Thursday 20th May 10

A morning full of phone calls, paperwork and pretty boring stuff... and the afternoon I did a lot of work in the conservatory and on the lawn just out the back, preparing growing medium for pots. I filled one huge ceramic planter with a branch for support, 4 Chinese Yams, 2 beans and a cucumber. I did a large plastic pot with a tomato, bean and yam. Another pot with 3 beans only, and another pot with a tomato and I think a bean and a yam.

I have space for another 15 large pots... but preparing enough growing medium for all those will be quite a job. I'll be going to Brunswick Organic Nursery soon to get a few more different tomato plants, hopefully a bit more interesting than the Shirley and Tumbler that I've just put in.

Gill made chips to go with the pastie and salads, which was nice as we don't have chips very often. Then I went to a Car Free Day meeting, with people from York and Ryedale Friends of the Earth, and we had good conversations at the Seahorse Hotel. Our slogan for the Car Free Day on 22nd September is 'Walk It, Bike It, Bus It'. We have some interesting plans but I cannot divulge them as some bigwigs have to make some decisions before we can move forward.

I got in at about 10pm, and at about 11 I lit the stove to get enough hot water for the washing up.

Saturday 24th April 10

Woke slowly at 10 and had breakfast whilst watching things about Permaculture on YouTube.

It was a lovely sunny day so got out before lunch and started taking the large pots from the conservatory down to one of the raised 'radiator' beds down the garden, ready to put the old growing media through the riddle into this bed, alternated with other assorted compost and soil, to raise the level right up so I can grow stuff in it this season.

Came in for a late lunch at about 2pm, and Gill was wanting to do something with the large numbers of oranges which are all over the place. So I washed a load and we both peeled them and removed the seeds and put the bits of segment into the juicer bit of our blender, which we haven't used much. This has a central section in the goblet, above the blades, and perforated walls which allow the juice to flow out into the outer bit of the goblet, but keeps the solids in the centre. It's a good gadget, and we made over two litres of the most delicious orange juice.

At about 4 I went back into the garden and riddled the old growing media into the raised bed. I found quite a few yam tubercles just beginning to grow, from where they had fallen into the tomato pots from the yam vine above. I replanted these in individual little pots. The tomato roots and other bits which didn't go through the riddle went on the compost heap as a layer of mainly woody bits.

I also managed to do a bit of compost heap loading and finished digging out the metal-sided bin.

I came in at 7pm and Gill had made a potato and broccoli quiche which was really nice, had this with baked beans, followed by the last of the apple crumble and some chocolate ice cream.

Today my card came which confirms that I'm a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce. I am John Cossham FRSA. Amazing!

Wednesday 24th March 10

A good day! I had a bit of a lie in and was getting up when Thomson rang with details of their web-based service. I could try it out for 3 months, it's a 'pay per click' Google advert.

I spent the rest of the morning on the computer, dealing with the new website, and the business cards arrived, from Rory, my Canadian friend and business partner. I had a bit of Fiddlesticks paperwork to attend to and an invoice to prepare for 'John the Composter'.

After lunch I sorted out the Yam tubercles I promised a blog reader called Duncan, and one of my facebook friends Zion, and popped those in the post first class. I also put the potatoes in egg boxes for chitting, and later, prepared another large load of seed compost (3 half sacks and 6 carrier bags full) which will mean that over the weekend I can plant seeds.

During the afternoon, I went to the front garden to get a sack of kindling sticks which had been drying in the garage for ages, and I'd brought to the front ready for bringing in. I swiftly grabbed it and brought it in, and tipped it into the kindling basket. There was a bit of rustling which didn't sound like the sticks settling, and I looked in and saw something move... perhaps a mouse? Help! I put another basket on top of this one to hopefully prevent it getting out, and took the whole lot to outside the front door, pulling it to behind me. I took the basket off the top and a young rat jumped out and headed down the garden! Oh wow, I am SO glad, so very glad it didn't jump out in the house! That would have been awful, absolutely awful. Next time I bring a sack of sticks in, I'll give it a good rattle outside. This experience left me quite shaken up, heart beating fast. When Gill came back from town and I told her, she was freaked out too.

At 7pm I decided that I was going to go to the Transition meeting, and was glad that I did. I chaired the meeting and it was quite a toughie, with a lot to get through and some potentially difficult negotiations between key players. But it was a good meeting. Home soon after 10pm.

Wednesday 27th January 10

I had real difficulty getting to sleep last night... must have lain awake til 4am but eventually I dropped off. Next thing I knew was Gilly awakening me at 10.30. Breakfast and a bit of housework, including preparing a home-grown Chinese Yam for tonight's meal. It needed as many of the hair-like roots removing as possible, which I did by scraping it with a knife in a stream of water, and then I sliced it into rounds about a centimetre thick, for shallow frying on the woodstove.

I didn't get dressed til after lunch, and then went out to deal with last year's brambles and loganberries; the fruited canes need cutting back and then feeding through the shredder to make a woody layer in the latest compost heap.

As it was getting dark I cycled down to Country Fresh and bought mushrooms and bananas, and picked up 4 sacks full of compostable stuff. On the way back I had another root around in the skip, and found a red plastic tray, a glass chopping board, an unopened in-date box of Kellogs bran flakes, a cycle helmet in its box and an orange reflective jacket with Royal Mail on the back. Also a load of wine bottles which I brought back for my kerbside recycling box. There were loads of bundles of leaflets and flyers too, presumably meant for delivering, but I had no space for them. The curtain twitching neighbour did a lot of twitching. I waved at her.

As I cycled away, the twitcher's husband overtook me in his car and was aggressive towards me, accusing me of making an obscene gesture to his wife. I'm glad he didn't bop me one... he certainly had enough testosterone flying around. Some people obviously think skip-raiding is wrong.

Anyway, I was so pissed off with this show of stupidity that a bit later, when Gill asked me to go and buy soya milk, I got that and revisited the skip, and got all the leaflets and flyers and completely filled my trailer with them... all for recycling not landfill. I might have only taken 30 or 40kgs worth out of a one tonne skip, but in my book, every bit counts. I don't know if the nosey neighbours saw me or not, and I don't really care.

Tea was good; Gill did a rice stir fry thing, topped with Chinese Yam 'chips' and it was very satisfying.

Enjoyed a quiet evening with Gill once the boys had settled, and we watched a bit of 'Celebrity Big Brother' which we're half-watching, and enjoyed it when Davina went into the house.

I did quite a bit of research on the computer tonight, about a new business opportunity I'm working on. Exciting!

Tuesday 12th January 10

Quite a good day... got a letter from a reader of plants for a future, to which I contributed a comment, with some seeds as a swap for some tubercles of Diascorea batatas (sometimes known as D. opposita) or Chinese Yam (see this blog post). I also had a phone call from a West African man living in Worcester who'd bought a cinnamon vine in a pot from Country Fresh when he was visiting York, asking me about how to look after the plant... and I promised to send him a few tubercles when they were harvested.

So I replied to both with a letter and information about looking after the plant, and tomorrow will put a film-canister of tubercles with the letter and send them off, one to Worcester and the other to Maldon in Essex.

At 10am Lynn came round as she had asked if I still had any spare bananas... and by chance, I had got some more bananas yesterday so she came round for a chat and to pick up some bananas. We chatted for over two hours.

I popped round to Tang Hall Library to take some children's books back, and got milk from the Co-op on the way back.

Rice and home-made baked beans for tea, and then off to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel for 6.30, where there were just two applications to deal with. However at the previous meeting, just before Christmas, only two people were able to attend, and they disagreed over an application, so the Clerk had emailed round to canvass opinions and gather more comments. The other person had said this was underhand and wrong, as only the opinions of those present at the meeting should count. So we had a very heated discussion which lasted until we had to go, at 7.30. We realised that we had no ground-rules for this situation so the Clerk is going to ask the Council for advice, and I'll ask my Fishergate Planning Panel friends if they have rules about being quorate (having a certain number of people there in order for the meeting to make decisions) and whether people not actually at the meeting can contribute to the discussion or the vote. Difficult ethical and procedural dilemmas.

A late evening with children and homework.

Saturday 5th December 09

Quite a late start and when I bumbled down stairs, Gill was talking to one of our neighbours on the sofa. This neighbour has a house near Robin Hood's Bay... and we are wanting to visit for a few days (to get our 'fix' of the place!) so we might be hiring their place.

I got dressed and did some tidying in the conservatory... there's still Cinnamon vine (Dioscorea batata or Chinese Yam) to be removed, and the hundreds of little aerial tubers needed collecting up so I can either replant, distribute or eat!

I found lots of one-year old tubers, just a little bigger than the originally planted aereal tubers:

I then dug up the big two- or three year old tubers from the pots, where they had headed to the bottom of the pot and in one case had circled half-way around, and in another had formed a big blob the the base and is most sculptural:

The tubers are very brittle and one broke as I tried to extract it. So I washed and scraped the roots off this and chopped it into little chunks and fried it in extra virgin olive oil on the woodstove, and it was delicious. The whole family agreed. Gill made a pizza too, which was nice.

In the afternoon, Gill went into town on the bus with the boys to go to Borders where the books are going cheap, as it is probably closing. I spent nearly the whole day inside but this was OK as I got a lot done. I was pleased to receive a phone call from Ben, who purchased two jars of mixed dried fruit yesterday and wanted to order another 6 big jars and 7 small jars, as he thinks these will make original Christmas presents for his family and friends. Sorry if any of them are reading this and the surprise is now not a surprise!

I researched my travel arrangements for the end of next week when I'm delighted that I'm available to go to the AGM of the Community Composting Network and an event the previous day called Growing for Well-Being. I've wanted to attend this for several years but always had work booked.