Saturday 20th March 10 York in Transition Seed Swap

I woke at 9 and it didn't take me long to get things together to get everything ready as I'd prepared things a day or two ago. I took the seeds from the Lottie Shop, some of my own pea beans, the 10 bags of seed compost, the rotasieve and the three carrier bags of unriddled leafmould, clods of mature compost and some loam fresh from a pile of well rotted turves.

I got there on the dot of 10am and already there were loads of seeds available, mostly vegetables, but a few wild flowers and others. I added my bought seeds and took my compost-related stuff to a covered area at one side of the building, outside as the riddling process would be slightly messy, despite being on a sheet to catch bits. Within half an hour quite a few people turned up, mostly bearing seeds, all eager to see what was on offer. We had a collecting tin out for a £1 donation per person.

I busied around, chatting to people, answering questions and giving people a bean pod if they liked the sound of my climbing pea bean, and introducing people whom I thought might be potential collaborators. What a lot of enthusiasm, knowledge, experience... and enquiring minds, questions, learning.

I did my seed compost demo and talk twice. All the bags of compost went, and children enjoyed using the rotasieve to riddle the assorted materials. At about 11,30, Assif the trainee journalist arrived and I was able to introduce him to various people and show him around. At midday Chris Chidlow gave his whistle-stop tour of Permaculture, with photos, in under 45 minutes.

There were over 25 people in the room, and some had already gone home so I reckon there were more than 30 attendees.

I reloaded the bike trailer with stuff I needed to take home and Assif and I walked along to Country Fresh where Richard seemed very happy to give an interview about the shop's green credentials, and I loaded up one large sack of compostables and half a box worth. We then walked back to Freshways where Assif talked to one of the guys there, who also sang my praises as a recycler... and gave me a litre of out of date long-life cranberry and blueberry juice... much appreciated! They also had a sack of compostables for me, so we walked up to the house pretty well laden.

When we got home I lit the stove and made a sandwich for lunch, and chatted to Assif about various aspects of 'freeganism', from bin-raiding, skip diving, recycling metals and turf, logs and free heating, growing my own food, giving freely to the community, sharing resources and other related subjects. He'd bought a sandwich for his lunch, and he had some of a cup of tea I made off the stove, after which he had a wander down the garden to see the composting and fruit trees etc. He also talked to Gill a bit who was very honest about what it's like living with an obsessive recycler like me.

He left at about 3pm, and I didn't do much more after that as I was exhausted, but happy.

Salads for tea, and later, as the TV was ridiculously football and rugby-dominated, I watched the 'In Transition' DVD, which I found very moving and inspirational. I'll do a review of it for the York in Transition newsletter to see if we can attract people to the April 17th event with Ceilidh and film.

Sunday 22nd February 09

Not too early a start, but once up got the stove going so I could do the washing up, and watched 'The Big Questions' which was from York. Good to see my friends Claire and David Kennard being interviewed, although I'm not sure why they got front row... they always talk sense though, I have a lot of respect for them.

I recorded Countryfile and half-listened whilst I washed up, and at 11.30 cycled off to the allotment, hoping to get to the lottie shop before 12 which is when it closes on Sundays. However, I got waylaid in Country Fresh by a student journalist called Joel who was doing a piece about the shop and was interested in how the shop reduces it's waste stream. I 'paid my penny' for the bag of resources which in most other shops would be put in the bin as waste, and cycled to the allotment, missing the shop by 3 minutes, damnation!

But I did spend the next hour and a half doing my composting... emptied out a dumpy bag of overwintered and mature compost, and filled it back up with some nearly done compost from one of the pallet bins, removing larger sticks to put in the current heap.

I left at 1.45 and got home just in time to listen to Gardeners Question Time on Radio 4.

A quiet afternoon... did some stacking of Brazilian Pine and used the Compost Mate tool to aerate the current hot garden heap, which is still being added to and is risking getting compacted.

Gill did rice for tea. The boys did their homework. I washed up again.

Later, Gill and I had a game of Scrabble and she won for a third time in a row! I'm obviously losing my touch... too much Facebook Scrabble... perhaps it's sucking all my strength?

Thursday 20th November 08

Fab day, spent a good bit of it with my lovely wife just doing bits and bobs around the house.

At 2pm, just as Gill was popping into town on her bike to get a dressing gown that she'll need when she goes into hospital, I had a visitor who contacted me yesterday, a trainee journalist called Kerry. She is doing a story about renewable energy and had found me and so we talked about stuff for half the time, and then she got some pics of the stove and my feet (in Fiddlesticks' boots) and then the logpile outside.

But we had to finish at 3 as I was due to go and tell Green Thumbs about the letter from Blue Peter about our successful application to have a Mission Nutrition Bring and Buy Sale, which they are very excited about. I went to have a chat with Mrs P. the headteacher, and she suggested the Gang do an assembly about Green Thumbs and Mission Nutrition, on 9th Jan. So I've just created a whole lot more work for myself.... but why not, life is short and I try to pack as much in as I possibly can.

A lovely evening... strangely peaceful without our eldest... we hope he's having a good time. Gill and I had an early game of Scrabble, and our youngest helped Gill. I won. Later, much later, we both enjoyed a TV programme by Derren Brown about how he can (allegedly) predict the outcome of horse races. A superbly crafted programme, he is a genius and one of the top entertainers living today. I am a big fan... and obviously have no idea at all how he does what he does! Amazing, weird and wonderful.