Saturday 23rd April 11

I got up early as was expecting Tracey Smith to be here at about 10am.  The plan was to walk into town and to go to El Piano, and maybe meet up with people who wanted to meet her.. but only one person had responded with a 'maybe', and then I got a message to say she was running late, so I cancelled the cafe meeting and waited for her to arrive.

As it was, I don't think she'd have wanted to go into town... she wanted to have a cuppa, a chat, and a wander down the garden.  She was making a film with her camcorder about people who were either downshifted or in the process of downshifting, so she interviewed me in our front room, and then took more footage down the garden.  I was showing her one of my wormeries, which has some adult drone flies emerging... their larvae are one of my favourite compost beasties... they're 'rat tailed maggots' and they like the wet areas at the base of my fruit and veg rich compost bins, and, apparently, wormeries.  Anyway, I found a newly emerged adult, with wings not yet inflated.  I had it on my thumb... and a robin swooped in and snatched it.  For me, it wasn't that surprising, as the garden is full of robins which follow me around and love me for the invertebrates I uncover and make available.  However, Tracey was delighted, and said she'd like to try to capture it on her camera.  I found another fly (which don't actually do a lot of flying; they seem to prefer to walk, certainly when newly emerged, even with fully pumped-up wings) and put it on my hand... and within less than a second, the robin had had it again!  Luckily (or unluckily for the fly) I found a third, and waited for Trace to get her camera ready... and bingo, she got the shot... followed by the robin very close to her, eating the hover fly.  I really love the way I help turn unwanted waste into robins!

So, we moved down to the riddling machine, and beyond to the radiator beds and the current New-Zealand bin which is running at close to 60 Celsius.  I think she was quite impressed!

I gave her a bag of riddled compost and she took me to her car where she had a present for me... some freshly laid eggs from the chickens belonging to her previous host, Denise Nesbitt.  Near her car was a table top sale run by two young children... they were getting rid of unwanted toys and things they'd grown out of, so  I suggested Tracey add this to her downshifting and recycling film.  I found Jo, their  mum, and Tracey interviewed her and the children.

And soon it was time for her to go.... I'd have loved to spend more time with her, show her St Nicks, and the best bits of York... but another time maybe!

After lunch I cycled up to the house with the shredded wood available, as the owner there had asked if I wanted any more of the shredded tree.  He was wrestling with a huge base of a holly tree, and had quite a bit of root material and other wood, so I took a load of woodchip and on the next journey, the burnable stuff. He hadn't sawn up the huge holly trunk, but said to come back later.

Then I visited Richard at Country Fresh... and he had some tomato plants in; I bought 4 different types.  I got potatoes and tomatoes, and 5 boxes or bags of gunk for the hot heap.

The Press was delivered, and we paid our weekly bill.  I was surprised to see that on page 3 there was a photo of the Easter procession of the cross being taken through the streets of York, with Dr. Sentamu at the front just behind the cross carrier.  I had said hello to him whilst pushing David up Spurriergate... and the Press photographer had caught this and today, the picture was published.  I rang David to tell him... he was about to ring me as he too gets the Press.  He asked if I could get a copy of this picture for him.

Then I did a load more riddling and when it was cooler, I started work on the raised beds which have become a bit neglected, and need planting up with crops.  I have potatoes chitting so I took out lots of weeds (bramble seedlings, goose grass and others)  and I found that the ultra tough winter has killed our fennel, which has been growing really well there for many years.

Just before tea I visited the house up the road and picked up the holly trunk... about a metre long and over 30 cm diameter, I could only just lift it into my trailer, it must have been over 50kg.  And I popped into see Debbie and picked up a load of aluminium cans she's saved for me.

So a busy day, hot and sweaty, so lit the stove and got bathwater ready for a 1am bath before bed...

Thursday 21st April 11

A really relaxing day on the whole.  I got up at 10 as I was expecting a call from a Freecycler who'd asked for some woodchip for her allotment.  I'd suggested she could go to the house up Hull Road where a big tree has been taken down and shredded, and I thought she'd ring.  She did, and I checked the 3 builder's bags were still there, took another 4 sackfuls for myself, and popped a note through the door to tell them that Emily might be coming to pick some up, plus her contact details.

I didn't have any other bookings or appointments, so I just spent the day mostly in the garden, riddling compost, adding stuff to the current heap and the Compostumbler, moving stuff so Gill could mow the lawn.

I did a bit of chainsawing, stacking and other wooding, collected some logs from a grateful neighbour, and later, visited my friend Debra for a brief chat about her son who went awol but is back now. 

Much later, got a notification from Tracey Smith that she'll be popping in to York on Saturday morning, so I organised a meeting for people to attend if they want to chat with her, at El Piano on Grape Lane, at 11.15am.  Tracey is the author of The Book of Rubbish Ideas, and founder of International Downshifting Week and a good and inspiring speaker.  She's currently involved in  a knitting project called a 'Community Blanket'.  I'm looking forward to seeing her again.

Friday 21st January 11

Up early but I'd have liked a lie-in, but as Gill was taking our youngest to school, I got up and ensured that our home-educated child got to Maria's on time for his science lesson with her.  Once Gill came back, I went to the bread shop for £4 worth of yesterbake bread (2 big loaves, 4 bags of assorted rolls, 4 iced spirals and 2 bags of flapjack offcuts) and I posted a big parcel of home made dried fruit to Tracey Smith, in swap for her book 'The Book of Rubbish Ideas' which she sent to me to review here!  I haven't started reading it yet, but hope to get around to it soon.

I also read our gas and electricity meters, as I'd received a gas bill and the last two readings were estimates.  I buy both gas and electricity from Good Energy, which supplies 100% renewable electricity, and the gas bill helps pay ROCs to people with solar panels.  The way I pay my bills is to pay a whole year annually in advance, and this means I can easily work out our annual consumption.  So, over the past 12 months, this household of 4 people has used 65 cubic metres of gas, which equates to 726kwh, and cost £65, with £40 standing charge... so our annual gas bill is £111.61.  We use more electricity than gas, 2009kwh last year, which is 5.5kw per day.  The national average is 10 to 28kw/day I was told.  This makes our annual electricity bill £342.84.  I will pay by bank transfer next week.

I enjoyed lunch, and after this bagged up some very well rotted (and dry and powdery!) compost from a rotating barrel tumbler.  It will need riddling but the majority of it is really lovely stuff.

Gill had already gone down to town by bus and then out to the Steiner School, and was awaiting an interview with the class teacher and anther staff member.  I cycled down, getting there just in time for the 3.45 interview.  It seems that our boy has settled in to this new school well, and has made friends and is already pretty well integrated into his class.  We need to fill in a form and work out our gross income to work out our financial contribution, but this should be relatively simple.  We were away by 5pm, Gill and Junior got the bus and I cycled quickly home and put the oven on, as Gill rang and said she'd bought oven chips in Iceland.  We don't have chips very often... maybe once a month, but now and again it's quick and easy.

At 6.45 I took our eldest down to Heslington for his computer graphics lesson.  I picked up 2 loads of wood in the intervening hour and then walked back with him after 8.

I'd been invited to a party this evening but I decided to stay in, and was glad I did as my authority was welcomed when some behaviour happened which merited intervention.    So another busy and full day.

Saturday 6th November 10

A funny day for our 11th Wedding Anniversary!  I slept for 9 hours, woken by Gill at 11am, with a phone call from Candy, offering to come and look at the bathroom lights for us.  So she said she'd come round at 1pm, with her son who is friends with ours. 

So, after breakfast (!) Candy arrived and after a coffee, she came up to the bathroom and when I got a stepladder tall enough, and turned off the upstairs lighting main, she extracted the existing halogen downlighters, and told us the good news, they are the sort which run off the normal 240 volt supply; there are no transformers to 12 volt bulbs.  This was good as she had with her two new Supalite Mini GU10 7 Watt lamps, which replace the 60W halogen GU10s which gobble up the power, wasting most of it as heat. This will save us quite a bit of electricity in the long run... we don't spend a long time in the bathroom, but over the years, the savings will mount up.

Candy had bought these lamps for between £9 and £10 each, for use in her own house, but I think they were surplus to requirements.  We gave her £20 for them, and an old brass and cast iron kitchen balance which we were going to freecycle or take to a charity shop, and she was really happy to be given that.  She stayed with us as her lad was enjoying the company of our two plus another of their friends, and she chatted to me as I made a log wall, and a bit later, as I filled sacks with the last of the leafmould collected in 2009.  She was happy to spend the afternoon with us as her husband was with a friend, and showing her round the City walls as a touristy experience.

Later on, after tea, our boys had another visitor and he stayed til after 9pm.  I listened to Tracey Smith's Slow Down and Green Up show and did the washing up.

Later, I went out on my bike to collect leaves for the recently emptied leafmould enclosure.  I have a good way of doing this... using my Wellington boot-clad foot I scrape up a load of leaves from the gutter by riding fast towards the leafy gutter, and then putting my boot into it, aiming to get a large pile by the time I come to a stop.  So I collected 9 bin-bags full... and then went to pick up a trailer load of hazel logs too, getting in at half ten.

I had a bath and washed my hair, as I'm working tomorrow and want to look clean.

Saturday 23rd October 10

I had a lie-in which was really welcome, and because of this, I didn't get up to Hartrigg Oaks for the midday lunch with my friends from AVP, some of whom had already had a Facilitators meeting.  I'm a volunteer with AVP North East and East Midlands... my only official role is the Health and Safety person.  This afternoon's meeting was 1.30 til 4, and I got there just in time.  I was really pleased to see so many people around the table, a baker's dozen of us.  There were attendees from Lincoln, Sheffield, Harrogate, Scarborough and of course, quite a few of us from York, and one from Manchester.  NEEM members are responsible for putting on, overseeing or managing AVP workshops in Doncaster, York, and Newcastle, and there are plans for more. Our Facilitators work all over the UK and several people in the room are active within various parts of AVP Britain.

One of the things we discussed was the possibility that we should employ someone to manage the group... several other AVP regions have a paid manager and our region has now got the level of support and activity to merit a paid worker.  I volunteered to help prepare an initial proposal to start the process, and I'll be working with a chap I don't know at all, Colin, from Wakefield.  I'm looking forward to that.  I also volunteered to look at publicity and social networking with Cecile, whom I've also not worked with before.

The meeting finished on the dot of 4pm and I stayed a while to sort out the meetings I need to attend.  On the way home I collected some sticks from a hedge in New Earswick, and then on the cycle path near Haxby Road there was a pile of freshly dumped Elder logs, so they just managed to fit on the pannier rack.

I was pleased to get back and have a coffee, but at about 5.45pm I went outside to do a bit of log stacking and then chainsawing... not a lot, less than an hour, but the front garden is looking a bit full, so it needs sorting.

I came in before 7 and as there was too much Strictly Cum Dancing on the telly, I went upstairs and listened to Tracey Smith doing her weekly radio show on Apple AM. I like her sense of humour, also her interests overlap with mine... for instance, she visited a landfill site recently and is thinking of doing a programme about it.

I had my evening meal at 9pm and had a fairly relaxing evening, although there was a mountain of washing up and I got through some of it.

Monday 10th May 10

I got up in time to say bye to the kids.

Then it was paperwork time... I finally managed to get some admin done which I've been avoiding for a while, and posted it off. Went to the bread shop for a large bag of 'Yesterbake' rescued bread... this was baked on Saturday, not sold on that day, and available at quarter price today.

I did a lot more dried fruit, some washing up, a bit of outdoor gardening (OK, composting, I confess!), and some pallet smashing.

Then I tried an experimental tomato planting experiment, inspired by Tracey Smith.

How to do Upside Down Tomato Plants with Tracey Smith from Tracey Smith on Vimeo.
I had rescued 3 large plastic milk bottles last night from someone's recycling on Thief Lane (!), the biggest sort, and washed them out with hot water off the stove. Then today I cut off the bottoms with scissors and carefully filled the first few centimetres around the pouring hole with home made seed compost (not too rich) and then above that, richer soil. I laid this on it's side, and carefully made a small hole in the seed compost. Then I took a side shoot off a tumbler tomato and inserted it into the compost. I'm hoping that these will root and then be able to be hung up. I did this with two bottles and two side shoots, each less than 2 cm long. Then I took the mother plant, squashed the root ball and cut the milk exit-hole a bit to allow the insertion of the root ball... and then I put a load of compost mix in the bottle around the roots. I'd made some holes in the base of the bottle (the top, if upside-down) and used re-used string from potato sacks to make a hanging device... and then hung this in the conservatory. I expect the big one to do fine, but don't know about the cuttings.

I enjoyed Gill's mushroom omlette and asparagus, and then went to Ben's for a LETS meeting... actually a seminar to learn about the new YorkLETS website, which is really good. Ben talked us through what the non-logged-in visitor would see, what a logged-in member would see, and how to use the site. Then he explained about the different levels of access... member, committee member, administrator, and we had a go at uploading the newsletter, doing things to peoples' accounts and doing some trading. Magic... this makes LETS come right into the 21st Century and is a lot more user-friendly. And I enjoyed Jill's home-made ickle cakes... yummy!

Home at about 10pm, to do assorted computery-based activities until my usual bed-time of well past 1am.

Saturday 8th May 10 - St Nicks 10th Anniversary

Gill woke me at 10 and reminded me that I was due to go to St Nicks today. I quickly got ready in my smart clothes as I had two things to do today, one of which at least meant that I should be reasonably tidy.

Gill loaded up all the buns she made last night into three containers, and the big cake onto a foil-covered tray, in a fruit box, covered with a bag, and I loaded all this into my trailer.

I cycled very slowly to St Nicks to ensure that the trailer didn't jump around and mess up the icing... Gill had made a pond with vegetation and a frog on the top of the cake, and every bun had '10' on the top.

The centre was already busy, lots of stuff being got ready, and I was immediately press-ganged into helping carry a large picnic table out to the play area, where all the stalls were getting prepared... the National Trust, York LETS, Edible York, Brunswick Organic Nursery, OPAL and several others.

I chatted to various people, was especially glad to see Keely, the first York Rotters project officer, who has been out of circulation for a while. But there were lots of other of my friends and contacts there, too many to list here, even if I could remember all of them!

Sometime after 11am, the welcoming and presentations started and I listened to these... until about 11.55 when I had to get going to Clifton to the Bootham Junior School, for the Quaker Meeting in memoriam of Dinah Peryer, with whom I worked on the Alternatives to Violence Project maybe 10 years ago. My old friend Maggie phoned me last week and told me about Dinah's memorial, and invited me to go with her. So we'd agreed to meet at the traffic lights on Rawcliffe Lane at 12.15, prior to the memorial service starting at 12.30.

We met up and walked up to the school, where Dinah was a Governor. It was a typical Quaker meeting, with the chairs arranged around the perimeter f the room and when we were all seated, some quiet music (probably something that Dinah liked) and then the 'hostess' (I don't know the correct term) said a few words and then there was more silence, until someone else stood up and shared a memory, or an anecdote about Dinah. I wanted to pass on the message from one of the mainstays of the AVP group, that Dinah's contribution was valued. I was the third person to stand up and speak, explaining that the current AVPers were meeting today and several people who might have wished to be at the memorial were unable to, due to the meeting timetabled-in many months ago.

I really like this form of memorial. I would like something like this myself, when the time comes, despite not being a Quaker. I learned about little bits of Dinah's life, and was moved by some of the stories. The quiet times between the speakers give time to think about the person in question, and dwell on memories, and I remembered about the work I did in Dinah and David's garden, and the laying of the floor in their kitchen.

There were sandwiches and scones to follow, and coffee, but I wanted to get back to St Nicks so I didn't hang around. Maggie wanted to come to the St Nicks do as well... so I suggested she had a lift on my bike crossbar. She looked incredulous but is pretty game for anything, and after a few questions, agreed. Half way there she swapped to sitting on the pannier rack, and getting to the Environment Centre was quick and easy... I chose the cycle track as the safest route.

We'd missed the compost bin drumming but there were lots of other things going on... and I managed to get the last slice of Gill's cake... delicious. I bought some squash plants from the Brunswick stall, and chatted to several other stall holders. I wrote a Haiku. I introduced my friend Debbie to John to talk about planting a tree in memory of the other Debbie. I had a go on a static bike to heat a kettle. As the event drew to a close, Maggie and I chatted and she accepted my offer of a hot drink at home... she really wanted to see Gill again, so I took her on my bike back home. An hour later she went to the No. 6 bus stop to get back to her side of town. I visited the Co-op to get cereals and various other bits.

Between about 6.30 and 8pm I listened to my Green/broadcaster friend Tracey Smith on Apple Radio, on the web, and didn't 'do' Dr. Who, but did have a good few goes on Scrabble on facebook and chatted to a number of friends.

Later, Gill and I had a 'real' game of Scrabble, which I just won.

Saturday 10th April 10

A really good day, with more fun than most days. I got up soon after 9 and all was peaceful. A good start.

I wanted to join my friends in town at 11ish who were staging a 'Jam today, Jammed tomorrow?' stall in Parliament St. The York's Jammed campaign is being coordinated by York and Ryedale Friends of the Earth and they had invited people down to join in.. and suggested bringing circus toys down, so I decided to take my devilsticks (two sets). But I also had three sacks of Freshways 'resources' on my bike, so I took them, a garden spade and my composting knife to St Nicks where they have a composting area and copious volumes of sawdust (from a pet shop), and I spent half an hour chopping up aubergines and oranges, and covering them with sawdust and limp herbs. I washed my hands at the Environment Centre which was open, as it was an Eco-Active day.

Then down to Parliament St where the FoE stall was being set up, and boxes of sandwiches and scones all with jam were on offer. I spent a happy hour or so doing my devilstick, and there was a small boy who's mum was collecting for charity, and he had a go with my second set. Jennie did some poi as well. I chatted to a woman called Liz or Betty from Rotherham who was working with a Cliff Richard tribute singer... she was collecting for charity and giving out balloon models. I made her a couple of my favourites, the 'dog's dinner' and the 'weeble' which she was very taken with.

I left at about half past 12 and went to Sainsburys as I'd had an order for their very nice multigrain bread. Got home at 1, and got into the garden as soon as I could as it was a lovely day. Gill was still tidying and sorting... I took some of the stuff (my dumped mess mainly) down the garden for sorting, and the boys happily destroyed several wooden fruit boxes which I'd piled up in case they came in useful. They are now useful... kindling.

I did loads in the garden... more compost heap turning, some weeding, and later on, shredding.

Gill decided that she had been working so hard that she didn't want to cook... so she bought a pizza, some garlic bread, oven chips and frozen peas. This might seem 'normal' but in our house we generally cook from simple ingredients rather than buy ready-made.

So I came in at about 6.30 to have my share of pizza etc, and as usual, put my laptop on (especially as the incomprehensible Dr Who was on!) and was on facebook, and my facebook friend Tracey Smith sent me a message, saying she was doing her 'internet radio show' on Taunton Hospital Radio, and did I want to tune in? It's called Slow Down and Green Up, so I thought I'd give it a go. After a few minutes, during which we'd exchanged a few messages, she suddenly started talking about chatting to someone on facebook, and how she didn't really know how to use facebook so she was going to experiment and find out a bit more about who she was chatting to. So she said hello to me and clicked on my profile info page and started reading out my favourite music and quotations... and found this blog's URL and I thought she was going to start reading out my blog... but she ran out of time as her show finished at 8pm. Most unexpected.

I decided to use the last of the daylight to finish off some tidying... and within the hour both boys came out and we all had a go on the trampoline. We spent so long there that Gill brought the boys' supper out, and we stayed down there for quite a while until it was really dark and we could see the stars.

So a mixture of fun things, enjoyable activities, and warm sunny weather.