Gill walked our youngest and his friend to school and I got up and did some paperwork and chopped wood. A few weeks ago someone suggested I enter a competition being run by the Yorkshire Post to find a green person.. even the greenest person, so I entered that. I also took some photos with Gill's camera of my assorted logpiles and compost bins.
Before going down to school I went to Country Fresh and came back with a huge load of stuff, which again I photographed to give an idea of the sort of stuff I bring back with me. When I transfer these to my laptop I will be able to post them on this blog... exciting! Well, exciting to maybe a few people!
Had an email from Susanne Wiigh Masak who has invented a compost burial process which is more environmentally friendly than conventional deep burial, called 'Promession', something I've been interested in for quite a while. And then I had a brief Skype chat with her. Excellent!
I prepared some of the contents of the fruit and veg haul, including a load of tiny tomatoes which Gill added to the tomato and onion base for the pizza she was making.
I went down to school and did my self-imposed composting duties, emptying the playground bins of about 20 Kg of fruit and veg bits, which as there is no compost bin at school to put it all in, I put in a large potato sack and brought it home, where it all went into the Compostumbler. I have had an email from the headteacher saying she had received my letter, and could she pass it on to the Health and Safety person who said schools weren't allowed to compost. No apology though, not yet. I would like one..... it would make it feel a lot better. I asked her to copy anything in to Councillor Waller as he said he was taking action, and I trust him.
I did some more splitting and stacking, had a phone call from Thomson Directories about extracting money from me, and then continued with the much more enjoyable wooding.
Gill's pizza was good, but it arrived too late for me to go to the Critical Mass, but I'm not obliged to go to that... but maybe I should have as there was aggro at home which I could have done without. But once the little darlings were in bed, all was peaceful and I prepared a large number of pears, putting them on racks for drying.
Watched 'Rocket Science' on BBC2 which was OK but not brilliant. Nice chats with Ali, sorting out future visits to Sheffield.
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Thursday 5th March 09
Gill woke me at about 8 to help her make a costume for our youngest's 'book day' at school. Several days ago, Gill asked him if he'd like to dress up for the day (school encourages them to dress like their favourite literary character on book day) and he declined. She offered to make a costume which would make him look like Twig from The Edge Chronicles, but he wasn't bothered. This morning, at 7.45, he said he WOULD like to go as Twig. So Gill got to it and found a fleece-like woolly jacket which needed the arms cutting off and cutting down the front and the blue stuff at the bottom taking off, and she came up to ask me to do it as it would take too much time, when she was getting them ready to leave the house... I asked her to hold the garment, stretch it, whilst I wielded the scissors. 2 minutes later, the costume was ready! The only difference between Twig and our son now is that Twig's hair is in small tufts, and to get our boy's hair into tufts would definitely take too long!
I went back to sleep for an hour, much needed after some very late nights and busy times...
However, when I did get up after 9 I had a good session of washing up and did my Carbon Account readings. At midday I went out to visit Pauline who had requested a wood-chopping session in exchange for a lunch and coffee. We had a lovely chat and I processed a pile of scrap wood for her. She's trialling a compressed sawdust briquette product and has also tried a paper briquette product, which is made locally by people with learning difficulties.
After Pauline, I popped into the bank and then Oxfam for £15 worth of coffee and Kyi Po for a chat with Matthew and I bought some delicious lemon-grass flavoured mayonnaise but resisted all of the large selection of organic booze they have in now... lovely though it may be!
Then onto Sainsburys for bread and Ribena and marge and some other bits and bobs.
I came home via the cycle track where I picked up 3 chunky logs, and when I got in at 5ish, I did a bit of chopping and stacking before having tea with Gill. The boys had already had tea and were happily playing with a friend, who is staying the night.
A peaceful evening with nothing notable.
I went back to sleep for an hour, much needed after some very late nights and busy times...
However, when I did get up after 9 I had a good session of washing up and did my Carbon Account readings. At midday I went out to visit Pauline who had requested a wood-chopping session in exchange for a lunch and coffee. We had a lovely chat and I processed a pile of scrap wood for her. She's trialling a compressed sawdust briquette product and has also tried a paper briquette product, which is made locally by people with learning difficulties.
After Pauline, I popped into the bank and then Oxfam for £15 worth of coffee and Kyi Po for a chat with Matthew and I bought some delicious lemon-grass flavoured mayonnaise but resisted all of the large selection of organic booze they have in now... lovely though it may be!
Then onto Sainsburys for bread and Ribena and marge and some other bits and bobs.
I came home via the cycle track where I picked up 3 chunky logs, and when I got in at 5ish, I did a bit of chopping and stacking before having tea with Gill. The boys had already had tea and were happily playing with a friend, who is staying the night.
A peaceful evening with nothing notable.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Wednesday 4th March 09
I woke at 8am and took our youngest to school and came back via the trashed woodland to collect more bits of demolished tree.
Gill had already gone to art, walking up to Osbaldwick to do some 'pointillism'.
I wrote my blog for yesterday, and sent a copy of the letter to the Vicar of Heslington with whom I'm friendly. She asked me to copy her in to anything I was sending to the school when I chatted to her a while back expressing my unhappiness with the School's environmental performance... she is also a Governor or Board member.
Then, a phone call from Councillor Waller, trained Rotter and leader of City of York Council. He said he's received my email and was surprised to hear about this as a school near his house is successfully composting. Later, he sent me an email saying he was taking action! I felt quite elated! I am glad someone is doing something.
I spent a little bit of time in the garden, starting to load up the Compostumbler again. But came in for lunch and then spent some nice times with Gill who was busy in the kitchen and then ironed my work clothes. I loaded up my trailer with all the Fiddlesticks stuff and at 3 set off for Riccall, going exactly the same way as on the 28th January, via Heslington, Fulford, Naburn, and then the cycle track all the way down to Riccall. I arrived at the cycle track at 3.30 and Riccall by 4, and my gig started at 4.30. I had a quick chat with my handler... she confessed that the youngsters had not made juggling balls (as I'd suggested) and they'd not done any circussy practice at all. So I said that I'd just repeat the show, with plenty of participation, and that children were usually completely happy with repeats. There were a few new audience members too, which was good. So, 25 Rainbows and about 10 grown-ups and 3 or 4 pre-Rainbows and younger siblings. The show went well. I finished on time. I got paid for both days work.
And I was on the road again by 5.45 and was soon off the road and onto the Riccall to Naburn cycle track. I stopped several times to pick up litter... mainly aluminium cans, but got home on the dot of 7pm. Gill had made a simple but filling Bulgar wheat meal and I had this whilst watching Inside Out... which had the John Foster living on a pound-a-day piece, and me giving him tips. This is now on iPlayer, I'm on at about 9 mins 28 seconds... just at the beginning of his piece. See:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j20br/Inside_Out_North_East_and_Cumbria_04_03_2009/
A quiet evening mainly.
Gill had already gone to art, walking up to Osbaldwick to do some 'pointillism'.
I wrote my blog for yesterday, and sent a copy of the letter to the Vicar of Heslington with whom I'm friendly. She asked me to copy her in to anything I was sending to the school when I chatted to her a while back expressing my unhappiness with the School's environmental performance... she is also a Governor or Board member.
Then, a phone call from Councillor Waller, trained Rotter and leader of City of York Council. He said he's received my email and was surprised to hear about this as a school near his house is successfully composting. Later, he sent me an email saying he was taking action! I felt quite elated! I am glad someone is doing something.
I spent a little bit of time in the garden, starting to load up the Compostumbler again. But came in for lunch and then spent some nice times with Gill who was busy in the kitchen and then ironed my work clothes. I loaded up my trailer with all the Fiddlesticks stuff and at 3 set off for Riccall, going exactly the same way as on the 28th January, via Heslington, Fulford, Naburn, and then the cycle track all the way down to Riccall. I arrived at the cycle track at 3.30 and Riccall by 4, and my gig started at 4.30. I had a quick chat with my handler... she confessed that the youngsters had not made juggling balls (as I'd suggested) and they'd not done any circussy practice at all. So I said that I'd just repeat the show, with plenty of participation, and that children were usually completely happy with repeats. There were a few new audience members too, which was good. So, 25 Rainbows and about 10 grown-ups and 3 or 4 pre-Rainbows and younger siblings. The show went well. I finished on time. I got paid for both days work.
And I was on the road again by 5.45 and was soon off the road and onto the Riccall to Naburn cycle track. I stopped several times to pick up litter... mainly aluminium cans, but got home on the dot of 7pm. Gill had made a simple but filling Bulgar wheat meal and I had this whilst watching Inside Out... which had the John Foster living on a pound-a-day piece, and me giving him tips. This is now on iPlayer, I'm on at about 9 mins 28 seconds... just at the beginning of his piece. See:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j20br/Inside_Out_North_East_and_Cumbria_04_03_2009/
A quiet evening mainly.
Tuesday 3rd March 09
a busy day... will update this on Wednesday to report on Carbon Detox and several other events.
It was indeed a busy day, although it had a slightly later start than I expected... Gill walked to school with our youngest before I got up.... nice! She then went on into town by bus and from there up to the other school to deliver something and from there to visit Ashley for lunch... so I had the morning to myself and I did a variety of jobs around the house.
At 1pm I was booked into a seminar at the Biology Department of the University of York, entitled 'How Can We Communicate Climate Change Better?'with George Marshall, who is performing his stand-up comedy 'Carbon Detox' tonight at the Theatre Royal. George has a fascinating and honourable 'history', including being one of the founders of Rising Tide and working for Greenpeace and the Rainforest Foundation, as well as the governments of Papua New Guinea and Germany! Then he joined Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN) which amongst other things trains people in how to communicate about climate change, helping them with public speaking, interesting ways of getting complicated information over and the like.
So this seminar was packed, and I got a lot out of it, despite it being a one-day training packed into about an hour! We first looked at various messages used by advertising agencies to try to achieve change, and rated them as good or bad. Then looked at various parts of the process, including the message, the messenger, the medium, the audience and the action,all of which have to be considered when trying to get a message across. He showed us several adverts including Don't Mess With Texas and viral videos like Greg Craven (for instance....) and we discussed why they work and why others don't. One of the key factors is 'peer to peer' information... one of the reasons York Rotters has been successful.... people listen to their friends, family and workmates more than to experts or Governments.
That finished shortly before I had to go to school to pick up our youngest, so I went straight from there to school, feeling quite elated and happy. I had taken a load of paper plates from the seminar (there was some nosh available) to put as a carbon-rich layer in the compost bin I manage at school....but when I arrived, the bin I am currently filling had been moved and the contents disposed of, I know not where. I found the empty bin round the back of the school so I went to speak to the school secretary about what had happened. She told me that a Health and Safety person had said that composting wasn't allowed in schools, and had ordered it to be removed. I was furious, but remained polite as the messenger in this case should not be shot (just the H+S idiot). On the way home I was furiously composing a letter in my head to fire off to a number of people, but I couldn't do it immediately as I'd invited Richard around for 4pm so I had a nice chat and a cuppa with him instead.
Soon after he went, to close the shop, I had some tea and then cycled off to the Theatre Royal, stopping by at a friend's who'd asked me to pop in, as she needed to talk to me, and indeed she did have some very sad news to share, very upsetting. What a rollercoaster of a day.... already!
My role at the Theatre was to stand behind a table and sell books... George's Carbon Detox book, and Rob Hopkins' 'Transition Handbook' which is a must for Transitioneers. Gill was due to follow me down there by bus once our lovely babysitter Simon had arrived. She actually arrived about 10 minutes into the show, as the bus was late or something.
So, the long-awaited Carbon Detox stand-up-comedy show. Well, although I'm no a fan of this kind of thing, it was good.... it certainly helped me get my head around the subject just a little more. He has some great analogies and interesting ways of looking at the subject. He suggests that climate change is a bit like a rollercoaster that we're all on... some of us know it and are getting prepared, many others will suddenly wake up at the beginning of the ride and it may very well be scary. I liked his way of describing the average Brit's carbon footprint, using our friend Candy who volunteered, and asking her to take quite big strides across the stage.... two for heating, two and a half for food, various smaller steps for assorted car journeys, 6 strides for a flight to America etc etc, and then taking one and a half steps back for getting renewable electricity, three inches back for unplugging phone chargers and switching off standby buttons, quarter of an inch back for using re-usable bags... a great way to communicate the different impacts of our various behaviours and choices. Nice one George!
I had a cider in the interval, and got a beer for Gill and our friend Sarah, who is moving to Bristol at the weekend. We will miss her, as she is one of the lovliest people we know.
At the end of the show I raced out to get our book sales table ready for the inevitable rush, and George signed copies of his book (and at least one copy of Rob's book, hahaha!) I had a good chat with Verna about the nonsense which has happened at school, and chatted with another of my favourite people, Sam, who had two of her daughters with her.
Right at the end of the evening, George was in a tizzy as he'd lost his bike lock key.... I do hope he managed to find it!
I cycled home, getting in just before 11pm, and then managed to get my thoughts down in a polite email which I sent to the school, the lovely people at Green Thumbs Gang, several city Councillors, the sustainability officer, Verna who is on the board of governors, and others. The school HAS to get itself into the 21st Century and take on board what the Government has said they must do, which is to be a 'Beacon of Excellence in the centre of their community' re Sustainable Development... it's called ESD. (excellent links here) I didn't finish on the computer til nearly 4am.
It was indeed a busy day, although it had a slightly later start than I expected... Gill walked to school with our youngest before I got up.... nice! She then went on into town by bus and from there up to the other school to deliver something and from there to visit Ashley for lunch... so I had the morning to myself and I did a variety of jobs around the house.
At 1pm I was booked into a seminar at the Biology Department of the University of York, entitled 'How Can We Communicate Climate Change Better?'with George Marshall, who is performing his stand-up comedy 'Carbon Detox' tonight at the Theatre Royal. George has a fascinating and honourable 'history', including being one of the founders of Rising Tide and working for Greenpeace and the Rainforest Foundation, as well as the governments of Papua New Guinea and Germany! Then he joined Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN) which amongst other things trains people in how to communicate about climate change, helping them with public speaking, interesting ways of getting complicated information over and the like.
So this seminar was packed, and I got a lot out of it, despite it being a one-day training packed into about an hour! We first looked at various messages used by advertising agencies to try to achieve change, and rated them as good or bad. Then looked at various parts of the process, including the message, the messenger, the medium, the audience and the action,all of which have to be considered when trying to get a message across. He showed us several adverts including Don't Mess With Texas and viral videos like Greg Craven (for instance....) and we discussed why they work and why others don't. One of the key factors is 'peer to peer' information... one of the reasons York Rotters has been successful.... people listen to their friends, family and workmates more than to experts or Governments.
That finished shortly before I had to go to school to pick up our youngest, so I went straight from there to school, feeling quite elated and happy. I had taken a load of paper plates from the seminar (there was some nosh available) to put as a carbon-rich layer in the compost bin I manage at school....but when I arrived, the bin I am currently filling had been moved and the contents disposed of, I know not where. I found the empty bin round the back of the school so I went to speak to the school secretary about what had happened. She told me that a Health and Safety person had said that composting wasn't allowed in schools, and had ordered it to be removed. I was furious, but remained polite as the messenger in this case should not be shot (just the H+S idiot). On the way home I was furiously composing a letter in my head to fire off to a number of people, but I couldn't do it immediately as I'd invited Richard around for 4pm so I had a nice chat and a cuppa with him instead.
Soon after he went, to close the shop, I had some tea and then cycled off to the Theatre Royal, stopping by at a friend's who'd asked me to pop in, as she needed to talk to me, and indeed she did have some very sad news to share, very upsetting. What a rollercoaster of a day.... already!
My role at the Theatre was to stand behind a table and sell books... George's Carbon Detox book, and Rob Hopkins' 'Transition Handbook' which is a must for Transitioneers. Gill was due to follow me down there by bus once our lovely babysitter Simon had arrived. She actually arrived about 10 minutes into the show, as the bus was late or something.
So, the long-awaited Carbon Detox stand-up-comedy show. Well, although I'm no a fan of this kind of thing, it was good.... it certainly helped me get my head around the subject just a little more. He has some great analogies and interesting ways of looking at the subject. He suggests that climate change is a bit like a rollercoaster that we're all on... some of us know it and are getting prepared, many others will suddenly wake up at the beginning of the ride and it may very well be scary. I liked his way of describing the average Brit's carbon footprint, using our friend Candy who volunteered, and asking her to take quite big strides across the stage.... two for heating, two and a half for food, various smaller steps for assorted car journeys, 6 strides for a flight to America etc etc, and then taking one and a half steps back for getting renewable electricity, three inches back for unplugging phone chargers and switching off standby buttons, quarter of an inch back for using re-usable bags... a great way to communicate the different impacts of our various behaviours and choices. Nice one George!
I had a cider in the interval, and got a beer for Gill and our friend Sarah, who is moving to Bristol at the weekend. We will miss her, as she is one of the lovliest people we know.
At the end of the show I raced out to get our book sales table ready for the inevitable rush, and George signed copies of his book (and at least one copy of Rob's book, hahaha!) I had a good chat with Verna about the nonsense which has happened at school, and chatted with another of my favourite people, Sam, who had two of her daughters with her.
Right at the end of the evening, George was in a tizzy as he'd lost his bike lock key.... I do hope he managed to find it!
I cycled home, getting in just before 11pm, and then managed to get my thoughts down in a polite email which I sent to the school, the lovely people at Green Thumbs Gang, several city Councillors, the sustainability officer, Verna who is on the board of governors, and others. The school HAS to get itself into the 21st Century and take on board what the Government has said they must do, which is to be a 'Beacon of Excellence in the centre of their community' re Sustainable Development... it's called ESD. (excellent links here) I didn't finish on the computer til nearly 4am.
Monday, 2 March 2009
Monday 2nd March 09
Up ridiculously early in order to get out of the house at 8am, to get into Wigginton Primary School to start teaching on the dot of 9. It took me just 35 minutes to get there, and I was going quite slowly as I had a delicate load of minibeasts in my trailer, mainly in glass jars.
I had been invited by Ian, a trainee teacher, as the school were doing a 'green plants project' and he wanted to add to that with a topic on composting. So, he'd initially booked me to do three 45 minute sessions, and the school were so pleased about this that they invited me to do a further two... and offered me a significantly better fee.
My lesson plan was to start with asking the students if they had a pet. Most of the class in each instance put up their hand. I asked what the pet needed to have a happy healthy life, and I had laminated A4 flash cards for Food, Water, Bed and Exercise. The children mostly came up with Food first, and I brought in the idea of a mixed diet, and Water next. We eventually got round to working out the other two, and I made a bit of a thing about the exercise being to do with getting Oxygen into their system (see where this is heading?).
Then I suggested that some of them probably had a pet in their back garden which had similar needs, and asked those with a compost heap or pile to put up their hands. There were fewer people with compost heaps than pets. So then we went back to the 'Food' and I asked what compost heaps were fed with. Once we'd got half a dozen suggestions, I brought back the balanced diet concept, and got out the 'Compost Browns' and 'Compost Greens' cards, and I explained, using the suggestions just offered, about Carbon-rich and Nitrogen-rich, drys and wets, structural and putrescible items which compost heaps need to have to work well.
I revisited the 'Water' card, and explained about the water content of fruit and vegetables... and the most environmentally friendly way to add moisture to compost heaps, which is, of course, to wee on them. Much muffled laughter and some horrified expressions, but in each class there were a couple of people who knew someone who urinated on their compost heap (often a grandad!).
The 'Bed' card referred to the bin or container, and the Exercise (after I made them laugh with my impression of putting a compost heap on a lead and taking it for a walk) was about turning it to get maximum oxygen into it.
Then I asked them what living things could be found in compost heaps, and I passed round pots and tubs with two sorts of worms, centipedes, woodlice, slugs, snails, millipedes and springtails, and discussed spiders, beetles, flies/maggots, rodents, hedgehogs, amphibians, grass snakes, slow worms and dismissed rabbits, moles and, weirdly, jellyfish! I also showed them a lovely mouldy grapefruit which allowed me to enthuse about fungi... and also mention bacteria.
Finally, I did a recycling game where I had a pile of assorted rubbish and I asked what should be done with this, which allowed me to get the biodegradable nature of rubber bands into the frame, as well as drinks carton recycling, taking paper off food cans, landfill and pollution from landfills. All this in just 45 minutes... three times before lunch and twice after... quite full-on and very tiring.
I left at 3 after writing out an invoice, and dropped off the teaching resources at St Nicks, as Catherine is doing a York Rotters school visit tomorrow. Got home at 3.40, shortly before Gill and our youngest did. Very satisfying, but was knackered. And full-time teachers do this kind of thing five days a week, plus having to plan and mark, etc.
I emailed my LETS friends to say I wouldn't be coming to the meeting tonight, and I had a quiet evening. Enjoyed the last programme of 'It's Not Easy Being Green'.
I had been invited by Ian, a trainee teacher, as the school were doing a 'green plants project' and he wanted to add to that with a topic on composting. So, he'd initially booked me to do three 45 minute sessions, and the school were so pleased about this that they invited me to do a further two... and offered me a significantly better fee.
My lesson plan was to start with asking the students if they had a pet. Most of the class in each instance put up their hand. I asked what the pet needed to have a happy healthy life, and I had laminated A4 flash cards for Food, Water, Bed and Exercise. The children mostly came up with Food first, and I brought in the idea of a mixed diet, and Water next. We eventually got round to working out the other two, and I made a bit of a thing about the exercise being to do with getting Oxygen into their system (see where this is heading?).
Then I suggested that some of them probably had a pet in their back garden which had similar needs, and asked those with a compost heap or pile to put up their hands. There were fewer people with compost heaps than pets. So then we went back to the 'Food' and I asked what compost heaps were fed with. Once we'd got half a dozen suggestions, I brought back the balanced diet concept, and got out the 'Compost Browns' and 'Compost Greens' cards, and I explained, using the suggestions just offered, about Carbon-rich and Nitrogen-rich, drys and wets, structural and putrescible items which compost heaps need to have to work well.
I revisited the 'Water' card, and explained about the water content of fruit and vegetables... and the most environmentally friendly way to add moisture to compost heaps, which is, of course, to wee on them. Much muffled laughter and some horrified expressions, but in each class there were a couple of people who knew someone who urinated on their compost heap (often a grandad!).
The 'Bed' card referred to the bin or container, and the Exercise (after I made them laugh with my impression of putting a compost heap on a lead and taking it for a walk) was about turning it to get maximum oxygen into it.
Then I asked them what living things could be found in compost heaps, and I passed round pots and tubs with two sorts of worms, centipedes, woodlice, slugs, snails, millipedes and springtails, and discussed spiders, beetles, flies/maggots, rodents, hedgehogs, amphibians, grass snakes, slow worms and dismissed rabbits, moles and, weirdly, jellyfish! I also showed them a lovely mouldy grapefruit which allowed me to enthuse about fungi... and also mention bacteria.
Finally, I did a recycling game where I had a pile of assorted rubbish and I asked what should be done with this, which allowed me to get the biodegradable nature of rubber bands into the frame, as well as drinks carton recycling, taking paper off food cans, landfill and pollution from landfills. All this in just 45 minutes... three times before lunch and twice after... quite full-on and very tiring.
I left at 3 after writing out an invoice, and dropped off the teaching resources at St Nicks, as Catherine is doing a York Rotters school visit tomorrow. Got home at 3.40, shortly before Gill and our youngest did. Very satisfying, but was knackered. And full-time teachers do this kind of thing five days a week, plus having to plan and mark, etc.
I emailed my LETS friends to say I wouldn't be coming to the meeting tonight, and I had a quiet evening. Enjoyed the last programme of 'It's Not Easy Being Green'.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Sunday 1st March 09
A very productive day, and for me, pretty peaceful too.
After a civilised start time-wise, I went to the allotment, via Country Fresh where Richard had a little gift for me... an empty cigarette packet!
A couple of weeks ago he'd given me another empty packet, which used to contain 'Natural American Spirit' ciggies which Richard described as 'organic' but in fact, there is no organic certification on the packet. The difference between these and 'normal' fags is that these have no additives and are just cured tobacco leaf, with no 'reconstituted' tobacco and processed stems. Richard reports that it costs about a pound more than normal ones, but has very little taste and he prefers this. Today's offering was a '1st Nation' cigarette packet, which Richard described as 'Fairly Traded'. Actually, these don't have the fair trade logo, although the packet does describe them as 'Ethically Sourced'. Neither of these are safe or healthy, both have tar and Carbon Monoxide and they are an expensive habit. However, I think it'll make an entertaining paid blog post for Community Care. Lots of Social Workers smoke and might, just might, like to have a different sort of 'ethical' cigarette!
Anyway, collected my compostables and a lot of cardboard for mulching. I cycled round along Cemetery Road and down to the bottom entrance of the Low Moor Allotments, so I could go to the lottie shop... and hurrah, I got there in good time, and was able to rejoin the Low Moor Allotment Association, which meant that I could use the shop... I then proceeded to get 10 varieties of potato at £1 per kilo and a collection of seeds, making my bill up to £15.
I had very good session on my allotment... dug out two compost heaps and turned them, did a little bit of weeding and a lot of cutting back loads of marauding brambles. Got back just before 2pm, in time to have lunch, listen to Gardeners Question Time and do a bit of emailing, more stuff on Age of Stupid at City Screen in April.
Then had a good session in the garden, collecting assorted minibeasts for my composting classes tomorrow (kids love minibeasts!) and weeding, tidying, and some shredding too. Dug out my Compostumbler, putting most of its contents in a dalek and some excess in a builders 'dumpy' bag.
Gill made a lovely lasagna for tea, and I lit both stoves , to keep the place warm and as I need a bath tonight as I don't want to smell like a compost heap tomorrow. I watched a good programme on the Keck Telescope with both my boys, which was nice. A harmonious time this evening... and I did my blog on the so-called 'ethical' tobacco.
After a civilised start time-wise, I went to the allotment, via Country Fresh where Richard had a little gift for me... an empty cigarette packet!
A couple of weeks ago he'd given me another empty packet, which used to contain 'Natural American Spirit' ciggies which Richard described as 'organic' but in fact, there is no organic certification on the packet. The difference between these and 'normal' fags is that these have no additives and are just cured tobacco leaf, with no 'reconstituted' tobacco and processed stems. Richard reports that it costs about a pound more than normal ones, but has very little taste and he prefers this. Today's offering was a '1st Nation' cigarette packet, which Richard described as 'Fairly Traded'. Actually, these don't have the fair trade logo, although the packet does describe them as 'Ethically Sourced'. Neither of these are safe or healthy, both have tar and Carbon Monoxide and they are an expensive habit. However, I think it'll make an entertaining paid blog post for Community Care. Lots of Social Workers smoke and might, just might, like to have a different sort of 'ethical' cigarette!
Anyway, collected my compostables and a lot of cardboard for mulching. I cycled round along Cemetery Road and down to the bottom entrance of the Low Moor Allotments, so I could go to the lottie shop... and hurrah, I got there in good time, and was able to rejoin the Low Moor Allotment Association, which meant that I could use the shop... I then proceeded to get 10 varieties of potato at £1 per kilo and a collection of seeds, making my bill up to £15.
I had very good session on my allotment... dug out two compost heaps and turned them, did a little bit of weeding and a lot of cutting back loads of marauding brambles. Got back just before 2pm, in time to have lunch, listen to Gardeners Question Time and do a bit of emailing, more stuff on Age of Stupid at City Screen in April.
Then had a good session in the garden, collecting assorted minibeasts for my composting classes tomorrow (kids love minibeasts!) and weeding, tidying, and some shredding too. Dug out my Compostumbler, putting most of its contents in a dalek and some excess in a builders 'dumpy' bag.
Gill made a lovely lasagna for tea, and I lit both stoves , to keep the place warm and as I need a bath tonight as I don't want to smell like a compost heap tomorrow. I watched a good programme on the Keck Telescope with both my boys, which was nice. A harmonious time this evening... and I did my blog on the so-called 'ethical' tobacco.
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Saturday 28th February 09
Had a mini-lie in... til after 9. But then zoomed into the garden to continue riddling mature compost so I could take some down to the veg shop for distribution. I got just 5 carrier bags worth ready and took them down to Country Fresh, getting some provisions at the same time, and then heading off to St Nicks for their 5th anniversary of the surrounding area being designated a Nature Reserve.
Met Jean Claude my new Chilean friend, who bought my last Carbon Detox ticket off me... that means I've sold 18, not including mine and Gill's. I'm pleased with this. There is now a special deal on at the Theatre Royal, two tickets for the price of one... a 'Buy One, Get One Free' offer! so any folks still thinking about whether to come to see George Marshall's one-man stand up comedy show can now come with a friend for a tenner... see you on Tuesday folks!
The event at St Nicks was good, soup and bread, coffee and good company. Gill and the boys came down, and some of the boys' friends appeared which was a blessing... A photographer took some commemorative pictures and there were speeches from Pat Hearn, chair of the Friends of St Nicks, Barry Potter, chair of York Natural Environment Trust and Andrew Waller, leader of the Council, who just happens to be a trained Rotter and keen composter too!
I didn't have time to go on the new Tree Trail guided walk, as I had to get back home to tidy myself up, get changed, circus stuff packed and cycle off to Osbaldwick to do a party at 3pm. It was, as usual, a good party. The children were on the lively side of average... quite a noisy audience but lots of participation and fun, and the mum commented on my ability to hold their attention. Several of the youngsters said to me afterwards that they wanted to have a Professor Fiddlesticks party, so I told them to tell their parents! Finished on the dot of 5, having had a 55 minute circus show and workshop and 40 minute modelling balloon activity.
Later, at about 11pm, I popped out to retrieve the wood from that skip, quietly. Two cycle trailer loads... excellent!
Answered several composting queries on Facebook, and prepared an interesting fruit leather... about 15 passion fruit which had been rejected by one or other of the shops, plus maybe 15 bananas... liquidised together and pushed through a sieve and the resultant smooth pulp put in a tray for drying on the woodstove. Smells heavenly!
Met Jean Claude my new Chilean friend, who bought my last Carbon Detox ticket off me... that means I've sold 18, not including mine and Gill's. I'm pleased with this. There is now a special deal on at the Theatre Royal, two tickets for the price of one... a 'Buy One, Get One Free' offer! so any folks still thinking about whether to come to see George Marshall's one-man stand up comedy show can now come with a friend for a tenner... see you on Tuesday folks!
The event at St Nicks was good, soup and bread, coffee and good company. Gill and the boys came down, and some of the boys' friends appeared which was a blessing... A photographer took some commemorative pictures and there were speeches from Pat Hearn, chair of the Friends of St Nicks, Barry Potter, chair of York Natural Environment Trust and Andrew Waller, leader of the Council, who just happens to be a trained Rotter and keen composter too!
I didn't have time to go on the new Tree Trail guided walk, as I had to get back home to tidy myself up, get changed, circus stuff packed and cycle off to Osbaldwick to do a party at 3pm. It was, as usual, a good party. The children were on the lively side of average... quite a noisy audience but lots of participation and fun, and the mum commented on my ability to hold their attention. Several of the youngsters said to me afterwards that they wanted to have a Professor Fiddlesticks party, so I told them to tell their parents! Finished on the dot of 5, having had a 55 minute circus show and workshop and 40 minute modelling balloon activity.
On the way home I spotted a skip with some good big chunks of untreated wood in, so I stopped and knocked on the door, and asked if I might later go and retrieve them to recycle them, to which the answer was of course!
Home soon... and needed to collapse as the concentration and unicycling around is hard work, and both my sons were both very cuddly and loving, which was unexpected and very welcome! Watched 'You've Been Framed' and 'Harry Hill's TV Burp' which are definite favourites in this house!Later, at about 11pm, I popped out to retrieve the wood from that skip, quietly. Two cycle trailer loads... excellent!
Answered several composting queries on Facebook, and prepared an interesting fruit leather... about 15 passion fruit which had been rejected by one or other of the shops, plus maybe 15 bananas... liquidised together and pushed through a sieve and the resultant smooth pulp put in a tray for drying on the woodstove. Smells heavenly!
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