Friday 9th July 10

I had a bit of time in the morning to get stuff done (making up Muesli, washing up) but then at 11 I cycled down to town to meet up with an old friend Ayesha, whom I knew as a teenager and I last met briefly when I was 21. So it's been a very long time.

We've met up through Friends Reunited and then facebook allowed us to communicate easily, and a day or two ago we decided it would be a good idea to meet up. Anyway, Ayesha arrived shortly after 11.30 and we walked into town for a hot chocolate at El Piano. Then we walked through town to Clifford's Tower and down to Millennium Bridge, and from there up to the Rowntree Park Cafe where we had a late lunch. We carried on wandering up the Ouse and got as far as Scarborough Bridge where we crossed again, and I wondered if we were in time to visit Isara, York's Community Boat, but it had just left its daytime mooring, so we walked to the Minster via Museum Gardens, and then back into town to a CAFE NERD on Kings Square.

Ayesha's train was soon after 7pm so we wandered back in good time for her to catch this.

It was really good to meet again after all this time and talk about old times.

When I got back home I had some tea and then went out to fill up some sacks of compost as I've an order for 10 sacks to be delivered tomorrow to the Barbican Edible York raised beds. I'll have to do this tomorrow morning as I'm off to Manchester in the afternoon.

Tuesday 11th May 10

A pretty quiet day in many ways. I did a lot of housework and some work on the computer, sliced up two pineapples and 8 kiwi fruit for drying, and did some compost heap management, a bit of chainsawing, some riddling, and bagging up of the clay soil from the wall excavations. Oh, and I installed this year's bean poles, some rescued long branches which I decided not to chop for firewood, as I thought ahead to their possible use.

I went to the Co-op in the afternoon, as Gill asked me to, and popped into a friend who is preparing to conquer her alcoholism, she hopes! I'm going to give her some support next week when she starts going through her detox. She will need a lot of strength and good luck. I went to the Co-op shop and then decided to go and visit Freshways... I didn't go yesterday which is when they do a big stock rotation and throw out an average of 40kg of fruit and veg. So I went there and picked it up (they'd put it round the back) and met a friendly student called Geeta, whom I know from the People and Planet Allotment. She'd gone to Freshways to buy candles... so I said, "I can give you some if you want.... as I've got bags of them in the loft, left over from assorted skip-diving."

So she came back and I found about 10 different candles for her and then took her on a tour down the garden to see the trees (all in bloom and at their prettiest) the Shiitake mushrooms, and the composting and recycling, etc. I think she enjoyed the visit. I enjoyed her visit, it feels good to give stuff unexpectedly!

An equally quiet evening. Tea was foraged sweet chestnuts (dried one Autumn, and then soaked and boiled), home grown Shiitake, rescued onion, and a bought tomato all cooked up together, with a toastie with blue cheese and black olive paste in it. Tasty stuff! Also had a nice Googletalk conversation with my Canadian friend/colleague Rory and made plans for a visit next month to Manchester, for the Spencer Tunick exhibition and the World Naked Bike Ride.

Tuesday 30th March 10

A very smooth morning... excellent. Wonder why some mornings are filled with tears and difficulty, whereas others are really easy? Weird!

Anyway, a good day followed. Gill and I continued to sort out the upstairs rooms... I rehung a door which had been bashed off it's hinges, and Gill had refilled the screw holes with plastic wood and this seemed to hold the screws pretty well, and the door is back on.

Once I'd done this I spent some time in the garden getting some compost ready for delivering to a friend tomorrow... and when I came up to the house, the Suma delivery had just been and Gill was signing the cheque.

At 1pm I went to the Black Swan and met a new friend, Maxine, and had a coffee and a chat. I think she'll come to the next Green Drinks. I'm happy to promote sustainable lifestyle choices with individuals, groups, or to people I've never met, like through this blog or using journalists. And I love meeting new people.

From here I cycled on to Bishophill, to see Pauline and help her with her renewables. A few days ago, she was down to her last log to feed her smokefree Clearview Pioneer, but she did manage to get a few off another friend... enough to last til today, when I arrived with my bowsaw and chopped up assorted lengths of timber she's acquired over the past few weeks. And in return, I had a very nice cafetiere of coffee and a relatively short chat. But at 3 I had to go... via Country Fresh, picked up 3 boxes of recyclables and a bag of groceries.

When I got in, Gill had gone to school to pick up our youngest and I stayed in to wait for our eldest... but he didn't appear and came in quite late after going to drama club, which we were happy to hear about. A bit later, Sarah, whom I know through St Nicks came to pick up her share of the Suma stuff... and she was happy to have a tour of the composting demonstrations, which she found inspiring, I was glad to hear!

Rice-based tea, assorted phone conversations, lots of emailing, and rounded off the evening with an excellent film called The Flying Scotsman, about a rather quirky cyclist, Graeme Obree. A good day.

Tuesday 16th February 10

A peaceful start to the day, and I got ready to leave at 11am to cycle to the station to meet my friend Laura and her parents, who are staying in York for a couple of nights.

They arrived at 11.35 and we walked into town to El Piano via Barley Hall. I had a hot chocolate and the others had drinks too, and discussed where to meet later. Then we split, Laura and I wandering through town via a pastie shop and the market, Anti Gravity Shop and then on to St Nicks where I had my pastie, and then showed Laura around.

On the way home I found some more Oyster mushrooms, and when we got back I fried those immediately. Laura was pleased to meet Gill and the boys, thought the boys were very engrossed in the computer and didn't communicate much, but although Gill and I see Laura as young, they see her as an adult!

We spent an hour or so at home and then went back into town... I cycled with her on my crossbar (a favourite way of transporting someone!) and we ended up at the Minster, which we wandered round. I followed Laura into the shop and was highly amused to see a wealth of 'Green Man' carvings and teeshirts etc... this is a very pagan or Celtic symbol of a man's head with ivy coming out of his mouth, symbolising rebirth (see Wikipedia for info and images). I like the Green Man symbolism... I suppose the rebirth meme is consistent with Christianity, so no actual conflict really.

Then we walked through the Shambles and to the Castle, Clifford's Tower, and up to the Pizza Hut where we ate. As we still had an hour before she needed to meet her parents, we walked down to the Millennium Bridge, over it and back up to King's Staith, where the Ghost Walk was to leave from, and we met up with Laura's parents... and I left her with them. They had been back to Barley Hall where an archaeologist from the Hungate dig was doing a talk, which they had enjoyed immensely.

I came back home, stopping to talk to my friend David, who has had a good photo session with a fairly well known York science writer. When he said her first name, I knew her surname before he said it... I'm a bit of a fan as she writes for NewScientist, and I like her writing. I've never met her but would like to.

I got home at 8.30 and helped put the boys to bed.

Tuesday 1st December 09

A very busy day in the loft. Moved all my bottles. Decanted another 3 demijohns into bottles, including an amazing blackberry and elderberry 1994 (!), a grape and apple 1999 and an unknown red from an unknown date which also tasted great. So who's inviting me to a Christmas party this year?

I sorted out a big pile of paperwork into keep, recyclable, compostable and 'used on one side only so reusable'...

I collected a cheque owed to me from St Nicks for Apple Day and saw Helen, and agreed to meet with her at 6pm and have a bit of a social. She came back here and had my home-made soup and a roll which was made by our son at school. Good chats.

In the evening I worked out my ActOnCO2 carbon footprint, updated to give our exact electricity usage (1674kwh/year, renewable tariff) and gas use (132 cubic metres/year) which gave a household footprint of 1.04 tonnes/year, or an individual footprint of 0.27 tonnes/year. Obviously this isn't the total as it doesn't take into account my public transport use, food and goods purchases, and the things that national and local Government does on my behalf.

I also took advantage of a fallen and logged tree to stock up on my woodpile...

Tuesday 6th May 08

A really good day, as met up with Ali at the station and had lunch with her at the National Railway Museum, and had good conversations... just not long enough before her train was due to go, and I had to cycle back home to go and get the kids.

A quiet afternoon and evening... Gill made a chocolate and banana cake but then went to sleep and it started to burn... I smelt the nice aroma and as it got stronger, I came into the back room and awoke Gill and asked if the cake was ok... which it nearly wasn't.

Thursday 1st May 08

Gill took the boys into school and we were able to have some time together before getting on with stuff around the house... tidying up the back room before my old friend Mark came round for lunch. Was really good to see him, we don't see each other more than two or three times a year but we go back to 1987, as he was my first friend in York and I have clear memories of where and when we met. It was good to catch up with his news over a sandwich.... he's writing a book, a novel loosely based on fact, a kind of adventure book for 8 to 11 year-olds... sounds great!

After he went I had to sort out some seed compost for this afternoon's Green Thumb Gang first meeting, where we are planting some seeds.

Gill went to school first to pick up the boys and I went down 10 mins later to get ready for the gardening club. This met at 3.30 and was a great success, good teamwork, enthusiastic children and lots of seeds planted! Fun was had, learning happened, and I was able to pick up some recently cut softwood logs on the way home....

A quiet and happy evening, although one child adamantly refused to do some homework, so we just let it go and he'll have to deal with it himself.

Wrote a couple of letters in the evening, whilst watching Question Time on telly.