite reach from the stepladders, I whacked with a stick to make them fall.  Later, I laid out most of them on trays to dry... and there were over 300.

Robbie came round, with a bottle of home made cider, as last year I'd given him a load of brewing equipment, and this was a thank you!

Philip came round at 8pm and we had 3 happy hours chatting, me shelling hazelnuts, and catching up as we haven't spent an evening together for a very long time.

Sunday 25th September 11

Got up soon after 9am and had a slow start to the day.  The boys had a friend round, but our youngest had a homework task to do, to draw a river (I think) so I walked down with my bike to the River Foss with all three boys and Gill, via Hull Road Park, St Nicks, Hazel Court and James Street, and over Foss Islands Road to see the new bridge between Navigation Road and Hungate.  I left them here and cycled back home, via Country Fresh, to pick up several bags of goodies.

Later in the afternoon, I picked all the remaining walnuts from our little tree... I say little, it's about 8 or 9 metres tall.  I used my big ladders and got most of the nuts, it's a good crop, I'm very pleased. The chilli powder and vaseline trick must have deterred the squirrels.

I worked for David in the evening, went to City Screen as usual.

Saturday 30th July 11, Holiday day one!

Well a good but pretty manic pulling together of all the bits and bobs related to going on holiday.  The children were ready by just after 10am but Gill was still getting ready when the taxi came at 11am. 

I suppose it didn't help that I really wanted to make sure that when we got back, the walnuts were still on the tree and hadn't been removed by the squirrels.  We haven't seen any squirrels in the garden this year but they could come at any time and it wouldn't take them long to strip the tree.  So yesterday I purchased 30 pence worth of hot chili powder from Tullivers, and this morning mixed a teaspoon of this with a teaspoon of Vaseline.  I mixed this on a tin lid and then put a smudge on every walnut I could reach, about 200 of them.  There are others higher up the tree but they'll have to chance it.  Squirrels apparently don't like chili, and I spotted a chili spray in Barnitts yesterday which is supposed to repel them.  I hope my cheaper, home made version does the job.

Anyway, a taxi to the station and we got the 11.45 to St Austell.  We enjoyed the journey as we were all at a table and had quite a few laughs.  I chatted with a nice guy between Bristol and Exeter who was keen on composting and even keener on knowing about Promession, which really fired his imagination.  It was a pity he had to go so soon!

We then chatted with a local couple who live close to Mevagissey and admired the wonderful Cornwall countryside, particularly the places where the line goes right next to the sea, and over some wonderful bridges, including one by Brunel at Saltash.  But we were soon at St Austell, on time, and none the worse for the 6 3/4 hour journey.  Gill had ordered a 'Carls taxi' last night when in York, and the driver was there waiting for us.  We thought that a taxi would be best as we didn't know quite where the bus would drop us, and we did have quite a bit of luggage, which we wouldn't appreciate dragging around trying to find the house.

I'd memorised the Googlemap of the village so I was able to direct Carl, the driver, with 100% accuracy, to the cottage, which is on a very steep hill called Cliff Street.  We explained that we were going to go back to St Austell on Friday by bus, and then get the train to Truro and then the bus from there to St Just in Roseland, and he said, wow, that'll take ages and be quite expensive... why don't you take a taxi, it'll only take half an hour and cost £35.  Well this sounded like a much better option, despite our love of taking timetabled public transport.  So we booked him to come and take us to St Just in Roseland at 2pm on Friday.

Carl had to reverse back up the hill and he ran over a plastic clip on one of the rucksacks, which sent our youngest son into fits of laughter as it shattered into lots of pieces.  All in all this was a very good natured and jolly trip down, really easy, and cheap, costing £77.40 for the four of us to go from York to St Austell, plus £17 for the two taxis door to door.

After we'd explored the cottage a bit we all went on a walk down to the harbour, and popped in to the Aquarium which has some impressive fish and other marine life, and came back via a fish and chip emporium which we found fries in veg oil, so we had a tray of chips each. 

When back at the cottage we got our sleeping arrangements sorted, the boys in twin beds upstairs and us on the sofabed downstairs.  A fairly early night!

Tuesday 21st September 10

A good day for me...  up early and then at 10.30 I headed off to St Nicks to meet Peter, whom I met yesterday.  He was very interested in our local eco centre, as he believes that to spread the message of how to keep our Planet habitable, we need a network of similar places for people to be educated and be inspired, find information and hold meetings.

So I showed him the various 'bits' of the Environment Centre, the passive solar design, Sedum roof, rainwater harvesting, compost toilets/waterless urinal/strawbale urinal, photovoltaic and hot water solar panels, the energy balance display, woodstove and the York Rotters stuff.

Then we went out onto the nature reserve and looked at the John Lally Wood, the original mature trees in their dips, where the clay cap on the landfill wasn't put.  And to the stone circle, the kids playground where a very friendly little boy was playing on a swing with two women with him, and then back to the Environment Centre.  Here I had a brief chat with Catherine and left Peter chatting with Ivana.

I came home via Freshways and picked up a sack of wilting greenery and sad foreign vegetables.  I had the usual sandwiches for lunch.  Whilst eating lunch Gill and I spotted the very persistent squirrel leaping over to the walnut tree and leaving with another nut.  It (or they?) has had about half of the crop so far, and I'm getting increasingly annoyed as I really want a crop of walnuts.  The live trap is being ignored... fresh walnuts are obviously too much of a pull.  A few days ago, last week, I rang the RSPCA about their advice about squirrels and how to deal with them.  Drowning them is illegal, as is releasing them elsewhere, as they are officially vermin.  We're talking about the American Grey here, introduced as a novelty by the Victorians, and they've pushed our native Red Squirrel to the brink of extinction due to competition for habitat and because of the Squirrel Pox virus that they carry, which kills the Reds. The RSPCA told me that I ought to get a pest control person out to kill the squirrel in the trap.  They'd either do this with a gun, or release it into a hessian sack and hit it on the head when it was in the corner of the sack.  So it's a bit of a problem, as I don't fancy the clobbering method and I understand why drowning them is inhumane, and I haven't got a gun.  Still trying to work out solutions, and a second phone call to the nearest vet didn't get any results either.

But I'd heard that squirrels don't like chilli so Gill mixed up some curry powder with Vaseline, and we spent half an hour wiping as many nuts as we could with this, just a thin smear, to get the taste onto the nut.  I have no idea if this will prevent them getting taken.

At about 2pm, a Freecycler called Chris called, and delivered a stainless steel sink which he's taken out of a kitchen he's doing up.  Our white enamel sink is horrible and stained and Gill's been asking for a while about replacing it.  This one seems to be the right size, although it needs the tap moving so the drainer is on the right. 

I did some chainsawing, to keep on top of the bits and bobs I regularly bring home.  I also did a bit of compost management, and some weeding, and picked the three remaining Winter Squash.

For tea I had a stir-fry of courgette, home grown sweetcorn and green beans, the pakora from the Sheffield Freegle Ceilidh and a couple of felafel, which Gill bought.  Gill had made a delicious chocolate and banana cake so I had a small square of that... yummy!

In the evening I made up my muesli, made some carrot and tromboncino squash soup, and did another large batch of fruit for drying...

Tuesday 13th July 10

A good day, up early and encouraged the children to get out to school on time, and then went on the computer to do today's emails and facebook messages.

Gill had an appointment mid morning so I stayed in to deal with the Suma order which arrived at about midday.

During the afternoon I got a lovely message from someone. The message says it all:

"You may not remember but I watched you do a Professor Fiddlesticks show a few years ago and afterwards we had a chat about juggling. I just wanted to write a quick note to let you know that I've recently been reading your blog and I really enjoy it, your positivity is a real inspiration to me. I feel the world would be a better place if there were more people like you."

I replied with a big thank you and an invite to come and visit, and maybe see St Nicholas Fields.

The reply was incredibly moving and left me in tears:

"I'd wanted to write to you for a while but I was concerned it would seem odd (I have some issues with anxiety or 'nerves' which cause me to overthink things) I looked your name up out of the blue one day to find out if you were still doing Professor Fiddlesticks and I was amazed to see all the good work you did on the green side of things. As I read on through the diary I could really feel a positivity and enthusiasm that inspired me during a slightly dark time. My 'problems' were nothing major, just some concerns about what I wanted to do in life and whether I had made the right choices. I found what I needed in your words to reassure me that you can do whatever you want to in life. The fog lifted then and it was a wonderful realisation, there are people out there who lead a somewhat modest life and are happy and others who have lots of material things who are not. At the moment I'm doing some work down south so won't be back up north for some weeks but I would love to come to York to shake your hand, see the environmental centre and ask a few questions about my own green living aspirations."

I thought about this for the rest of the day. I feel it is just as important that I get positive feedback about my lifestyle choices as it is that I encourage and support other people (which I do a lot of, mainly privately and not explaining in great detail on the blog). We all have doubts about how we live and the choices we've made, even people who come across as very sure about their path, and for me, this message was very life affirming. Thank you to the person who sent it and I look forward to meeting you soon.

In the afternoon I decided to have a go at protecting my walnuts from marauding squirrels, so I put several bunches in plastic bags. I've had success in previous years with plastic bottles, but getting them onto the tree is not easy. I have no idea if bags will confuse squirrels, or whether they will just laugh at them and tear them open to take the walnuts out. Maybe I should consider getting a squirrel trap.

After tea I dug out a New Zealand pallet bin and put it all into the newly reconstructed Komp 700 on a solid based pallet, hopefully this will be less easy for rodents to access. My rat trap is working well at the moment, placed inside covered containers and baited with bread.

I also did quite a bit of Fiddlesticks stuff today, several phone calls from people booking me and a chat with my agent about a future gig. However, the most important bit of 'paperwork/admin' I did was to initiate a CarFree York group, on facebook initially, but I hope to expand this to a website and meetings, actions etc. This felt like a positive thing to do.

Friday 5th September 08

A very wet day which I spent mostly inside the house... Gill took care of getting the kids ready for school, although asked me to come downstairs to sit next to one of them to encourage him to get ready. This seemed to work but I do wish they would respect their mum enough to just do as she tells them, first time, without getting me to be her back-up or 'heavy threat'.

But I had a good day, spent quite a lot of time researching various issues and preparing stuff, answering the phone, washing up, dealing with dried fruit and more.

Made a nutloaf for the children to have for tea, picked beans in the garden and admired a pumpkin which is growing well. However, was HORRIFIED to see that all the remaining walnuts on our expensive tree have been removed... Gill saw a squirrel this morning. I think I'll have to invest in a squirrel trap, the little non-natives are so destructive... I don't enjoy killing animals but I do kill rats and I think squirrels are just as bad, although haven't resorted to destroying them yet.

A quiet evening... my eye which got a shredded thingy into it yesterday seems to have developed conjunctivitis so I took it easy and just chilled out (well, got over-warm in front of the stove!) and had a skype chat followed by a game of Scrabble with Gill. I managed to get two 7 letter words, Wallies and Venously and I won.

Tuesday 22nd July 08

Gill got me up as there were rumblings of dissent and talk of not going to school. This all stemmed from asking our more complicated child if he'd like to have a 'leaving party or birthday party combined'? He has been saying for a while that he didn't want any party, but this morning, the last day of school, he said he did want to do something with friends.

So Gill asked him what he wanted to do. This was too much for him, and there were shouts and crying 'I don't know WHAT I want to do' 'so I won't bother'. So Gill made a few suggestions, including going out somewhere, seeing a film, playing in the garden, playing at the Outgang (playing fields in Heslington) and he then shouted that he didn't want to be given suggestions. So we just cannot 'win' with this child. Impossible. Anyway, we between us eventually got to a situation of agreeing that he would invite some of his friends to the Outgang tomorrow at midday. Gill quietly asked me if I thought I could do some Professor Fiddlesticks activities at his party, and although I hate his aggressive behaviour and churlishness, I still love him and want to help him have a good time... so I asked him if he'd like that, and apparently he would. But minutes later he was having another paddy about writing some little invites and he threw punches and yelled a lot. God knows what our neighbours think we're doing to him! I just don't want to reward this crap behaviour but I do want to be a nice Daddy.

I took them to school. I came home. We both had a cry. We are wondering where we have gone wrong and are absolutely dreading the summer holidays. We haven't booked a holiday as we cannot face an experience like last summer. And this just punishes our other boy who is mild mannered, quite chilled and relatively well behaved, and gets ignored when the other one takes all our attention. Parenting is soooooo difficult!

Before lunch went to the tax office and asked about a couple of queries in our accounts, and was asked to chat to someone on the phone for 'technical advice' and it all seemed quite simple. I'm going to submit my income tax stuff electronically this year, for the first time. And possibly the last as we are going to get an accountant to do it next time! To not have that hassle will be lovely!

Then went to the Hazel Court/James Street skip site with a load of cartons for recycling, some more batteries which surfaced, and some electrical stuff including low-energy lightbulbs for the 'weee' collection. Then to St Nicks where I bought two dalek compost bins which folks have returned, for a tenner each, one of which will go to a lady in Windmill Lane who asked if I could get her one. Both went on my cycle trailer no problem. Then came home and had lunch and phoned up the tax credit people and re-applied for that over the phone.

Then did some washing up and washed my walnuts which have been in brine for a few weeks, and left them to air-dry in a cardboard box. Next stop, getting pickling jars ready, and assorted herby/spicy vinegar. I might co-pickle them with some early nasturtium seeds.. or even flower buds (which is what capers are, so I don't see why I shouldn't give 'nasturtium capers' a go!)

Did emails and blog, got ready for my last day bringing two boys home from school!

As soon as I arrived at school and my occasionally horrible child came out, he said, 'Dad, forget about this morning' so I replied 'why, what happened this morning?' with a smile and he gave me a hug. I collected quite a bit more end-of-term recycling/reusables and then the boys said they wanted to go to the Outgang with all their friends, so I told them they could but when Ulrich said it was time to go, they must cycle home together and be careful using and crossing roads. An hour after I got home, Ulrich arrived with his eldest son and 10 mins later, both mine arrived home happily and safely. Ulrich and I picked a load of loganberries, raspberries, redcurrants and a few gooseberries and then he went to collect his youngest from another friend's house.

I went to the Hull Road Planning Panel meeting for 6.30 and we dealt with 4 applications, one of which was really difficult to deal with as it was changing a student house with 5 bedrooms int a 'House of Multiple Occupation' with 8 bedrooms, and we all felt it was a bit crowded... but couldn't object on any planning grounds we knew of. Interesting! Home for 7.45 and had pizza, home grown potato salad with chives and some olives donated by Ulrich.

Thursday 3rd July 08

A good morning, took the boys to school and a big sack of riddled compost plus a big sack of leafmold, and my rotasieve, to mix with the loam from molehills to finish filling the containers bought by Julia for Green Thumbs. This took 45 minutes and I have now justabout filled them all, there's just one big pot which is only 3/4 full, so one more sack of 'ready mixed' to go in there, I'll prepare that at home and take it in, perhaps for this afternoon's Green Thumbs.

The afternoon went all too quickly and Gill went to school first to pick up the boys, I followed on to do the Green Thumbs Gang. We planted out some radishes and a few other bits in the planters I finished filling this morning, but then it started to rain so we went into the classroom and I read most of the group the 'Magic School Bus' book on decomposition which CRAG Anna sent me as a present... the children seemed to enjoy it.

In the evening I went to the Hull Road Ward Committee, where I was presenting the fourth item on the agenda, on the progress of the Planning Panel.

Later, at home, I started to prepare the immature walnuts for pickling. I washed them and then used a needle mounted on a handle, which is from my days collecting insects as a teenager, to make a series of little holes in each one to allow the brine solution to draw out moisture. This took an hour, and resulted in some of my fingers going brown.... walnuts contain a very strong dye... I did know about this but do not enjoy using rubber gloves.

Wednesday 2nd July 08

Gill took our youngest to school and our year 6 10 year-old was due in his secondary school at 10ish for a fun day, so he walked up there with a friend.

Gilly and I had a relaxed morning which was refreshing, and then continued doing the mound of housework. I did some cropping in the garden, our walnut tree has fruited very well this year so I took off all but one nut per bunch, and will pickle the pruned-out immature walnuts. I've never had pickled walnuts but Gill likes them and Gill's mum loved them, they were a great treat. I'll have to make needle-pricks in them and put them in brine before letting them dry and putting them in vinegar.

Whilst picking these, I noticed one of my large logs (actually an innocculated cherry trunk) had fruited with my favourite mushroom, 'chicken of the woods' which is a really meaty and solid fungus which is almost indistinguishable from firm chicken flesh... except more ethical, lower carbon and less cruel! I cut the huge and heavy fruiting body off and washed it and pared off the woodlouse poo which was semi-incorporated in the top surface. Once prepared, I cut it into cubes and fried it in olive oil, and had this as a garnish on the rice and veg which Gill cooked for us for tea.

I went to Country Fresh and picked up another large load, including at least 20 cucumbers in plastic sheaths which I had to spend some time cutting off before composting the unwanted fruit. It seems weird that I am carefully nurturing my cucumber plants and watching the cucs grow bigger day-by-day, whilst the commercial system just throws away dozens of unsold ones...

Also did some weeding of regrowing nettle roots, invasive ground elder and brambles, and made another layer on the bay-window-radiator compost heap. There's no chance of them growing as it gets so hot! I had a magazine delivered this morning which I subscribe to, Kitchen Garden. Last month, there was an article about coping with mares tail, and the author, Sandra, whom I know as she's from York, had put 'on no account compost them', which I disagree with as I have composted lots, from two neighbours' gardens. So I had written in to the magazine to explain how to successfully compost mares tail, nettle and ground elder, and even Japanese Knotweed. My letter was published, but without my name as I said that I knew Sandra and I guess the editor didn't want me to embarrass her or something...

Anyway, the trick is to do it hot, dry or wet. Hot heaps are best... shred the offending material with lots of other stuff and turn it so it all heats up as it breaks down. Nothing survives the 60 to 70 degrees celcius temperatures generated. The dry method involves drying the roots etc off on a patio or path, and when completely crunchy, put them on the heap. This however, does not kill seeds, which can grow in the finished compost. The wet method is good, if a bit smelly. The materials are placed in a bucket of rainwater and left immersed to go gooey for several weeks. This slop can then be poured on your heap, or the liquid used for watering plants, as it's full of nutrients, and the stringy plant materials composted.

I went to town in the afternoon to give in the planning panel paperwork and talk to a couple of Council officers about various issues, pay in my Sheffield Green Fair cheque and buy a replacement blender/liquidiser, which I'd seen in Barnitts. Got one for half price, a good one which ought to last longer than the two £20 jobbies we've gone through in the past few years. We do a lot of food preparation so a good liquidiser is important. The one I got has a juicer thing which fits in the goblet, so during the evening I peeled about 15 oranges (also thrown out, probably because of skin blemishes) and put them in the juicer, made just over a litre of juice. Lovely!