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'.

Wednesday 14th January 09

I cycled into school with our youngest, and in the playground had a nice chat with a new Dad, Peter from Taiwan. On the way back I collected lots of litter from Windmill Lane... mostly aluminium cans but also plastic bottles... all will be recycled (well, I'll put them for recycling; what the council and metal merchant do with them is their business!)

Gill went to her art class and I was a good househusband and continued the tidying she started yesterday and washed up. Went to Thomas's and bought their excellent value 'yesterbake' bread... two loaves, four packets of rolls, 4 danish pastries and some flapjack offcuts... all for £3.75. Excellent! This is stuff which didn't sell yesterday, and the shops all send the unsold things back to the Tang Hall Lane shop, where it is sold at half price and two for the price of one... so actually, quarter price. So a loaf selling yesterday at £120 would be 60p, but you can have 2 for 60p. Excellent, and they don't have to be the same item, so today for instance, I got a white loaf and a seedy loaf and four different packets of rolls. Good on yer Thomas's of York!

Gill came back soon after 11 and we spent some time together trying to plan the next few days... Gilly got on with some cooking and I got on with something else before Neil the Thomson Local rep came to discuss my advertising package for next year. He was very nice and we went off at a tangent/off topic on several occasions, but we eventually got to agreeing the words and signing the document.

The rest of the afternoon was spent sorting out a new woodpile outside the front door AGAIN... but hey, we've been very cosy during this cold patch and not used any more fossil fuel than we normally do. Just loads of logs.

I picked up our youngest, and as usual managed the compost bins I've installed at school to recycle some of their stuff they throw away and don't bother to recycle themselves. However, children are often really wasteful themselves and throw away fruit they don't want to eat, rather than take it back home to face their parent/carer who would (perhaps!) sternly say 'Why didn't you eat that?' So I often find uneaten bananas, apples, pears and sometimes unopened packets of crisps or dried mango. This is my reward! I bring the fruit home, wash it and mostly dry the stuff for my cereal... or the kids gobble it up as they love the dried fruit so much! I leave dried fruit out on the racks and it just disappears. I've told them they don't ever have to ask to take it... and it just goes. Great!... I bring more home just about every day to slice up and bung on the racks above the stove, and this snack is much more healthy than sweets or biscuits (although they sometimes have these as well).

I went to visit Richard at Country Fresh and he gave me a huge load of seconds tomatoes, so I'll sort them out and make soup for the coming couple of days. Yummy!

Popped in to Freshways too... and oh no, they had tomatoes as well. So, I wish I had a cauldron. I might make a batch of soup-base and freeze it... A busy evening awaits.

Did have a busy evening. The boys kept busy too, on their computer (thank you Uncle Tom!) but somehow the screen went upsidedown and enlarged. I wanted to laugh but had to appear concerned, serious etc or there would have been an outburst. I offered to help but my solution didn't work, so I rang Simon and he talked our eldest through it... and solved it! Well, I think so...
Enjoyed 'It's Not Easy Being Green' but I don't think this series is as good as the first. Not enough Brigit!!! Hahahahaha...

Wednesday 7th January 09

A good day but where did it go? Still feel as if we're recovering from the holidays, and the morning went by very quickly... after taking our youngest into school, and picking up some branches on the way home and prepared them into kindling, bought bread and brain flakes and bingo, it was lunchtime! After lunch we had a visitor, and bingo it was time for me to go to school and pick him up again!

Did a little bit more in the garden and popped down to Freshways... Gill made a nutloaf with some extra spaghetti from yesterday.

So, not much to report today, but survived it... just. Probably the highlight was a heated discussion on one of the email lists I'm on, or possibly the new series of 'It's Not Easy Being Green' on BBC2, with the irrepressible Dick Strawbridge and just a quick flash of his lovely wife Brigit. I might try the carbon calculator they used, or rather the very wasteful flash cricketer whose name I cannot remember...

Having done that calculator, I'm not that impressed, as it wasn't as detailed as some I've used, but it's a start. I was rated as 1.61 planets/year, which is more than most of the more detailed calculators which take more lifestyle choices into account. A reasonable introduction to carbon calculators for novices though!

Wednesday 20th June 07

A second day filming with BBC Inside Out, they came at 10am and met me at the veg shop, to film me picking up compostables... unsold produce, for a penny per sack! We did this to differentiate between 'waste' (which it is from their point of view) and 'resources' which I believe it is. If it is waste, offences are being committed as they have a duty to dispose of it in an official way, and I don't have a waste carrier's licence... so I officially buy the materials!

Richard at Martin's Country Fresh was happy to have his two and a half seconds of fame and pass the two sacks over and accept my two pence! We filmed various bits there, several takes to make it possible to edit together a good bit of film.

The next bit was at home, sorting through the materials, and there were lots of carrots, slightly blemished, but pukka enough for soup. They filmed Gill peeling them and chopping them for the soup, whilst chatting about life with me and what she thought of our green lifestyle. Then we did a bit about my 100% illegal recycling waste deposited in the litter bin outside our house, but they didn't film me doing anything illegal! Phew!

They did a bit of me and Gill in the garden, and then we went to St Nicks to meet up with Louise, a lady who wants to start composting and didn't know how. So I assumed my Rotters persona and talked her through the basics. There was an interview with Gary Haq who works for the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York, researching ecofootprints, developing carbon calculators and the like. He had introduced Louise to the film crew and that's why she was included in the film about 'being green'. Finally, came back home to meet the boys, film them on the trampoline and do a quick interview about Daddy's composting.

So a long day, busy and tiring.

Enjoyed the update edition of It's Not Easy Being Green, with the Strawbridges helping various people green up.

Thursday 19th April 07

Gill had offered to support one of our friends whom had herself volunteered to support a woman who faces deportation, so Gill went to court with our friend to meet up with the woman who feels she will be killed or persecuted if she returns to her country of origin. Therefore I got up at 6.30 to complete the children's morning routine and take them to school. Feeling tired and grotty, have not been getting enough sleep and have a runny nose, probably connected.

However, have to make best use of the day and lit the stove, got hot water together, did lots of washing up and soaking labels of bottles, glass in recycling and squashed the plastic ones so more fit in the recycling and sorted accumulated stuff whilst listening to a good programme on symmetry on R4.

Contemplated returning to bed!

Did return and read my Growing Heap magazine, journal of the Community Composting Network. I have a mention because of my Ethical Man composting. Also part four of 'Composting in Schools', a subject close to my heart!

But didn't spend long as had a carrot and pumpkin soup to make, and more housework.

Lunch was with Jo, a new Rotter who seemed almost as keen on composting as I am, and I invited her to ring me and invite herself round. So she did and she was very interested in the various systems. We talked about loads of things over a sandwich and spent an hour and a half together, I hope we'll meet again. She helps run a scout group so she may get to see me as Professor Fiddlesticks as scouts are a speciality!

Phone call from Gill and our caring friend, they are taking longer in court than planned so I'll not expect them back and I'll pick up the boys. When I picked them up they were invited to go and play with a friend so I cycled home alone, picked up a giant log and when I got back, Gill was just home. A harrowing day for her, but fulfilling. I had several bits of good news... I found out that Dr Sentamu is going to be the patron of York Credit Union, I have been contacted by a professional coffin-maker and green burials person about possible compost burials, and one of the teachers at school has suddenly realised that the school isnt doing much recycling and is now my ally. All these positive things for the future make me happy.

Picked up the boys and they came home for tea, I ate some soup and sandwich and went to bed and fell asleep til 7 when Gill woke me to watch 'It's Not Easy Being Green', and spotted a Clearview stove.... they're catching on!

Lots of computery stuff, mostly googlechat with my re-ignited flame in America. Early night!

Thursday 5th April 07

A fairly quiet day, compared with yesterday. Lovely sunny weather and a good day for doing stuff in the garden, however did pop into York to visit a Freecycler who had offered some veg seeds, and to pick up my 'Wednesday's' Out Of This World compostable materials.

Simon invited the boys to go and play with his son, who has created a den in the woods. Gill made a picnic for them and they all cycled off had a good time. Gill spent quite a lot of the day trying to book a late summer holiday in Norfolk, just before her older sister's 60th, to which we're invited. I think we've secured a week in a static caravan in Wells Next The Sea!

Gill also put up a small shelf in one of the boys' rooms, and doing that, knelt on the the bit of the futon on the 'stomper bed' which cannot take that weight, and it broke under her. I had rescued some nice pine boards from a skip just last week, and fortunately these were of a size which fitted, when sawn to 59.5cm long. I got two reclaimed supports from each board, and put 8 of them in. I think they'll be stronger than the original chipboard.

I got a phone call in the morning from one of my LETS friends Patrick, who occasionally borrows my quiet shredder. He was dismantling a willow bender in his garden and wanted to render it into a mulching material, so he drove round and picked it up, delivering it back just 6 hours later. He brought it back with his partner Jo and she spotted some 'three by two' wooden lengths in the front garden, again rescued from a skip, and asked if she could have three for a little job in her bathroom. I am only too happy to see stuff being reused, and I'm glad I hadn't sawn them up immediately. They looked as if they could be reused. There's lots more, so they'll go in my garage waiting to get another life. I was happy to be offered 12 Yorkys for the shredder loan and the wood.

As well as doing the usual composting jobs, I sowed some basil seeds in modules, plastic trays with planting voids, each with a drainage hole. I put in 3 types of basil; bush (small leaves), Genovese (larger leaves) and 'Freecycled' (looks like the Genovese on the packet!).

Nutloaf from Tuesday for tea, with a quick ratatouille stewy thingy to add moisture and interest. Enjoyed 'It's Not Easy Being Green' on telly, caught up with e-paperwork.

Thursday 29th March 07

Well, another busy day. Even though it was a bit damp out, I had a pile of Green Party leaflets to deliver in Fishergate Ward, where we have two Councillors already and want to retain them. Cllr Mark Hill is standing down but Cllr Andy D'Agorne is standing again. Standing with him is Dave Taylor, an experienced activist and a very committed Green and already doing good work representing various interests. I think he'll be a very good Councillor if he gets in. And these leaflets should help him get in. I popped round to my friend Debbie who had offered before to help deliver leaflets and asked if she would be willing to do so this morning.

As she was we set off on foot at about 10.15 and did the 300 leaflets in 40 minutes. We had a cuppa together afterwards, and she offered to do another round when we have one.

After lunch I visited a skip I'd spotted on the delivery round, and asked the builders if I could have some of the contents to reuse. Of course they were happy for me to do this, and I came back with a well loaded cycle trailer, with some building-quality wood, some stove-destined wood and some aluminium cans which I collect and sell to a metal merchant from time to time.

I also visited Alligator for some vegan ice-cream and some emergency peanut butter, as we're out pending our next food co-op delivery, which should be next week.

Our youngest child had come off his bike on the way to school this morning as the chain came off. So before collecting them from school I sorted his bike and then took it to school on the trailer so he could cycle home. On the way back from school there was another skip, again I asked if I could have some of the contents. I got some new turf offcuts, which I stack into a low wall for a year or two and then use for loam in my containers, mixed with garden compost and leafmold.

I did some logging whilst Gill cooked tea, a good cauliflower and broccoli thing with mushroom sauce and mashed potato on top. The boys enjoyed it too, and we all ate together, with French stick warmed on top of the stove wrapped in aluminium foil to prevent it burning.

Then I had to go out as I had a CrUST/ Green Festival meeting. A pleasent guy called Rob turned up, a DJ known as Green Renegade, and keen on having a DJ area within the York Green Festival. He's offered to help co-ordinate this side of things, which is good.

Then went for a rare meeting with my best friend in York, probably my best friend on the planet. When I lived in Emerald Street he was just round the corner and we saw each other often, but now it's only every few months. He works as a nurse, doing 3 nights a week, but loves his work as the artist 'Dexter'. He does text-based pieces, his first was called Dexter's World of the 60s and it has hundreds of words from his experience of the 1960s. He's also done one on the 70s and several private commissions. He used to do something called 'Retro Graffiti', recreating graffiti from the past, but in biodegradable flour and water paint. A very creative chap, and we supped Innocent blueberry and blackberry juice and chatted about our current projects.

And guess what, on the way home I cycled past another skip, wasn't able to ask this time but the planks found their way home for re-use. Down with landfill!

Enjoyed the second offering from the second series of It's Not Easy Being Green which Gill had been good enough to record.

Friday 9th March 07

One of my big 'sit and wait' compost heaps has for a while looked as if it needed turning and making less hospitable for it's rodent inhabitants, and I'll replace it with one built on top of a couple of pallets which are less rodent friendly to burrow into. So I got a 'duppy bag', the builders materials woven nylon one cubic metre sack and started forking the heap into it, as a first turn. I have to take out lots of contrairies and either bin them or chuck them in a container of rainwater which washes the composty nutrients off so I can pour the 'fertiliser water' on various garden plants. I then bin the plastic bits, as they're not recyclable. Also I can at this stage take out any unrotted sticks, fabrics, rubber bands etc, and pop them on the next heap, as they'll rot down in time.

After this I stacked some recently chopped and split logs and had an early lunch and cycled into town to give my bike to Cycle Heaven for a front-wheel rebuild, as my heavy loads plus heavy braking has worn away the rim. I get wheels built as an 'off the shelf' one wouldn't last long with the use (abuse?) I give it. I borrowed the lovely Filibus load carrying bike and went to Out Of This World to pick up a load, and to the Nationwide Building Society to bank a tax refund, always a nice thing to be able to do, will pay for the wheel rebuild!

Met a friend in Parliament St, Daphne who I met through AVP, who was pleased to see me and asked if I'd watched the Channel 4 programme last night on 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' which Gill recorded as I was out. She said I must watch it as it refuted many of the current percieved certainties that CO2 is responsible for climate change. I like scientific debate and will always listen to well-put arguments, as I do my best to keep an open mind. I look forward to watching it on video. Collected another 2 sacks of grot from Heslington Rd and brought them home for my favourite recycling methodology, the hot tumbler.

I picked up the boys, the Filibus bike again causing a bit of a stir as it looks different to a normal bike, and my youngest had a ride on the front load-carrying platform as a treat, just around the playground for a minute.

I did some more outdoor stuff before tea, and then at 7pm went out again, to the Yorkshire Museum to hear/see Dick Strawbridge doing a talk on 'How Green Can You Be?' He is a really good speaker, and really committed to living as sustainable life as he can, within his desire to 'be normal' and have motor vehicles, eat meat, etc etc. His house move and refit, and how his family coped was the subject of a BBC programme last year called 'It's Not Easy Being Green' which we watched and really enjoyed. I met his wife Bridget at the Big Green Gathering, and for Chrismas was given the book of the series. After the talk I asked Dick to sign the book, and he said he'd worked out who I was, as I'd emailed B saying that I planned to see D do his presentation.

Came home quickly so I could watch 'Castaway' with my wife, a pleasant, relaxing evening in, followed by washing up in scalding stove water and a good session with my laptop... hence another day's blog, my new addiction!