Tuesday 12th October 10

A much better day than yesterday, much less to do although I was just as busy.  I did the usual round of emails etc in the morning, including answering a composting question from Singapore, and other various things... always interesting, although time consuming.

Before lunch I did a quick bit in the garden and again afterwards.  Later, I went to Country Fresh as Gill wanted to make some tomato soup, requested by the children.  As well as a selection of fruit and veg, I brought back a single sack of goodies for the latest compost heap.  One of the more time consuming jobs in the garden was to reclaim a 'turf wall' I built about 2 or 3 years ago, made from turf out of a skip, and these had rotted down to a lovely loam.  I got 5 or 6 sacks of loam, maybe 20 or 30 kg each, which I'll use next spring to make potting compost, mixing it with leafmould and rich compost.

Even later, I collected a large number of windfall quinces from the tree above the garage, which has had a good crop this year.  I'm hoping to make membrillo, a way of preserving the quince flesh, which my friend Florencia told me about.  What a palaver!  First I washed the quinces and carefully cut them in half... not easy as they are really tough.  Then each half was cut in half again, and then each of those cut again, into eighths, to allow the woody core and seeds to be cut out.  I think I spent close on two hours doing all this, and put all the washed pieces into the preserving pan on the woodstove to bring them up to the boil.  The next part of the job I'll do tomorrow.

Thursday 23rd September 10

Up reasonably early in order to get to Leeds for the hospital appointment to remove my dressing and the stitches.  So I left home at about 9.15 and popped into Cycle Heaven as both disc brakes need tightening and the rear brake's plastic wheel with which it can be hand-tightened has disintegrated, and the socket to use to tighten it has become stripped, so I'm unable to tighten the rear one.  The front one is movable, but difficult.  I am not happy with these brakes.  I had a chat with Ash who said he'd do something about them.  I left my bike with him, and took a Cycle Heaven replacement. 

I took this on the train to Leeds, as I missed the fast 9.58 which would have got me into Leeds with time to walk to the hospital, so I got the 10.11 stop-everywhere, which takes over 30 minutes to get there.  So I put the bike on the train, and then cycled up to the LGI, and arrived at the Plastic Surgery dressing removal place at one minute past 11. 

I didn't have to wait long, and the nice nurse took just 5 minutes to deal with me.  I was really pleased to see that the scar is very well healed, is small and tidy, and already looks fairly invisible.  Amazing!

I cycled back through Leeds and got on a train before midday.  Cycle Heaven had sorted my brakes; Ash had dismantled and rebuilt the front one and removed the plastic disc from the rear, so that it can now be tightened with a spanner.  He said that next time I brought my bike in for servicing he'd consider putting brakes on which had bigger pads, which he hoped would last longer.

I got home via Country Fresh, and 3 sacks and two boxes, about 60kg, and had lunch at 1.30pm.

So, the afternoon went quickly as my next appointment was at 3pm, with Owen about 10 minutes cycle away, who had asked me to install two compost bins at his block of flats.  He'd had a neighbours meeting which I'd provided information for, and they'd then decided to get communal compost bins.  One week later, Owen was lucky enough to win a compost bin!  So he'd only needed to purchase one, and today I took a spade, a roll of chicken wire to make them rat-resistant, and pliers to cut the wire to size.  To install a 'dalek' bin, it is best to first find level ground, in a sunny corner if possible, and to place the bin on the ground and mark out where the base of the bin sits with a spade.  The bin is then moved away and a narrow trench made for the foot of the bin to sit in.  Then Owen helped me cut the wire into a square big enough to cover the whole of the base of the bin, and stick out each side.  This is put onto the ground, on top of the trench, and the bin carefully placed onto the wire and pushed into the trench, so the wire completely covers the base of the bin.  Then the soil from the trench is put back onto the foot of the bin, to help hold it down.  This makes it difficult for rats to get in through the base, although if they really want to, they can gnaw a hole in the side of the bin.  However, I've only seen this once.

So I was home soon after 4pm, and I did a bit in the garden, and after tea (the delicious carrot stew/soup, with extra pasta in it), popped over the road to deal with another pile of waste wood... chopped shrubs and bits of trees, which I pruned down to useful sticks.  Later, I went to collect a wheelbarrow full of them, and was accosted by a Woodlands staff member who was surprised to see me working there at that time in the evening.  I guess she didn't know I've been visiting that bit of woodland for about 9 years, and tidying up some of the detritus the gardeners throw in there.  I hope it doesn't put my becoming an official volunteer in jeopardy!

Later in the evening, I couldn't resist opening some of the windfall walnuts, and my fingers ended up black.  I also got a load of very ripe plums from Country Fresh, so I halved them and skinned them and put them on the drying rack....  I had time to do this as facebook was playing up and I couldn't have my usual chats and Scrabble...

Friday 27th August 10

I got up earlier than I'm used to as my friend Tara had asked me to come over and help install her compost bins. But that wasn't all... she also requested that I have a go at using the borrowed pick axe to break up the large lump of concrete which we managed to get out last time, and there were also 3 water butts needing to be installed. This seemed a lot to fit into a 10 til 1 slot.

However, the compost bins were easy to do... I used the outline of the base of the bin to make a little trench which the foot of the bin sat in, and the soil that was removed was then put back in the edge of the trench and on the lip of the bin to secure it. We put both of them next to each other in a sunny spot. Whilst I was putting the second one in, Tara chopped up some beech twigs to make an aerated base for the first one.

Then we undid one of her pots of potatoes, there were some but I think they could have been bigger, so I suggested the rest should stay. Then we had a look at her tomato plants which she's been growing on a window sill. They needed a bit of pruning but several of them had tomatoes on, and some will still produce a few more.

We were able to do some of the first water butt installation, by removing a section of down pipe, but then we got a bit stuck with drilling a hole in the side of the butt, so Tara made lunch and I had a bit of a bash at the concrete but I only got a few bits off, and some of these struck me on the face; one cut me and I decided that I didn't want to continue with this.

I enjoyed a cheese and onion sandwich and a hummus and tomato, plus dry roasted peanuts, one of my favourite treats, and then i had to go as I told Gill I'd be back around 2pm. I loaded up my wrecking bar on the trailer (I'd brought this in case we needed to lever the concrete somewhere) and set off, but I didn't get far before my trailer parted company from it's front part; the weight of the wrecking bar had caused one of the weak points of the trailer's metal bars to fatigue and break. It has broken there before, and been welded back together. I managed to fix it with bungees, and fix the wrecking bar alongside of my top bar on my bike frame also with bungees (I should have carried it here before, thinking about it) and gingerly cycle home, hoping that the bungees held the trailer secure.

As soon as I got in, Gill went to town to try to find some clothes for the boys for school.

I had a bit of time on the computer and did some housework.

At about 7pm, we all set off for Simon and Melody's party. I cycled down and Gill and the boys got a lift with Ros and her son in their car.

I had a great time, enjoyed chatting to Phil, and then Lynn, and briefly with Kate and Alison, and I prized myself free after 11.30. A really good social time!

Wednesday 12th May 10

Well, an interesting day. The morning went quickly, dealing with emails and doing the first washing up of the day. I totally understand why people choose to have machines which take care of this chore. But I do the washing up in mainly wood-heated water, and now, if the stove isn't hot, solar-heated water to dissolve the grease and food residues. I'm very good at washing up in very limited water too... I'm not wasteful, as you'd expect... especially as I'm paying for it!

So, lunch at 1pm, as usual, and then at 1.45 a booked-in visit from Freecycling Julie, who offered a large tree root on Freecycle a few days ago, which I asked for and she offered it to me. When I was at her tidy garden, I asked her whether she composted, as I didn't see a compost bin. She told me she was about to get one from her mother, so I said that if she'd like any help installing it, I'd be happy to help.

So today she came with her fella, Justin, and they came in and saw the stove and dried fruit, then came down the garden to see the assorted compost systems. We collected some worms and I gave them a sack of twiggy bits for the base of their new heap. They left to go and do something else, and invited me to come round at 3.30 to help install the bin.

This meant that no-one would be in when our eldest was due to come home, so we put a little note on the door telling him to come round the back, where there's a hidden key to the back door.

I went to see Julie and Justin, and Julie had already dug a bit of a trench, as I suggested, to allow the 220 litre bin to be pushed down into the soil a bit. Justin found some chicken wire and cut it to a good size, and we installed the bin, which is as rodent-proof as a compost bin can get. Then the twiggy bits and worms were put in, and Julie had saved a couple of days worth of food scraps and paper, so they went in too. I am very happy that I've helped another household start reducing their waste footprint. And I think Julie is a potential Master Composter, as she wants to do the York Rotters training. They gave me some wood offcuts and ordered some compost and dried fruit.

I cycled home and the boys were in, and Gill ushered me into the back room to tell me something. As she'd been coming down the road, she'd seen a man on a push-bike turn into our shared driveway. When she got there a couple of minutes later, the bike was thrown down near our front door. Gill let our youngest in and put her bike into the hall, and he came out of the back room saying that there was a man in the conservatory. Gill told him to go in the front room and she'd deal with it.

As she was in the kitchen about to unlock the back door, he was facing away and looking around. When she put the key in the door, he turned around and when she opened the door, she said "Can I help you?" He replied politely that he was sorry to have frightened her and was looking for T***** R****, to which Gill said she'd never heard of that person and he didn't live here, and that she wasn't frightened. He said that he'd better go, and turned to go back out of the conservatory. Gill said, come through the house, and could he pull the conservatory outer door shut please. She asked again, who was he looking for, and he said the same name. She was firm and polite, and took control of the situation. He apologised again for causing alarm, and left.

A bit later, Gill was in the conservatory and asked me if I'd moved a box of wine glasses (which I'd found in a skip a few months ago) and, no, I hadn't, so our uninvited visitor must have. It was then that I suggested we ring the police and report what had happened. They were very interested, especially when Gill said the name of the person he was allegedly searching for. This name was well-known to the police. They asked us not to use the conservatory as they would dust it for fingerprints. So a bit later, two very sweet and young Community Support Officer girlies came round and took Gill's story, and then at 11pm, two 'real' police came to interview her, and warn us to be more careful with security. We told both our neighbours about what had happened. As nothing had been taken, they decided not to check for fingerprints.

So, an interesting day, not all of it nice though.