Tuesday 14th September 10

Up early as I had agreed to speak live to BBC Radio York about a quite sensitive subject.  I am going to prepare a 'page' about this, and will link this post to that page to explain.

So I was on soon after 7am, and I stayed up and spent chunks of the day listening to the 'player' to listen to the whole show.  I was disappointed with the rest of the programme 

I did quite a chunk of work in the garden and also visited Richard and picked up several sacks of compostables and a hand of bananas... not very local or in season but the children like them.

After lunch, Jennie dropped by to give me some Edible York postcards, which I'll deliver in the next few days to houses with big gardens.

I called round on a friend who is desperately fighting alcoholism, to see how they were and I met someone who is helping, and they went off to alcoholics anonymous together.  I squashed a huge load of aluminium cider cans and brought them back, the beginning of my new collection!  Then I visited a nearby wooded area where some shrubs and small trees had been taken down, and I came back with a trailer load of reasonable sticks and small branches, some of which I chopped up.

I collected a lot of windfalls as it's been windy, and I made space on the stove for more drying.  I had an enquiry from ITV about a homes-of-interesting-people programme, but I declined as I don't think it would be a good idea to have cameras round when we're so untidy and chaotic, and also, I don't want to embarrass the children.  I had a call from 10:10 about their recent emails to York in Transition and Professor Fiddlesticks being 10:10 organisations.  I had a long chat with Heidi, a 10:10 volunteer and I enjoyed this.

I did quite a lot of fruit prep in the evening and had a nice facebook chat with a new Malaysain friend who's into green issues.  I half watched a film I've seen before, 'At First Sight' with Val Kilmer.  Got my blog done for 1am, which is early for me!!!!

Wednesday 9th June 10

Well a busy day... Gill went to Fountains Abbey with our youngest's class, so I had most of the day to myself. I did a bit of work on the computer and decided I really didn't want to be stuck inside all day, so I did a bit of a tidy up in the garden. I did a variety of little jobs, including some weeding, finding broken plant pots and other plastic rubbish and binning them, and a bit later, some stacking of logs, chainsawing, more stacking and pallet butchering.

At 7pm I got a phone call from the Progressive Radio Network, a US-based web-radio, who had asked to interview me about green funerals. The show is hosted by Steve Barnett and is called Paradise Parking Lot, and explores green issues. So the producer rang me up and a few minutes later I was chatting to Steve about this sensitive issue. The archive recording is here (or better, here).

It went well, and although I was nervous beforehand, I enjoyed the experience. Rory was online for some of the time and trying to prompt me, but I really had to concentrate on what the interviewer was saying.

So I had a happy evening after this... a feeling of relief, and glad that it went well.

I also had a 'first'. I don't have a mobile phone... but Gill has an old one which she's lent to me for situations where it might be useful for me to have one, and today I put £10 credit on it. So I'm still learning new technology.

Tuesday 8th June 10

Got up fairly early with earache. Very painful. Gill advised me to have some ibuprofen after breakfast, which within an hour seemed to work, and by midday the pain had gone completely.

I spent the morning on Novaterium, adding more natural and woodland burial sites, and I rang up several site owners and proprietors to get an exact location of their site. I also added a company who specialise in green funerals.

Just before lunch, Edward cycled round with the York in Transition cheque book to get me to sign a couple of cheques, and we spent nearly an hour chatting about all sorts of things including diet and health, green funeral options, and his book that he's rewriting.

Gill went into town on the bus to try to find some shoes which give her more support. Because her GP had suggested a certain shop, she had her gait tested several times and eventually got a pair of rather expensive but very comfortable and well made trainers. She says she looks like a chav but I don't really know what she's on about and as I love her I don't give a damn what she looks like or wears. I'm just glad that her pain might be reduced.

I had a good afternoon, including an invite from Steve Barnett of the American Progressive Radio Network, inviting me (or Rory) to talk about green funeral solutions tomorrow, on his programme 'Paradise Parking Lot'. So I agreed to do it, over the phone... it should be between 6 and 7pm tomorrow, UK time (1pm til 2pm Eastern Time).

Gill had a go at making chapattis for the first time and cooked some rice and an un-curried bean and veg stew. I liked the chapatti she made for me but it could have done with something else in it... caraway seeds, or cumin, or fenugreek... not sure... but next time she'll experiment, or I will!

At 6.15 I took a small notebook that Lynn left at the LETS meeting round to her and then on to the Planning Panel meeting, which was mercifully quick as I had to get back for 7pm, as we were expecting Tony and Sylvia, beekeepers, to visit. I gave my details to the local apiarist club and this couple rang me, saying they would be interested in putting a hive or two in our garden. So I took them down and gave them a quick tour, and I showed them where I'd thought that a bee hive or two could go. They agreed, and so I'll prepare the area and they'll prepare two hives. Very exciting!

Tuesday 24th February 09

Gill got up early to make pancake batter for the kids' breakfasts. She got me up at 8 so I could take our youngest to school, and then go into town to deal with the paperwork I failed to manage last night. So got to town just before 9 and waited to get into the Building Society, then waited outside the bank til 9.30 to pay the water bill. Got back home before 10, Gill getting ready to go into town to help Melody celebrate her birthday with a girly lunch.

I awaited the phone call at 11.30 from Shannonside FM who had arranged to interview me about my low cost/low carbon/verging on 'Freegan' lifestyle. The presenter, John, chatted to me for about 10 or 12 minutes and seemed pretty positive about most of what I said. The interview might be made into a podcast... it certainly generated some interesting comments afterwards!

I then had lunch but stayed in afterwards ding various things on the computer and phone. This included trying to get the York City Screen to show The Age of Stupid nice and early after release. I found out that the out-of-town 'Vue' cinema in Clifton Moor is screening the Public Premiere on 15th March. I wish that City Screen had got this... they still might, with a little bit of pressure! The Vue cinema is mainly visited by car users and the Premier tickets are a hefty £10.

I cycled down to school at 3 to pick up our youngest son and again stopped at the trashed woodland to pick up some quite large chunks of Scots Pine which filled the trailer very satisfactorily...

We had a relatively peaceful after-school time. Gill thickened the carrot soup with some of yesterday's mashed potato, and this was eagerly demolished by all... much appreciated, and better with the thicker texture. I had a cheese sandwich which one of the boys hadn't eaten with my soup. And a slice of Gill's cake with an out of date free yoghurt for pudding!

I managed to make time to sort out four bags of seedless grapes retrieved from the compostables, and blanched a big saucepan full for a few minutes before draining them (re-using the water for the washing up of course!) and spreading them on a baking tray to balance on the water can on the stove. The duff grapes and stalks, of course, will be composted....

So a productive day.

Friday 29th February 08

I took the kids to school as we could tell that it would be difficult this morning.

When I got back, tried to clear some of the backlog of washing up and spent a few minutes in the garden putting things away which I don't want to get rained on, then got a phonecall from Newstalk.ie Radio who are interviewing me about CRAGs and green living.

That went out at 11.25 ish and was very short... but I got the essential information in about the carbonrationing.org website and some lifestyle tips about transport, diet, insulation, so worth it.

Then had a lovely chat with a Mum wanting me to come and entertain her son for his 7th birthday, attracted by my 'ethical entertainment' column in Primary Times!

The rest of the day went quickly, boys in a good mood when coming home and a pleasant evening... when they'd gone to bed Gill and I had a game of Scrabble, she got all the high scorers and won... most satisying for her!

I had a good googletalk chat with my friend over the pond, and received an email from a green friend who has filled in a questionnaire about the earthquake. Blog readers who experienced it (or any other British earthquake) could click this link: http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/ .