Tuesday 25th January 11

Gill woke me at 8 with a dilemma about our youngest and school, as he wasn't very well, and was wondering what to do re school and a dentist appointment at 4ish... her frustration about various things boiled over and she gave me an earful about the mess in the garden that I'm responsible for, so I got up immediately and did 2 hours clearing up before breakfast at 10.  I do wish I was tidier.  I am productive but untidy.  I will try to remain productive but be less messy.

I didn't manage to get the garden completely tidy, and I had a succession of phone calls, a couple of which were really good and positive, about work in the summer, quite a few were to do with advertising, and one was a bit sad... I'd agreed to do a summer gala in North Cave, which is a short hop away from Brough railway station.  The organiser had asked me to find out my train times and we'd confirm the following week.  Well I found out that train times for the summer aren't published yet, but I knew I'd be able to get there, even if it meant an early start on a Sunday and a change at Doncaster.  So today we spoke and she was so apologetic, as the committee of 18 (yes, a committee of EIGHTEEN!) had outvoted her, saying they were worried that I wouldn't be able to get there because of using public transport.  This is I think a first. 

I got a message from Richard inviting me down to do a pick up.  I groaned but later did go and collect.  I got a cheque in the post for 30 sacks of compost supplied to Edible York last year, which is really good, and a phone call from a LETS member asking for a delivery of two sacks, which I'll take round on Thursday after the Rotters meeting.

The day slid by quickly, and before I knew it, it was time for me to get ready to go to the station to go to Harrogate for the RSA meeting launching the Harrogate Community Enterprise Hub.  I met Chris James on the train, a fellow Fellow, as it were, and we talked about peak oil and assorted serious subjects, and he told me about his project Inspired Youth.

We walked up to Cafe Culture from Hornbeam Park station, and watched the presentation about this project.  The basic idea is to provide a structure and place for mentors to be able to meet 'mentees', ie people wanting to start a business or a project being able to have the benefit of some already successful business people, entrepreneurs etc. 

I did have all the details of the speakers on a 'running order' piece of paper but I've stupidly left it behind, so I may or may not be able to post links to the websites.  I'd like to as some of the projects were very inspiring.

Came back on the 9pm train, and on the way home from the station collected a large number of thrown away bedding plants and polyanthus, put aside by County Fresh instead of tipping them all into the bin.

When I got home and went onto facebook, I was extremely saddened, devastated even, to see about the death of Mark 'Mozaz' Wallis, one of Sheffield's most well known anarchists, whom I was very fond of.  I knew I liked him but it's only when you lose someone and the tears flow and flow that you realise how much you cared.  He developed some kind of infection, possibly following flu or a respiratory illness, and died in hospital on the 23rd.

However, my friend Ann posted wedding photos of Keith Jackman and his long term partner Aree, out in Thailand.  This cheered me up a bit.

Tuesday 15th November 10

A kind of nothingy day, although I did have a bit of an odd Fiddlesticks enquiry in the morning.  It was from a GCSE pupil who was at school and arranging some sort of school celebration where an entertainer was needed.  She wasn't very experienced at talking to a service provider over the phone, and I have no idea whether she'll come back to me.  I'm not sure she understood how I negotiate the fee.  But, we'll see!

Apart from that it was a quiet morning, and in the afternoon Gill went to town and I went out on the bike and came back with some logs. I did do some bits in the garden... pruning loganberries amongst other activities.

Probably the most notable thing today was that Gill got the next bit of secondary glazing done, in the downstairs loo, with a sheet of perspex and magnetic self adhesive stuff.  She had a slight accident with the self adhesive strips but it still works, and immediately the house feels warmer. 

I made tea... pasta salad and slices of stove-fried squash.  But a pretty low key day with lots of this and that, bits and bobs.  Tomorrow might be more focused.

Wednesday 10th November 10

Quite a low mood day today.  However I did get a lovely phone call from someone wanting to book me for a Christmas party in a nursery, and I explained how I could alter my usual show to fit the youthful audience.  We chatted and it turned out she is on the Committee for the village Mayday celebrations, AND she's involved with a school.... so that conversation could lead to a number of gigs.  Let's hope so!

As the weather was nice I did a good hour or so of chainsawing, chopping up all the chunky hazel and some of the recently rescued skipped logs.  I enjoyed doing the chainsawing and splitting... I might do some stacking tomorrow, depending on how bad the weather is.

I made a nutloaf from bread, peanut butter, cooked quinoa, nuts, onions and some finely chopped pumpkin.

In the evening I cycled over to the station to buy my tickets for Cambridge on Friday, but there were no advance tickets left, so it will be a buy-it-on-the-day situation, at a cost of £66.  But that's an off-peak return, so I don't have to get a certain train back... but I may not get a seat.  I called in to see Dylan and did his recycling collection, and then on to Green Drinks at the Three Legged Mare.  It was a fairly quiet meeting, but good to see my friend Tracy and one of her friends, Jenny and her partner, Katie and her partner, June Tranmer, both Green Councillors, a nice chap called Julian, Peter and Edward from Transition, JZ and others.  Andy Chase showed up and asked me to sign the Election Expenses forms.

Towards the end of this jolly social, I noticed that there were four pumpkins/squashes, on a shelf, as decoration.  One of them, the big pumpkin, was going soft and just beginning to leak.  The other 3, winter squash, were sound and wholesome.  I spoke to the bar staff and told the boss-lady that her pumpkin was about to leak all over the place, and would she like me to take it away for composting? She was happy with this offer... and gave me the 3 squashes too.  Excellent!  Apparently they had been props at the Theatre Royal and had been brought in a while ago.  She'd intended to take the squashes home and cook with them, but hadn't had time to do that.  I was surprised that she gave them to me.

So I cycled slowly home with a heavy load, and when inside, started to deal with the pineapples which I've had sitting outside the front door for a few days.  Still feeling a bit grumpy.

Thursday 26th August 10

I had a very sedentary day, doing mainly paperwork and admin.

I created an invoice for a gig in a few weeks time and sent it electronically to my client, a Housing Association. I wrote a confirmation letter to a lady who's booked me for her retirement party. I confirmed a gig in Preston with my agent and sent a Freecycled DVD to someone who'd requested it, one of a large pile of DVDs and CDs I'd found in a skip. I decided I'd see if anyone on Freecycle wanted the insulating plastic flex from all the copper wire I've been stripping, and was amazed and delighted to get a taker.... but I don't know what she wants it for yet! (not that's any of my business, but I'm curious!)

I also found several bills which need paying and some paperwork which needs filing. However I didn't find the paperwork from the WHSmith gig in Malton weeks ago, which I need to process before I get paid. More searching tomorrow. One of my facebook friends joked that I needed an administrator and yes, I reckon I could use her.... I think she works in an office and seems very organised!

Before tea I went down the garden for an hour of compost tumbler filling, bean picking and windfall collecting.

After tea I chopped up a lot of James Grieve windfall apples and liquidised them with the stewed blackberries, then put the puree through a sieve, and the seed-free and fibre-free slurp went into a non stick tray on the stove and will end up as fruit leather. The stuff that didn't go through the sieve is going to be mixed with water, boiled on the woodstove and left to drain through the sieve to make a blackberry and apple drink. I really like to get the most off my home grown fruit crops.

Monday 23rd August 10

Gill and I both woke fairly late, 9ish, as our eldest son had requested that he see in his birthday, and stay up til midnight. This meant that his little brother was also up... and they didn't get to sleep for quite a bit after that. Excitement!

So, a birthday, and we now have a teenager! He hadn't wanted to go anywhere or do anything in particular, so it was a low-key day.

I did a variety of jobs... went to get bread from Thomas the Baker, and was lucky with a good selection of Yesterbake, unsold bread from Saturday, available at half price and two for the price of one, essentially quarter price. Better for the company than having to pay to throw it away, though!

On my way back from the baker, I noticed a big branch in Hull Road Park, so a bit later, I cycled round to the 'Fast Pack' shop on Lilac Avenue which sells all sorts of nuts, bolts, tools and much more, as one of my unicycle saddles had lost some nuts fixing it to the metal shaft. I got the right size nuts and then went on to the park to chop up the branch with my bowsaw. This was a trailer-full of nice Ash logs.

Later, I used a climbing rope I found a few months ago on a road near Durham to pull the walnut tree more vertical; Gill asked me to do it as it is leaning over, and there are so many walnuts on it that it is weighed down somewhat. Oh, the squirrel trap has had it's first victim. So, more nuts, fewer predators!

I spent a bit of time pruning the tomatoes in the conservatory... taking out unwanted side shoots and the tops of the plants, so they put more of the energy into fruit. I picked about 20 tomatoes too.

I got a Fiddlesticks booking for late September at a Housing Association do, and got a reminder from Book of Green about a bill for the iPhone application.

After tea, which was a lovely nutloaf, tagliatelle, green beans and tomato sauce creation, I cycled round to Nick, a Freecycler, who had put a large television up for grabs, and we'd asked for it as our small TV in the front room is not that good for doing the Wii with... and this reason was enough for him to choose us as the lucky recipients. I took an old duvet with me and this meant I could balance the huge TV on my trailer.

Later in the evening I chopped up more pears for drying. They are SO tasty!

Thursday 15th July 10

A lazy start to the day and a nice morning with Gill. We both worked inside the house for most of the day... I had assorted paperwork and admin to do and Gill did a bit more work on my accounts. I got a booking in Malton next week and to the Beverley Food Festival in the Autumn. I enjoyed reading this NewScientist article about the value of friends on social networks.

A bit later I did some work outside but really this was a comparatively uninteresting day. I harvested some ground elder for tea and rescued some broad beans from the unsold 'resources'; Gill made a nutloaf with yesterday's rice plus breadcrumbs and cashew nuts, grated carrot and chopped onion. This was lovely, a delicious tea.

The highlight of the evening was getting 74 points in Scrabble for TOILETS. Oh, and a nice chat with Kerry whom I met at the Northern Green Gathering a couple of years ago. She is currently what NewScientist would call a 'weak tie' but I think she'll get on well with another of my friends and my prediction is that we'll all meet up in the next few months. Then it will be a stronger tie. My friends are some of the most important parts of my life, and my life is considerably richer because of the assorted social networks I'm part of.

Wednesday 20th January 10

Quite a frustrating day in some ways.

Some interesting email feedback following the WeLoveTheEarthCentre meeting yesterday, some very positive, others less so. But nothing horrible, just stuff which took time to read, and as is my wont, I reply to everything, politely and carefully. Sometimes composing an appropriate reply takes a long time, but my view is that every individual is worthwhile, has a right to their views, and deserves a hearing and a polite but honest response.

Hey ho... was on the computer til midday.

But then I had a couple of Freecycle things to do, one person asking for cacti accepted my offer of a few Bryophyllum plantlets, which grow on the leaves of the parent plant. So I put some into a film canister and got my bike and set off to Burton Stone Lane, which is about 20 minutes cycle away. On the way I met John from St Nicks and had a nice chat, and then went on my way. I got to my destination... and realised I'd left the film canister at home! Duh! So, I cycled all the way back, collecting some logs on the way, so this journey wasn't completely wasted. But halfway back, my chain broke. Oh no! I had to walk the rest of the way home. Grrrr...

So, got home, admitted my error and bad luckto Gill, and borrowed her bike and did the whole journey again. I love cycling but I'd have preferred to do this 40 minute trip once, not twice, and not to have used Gill's bike as it isn't good for my knees.

When I eventually got home, after dark now, I went to pick up a broken colander which was offered on freecycle, which I'll use to do the University of Plymouth and Garden Organic 'compost beasties' survey. The idea is to put some compost in a colander, in a funnel, with the funnel in a jar of vodka. The compost is then subjected to several days of shining a warm light onto the top surface, which drives the beasties downwards, to their alcoholic death and then being sent through the post to be identified. This has never been done before, so I'm happy to be contributing (well, about to contribute to) this scientific research.

When I got in from this, we'd had a visit from the friendly Environmental Health Officer. Before Christmas, someone had complained they'd seen smoke coming out of our chimney, and complained. We live in a Clean Air Act zone so homes may not emit smoke except for the first 10 to 20 minutes of lighting the fire, and householders may only burn 'authorised fuel' or have an 'exempt appliance', which is what both of our stoves are. We hadn't responded to this letter... I had been busy and then the letter had got buried in a pile of stuff, and anyway, we knew we were ok, so we just let it go. The complainant had complained again, so she visited. She was happy to see which models of stove we had and my method of drying the wood, and she said that the occasional aroma of woodsmoke was not a problem, only actual smoke coming from the chimney. She also said that she had a woodstove, and understood why we had them. A good visit!
City of York Council have a leaflet explaining this here (pdf), on their webpage, and there's a list of exempt appliances here. If you want to see what other people think about your stove, or a make of stove you are considering getting, check out WhatStove which is an excellent resource.

Gill was experimenting with making pasta. We had her home-made tagliatelle for tea, with broccoli. It was very good.

I had a quiet evening in, more Earth Centre stuff, and other things including a Fiddlesticks booking in Malton at Easter and confirmation of another couple of bookings in the Summer in Leeds. Good, need the work! However cheaply we live, we do need some money to keep things going...