Friday 29th January 10

A really difficult start to the day, but I eventually took our youngest down to school and was pleased to have a chat with the head, who invited me to meet with her next Monday. No doubt she will tell me that the school is doing everything it can to become greener.

Anyway, picked up a few bottles and cans from verges on the way back. For me, 'green' is all day, every day. I felt pretty low today due to the shenanigans this morning, but did quite a bit of stuff around the house before cycling into town to pay the gas bill, our first gas bill with Good Energy. I pay Good Energy for our electricity and now gas annually in advance, a deal I've negotiated with them and may not be available for new customers. Although gas is not renewable or green, our annual bill with them is likely to be about £100, slightly more than with British Gas, but the extra money that Good Energy get is given back to customers who have renewable generation (including solar hot water) through their 'Hot ROCs' scheme. This is what we have to sign up for next. We have the forms already... next week I'll fill them in. I'm looking forward to seeing how much we get back! These case studies make it look promising!

I came home via Sainsburys as nowhere else does big jars of Marmite and I got one of their big loaves too, at a slightly reduced price as the label and barcode had been torn off. I popped into Freshways and picked up one bag of compostables from them, and on my way into town I'd visited Country Fresh and had two medium sacks from them.

Home to a peaceful house... our youngest had got a special mention in school assembly for his pivotal role in yesterday's class assembly. That would have made him feel good. He really deserves it.

I did a bit of ringing round to see if I could help a voluntary group I've got involved with, they need to get some insurance quotes for a site visit they want to do. So I found potential insurers on the web, and then rang to explain the situation. It took about 8 phone calls before I got to the right place. But the person in charge of the voluntary group was pleased and I hope this facilitates the site visit.

I helped a bit with tea... mushroom sauce in funny wrap things (reduced in Sainsburys!) with butternut rounds and halved pickling onions (both thrown away!) gently sauteed on the woodstove, and baked beans and a bit of salad.

A quiet evening. Played Scrabble and chatted to two friends on facebook. And washed up.

Oh, and today I did quite a bit of composting help too... a woman I know who works in a school wants me to come in and give some composting advice, and someone I know well who works in the Environment Agency also emailed me for some composting advice. How cool is that? Helping the EA with their tea-bag problem!!!

Tuesday 6th January '09

Quite an early start, as taking our youngest into school at 8.30ish... cycling in was really cold but no ice on the roads, fortunately.

Had a busy morning.. lots of paperwork to do and admin which hasn't got done whilst the boys have been at home over the holidays. So registered to do my tax online and a variety of other things, including jarring up dried fruit. But also played some Scrabble on Facebook! Gill went for lunch in town with Alison and Melody.

Kept the stove going all day and toasted crumpets for lunch, well, part of lunch. The day went oh so quickly... and before I knew it, 3pm and time to cycle down to school again and pick up out little 'un. The Green Thumbs assembly about the Blue Peter Mission Nutrition Bring and Buy Sale is on Friday so chatted with Julia about when this is going to be practiced. fortunately I don't need to be there... just to attend the assembly.

I did a little bit of logpile management and came in to have tea... spaghetti and tomato/broccoli topping, all done on the woodstove.

Then off out to the Tang Hall Community Centre to facilitate the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel meeting... dealt with just two applications but it was good to be with Andrew and Stephen who are both more knowledgeable than me about planning matters. Carolyn didn't turn up... I rang her when I got back and she'd fallen asleep and missed the meeting. She was glad I'd checked on her, as she's usually very reliable and knew that if she'd fallen or something, I'd be able to alert someone or do something... although thinking about it, not sure what.

This meeting took an hour and I came home via the cycle track to pick up sticks for kindling and logpiles.

Boys finished a game of Yu-Gi-Oh and went to bed. I typed up minutes from last night's LETS meeting and sent them off.

Thursday 4th September 08

Awoken by unhappiness downstairs. Gill rushed up saying "how CAN I think of going away at the end of the month when my child is refusing to go to school and it's only the third day?" He was shouting that he wasn't going to go to school because "WHY SHOULD I???" She asked me not to go downstairs with guns blazing, but to gently help calm things down. I think I succeeded as he started getting dressed, stopped being aggressive to his mother and went to school. Hooray!
But this still leaves the big problem that I have a few days away from home at the end of the month and I am really needed at home. This was predicted. Difficult. The next few weeks are not going to be easy or pleasant.

I had agreed to go and help out at St Nicks today, to arrive between 9 and 10 am to operate a big shredder to convert a massive pile of lopped trees, branches and bushes into a pile of shreddings for surfacing paths. When I arrived at 10 the shredder wasn't there but I'd taken my loppers so I started extracting some of the biggest logs from the pile and cutting off the branches which were just too little for logging but would be good for shredding. The van arrived at 10.30 and the chap showed me how to operate the machine, and so as he drove off I tried to start it with the handle and rope which turns the motor, and the bloody rope snapped!

I went in to show John and he rang the company and they rang the van driver who turned round and came back to collect it in order to replace the starter. So the machine eventually came back to us at about middayish. Another volunteer called Simon was working with me and we got on well... and when I got the machine going he pulled out stuff from the pile and put it for me to deal with, and feed into the shredder. This was very tough and dirty work but it went well. Came home for lunch for half an hour and then back to St Nicks to finish the job... took til 5pm, by which time I was absolutely exhausted and filthy.

I came home again and as was due to chair a meeting later, had a shower, but as our hot water isn't working, it was a cold shower and it took my breath away... especially as I had to wash my hair (full of shreddings). Had a quick tea... mainly stuff rescued from the Co-op do last night... I was last out of the building and there were loads of bits of pizza left, and quiche, and danish pastry halves, so I came away with quite a lot. It was due to sit there overnight and be thrown away in the morning, apparently!

Then at 7 went to the York in Transition meeting which I chaired, probably not as well as I can do, as I was knackered and had a bit of shredding in my eye which was giving me pain. The meeting went well and finished on time, and we went to The Swan on Bishopthorpe Road for a pint and a chat. Yorkshire Cider!!!

Home soon after 11pm.

Wednesday 3rd September 08

Both boys off to school today.

I decided to read a daily email I've subscribed to, about the trial of the protesters accused of damaging Kingsnorth Power Station. Their defence that it was (is) necessary to cause some damage in order to prevent greater damage, likened to breaking a window to rescue a person from a burning building. If you would like to get a daily blog entry about this interesting trial, click here. On October 7th, there is another trial of climate change protesters, those who stopped and occupied a coal train near Selby, the 'Drax 29'. That trial is in York Crown Court and it's important that it receives lots of publicity, as climate change is the most important threat ever to face humanity. I believe that these individuals are bound to be looked back upon as brave heroes with insight, not criminals, and their claim that causing a little bit of disruption or damage is necessary to draw attention to the importance of this issue. For an interesting take on the global crisis of too many people emitting too much pollution and possible 'geoengineering solutions, see this article by James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia Hypothesis, written in The Guardian.

I did a lot of 'house admin' today, including taking our meter readings to put on The Carbon Account, to record the household's carbon footprint. I really do recommend this way of keeping a check on your transport and energy-related carbon footprint. Join up and become my Carbon Account friend!!!

I had brought back a load of plastic tubs of grapes, each with a few mouldy ones and mostly good ones, so I sorted through and washed and blanched the good ones, balancing a tray of them on the woodstove to make nice little sweet (and free!) raisins...

Gill went to pick up our youngest from school and I got ready to go down to the station to get the 4.12 to Hull to attend the 'Co-operative membership Co-operation in Your Community meeting, which starts at 6ish in the Feren's Art Gallery. The idea was to let individuals and organisations know about the Community Fund, and as two organisations I'm involved in have received money from the Co-op, I was a speaker. I arrived a bit early and sat in the gallery reading my NewScientist, trying to catch up as I'm 5 weeks behind!

The food arrived and I ate heartily and hopefully healthily... and at 6.30 we were invited into the lecture theatre to hear presentations from Darren the local Co-op person, Stefan who told us all about the funding streams and how they work, and then three community groups who've benefitted from their money... Yvonne from Harrogate Car-Free Day on 24th September, David from Ryedale Special Families and Michelle and Becky from Goole's Hinge Centre. Finally, I did my bit!

Got the 8.56 train back to Doncaster, cursed when the possible connecting train up to York pulled out of the station as we pulled in, sat in the waiting room for over an hour (finished a NewScientist) and got the 11pm train back to York. Fortunately I'd made a friend on the train, a 20 year-old chap working as a night-time secyrity guard in York, so we chatted. Home by midnight...

Monday 21st January 08

Monday started with the children not wanting to go to school and making their feelings known loudly. I came down to mediate and I managed to change the subject by telling the boys about the paid blog I wrote on Summerhill last night. They went to school.

I went back to bed after getting my emails as I was feeling grotty, running nose and blocked sinuses, so read and dozed... Gill went to town to find some kids clothes and got back for lunchtime, so I got up and had lunch with her and then mooched around and did some stove maintenance and housework, but wasn't feeling too hot, so took some paracetamol and decongestant.

I picked the kids up as I try to be fair and even if not 100% I try to do my fair share. But I went to bed when we got in. Got up for 6 to see the programme on Summerhill, it was very moving, and the boys enjoyed it too.