I woke just before 10 and realised that I had stupidly made an appointment for 10am at the Nationwide, to get a quote for house insurance. I rang them and rescheduled it for 1pm.
So, housework and got all the past couple of months' soya milk cartons together, loaded my trailer with two sacks full, and bombed down to Hazel Court, where I bunged them all in the recycling bank with no hassle at all, despite a new anti-bike notice going up (which of course I ignored). From here I went into town and spent quite a time at the Nationwide, where their quote was quite a bit higher than the Co-op. So that's where I went next, and tried to work out a way to get the premium down, but no, varying various things (like the 'excess', the amount you pay if you claim... you pay the first £100 or £150 or whatever) didn't change the premium significantly but did incur a management penalty, so I settled for a straight renewal. I did this on the phone in the Co-op Bank office and paid with my card. Hooray, the house is insured again!
Home via Country Fresh where I collected a job-lot of compostables and bought £4 worth of veg. Lunch was at 3pm.
Later, I jarred up a load of dried pears and had a good conversation about the value of dried fruit and fresh fruit; per pear, the dried fruit is much much cheaper, despite it having been peeled, cored and dried.... all that processing doesn't add to it's value at all. However, the more I dry now, the fewer will go bad and be lost.
The empty racks meant that I spent another hour preparing pears and putting them to dry. I also sorted out some good ones for taking to Scoop tomorrow.
I got a message from one of Sue Wallace's friends David, who had a dead tree in his garden and Sue suggested I might be the right person to deal with it. I volunteered to go round and check it out.... it was a Eucalyptus which hadn't survived last winter. I said I'd be able to take it down, but would need to tie a rope to some of the branches to ensure they didn't fall on their pergola or small fruit trees. I'll have to do it on a weekend when neither of us are working. It won't yield a large amount of wood but it will help a nice chap, and Eucalyptus is a good wood for burning.... especially if it's stood for a year, drying!
I could have gone out tonight, to see a film or to go drinking with Owen on his birthday, but I just felt staying in was the sensible thing to do. Gill was grateful and I was happy to do that.
So, housework and got all the past couple of months' soya milk cartons together, loaded my trailer with two sacks full, and bombed down to Hazel Court, where I bunged them all in the recycling bank with no hassle at all, despite a new anti-bike notice going up (which of course I ignored). From here I went into town and spent quite a time at the Nationwide, where their quote was quite a bit higher than the Co-op. So that's where I went next, and tried to work out a way to get the premium down, but no, varying various things (like the 'excess', the amount you pay if you claim... you pay the first £100 or £150 or whatever) didn't change the premium significantly but did incur a management penalty, so I settled for a straight renewal. I did this on the phone in the Co-op Bank office and paid with my card. Hooray, the house is insured again!
Home via Country Fresh where I collected a job-lot of compostables and bought £4 worth of veg. Lunch was at 3pm.
Later, I jarred up a load of dried pears and had a good conversation about the value of dried fruit and fresh fruit; per pear, the dried fruit is much much cheaper, despite it having been peeled, cored and dried.... all that processing doesn't add to it's value at all. However, the more I dry now, the fewer will go bad and be lost.
The empty racks meant that I spent another hour preparing pears and putting them to dry. I also sorted out some good ones for taking to Scoop tomorrow.
I got a message from one of Sue Wallace's friends David, who had a dead tree in his garden and Sue suggested I might be the right person to deal with it. I volunteered to go round and check it out.... it was a Eucalyptus which hadn't survived last winter. I said I'd be able to take it down, but would need to tie a rope to some of the branches to ensure they didn't fall on their pergola or small fruit trees. I'll have to do it on a weekend when neither of us are working. It won't yield a large amount of wood but it will help a nice chap, and Eucalyptus is a good wood for burning.... especially if it's stood for a year, drying!
I could have gone out tonight, to see a film or to go drinking with Owen on his birthday, but I just felt staying in was the sensible thing to do. Gill was grateful and I was happy to do that.
