Sunday 22nd April 07

Awoke not too early and went downstairs to find my sister, Anna, still asleep after her late night at Joseph. The boys were being asked to keep quiet to let her sleep on, but she soon woke up. Weirdly, their late night with an 11pm bed-time didn't result in them sleeping in any later, they were up at 7am.

Anna awoke and she and the boys had pancakes for breakfast, I had my usual habitual cereals and muesli. We had a wander down the garden and Anna requested more compost for her garden, how could I refuse? She had praised it highly and said their border needed more... so she took 2 more bags and we put them in her car and she soon drove back to Sheffield.

I spent some time in the garden, got quite a lot done. Potted on some squash and courgettes, from their seed containers into bigger pots.

Melody came after lunch and we talked about the future of CrUST and its connections with the Green Festival and funding for that.

In the evening I tried to do some work on the computer but had a few problems getting onto the site I wanted, but persevered.

Sat 21st April 07

Got up early to complete yesterday's blog and get ready for a long day chairing an important meeting of 'AVP NEEM' the North East and East Midlands branch of Alternatives to Violence Project, a UK organisation (AVP Britain) which organises workshops on conflict resolution, in prisons and for the wider community. I owe a lot to AVP as I could have got into big trouble for my lack of self contol during my 20's, when I did an AVP workshop and learnt about what my triggers were, how violence starts and where it ends up and how to manage that energy and emotion creatively and sustainably. I believe that AVP is part of 'social sustainability' as it promotes social cohesion and helps hot-heads, bullies, those bullied or abused deal with their problem. It enables people to learn how to communicate in a non-violent way. It has helped me with my environmental activism, NVDA (non violent direct action), family life, my work as an entertainer and many of my inter-personal relationships.

I cycled up to New Earswick to Hartrigg Oaks where the meeting was due to be held, and as usual, was a few minutes early and waited for the others to arrive. When a few had come, I asked one person how Harry was, he lives at Hartrigg Oaks and used to be the Treasurer of AVP York but he has gone blind and is now in the care-home part of the Oaks, so I asked if I could visit him. He has begun to develop dementure but he did work out where he knew me from and we had a nice chat, just 10 mins, but it cheered him up, he said.

By this time the other five AVP NEEM (Alternatives to Violence Project North East and East Midlands) representatives had arrived so my chairing abilities were put into operation and we had a 2 hour session in the morning, lunch, and several hours in the afternoon. The structure of the organisation has changed and AVP Britain now has 7 members which are regions. We have a lot of organising to do and it was a full meeting.

I managed to pull it to a close at 4.30 and bomb off to Heslington Road where Richard was just shutting up the shop, he gave me 2 sacks of 'ready to compost' stuff and two trays of kiwis which weren't selling and were surplus to requirements so I got 2 trays... sounds like a kiwi leather to be created.

Anna my sister rang soon after I got in and said she was near to York, and arrived 10 mins later in time for tea, then they all watched Dr Who, which I don't like, and immediately after that the taxi I'd booked came and my boys and their Aunty went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Grand Opera House.

Gill and I played scrabble and watched telly. Got a phone call during the interval saying they were ok and enjoying it. They got home at 10.30pm which is the latest they've ever been up.
Both happy though, although the youngest very tired.

Sat 31st March 07

A very nice family day, with an early start as the Green Party are doing a candidates launch this morning at Clifford's Tower. As Gill and I are both candidates, we had to be there for 9.30am for the group photo. I cycled down with the boys and Gill followed on, a different route as she doesn't like cycling down Heslington Road for some reason. But there's many ways into town and Gill got there about 10 minutes after we did, on time for the photo. We all stood on the steps of Clifford's Tower with our 'Keeping York Special' banner.

I was very pleased to meet up with John Gray, whom I first met years ago through AVP York, the conflict resolution group Alternatives to Violence Project. He's an experienced facilitator and helped run some of the workshops, but he left the group to start Face to Face, a neighbour mediation service, I think. It's such a long time ago... and he's now married with two children. This is the first time he's stood in an election.

My sister Anna rang yesterday and told us that she'd like to take our boys to see 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' musical at the Grand Opera House in York in April. She asked me to get tickets so after the photo session I queued in the GOH ticket office and bought 3 tickets for the Saturday night show. The boys waited outside with the bikes, and then we walked on to Barnitts to buy some seeds as a treat for the boys, who want to buy, sow and grow some of their own vegetable seeds in their own bit of garden. I'm so glad that they are becoming keen on gardening. They got Morning Glory (Ipomea) Heavenly Blue, 'Walking Stick' cabbage which grows very tall and has a tough stem similar to the Brussels Sprout, but it can be made into a walking stick as it's name suggests. I got some Crown Prince Squash and Russian Giant Sunflower, and chose some free Purple Sprouting Broccoli seeds as I'd purchased two packets of Thompson and Morgan veg seeds. A good bit of shopping! Boys happy, Dad happy, nice cycle home along the cycle path, and a 15 minute stop at the St Nicks play equipment.

Home in good time for lunch. After lunch I went to the lottie and planted a crown of rhubarb given to me by Linda and Duncan. They've taken several of them out to make raised beds for Linda's vegetables. I'll donate a couple of sacks of finished compost to them for this project. I like this giving culture!

At 4 our friends Bill and Dinah came for a visit, as Dinah hadn't seen the garden, and I'd responded to a Freecycle offer of a nearly perfect black plastic dustbin... I'll find it useful to store 'dry, carbon rich' materials in, to layer with the copius quantities of 'wet, nitrogen rich' materials I bring home for composting. Bill had borrowed a couple of books, one on compost toilets and 'The New Woodburner's Handbook' which has inspired him to install a woodburner in the skate park shed he's been responsible for. He gave me a bottle of wine as a thank you for the loan. Had a nice tour round the garden and a cuppa afterwards. They are easy people to be with, and we enjoy their company. We gave them an open invite to come again and spend a chunk of evening with us sometime.

Boys to bed after Dr Who and Gill and I really enjoyed 'About Schmidt' on telly, a thought provoking film with one of my favourite actors, Jack Nicholson.

Recorded a film late into the night which I've been looking forward to seeing, the final offering in the Koyaanisqatsi/Powaqqatsi trilogy, Naqoyqatsi, with music by Philip Glass. Koyaanisqatsi is one of my favourite films, it's fabulous.