Wednesday 24th November 10

I had an appointment at 10 to see Jane, a newish green friend who shares a love of Scrabble and has a lovely wildlife garden.  We'd met at several meetings and had tried several times to meet up, failing on at least two occasions.  But today's meeting had been in the diary for a while and it was good to meet up, attempt a game of Scrabble, and then give that up as chatting and Scrabble were not very compatible, and then had some lunch.  Our conversations ranged from bird and tree identification, oil paintings, communication in relationships, optimism versus pessimism, food and a whole lot between. 

I came back via Country Fresh where Shirley gave me the usual sack of gubbins, and then via Freshways who had a sack for me.  I got back to find Gill and our eldest had gone into town to get some glasses repaired but they soon came in.  I did a little bit of log stacking, and then our friend Maria came round to talk to us about home education, as she is a tutor who has some private students who learn mainly chemistry with her.  She had a good pile of text books and advice about resource material to get him through to GCSE in the three sciences.  Later we accepted her offer of an hour a week tuition.  Things are beginning to fall into place.

I had a subdued evening, dealt with some admin stuff and tried to write an important email which I've been composing in my mind for a week or two.  Late on I prepared some more apple and then a large pile of yellow peppers which I'll use to make sweet pepper paprika once they're dried.

Monday 8th September 08

An early start as had been asked to be in Knaresborough for 10.30 for a photoshoot at 11. As the train got in at 10.35, I got the one before, to ensure I was at the venue in good time. So I arrived in Knaresborough at 9.35 and took just 10 minures to walk to King James High School... and had 45 minutes of unfettered reading time, George Marshall's 'Carbon Detox', an excellent book.
At 10.45 other Co-op and Knaresborough Car-Free Day photoshoot people started arriving, and my role was to be a unicyclist... an alternative means of transport, eye-catching, unusual! So I was in a static pic for the newspaper and did some action shots for the Co-op photographer.

I got the train back soon after midday... again, plenty of time for reading.

I called in on the Council Finance Centre to pay the second half of our Council Tax and Country Fresh just in case there was any recycling... which there wasn't.

Home after 1, lunch and emails, and then at 2.30, went to the City Screen to meet with Jackie from Northern Green Gathering, for a coffee and a chat as she was in York for a meeting. I had more time with Carbon Detox... it's a brilliant book, very easy to read, and wasn't unhappy she was late. We went to El Piano and chatted for over 2 hours, all sorts of subjects, nothing seemed off limits. I carried her luggage in my bike trailer towards the station and then cycled home, past queues of almost stationary traffic as there'd been some kind of blockage somewhere.

Home at 6ish, home-grown potatoes for tea with tomatoes from the conservatory, lettuce from the garden and cheese from the Co-op!

Quiet evening, did paid blog on Dexter's Art and IPCC suggesting not eating meat for one day per week...