Sunday 24th April 11

I had a bit of a lazy morning but after lunch got busy in the garden and I put more material in the current New Zealand bin, and in the Compostumbler, and I did a bit of riddling and weeding in the soon-to-be potato area

At about 4pm I came in and rang Pauline, who had asked me if I would help with setting a York stone flag into her garden... and she was lacking a spade to break the compacted soil.  So I took a spade round and sorted her stepping stone, setting it onto a bed of sand.  She had some scrap metal she wanted me to take to Hazel Court... it just fitted into the bike trailer, with a plastic kitchen bin which she'd been using as a compost bin... except she's now got a proper one which I think will be much better.

I had a glass of juice and a chat, and at 5.40 pedalled off towards town to go and see David, for my 6-8 work slot.  He was pleased to see me and we had some discussion about what to do... and we plumped on a walk up towards Clifton, along the river.  However, next Friday there's a showing of The King's Speech at City Screen, and David has already got tickets, so he invited me... and we popped into City Screen and I got a ticket.  Then we headed up Lendal, and down to Dame Judy Dench's Walk next to the old Water Tower, and slowly up river looking at the assorted boats, and eventually right up to Water End.  Here, David had a choice... turn around and return, cross the bridge and go to Leeman Road and back to York, or back via Clifton Green and Bootham.  We headed back to City Screen and had a coffee... and just as we were thinking of getting back to his flat, at about 7.30, his friend Lotte came and said hello, and we went over to say hi to her and her friend Jonathan, and we chatted for half an hour.

So we got back to David's place and I microwaved the meal which had been plated-up by one of his other carers, and got away just after 8.30, and was back home (via a box left for me outside Country Fresh) at 9pm.

I was ready for tea... Gill had made pastry; a pie with carrots and onion and sweet potato, with potato and cauliflower alongside.  It was really delicious!

Bed soon after 2am....

Sunday 27th March 11

I had a bit of a lie-in which was good, and when I came down I filled in the Census form, although I found it complicated and had to make a few corrections, crossings out, explanations, and I accidentally spilled some coffee on it. Whoops.  Methinks the American arms manufacturer who has won the contract might not make any profit on our form.  The boys filled in their sections, and then Gill did hers; she too had to help the form administrators understand what she was putting.  It's nice to know a real person will be dealing with our information, not some faceless computer.

However, as it was lovely outside I got out into the garden as I still had more compost stuff to sort out, and I got quite a bit done.

But then after lunch I remembered I was supposed to take my bike to Cycle Heaven to get the new disc brakes fitted, as the original ones wear down really quickly and the little plastic wheel used to tighten the pad has broken off and the mechanism gets too difficult to tighten up even with pliers.  Very unsatisfactory.  So, at some expense, I'm having disc brakes fitted with pads which are twice as big, and hopefully will wear down half as fast!  I also need a new front chain wheel, or sprocket, but the stainless steel one hasn't arrived yet so I'm having an ordinary one fitted to make the bike safe, and if/when the more resilient one arrives, that will replace the one being put on today.  So I cycled down and left my bike and trailer there, and came home on a replacement bike, which doesn't have all the three gears working. 

I popped in on Rich at Country Fresh and bought some fruit and veg, and loaded a box and a bag of recyclable materials on the rack, and came home and continued my work in the garden.

Gill came down the garden at about 7pm and suggested I come in and watch Countryfile and have tea, which was pasta and mushrooms.

I was glad to come and sit down as I have been very busy today, and I watched a programme about the Japanese Earthquake and then a Brian Cox offering about light whilst playing Scrabble.

Sunday 11th April 10

A good start to the morning as Gill came up and told me that Caroline Lucas was going to be on the Andrew Marr Show, so I came down and woke up with Caroline.

I spent a bit of time writing about how we reduce our water use, spurred on by the Yorkshire Water 'Edna and Mary' campaign,and when I've finished this page, I'll send them the link.

But I couldn't stay in for too long, and there was lots still to do in the garden so I got out and got busy. I chopped yet more blackberries back, pruned a hedge (it was too long and lanky to use shears, needed the secateurs) and shredded all this, did more compost heap turning and started filling the smaller Compostumbler. I dug up some deeply buried yams, cleaned mortar off some bricks for our neighbour to use in the wall he's building, and then at about 2.30, Barry Potter came and delivered the cider press back to me, which he's had since the autumn. We wandered down the garden and I showed him the corroded large Compostumbler, and he thinks that he might be able to fashion a solution for it. He/we need a stainless steel angled bar, which might be able to be retrofitted to strengthen the rather flimsy thin steel Compostumbler side wall.

Then I did more stuff in the garden, including some riddling and I dug out the red apple tree which I got out of the Radio Times for £6 quite a long time ago. Although it is on a dwarfing rootstock, it is crowding the 'family' pear tree and the white apple it came with, and it fell over with the weight of apples and the wet ground a year or so back, so I needed to remove it. I'll try to find a good home for it.

Later in the afternoon I went to Country Fresh to do some shopping and came back with two sacks of resources, so I popped in to St Nicks on the way back.

After tea I had a good bounce on the trampoline with our youngest, and came in at 9pm when it was dark.

A really busy and productive day.

Thursday 11th March 10

A quiet indoor morning until I cycled round to the bread shop, got lots of 'Yesterbake' but also two veg pasties and two 'Yorkshire Pizzas'.

I then did loads of work in the garden... got a lot more sawdust sieving done... and filled several more sacks of fine sawdust, for compost toilet cover, several paper sacks of larger chunks of bark, small sticks, and bits of burnable stuff... it just needs to dry off. Also several sacks of material which is too small to bother drying off for fuel, but too big to make compost toilet cover... but perfect for ordinary compost heaps, which is where some of it headed... and all the rest went into plastic sacks for future use. So, the logpile waste all mixed up is useless, but split into 3 streams it is very useful, and it's worth spending time on (perhaps 8 hours every 6 months) to get it sorted.

Down the garden I tidied up two raised beds, the ones made of bay-window radiators. Both of them need refilling or topping up before planting up for this year's crops, but needed old roots removing and the soil de-compacting... and I found the yams which I put in last spring as tubercles the size of peas, now up to hens egg size. I'll replant them quite near the surface of the soil so they don't head down right to the bottom of the raised bed... they had put themselves about 10 to 20cm down as it was! They are very brittle and need gentle excavation to remove them... any pulling and they just break.

I came in after 6 as it was getting dark, and had a tea made up of leftovers. During the evening Gill and I made a decision about our summer holiday, which will be in South Wales, in a village called Mumbles, near Swansea.

Thursday 28th January 10

Up relatively early compared to recent days, and by 10 was doing housework and being busy. A bit later in the morning I went to do some work in the garden, which was lovely as the sun was shining. I did more of the annual bramble pruning and some more compost heap construction.

Gill had an appointment in town so I went to our youngest son's class assembly, where the class puts on a little play or show. I didn't realise that my lad was the compere! He introduced the 3 different groups (Eboracum Romans 2000 years ago, Georgian ladies and today's schoolkids) and at a couple of intervals he helped explain the plot. He has a lovely clear voice and did it with confidence. I was really proud of him. But then he wanted to go to drama club, and be picked up at 4pm. So I cycled back home, did half an hour's sawing with the bowsaw, and cycled back. We then walked home together, which was nice.

I did a little more outdoor work but had a Fiddlesticks enquiry, and some interesting emails to deal with. Catherine from York Rotters started a facebook page for York Rotters, which is great, and I invited lots of my friends to join that. I also saw that my blog counter had gone past 20,000, which is pretty amazing. That's since Sept 08.

We had a small tea, Gill had made some rissoles with the rice from yesterday and she made 'burgers' with them, one each in a roll. Bits and bobs of salad, was very nice.

So, during the evening I had a lot of computery work to do, I did this whilst half-watching the TV and keeping the stove going as it has gone cold again. Brrrrrr.....

Thursday 29th October 09

A day with not much on the agenda apart from at midday we were due to collect our friends' son from the station, as he's come up from Leamington Spa for a couple of nights to spend time with our boys.

Also, Gill had booked her bike into Cycleworks to have the handlebars replaced.. the more or less straight ones were giving her backache, but she thought that curved ones would be easier for her. She'd asked at Cycle Heaven and they said they wouldn't do it! Weird. So she asked at Cycleworks, which is our nearest bike shop, and they said yes, and today was the day. So in the morning I cycled her bike (me on mine, holding her handlebars with my right hand, with hers freewheeling alongside) down the road and left it there. Mid afternoon, I went down and got it back. On the way back in the morning I popped into St Nicks and got my preserving pan back.

So the rest of today was filled with sorting stuff out in the garden, moving things around, digging out a compost heap, putting stuff from the small Compostumbler into that pallet bin, refilling the Compostumbler, tidying up my messy plastic bag habit, setting up the new wormery.

Then in the evening, amongst other things, I did lots of paperwork... wrote an article for a magazine, wrote a couple of important Fiddlesticks emails, made several rail times phone calls, and more.

Later on, got myself ready for a trip down to London tomorrow. I've been invited to a party and a Fiddlesticks booking. I'm using the Grand Central service on both journeys as it was the cheapest.

Saturday 2nd May 09

Thanks to Dave Hampton 'The Carbon Coach' for this:
What did the Climate Change Activist say about the Frequent Flyer?
'The Swine Flew'.

A good lie-in today til 10ish and at about that time Simon came to pick up our eldest to go on a picnic down at the Outgang with Simon's son. Our youngest played on the computer for a bit, and I lit the stove and did a large amount of washing up, but soon the lovely weather drew us all outside.

Gill got the electrical cable out so I could mow the lawns... I did this and also cut a hedge, riddled some compost, emptied a dalek compost bin ready for riddling and refilled it from the one next to it, did some weeding, tidying piles of now-dry hedge sticks which have been sitting in piles for a year or so.. they need to be broken up and chopped up and bagged ready for next winter's stove needs, and also cut back lots of brambles and shredded them. A really hard-working day, got lots done and Gill was very pleased with the change she saw when she came down the garden. I was kept company all afternoon by robins... they have no fear of people and came very close whilst I was moving stuff around and managing the compost heaps. Their favourite food is centipedes, as far as I can tell from watching today. They are also adept at catching several wiggly beasties despite having one or more already in their beak. I love these robins. I love the assorted songbirds too... I've had a very pleasant afternoon.

I had tea at about 7pm and then did another hour until it was too dark to do anymore. Exhausted! Played Scrabble on Facebook, washed up, watched telly.

Saturday 24th January 09

A reasonable day. Gill still feeling very poorly so I did all the shopping we needed... went to Thomas The Baker and the Co-op before lunch, and Country Fresh after, to get veggies and fruit, and then Scummerfield with my eldest (shock horror!) to get goats' milk. This was really nice.

I did a bit of chainsawing, splitting and stacking AND compost heap adding.

But the antibiotics seemed to kick in and Gill felt well enough to make a pizza which was delicious. I did a big tidy up of my piles of paper, finding multitudinous envelopes and sorting them into re-usable, compostable and 'have to tear out the window-able'. I then spent some time tearing out plastic windows and crumpling the rest of the envelope into a ball for composting... Envelopes are not suitable for putting with the paper recycling as the gum clogs up the recycling process and the windows are best put in the rubbish. I could just crumple up the envelopes with the plastic window.... and then remove the window out of the finished compost. But although I've put some complete envelopes with windows into various compost bins, I'm happy to spend a bit of time removing windows first.

During one of today's outbursts, our coat stand in the hall got broken which caused tears of guilt and regret. I didn't react or say anything, I just ignored the situation, as if I'd said or done anything, it would have caused things to get even worse. Therefore within a few minutes, everything had calmed down..... a good thing! I think I'm slowly learning to be a slightly better parent. Maybe. But in my day, pushing the coat stand over so it snapped would have earned some kind of punishment. Thus I feel as if I am partly neglecting my 'duties' as a parent, to instruct between right and wrong, to encourage good behaviour and discourage bad... parenting does give rise to so many dilemmas.