Sunday 23rd May 10

Working today, at the Colitis and Crohn's fundraising walk. So I had a fairly quiet morning, got my bike and circus gear ready and had an early lunch. I cycled down to the Museum Gardens in costume as it is close enough for me to do that, and I didn't want to have to get changed there, in the Hospitium. John Gray the organiser was there, pleased with the huge turnout. There was a really good band playing, the Brampton Community Band based in Chesterfield.

My role was to do a bit of entertaining whilst the band played, then at 2pm do a 30 minute performance, and then whilst the band did a second set, give out balloon models. John gave me a NACC teeshirt, which is red like my costume, so I exchanged what I had on for the more appropriate themed tee shirt. I did some unicycling and then a load of devilsticking to the nice boppy music, then it was my turn. I got some children to move a bit closer and then did the first half of my show/workshop, which went well. Then I had a half hour or more of kids queuing for balloon animals. When the event finished, I stayed back to pick up all the burst balloons from the finish line, to bring them back for composting.

I was pleased to learn that this event had raised about £13,000, which will be spent on research into the condition/s.

I came home via the lemonade stall at the bottom of Parliament St, to collect their halved lemons, Richard at Country Fresh, for a box of stuff, and Freshways for whatever they had, which was just one small bag. But they did have two other bags of fruit/veg, been put into the skip, so I left them but made a mental note to return later.

Was glad to get home and have a cool-off, took my laptop upstairs and played a bit of Scrabble and answered a composting enquiry on facebook, on the 'Organic Gardening 101' page. At about 5pm I popped back out to collect the sacks of resources from Freshways, and found about 40 packets of biscuits in the bin. Not sure what I'll do with them but I think they'll come in useful for something... cheesecake base anyone? Then I had tea, a burgery thing in a bap, made from yesterday's grain mixed with beans and fried in a burger shape, made with a hommous pot mould.

Then I worked in the garden til 10pm, potting up more plants for the conservatory, another layer on the compost heap, enjoying birdsong and the relative cool of the evening.