Tuesday 19th April 11

I got up fairly early and after breakfast, went to Kexby Avenue and the roads off it to deliver the last of the postal voter letters.  Well actually not the last of them, as I couldn't deliver quite a lot of them... either couldn't find the road or block of flats, or couldn't get into the block to put the letter in the voter's letterbox.  This is one Green Party job I will not be doing again.

I came back and helped Gill sort out the conservatory, which is going to have the guinea pig cage in it.  I prepared a load of kitchen paper rolls by cutting them in half and filling them with seed compost, and planted a lot of climbing pea beans.  Gill found several succulents which had succumbed to the cold weather... but had got a few living bits left on them, so I potted those up, with the hope that they'll regenerate.  I also took a pot-bound succulent and split it up, getting over 40 individual plants from it, all of which I potted up. 

I found a load of batteries, ferrous scrap rescued from the fires, some old electrical equipment and soya milk cartons, so I loaded up the bike trailer with these plus the old microwave oven, and took them for recycling at Hazel Court.  I came straight back, and continued with helping Gill.  We got a metal rack shelf thingy down from the loft and installed it in the conservatory, which makes more storage space there.

I got an emergency booking for tomorrow morning: SNAPPY had been let down and rang me up to do a balloon modelling session tomorrow morning, which fits in nicely with another playscheme in the afternoon.

I then got some compost ready for delivery, and at about 5.30, cycled to Priory Street to deliver... and then on to David for a two-hour visit.  On the way there I met Paul and Gill, who are Trouvère, and they know David, so when David and I left his home, I found them and they chatted to David for a few minutes.

And then on to City Screen where Carolyn was waiting for us; I got drinks with David's membership card enabling a discount, and I got myself a bowl of what was said to be leek, tomato and olive soup, but it was more of a stew, delicious, with a warm bread roll. Trish Scott was at City Screen and it was good to see her again... but all too soon it was time for us to go. 

I heated up David's tea when I got back, and cleaned some pigeon poo from his yard, and he let me go just before 8pm.

I cycled to The Seahorse Hotel for the World Naked Bike Ride meeting with Tony and Hugh, a good and productive meeting.

Home at about 10.30.  A bit of a late night; did a lot of reading, including this really good article about people who preach green but don't live it, and I found an event I'm going to participate in, on the 12th May, called Mass Observation, a one-day diary.  Should be easy for me! I also enjoyed watching a short film about a woman, Pat, living frugally off the land, a film made by a facebook friend of mine, Josie Gallo.

Friday 31st December 10

Gill woke me by coming and turning the radio on in the bedroom as our friend Anneliese Emmans-Dean was on Woman's Hour, with some of her wonderful poetry (hear it here from about 14 mins 20 seconds in) so after that I got up and before breakfast, went to buy bread at Thomas's. 

A bit later I did a round trip to Hazel Court, disposing of wet carpet, some electrical equipment I found in a skip and I put it in the WEEE skip for recycling, some metal in the metals skip, and 3 sacks of drinks cartons.  I had no hassle whatsoever from anyone... in fact I had 2 nice conversations, one with a pet-fancier (rabbits?) who gave me his old straw bedding and another chap called Jeff whom I had a 10 or 15 minute chat with!  From here I went on to Country Fresh to see Richard and pick up some veg for us and for Debbie, and quite a lot of compostables.

Delivered Debbie's veg, home to deal with ours and before the light went, loaded some gubbins into the Compostumbler and then helped Gill prepare some sprouts for tea.  The sprouts were a bit bitter, (and we'd stir-fried them) so we added a tiny bit of sugar, some bouillon, herbs and sesame seeds... this made them delicious!  I had this with the second half of the rice/stuffing mix, and a bit of celery soup on top.  It was a good meal.

I'd been invited to Andy D'Agorne and Denise Craghill's New Year's Eve party, so I set off at about 8 and delivered Anna's TENS machine back to her... which wasn't really any use to Gill as TENS is good at localised pain, not the all-over type.  But good to know that Anna hires them out.  She was just setting off to the party, with her neighbour Pauline.  I cycled along to Broadway and was pleased to find quite a few people already partying, including a photo quiz which was fun.

I especially enjoyed talking to Will whom I know from the Green Party and his 12 year old son who was very bright and politically opinionated!  My friend Tracy, from York Green Festival days, was there with one of her friends. Guy was there, and Catherine who's voice I like, and Dave Taylor...although I didn't have a chance to speak to his partner Chris who people speak highly of, but I've never really got to know her.  There were others too... a buzzing party.  I left at about 11and cycled home via a collectible waste wooden structure which only just fitted on my bike trailer, but will make excellent kindling.

Saw the New Year in with Gill and the boys, which was really nice, lots of hugs all round. 

Monday 8th March 10

Woke at 9ish feeling somewhat better and mid morning I'd got both the large cans of water warm enough for a bath... the first one in some while! Shave, hair wash, lovely!

I felt much better after this, not that low mood is necessarily connected with grubbiness...

I did lots of washing up after this and after lunch, did some work in the garden, including a job I've been wanting to do for a while but not had the enthusiasm. I've been chainsawing logs on the front garden on top of a large tarpaulin sheet, to catch the sawdust and other bits... the sawdust is my compost toilet cover material, the largest bits and bobs are bagged up and dried for kindling, and the medium sized bits, wet bark and small twigs etc are a useful 'carbon rich' constituent of my compost heaps. So I got the large flat riddle up to the front garden and put it on a bedsheet, and started riddling the large pile of sawdusty twiggy barky stuff... I filled two paper potato sacks with kindling-sized bits, 3 plastic sacks of sawdust and 3 plastic sacks of compost additives. I am perhaps a quarter of the way through the job, but there is several months worth of cutting and splitting frass which needs putting to good use. Anyone want a sack or two of compost toilet cover material?

At about 4pm I loaded up my trailer with our old television which has been going on the blink over the past few days, and has finally stopped working. I took it down to the repository for dead electrical equipment, the 'WEEE table' at Hazel Court. I also took two loudspeakers that I rescued months ago and didn't find a taker for, and a plastic bag of metalwork from the stove (mainly nails from pallets) and some metal from various street-skips. I had no hassle whatsoever from the nice skip-site workers, who obviously don't give a damn that i use my bike trailer to deliver recyclables to the right place. I approve of this attitude.

From here I picked up a few logs from where tree surgeons had dumped stuff and also a sack of compostables from Freshways.

After tea I cycled round to my Freecycling (and soon to be unicycling!) friend Mark, who had responded to my Freecycle request for a TV. His Mother in Law had upgraded her system and was going to chuck out her old TV and freeview box... so he said, no, I'll put it on Freecycle and someone will be very happy with it. And indeed we are. It is slightly bigger than our previous one, which was £20 from Woodlands MS Respite Care Centre, and had a scratched screen. This one has a really clear picture, good colour and no scratch! Brilliant, thanks Mark. One unicycling lesson as and when you want it!

After I delivered this home, for Gill to install, I went to a friend on Melrosegate who had some sticks for me,and I brought those back home. And I did some more after-dark riddling too, before coming in and sorting out hot water for yet more washing up....

Monday 29th June 09

A productive morning as I removed my son's bike back wheel and took the tyre down to Cycle Heaven to get a replacement. I went via Hazel Court civic amenity site, cycling 4 sacks of drinks cartons (including 2 from school) and some electrical equipment rescued from skips and some other metal to get this all recycled. I had a little chat with one of the workers there, and said that officially, cycles were not allowed up there, and I'd been refused a trailer permit. I said I refused to tip all my recycling on the ground at the entrance as had been suggested, and the operative said that taking the recycling from the pedestrian area up to the recycling skips was a health and safety issue in itself.

So, feeling happy about the sensible attitude of the workers there, I went on to put two cheques in and on to Cycle Heaven. There I asked if I could have a large cardboard box, as our youngest needs to make a life-size prop for a school assembly, so I cycled home with a box that a bike was delivered in... excellent! Home via Country Fresh and Freshways, also found some more electrical equipment sticking out of a bin bag left for collection, so that will go for recycling soon!

Enjoyed my lunch and helped Maria with a self-employment query over the phone.

During the afternoon I tried to catch up on a load of paperwork, phoning etc, connected to my Fiddlesticks work. But when it cooled down a bit I went to do some compost riddling and loading up my new pallet bin. My favourite activities, with my robin friend filling its face with centipedes and little beetles. Lovely!

I popped out to the Co-op for some provisions for today's tea, and Gill put them together whilst I did more outside work, including picking loganberries.

On the way home from the shop I stopped to chat to a chap who's skip I'd raided, to thank him for the Freecycling opportunities it had afforded. Ended up having a good chat and he gave me some strawberries from his back garden. I might end up helping Mike with his garden, he's only just moved in and needs some help. Nice chap.

I came in to make some tea for tomorrow... onion and tomato base mix, and some plantain, gently fried in chunks. Probably will add it to rice.

Quiet evening, maybe a bit too warm... and that was without the stove! Enjoyed strawberries and loganberries with vegan ice-cream.... yummy!

Saturday 18th April 09

A very busy day.

Got up quite early and both felt like doing some spring cleaning and sorting out. Gill made a start on the conservatory, which has become somewhat cluttered, and I did some washing up including a load of storage jars which have been building up.

Gill also rang a chap who'd advertised two flat irons in the back of the Press. She's been wanting to have a couple of these to heat up on the stove so she doesn't have to use electricity (despite it being from renewables, and us not using very much, it still costs, so using less would be good!). Gill isn't into ironing everything, but the school uniforms and my work clothes need to look good, and the electric iron is quite heavy on the juice. So a pair of flat irons will be a good addition to our low carbon lifestyle. The old fella wanted a fiver each, as they were antiques, but was happy to hear they'd be used. He lives in Easingwold so Gill might take the bus out there next week to get them, or he might deliver if he's coming down the Hull Road.

Soon after this telephone conversation, we discovered our phone handset wasn't working... it was completely dead. Gill tried to 'ring home' with her mobile but only the base rang, not the handset. So, with the phone being important for my work, it was essential that we get it sorted. So, within the hour I cycled down to town to take it to where we bought it to see if they knew what was wrong with it, or maybe buy another handset. I felt a bit daft when the chap in the shop told me t was just the batteries which had expired. I thought they were rechargeable, but apparently they don't keep recharging for ever. I bought new batteries... and a second pair for when this happens again!

I also visited the Friends Meeting house where the old AVP computer has been waiting for me to pick it up and bring it home to erase the hard disc data, before taking the whole lot to the recycling depot at James Street. The monitor is huge! It only just went in my trailer but with bungees, it came home safe and sound. I set it all up and tried to run the DBAN 'boot and nuke' floppy disc that Ben had supplied, but I didn't quite understand the commands so I phoned Ben and asked him if he could pop round and press buttons in the right order.

Gill was doing wonderful things with the conservatory and I helped too, being ruthless about throwing stuff away, for once! Ros came round with her son, and she stayed and had a coffee and chatted about some of the stories from when she was a customs officer. Our boys played happily all together.

Ben came round and found that the software would work if the computer was tweaked slightly first, and so he reset a password by doing something to the innards and then set the disc to AUTONUKE and completely wipe the hard disc. He also showed me how to take out the disc afterwards and extract two very strong rare-earth magnets, which make excellent fridge magnets. After 40 minutes nuking, the monitor declared it was now 'done', so I switched the whole thing off and extracted the hard disc (actually 3 of them in a stack) and the two magnets. The rest of the hardware will be going to Hazel Court tomorrow for recycling.

I then found time to sort through seeds and plant some courgettes, squash, pumpkin and basil. This felt extremely satisfying. All three boys ate together and then played til 9pm when I took our visitor back up the road to Ros. I spent some of the evening peeling some giant pumpkin seeds I found from last year, and sorting out old seed packets from newer ones which I will hopefully plant up soon.

A very productive day. And destructive too, with the mangling of the old computer and throwing away of loads of unrecyclable and unusable stuff. Satisfying!

Sunday 9th November 08

A good morning, went out to Hazel Court, the Council's waste and recycling depot, with a cycle-trailer load of drinks cartons, scrap iron, some throw-away electrical goods I've taken out of skips in order that they get recycled. Came back via Freshways, the new supermarket on the corner of Melrosegate and Hull Road, and made friends with Raj the manager.


Home to a pile of washing up, then a sit down with a coffee to watch Countryfile, which I watched whilst taking husks off pumpkin seeds. It'll be a long job, as I've got so SO many! But if I do a few dozen a day, I'll be finished by next Autumn!

It rained after lunch so I did some stuff inside but later I went to the allotment with some cardboard to use as a mulch, and I started cutting back the marauding brambles and chopping them into short lengths for composting. I stayed there til nearly dark and did quite a bit of work... probably not enough yet to not get chucked off... so I'll try to get on top of it this week, at least make an effort...

Gill had cooked spaghetti and veg for tea. I had that and then had to load up my bike trailer to go and visit someone. This was a result of an unusual request yesterday over the phone, and for once I'm going to hold back for a few weeks so the surprise is not compromised. I'll be able to tell all by the end of the month. But it is quite funny/odd/amazing.

Spent perhaps an hour there and came back across the Stray and was pleased to get home as it was still raining a bit. And...

I had developed a runny nose which is snot dice. Therefore a quiet evening in, being very friendly with my hanky. But did enjoy watching Stephen Fry and Graham Norton (not together!) with Gill. Gill dozed off to sleep and I spent time on my laptop, but when she woke at 1ish, just as I was about to go to bed, we remembered the SUMA order, which we can now do online, so I got my computer back on and I worked my way around the new SUMA website and placed an order, which will arrive, we hope, on Tuesday. Bed very late, after 2.30am.