Friday 14th May 10

A much more relaxing day than yesterday. I was woken up at 8 to cut my youngest son's fingernails, and I came down for breakfast and went on the computer for half an hour but went back to bed and slept til 1pm... I must have needed it.

I felt a lot better for that and had a positive day, despite not getting my website work done again! I have set myself a deadline though.

But I did do some website work... I got Gill to take a head and shoulders photo of me, which I think looks sober enough for the intended use.

I did assorted jobs in the house until our eldest got home, then cycled down to Country Fresh and Alligator to do my compost pick ups. I took a photo of my mate Richard outside his shop (ok, his brother's shop!):
Then I went to the Cemetery to take some photos for the website... and got there just as it closed at 4.30. What bad timing... I didn't know it shut so early.

I'll have to try to fit in a visit there over the weekend.

I spent an hour in the garden and at 6pm, Vicky came round. I'd advertised the RHS Plantfinder book on Freecycle... my lovely Auntie had given it to me, but I've no space on the bookshelves and it's not really a book that I would use, as it's about all the different plant varieties and which nurseries stock them. I got about 6 replies, and one of them was Vicky, who is the Clerk of the Planning Panel, and she's just joined Freecycle, and said she would find the list of plants very useful for her work, which is helping an architect make the paper plans better, with landscape elements... including planting schemes.

So Vicky got the book... not the other very deserving enquirers. She said hello to the family and then had a wander down the garden. I gave her a couple of climbing pea bean plants, as she's just making a raised veg bed......

I had tea, a rice-based dish with chopped-up vegan hot dog sausages in, from Rakesh. I watched Gardener's World.

Then I went out again to feed a load of pruned-off branches through the shredder and put a woody layer on the current heap. Came in just before 10, as a facebook friend Sean, who organises the Manchester World Naked Cycle Ride said he'd be on TV, on 'Opinionated' which is a dire programme which I'll never watch again. It was a very brief interview anyway, no film or photos.

Enjoyed Jools Holland as usual, and the LCD Soundsystem, and chopped up another load of fruit for drying.

Thursday 13th May 10

A very busy day, with three meetings and a potentially relaxing gig... with me as an audience member!

My first appointment was with a group called York Probus, who are a group of retired ex-professional 'gentlemen' who meet once or twice a month to go on a visit, have a talk, experience companionship. They meet at a pub on the Shipton Road, gathering at 9.45 with a speaker at 10.15 til 11, then a beer in the bar. They had a bit of business first, and 'wired me for sound' so I was amplified, and introduced me

I started with a few minutes introducing myself, then moved onto resource depletion and explained about Hubbert's peak, and what peak oil actually means and how the post-peak situation might pan out. Then I went onto the results of all this oil use... CO2 levels in the atmosphere rising from a pre Industrial Revolution level of 280parts per million, to today's 390, with many scientists saying a safe level for a habitable Planet is 350ppm. I explained a bit about the predicted direct results of too much greenhouse (sea level rise, bigger, more frequent storms, floods, droughts, species extinction) and the indirect result of some of these things, including migration, changing patterns of disease, famine. Then we got onto what the talk was supposed to be about: 'The Green Way Forward' (their title, not mine!) which included info about personal changes such as diet, renewable energy, lower carbon energy, reducing resource use, personal carbon trading/rationing, localisation. And I mentioned political solutions, tech solutions, community solutions, intergovernmental solutions.

Then it was 'over to you' and the first off the mark was a retired banker (!) who launched into 'we don't know if CC is natural or human induced' and 'individual actions are futile' and 'that volcano produced more CO2 than several year's worth of human emissions... I was glad to have memorised the correct estimated figures for that to shoot him down on that, making his other arguments look a bit crap. There were several other deniers but also some 'agreers' which was reassuring.

I could have continued for a lot longer, as could the audience I think... but we had to stop. There was a vote of thanks afterwards, and the old chap doing that told me that I had presented the most challenging talk they'd ever had (I'm proud of that!) and although he didn't feel any wiser, he did have a lot to think about! YES!!!

I had a coffee with a few of them in the bar afterwards, and chatted/argued for an hour... and they told me most people have a quick drink and are gone in 20 minutes, so I'd lasted much longer than they expected! They had done a collection basket and this ended up with £55 in it, which is destined to be given to York in Transition.

I decided to pop in on my new friend Jenny, who had some compost off me and wanted to write me a cheque for that. I really like her company... I could have stayed there all afternoon but I had to get back for lunch and my second meeting at 2.30. But I briefly popped into see Dylan at Miller's Yard to pick up his orange skins and coffee grounds (what a mix!) and then home via Freshways who only had a small amount for me.

A very quick lunch and immediately back on my bike to go to South Bank to Millthorpe School. This was through Freecycle... a teacher involved in the special needs class had asked for gardening materials.. and I'd replied, not sure exactly what, but offering help and compost, no doubt! She is wanting to do some raised beds or planters, and wanted to engage my 'expertise' which I told her was not as much as some of the gardeners I knew, but she seemed determined to keep me involved, and what I have to do now is send her lots of information about assorted composting equipment, planters, nurseries, and sources of information. She's working on a funding bid, and if she gets this, she said she'll pay me as a consultant!

From here I cycled swiftly over to St Nicks to attend the 3.30 York Rotters Management meeting. this was a really good meeting, as we reviewed the past year's work. On most areas, we exceeded our targets. We looked through some research that the Council commissioned, which showed that 55% of York residents had heard of York Rotters, and 12% of these had used our services in some way... which means that about 6% of people in York have used our services... a considerable number, if true! So, that was a very upbeat meeting and I'm really glad that Sara the recycling officer is back with us, after maternity leave.

I got back home quite near to 6pm, and settled down for a quiet hour, had tea, but at 7, had to go out again! My old friend Rakesh is standing for election with the Co-op Board, and he had asked me to be his proposer. So I cycled along to the Rowntrees part of town and spent a bit of time with him, signed the papers, and at 8, went to the Clarence St Working Men's Club, where I thought the CarFree Cities Fundraiser was taking place. But it wasn't. I realised it was at the Lawrence St Working Men's Club, duh! So I cycled all the way back to my side of town, parked my bike and paid my fiver to sit and listen to Helgi's band 'Hot Fudge' who were very good (I enjoyed listening to the female lead guitarist and singer), and a band I didn't like as much, Standard Fare. I read lots of Permaculture magazine, but had a few good chats to Kate, Dave, Rory, Ginevra, Owen, Graham and others.

Home by 11.30. Knackered but very happy.

Wednesday 12th May 10

Well, an interesting day. The morning went quickly, dealing with emails and doing the first washing up of the day. I totally understand why people choose to have machines which take care of this chore. But I do the washing up in mainly wood-heated water, and now, if the stove isn't hot, solar-heated water to dissolve the grease and food residues. I'm very good at washing up in very limited water too... I'm not wasteful, as you'd expect... especially as I'm paying for it!

So, lunch at 1pm, as usual, and then at 1.45 a booked-in visit from Freecycling Julie, who offered a large tree root on Freecycle a few days ago, which I asked for and she offered it to me. When I was at her tidy garden, I asked her whether she composted, as I didn't see a compost bin. She told me she was about to get one from her mother, so I said that if she'd like any help installing it, I'd be happy to help.

So today she came with her fella, Justin, and they came in and saw the stove and dried fruit, then came down the garden to see the assorted compost systems. We collected some worms and I gave them a sack of twiggy bits for the base of their new heap. They left to go and do something else, and invited me to come round at 3.30 to help install the bin.

This meant that no-one would be in when our eldest was due to come home, so we put a little note on the door telling him to come round the back, where there's a hidden key to the back door.

I went to see Julie and Justin, and Julie had already dug a bit of a trench, as I suggested, to allow the 220 litre bin to be pushed down into the soil a bit. Justin found some chicken wire and cut it to a good size, and we installed the bin, which is as rodent-proof as a compost bin can get. Then the twiggy bits and worms were put in, and Julie had saved a couple of days worth of food scraps and paper, so they went in too. I am very happy that I've helped another household start reducing their waste footprint. And I think Julie is a potential Master Composter, as she wants to do the York Rotters training. They gave me some wood offcuts and ordered some compost and dried fruit.

I cycled home and the boys were in, and Gill ushered me into the back room to tell me something. As she'd been coming down the road, she'd seen a man on a push-bike turn into our shared driveway. When she got there a couple of minutes later, the bike was thrown down near our front door. Gill let our youngest in and put her bike into the hall, and he came out of the back room saying that there was a man in the conservatory. Gill told him to go in the front room and she'd deal with it.

As she was in the kitchen about to unlock the back door, he was facing away and looking around. When she put the key in the door, he turned around and when she opened the door, she said "Can I help you?" He replied politely that he was sorry to have frightened her and was looking for T***** R****, to which Gill said she'd never heard of that person and he didn't live here, and that she wasn't frightened. He said that he'd better go, and turned to go back out of the conservatory. Gill said, come through the house, and could he pull the conservatory outer door shut please. She asked again, who was he looking for, and he said the same name. She was firm and polite, and took control of the situation. He apologised again for causing alarm, and left.

A bit later, Gill was in the conservatory and asked me if I'd moved a box of wine glasses (which I'd found in a skip a few months ago) and, no, I hadn't, so our uninvited visitor must have. It was then that I suggested we ring the police and report what had happened. They were very interested, especially when Gill said the name of the person he was allegedly searching for. This name was well-known to the police. They asked us not to use the conservatory as they would dust it for fingerprints. So a bit later, two very sweet and young Community Support Officer girlies came round and took Gill's story, and then at 11pm, two 'real' police came to interview her, and warn us to be more careful with security. We told both our neighbours about what had happened. As nothing had been taken, they decided not to check for fingerprints.

So, an interesting day, not all of it nice though.

Tuesday 11th May 10

A pretty quiet day in many ways. I did a lot of housework and some work on the computer, sliced up two pineapples and 8 kiwi fruit for drying, and did some compost heap management, a bit of chainsawing, some riddling, and bagging up of the clay soil from the wall excavations. Oh, and I installed this year's bean poles, some rescued long branches which I decided not to chop for firewood, as I thought ahead to their possible use.

I went to the Co-op in the afternoon, as Gill asked me to, and popped into a friend who is preparing to conquer her alcoholism, she hopes! I'm going to give her some support next week when she starts going through her detox. She will need a lot of strength and good luck. I went to the Co-op shop and then decided to go and visit Freshways... I didn't go yesterday which is when they do a big stock rotation and throw out an average of 40kg of fruit and veg. So I went there and picked it up (they'd put it round the back) and met a friendly student called Geeta, whom I know from the People and Planet Allotment. She'd gone to Freshways to buy candles... so I said, "I can give you some if you want.... as I've got bags of them in the loft, left over from assorted skip-diving."

So she came back and I found about 10 different candles for her and then took her on a tour down the garden to see the trees (all in bloom and at their prettiest) the Shiitake mushrooms, and the composting and recycling, etc. I think she enjoyed the visit. I enjoyed her visit, it feels good to give stuff unexpectedly!

An equally quiet evening. Tea was foraged sweet chestnuts (dried one Autumn, and then soaked and boiled), home grown Shiitake, rescued onion, and a bought tomato all cooked up together, with a toastie with blue cheese and black olive paste in it. Tasty stuff! Also had a nice Googletalk conversation with my Canadian friend/colleague Rory and made plans for a visit next month to Manchester, for the Spencer Tunick exhibition and the World Naked Bike Ride.

Monday 10th May 10

I got up in time to say bye to the kids.

Then it was paperwork time... I finally managed to get some admin done which I've been avoiding for a while, and posted it off. Went to the bread shop for a large bag of 'Yesterbake' rescued bread... this was baked on Saturday, not sold on that day, and available at quarter price today.

I did a lot more dried fruit, some washing up, a bit of outdoor gardening (OK, composting, I confess!), and some pallet smashing.

Then I tried an experimental tomato planting experiment, inspired by Tracey Smith.

How to do Upside Down Tomato Plants with Tracey Smith from Tracey Smith on Vimeo.
I had rescued 3 large plastic milk bottles last night from someone's recycling on Thief Lane (!), the biggest sort, and washed them out with hot water off the stove. Then today I cut off the bottoms with scissors and carefully filled the first few centimetres around the pouring hole with home made seed compost (not too rich) and then above that, richer soil. I laid this on it's side, and carefully made a small hole in the seed compost. Then I took a side shoot off a tumbler tomato and inserted it into the compost. I'm hoping that these will root and then be able to be hung up. I did this with two bottles and two side shoots, each less than 2 cm long. Then I took the mother plant, squashed the root ball and cut the milk exit-hole a bit to allow the insertion of the root ball... and then I put a load of compost mix in the bottle around the roots. I'd made some holes in the base of the bottle (the top, if upside-down) and used re-used string from potato sacks to make a hanging device... and then hung this in the conservatory. I expect the big one to do fine, but don't know about the cuttings.

I enjoyed Gill's mushroom omlette and asparagus, and then went to Ben's for a LETS meeting... actually a seminar to learn about the new YorkLETS website, which is really good. Ben talked us through what the non-logged-in visitor would see, what a logged-in member would see, and how to use the site. Then he explained about the different levels of access... member, committee member, administrator, and we had a go at uploading the newsletter, doing things to peoples' accounts and doing some trading. Magic... this makes LETS come right into the 21st Century and is a lot more user-friendly. And I enjoyed Jill's home-made ickle cakes... yummy!

Home at about 10pm, to do assorted computery-based activities until my usual bed-time of well past 1am.

Sunday 9th May 10

Gill woke me with a question.. do you want the good news or the bad news?

The good news was that she'd done a bit of tidying up and had found the envelope which had contained the birthday card from my Auntie Lizzie. I hadn't found the cheque for £25. The bad news?

It wouldn't pay for the cost of a new microwave oven... our old one had finally stopped working. This was the microwave that I got when I arrived in York in 1987, so it's had virtually daily use (in fact, several times a day as we do our hot drinks in it, or did) for 23 years. Not bad. RIP Electrolux Mealmaker.

So I posted two messages on Freecycle... one offering the broken microwave (well, you never know!) and one asking for a replacement.

A relaxed day ensued, although it seemed like I spent most of it at the kitchen sink! But I was delighted to get an email from Chrissie, offering me her unwanted microwave. I replied and later she rang me to arrange collection, this evening. Wow!

I was still in the house when Gill took the boys into town so I listened to Gardeners Question Time and did things with fruit, paperwork, computer. But I went outside once I couldn't do any more washing up, and took some compostables down the garden and loaded up another layer. I found some exotic looking yellow-topped fungi growing from the sawdust in the sacks... lovely!

Then at about 4pm I cycled down to Country Fresh to do a pick up and get edibles. I came home via Freshways and they had 2 sacks for me too. I feel another hot heap coming on!

I came in at 6.45 and ate the final slice of yesterday's veg pie, cold.... delicious. Then at 7.10 I bombed over to Dringhouses to collect the microwave, which is very small, compared to the enormous 1980s model. But it works and we are very pleased. Nice one Chrissie. Gill was dancing round the kitchen singing with happiness. Good ol' Freecycle! And Chrissie had got it from the British Heart Foundation second-hand shop, so it's 3rd hand! I like re-use!

As there had been no takers for the broken microwave, I started taking the door off; it will make an unusual planter, on it's side with the aperture uppermost. More reuse. Bob Flowerdew would be proud of me!

So, a good day.

Saturday 8th May 10 - St Nicks 10th Anniversary

Gill woke me at 10 and reminded me that I was due to go to St Nicks today. I quickly got ready in my smart clothes as I had two things to do today, one of which at least meant that I should be reasonably tidy.

Gill loaded up all the buns she made last night into three containers, and the big cake onto a foil-covered tray, in a fruit box, covered with a bag, and I loaded all this into my trailer.

I cycled very slowly to St Nicks to ensure that the trailer didn't jump around and mess up the icing... Gill had made a pond with vegetation and a frog on the top of the cake, and every bun had '10' on the top.

The centre was already busy, lots of stuff being got ready, and I was immediately press-ganged into helping carry a large picnic table out to the play area, where all the stalls were getting prepared... the National Trust, York LETS, Edible York, Brunswick Organic Nursery, OPAL and several others.

I chatted to various people, was especially glad to see Keely, the first York Rotters project officer, who has been out of circulation for a while. But there were lots of other of my friends and contacts there, too many to list here, even if I could remember all of them!

Sometime after 11am, the welcoming and presentations started and I listened to these... until about 11.55 when I had to get going to Clifton to the Bootham Junior School, for the Quaker Meeting in memoriam of Dinah Peryer, with whom I worked on the Alternatives to Violence Project maybe 10 years ago. My old friend Maggie phoned me last week and told me about Dinah's memorial, and invited me to go with her. So we'd agreed to meet at the traffic lights on Rawcliffe Lane at 12.15, prior to the memorial service starting at 12.30.

We met up and walked up to the school, where Dinah was a Governor. It was a typical Quaker meeting, with the chairs arranged around the perimeter f the room and when we were all seated, some quiet music (probably something that Dinah liked) and then the 'hostess' (I don't know the correct term) said a few words and then there was more silence, until someone else stood up and shared a memory, or an anecdote about Dinah. I wanted to pass on the message from one of the mainstays of the AVP group, that Dinah's contribution was valued. I was the third person to stand up and speak, explaining that the current AVPers were meeting today and several people who might have wished to be at the memorial were unable to, due to the meeting timetabled-in many months ago.

I really like this form of memorial. I would like something like this myself, when the time comes, despite not being a Quaker. I learned about little bits of Dinah's life, and was moved by some of the stories. The quiet times between the speakers give time to think about the person in question, and dwell on memories, and I remembered about the work I did in Dinah and David's garden, and the laying of the floor in their kitchen.

There were sandwiches and scones to follow, and coffee, but I wanted to get back to St Nicks so I didn't hang around. Maggie wanted to come to the St Nicks do as well... so I suggested she had a lift on my bike crossbar. She looked incredulous but is pretty game for anything, and after a few questions, agreed. Half way there she swapped to sitting on the pannier rack, and getting to the Environment Centre was quick and easy... I chose the cycle track as the safest route.

We'd missed the compost bin drumming but there were lots of other things going on... and I managed to get the last slice of Gill's cake... delicious. I bought some squash plants from the Brunswick stall, and chatted to several other stall holders. I wrote a Haiku. I introduced my friend Debbie to John to talk about planting a tree in memory of the other Debbie. I had a go on a static bike to heat a kettle. As the event drew to a close, Maggie and I chatted and she accepted my offer of a hot drink at home... she really wanted to see Gill again, so I took her on my bike back home. An hour later she went to the No. 6 bus stop to get back to her side of town. I visited the Co-op to get cereals and various other bits.

Between about 6.30 and 8pm I listened to my Green/broadcaster friend Tracey Smith on Apple Radio, on the web, and didn't 'do' Dr. Who, but did have a good few goes on Scrabble on facebook and chatted to a number of friends.

Later, Gill and I had a 'real' game of Scrabble, which I just won.