Sunday 7th June 09

Nice and lazy morning as the boys were in a good frame of mind because their friend slept over and they all play nicely together... most of the time. Also, Gill made them pancakes for breakfast.

Spent quite a bit of the morning writing, and thinking through last night's experiences.

So a good day, I did a load of work in the garden, including cutting some hedge with shears and then spending half an hour shredding, as the cuttings were quite long and woody. I also did some log stacking, compost heap building, and visited Country Fresh. The two sacks I got from there I took around to Lynn's as she has a dalek bin which is a bit on the dry side, and it really needed a load of fruit and cabbage leaves... which it got, a nice thick layer of wet nitrogen-rich stuff!

Later on in the evening I potted up another cucumber plant which really didn't need to spend a night outside, especially as it has two tiny flowers on it with millimetre-long cucumbers behind them... so it's now in the warmer conservatory in a big pot of rich mix...

More telly in the evening, depressing right-wing gains. Concentrated on preparing fruit for drying. That's local activism.... reducing landfill, making yummy dried fruit out of something which had been thrown away!

Friday 5th June 09

Gill woke me up at 9.30 saying 'aren't you supposed to be somewhere at ten o clock?' and I told her that it was tomorrow that I had the all-dayer as a York Rotter at Askham Bryan, and today only had evening stuff. She came to bed and relaxed, and fell asleep. I got up and did some moving things around in the garden, lit the stove, did washing up and other bits and pieces.

I went into town as I had two complaints from yesterday's election: some illegal Labour Party activity outside a polling station, and the cock up with my receiving Charles's ballot paper and Charles also getting one. So I went to speak to the person in charge of the York Electoral Office, who invited me to put the complaints in writing, also went to my building society and bank, and to Sainsburys.

Gill did a load of lawnmowing before it rained, and I did a load of riddling compost as Richard had requested some more compost at the shop, I took 8 carrier bags down in the trailer and collected a bag and a box of not-yet-composted stuff.

The evening was really good, Critical Mass, A film by the World Development Movement, and a Reggae night Green Party Fundraiser. Got back at midnight...

Thursday 4th June 09

Came down stairs before 8 and the house felt quite cold... we've had a few warm days and then last night was chilly and this morning was cold, so I lit the stove and prepared to do the washing up. Gill got a phone call from the hospital to say her knee physiotherapist was not in today so her appointment was cancelled.

Managed to get boy 1 out of the house on time but boy 2 was late, and Gill rang up school to say she would be in as soon as possible with him. I have deliberately ceased to get worried or upset by this type of morning. I am generally very very punctual, nearly always arriving early (apart from things which drop off my radar, like this week's Planning Panel cock-up) and I am slowly learning not to project my likes and dislikes, my agenda, onto my children and wife. I just have to let them get on with it.

I did a variety of housework jobs and waited for the post to come, as it promised to contain Charles's Proxy Postal vote which had not yet turned up. And it did, so I filled it in and took it to the polling station, gave it in and placed my vote. I collected a trailer-load of wood from a skip on the way back... with permission of course!

Had a good chat on the phone with Dave Hampton, the 'original' Carbon Coach, about how he does his specialised form of life coaching, and I enjoyed talking to him for the first time. Weird, as I feel I know him quite well, despite having never met him!

Funny old afternoon. I got tea ready as Gill was late returning from town, but had to rush out at 6 as I'd promised to go and sit at a polling station with my Green Party rosette on. There was another Green supporter there when I arrived, Jane, who is relatively new to York, and it was good to meet her and chat for a bit. She'd been there since 4pm and was cold, so left at 6.45ish, and I stayed on for another hour or so. I was surprised how many people grinned at me, or put their thumb up, or just told me they'd voted Green. But we'll have to wait for the count over the weekend to know the results.

Came home via Freshways and collected the usual sack of beginning to rot 'foreign veg' for my heap.

A nice tea... pasta, broccoli, pastie, fruit salad. Felt full and satisfied. Enjoyed 'Ideal' on telly... what a totally surreal programme, hilarious!

Friday 29th May 09

Spent most of the morning on the computer, doing washing up, preparing fruit for drying and various other domestic stuff. With the Euro elections approaching, there's a lot of political stuff winging its way around the web, and I found this. I thought it might be fun to see if it predicted my Green intentions. But I couldn't get it to tell me which way to vote. I wonder if others can?

I responded to a Freecycle offer of lots of logs; my friend John Bibby has a neighbour who's taken down a large horse chestnut, an apple, a pear, a huge laburnum and some softwood. I agreed with John that I'd cycle round at 5pm, he'd get his car ready to take some logs over to mine, I'd load and then unload the car, and he'd take me back to pick up my bike with a trailer full. Sounded like a good plan.

I did a bit of work in the garden but it was too hot. I cycled down to Country Fresh with three carrier bags of very mature compost, and picked up a sack and two boxes of compostables plus a bit of shopping.

Came back and tried to make some space in the front garden ready for the log arrival, but my chainsaw is being difficult and only working now and then. I think it has a loose connection, so will have to get it serviced.

At 5 I cycled over to John's and we did two loads, only a small percentage of the large volumes of wood they've got. Arrived back after 7 having done two car-loads and a bike-trailer load. I did a bit of chopping with the chainsaw which seemed to be back working. Weird!

Gill had made Brazil nut sausage things, and cooked some cauliflower, and I was absolutely ready for this.

Later, I spent quite a bit of time doing the York in Transition diary on Facebook.

Sunday 17th May 09

Woken by shouting but things seemed to calm down, thankfully. Our eldest got ready to go to Games Workshop with a friend. This is a shop space in town where people can buy different models, mostly plastic, and there's a central table where the different games can be played. He took sandwiches for lunch and ate those outside the shop.

I did quite a bit of paperwork, Gill got some documents photocopied at the Co-op and I sent those off.

So Gill and our youngest had quite a bit of time in the garden. I filled three containers with a mixture of old used compost and fresh rich compost, and planted three varieties of potato. I also planted two types of sweetcorn seed (Indian Rainbow and Blue Jade) in modules (little pots) and several sorts of beans, including unidentified runner beans, Cherokee Trail Of Tears and my favourite, Jack Edwards Climbing Pea Bean. Some of these bean seedlings I hope to sell at Country Fresh, but most will go in the garden and at the allotment. I sorted out a lot of detritus from the conservatory and planted yet more tiny yam balls, some of which were beginning to sprout on the floor of the conservatory.

Gill and our youngest went to visit Ashley and family up the road, leaving me to wait for our eldest to get back.

Charles rang up... he's a Green Party friend but he's going away for a Scottish Mountain-Climbing holiday over the Euro-Election season, and won't be able to cast his vote, either in person or by post. So he's asked me to be his proxy, and a postal vote will be sent to me to fill in and send off. We had a good chat and a wander down the garden, and the family returned from their various travels.

A good tea; spinach, chard, broccoli with pasta and chunks of yesterday's nutloaf, with garlic bread and cheese.

Bathed the kids (hey, they do it themselves these days, but I carry the water upstairs!) and watched telly and played Scrabble.

Wondered whether to do my Community Care Blog on the new North Yorkshire Credit Union which has opened this weekend. This means that the services of a Credit Union are now available to anyone living or working in North Yorkshire, as well as the City of York. I am feeling very pleased, and indeed a bit proud, since I started the ball rolling with York Credit Union, and am member number 0001. I've had nothing to do with the development of North Yorkshire Credit Union, but am still really happy that the Credit Union advantage is now available for so many more people, in Selby, Scarborough, and all over the County.

Watched my counter approach 10,000 page views since September last year...

I did eventually write my Community Care blog! It took over two hours.