Tuesday 5th April 11

An enjoyable day spent mostly in the garden, but also with a cycle delivery and a Fiddlesticks gig which went well.

So, once I'd had breakfast and done my usual round of emails and facebook messages, I got outside and put another load of compost through the rotary soil sifter machine.  This results in 6 streams of material.  The highly desirable (I hope!) riddled compost... small particles, hardly any 'contraries' ie bits of plastic, wire, stones, other bits and bobs, and this I bag up into plastic carrier bags.  Then there's the stiff which doesn't go through the riddle, but out the other side... five streams, oversize sticks, avocado stones, roadkill animal bones etc, for re-composting; small sticks etc which are bagged up for a mulch, or woody layer in new heaps; chunks of compost which I'm bagging up for Edible York; stones and bits of pottery, brick, etc; and finally the stuff for landfill... mainly plastic tape, film and glue strips.  I really enjoy working through this and getting the sacks of mature compost screened and sorted through and cleaned up.

By 5pm I had got 5 sacks of compost ready for Edible York so I cycled them down to St Clements.  Met one friend on the way home, stopped off at Country Fresh, and then showed Will next door my soil sifter, and finally got into the house at 6pm.  Gill had made some little rissoles from yesterday's left-over rice, with assorted veg and a potato and chive salad.  Yummy!

Then I got changed into my Fiddlesticks gear, loaded up the bike with all my workshop stuff and headed over Walmgate Stray to the Millennium Bridge and then onto the Scout hut on Lorne Street.  This was the second gig with these youngsters, so I did a 5 minute intro, reminding them of the 'how to' and some basic rules, and then we did a one-hour free play session.  Then, 20 minutes from the end, we did a show, with individual children coming up and performing their trick, or tricks.  Most of them were awarded the Circus Performers badge, and I was very surprised, and honoured, to be given one as well.  I waited around for the kids to go and then my contact, James, paid me and I signed the receipt he'd prepared.

A nice cycle home and a relaxing evening followed.

Friday 11th July 08

I took the children to school... my buckled front wheel still went round, but with a weird noise, so I carried on with what I had arranged to do, which was to continue down to Fulford and meet up with Scott the Scout leader, who was working with a team of volunteers at the Fulford Scout Hall, behind Fulford Social Hall, to 'do' the garden, and had requested my pro-composting, anti driving-stuff-around knowledge, so that was good to be able to help them to decide to have a wild area/composting area.

Then went to Cycle Heaven to get them to sort out my wheel... which they'll rebuild. Then came back home on one of their lovely 'sit up and beg' bikes, and got ready to go to the nearby Catholic School who have booked me to do two one-hour shows. A 'fun' based one for their Reception group and for the older ones, aged 5-7, a circus show/workshop with a smattering of science and maths. I would have cycled had I got my own bike, and would have walked had it not been raining... but rang a taxi because I didn't want everything to get wet and wanted to get there in good time...

The shows went like a dream! The audiences were fantastic and we all had a brilliant time...

I walked back as it wasn't raining too hard, and got back shortly before Gill and the boys.

I had an early tea, went down to Cycle Heaven to pick up my bike... which had got a new wheel and repaired brakes, quite an expensive fall, will have to be more careful when collecting aluminium cans! So came back via a deli on Bishopthorpe Road for goats cheese for Gill, and Country Fresh for potatoes and compostables, and got home soon after 6.

Then went to the Greenspeak meeting which was about carbon footprinting. Ellie Dawkins from the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York did the presentation, talking through what it is and the different definitions, how it's measured and what the results are, for countries, individuals, regions, socio-ecomonic groups, etc. She showed us some distorted maps from a website called Worldmapper, which were very revealing.. specifically toy exports and toy imports, as examples of the inequalities. Carbon calculators were discussed, and policy connected with cutting carbon footprints, and economic issues including something called price elasticity, which is how much increasing prices of different goods affect behaviour... ie some things are very sensitive to price increases, but others are relatively unaffected. It was noted that recently, car use had dropped noticeably due to the increasing cost of fuel.