Up quite early to get ready for my little trip away.. but made time to do my last email download before going.....
Went to the station for about midday and caught the train to Scarborough, changed at Seamer and caught the Bridlington train, arriving about 2pm.
Got to Flamborough for 3 and settled in to the tiny cottage for my mini-break/retreat/holiday or whatever it's labelled. Time for reflection and writing, and deleting emails!
Saturday, 27 September 2008
Friday, 26 September 2008
Friday 26th September 08
I took my little boy into school... he carried his own schoolbag instead of it just going in my trailer, to 'prove' that he could do it, so if one or other adult cannot carry it because bike basket or cycle trailer is full, he knows that he can carry the bag and cycle at the same time.
At about 9.30 I set off St Nicks for the second day teaching the kiddies from the Harrogate school, and popped into Bob's to give him the final cheque to pay him for stuff he spent for the Green Festival. The Harrogate kids arrived soon after 10 and John and I worked as a team, well a double act, Saint John and John the Rotter.
So whilst John took one group I did the rubbish game and half-card game, then we swapped and he took my first group to the EcoDepot to see the straw bales, big wind turbine and acres of solar panels...
The two groups ate lunch separately and I did the post-lunch waste activity with them, showing them how much of their packaging could be recycled, reused, composted or landfilled. After a play on the play area (swings, climbing equipment etc) I did a 25 minute composting and worms info/demo whilst John did something on climate change.... then we swapped over, finishing at 2pm.
I came straight home and started to get ready for going away tomorrow, when I'm off to Flamborough to go on a retreat, where I'm hoping to do a lot of writing and not much blogging!
However, as I'm away this weekend with no guaranteed internet access, I wrote my paid blog, on my take on the Credit Crunch, as well as doing a lot of washing up so I don't leave a huge pile of it for Gill to do...
At about 9.30 I set off St Nicks for the second day teaching the kiddies from the Harrogate school, and popped into Bob's to give him the final cheque to pay him for stuff he spent for the Green Festival. The Harrogate kids arrived soon after 10 and John and I worked as a team, well a double act, Saint John and John the Rotter.
So whilst John took one group I did the rubbish game and half-card game, then we swapped and he took my first group to the EcoDepot to see the straw bales, big wind turbine and acres of solar panels...
The two groups ate lunch separately and I did the post-lunch waste activity with them, showing them how much of their packaging could be recycled, reused, composted or landfilled. After a play on the play area (swings, climbing equipment etc) I did a 25 minute composting and worms info/demo whilst John did something on climate change.... then we swapped over, finishing at 2pm.
I came straight home and started to get ready for going away tomorrow, when I'm off to Flamborough to go on a retreat, where I'm hoping to do a lot of writing and not much blogging!
However, as I'm away this weekend with no guaranteed internet access, I wrote my paid blog, on my take on the Credit Crunch, as well as doing a lot of washing up so I don't leave a huge pile of it for Gill to do...
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Thursday 25th September 08
I took our youngest into school and Gill had a lie-in whilst I lit the stove, did the washing up, wrote invoices and emails and when Gill awoke, I took bathwater up for her.
Tried to get my column finished but had so many phone calls including one from Kate Lock who was going to give a talk at the Food Festival this afternoon but cannot do it now and has asked me to do it... she was going to promote her book 'Confessions of an Eco Shopper' but her daughter had been sent home from school unwell, so she couldn't do the talk.
Well, I did it! I picked up Kate's veg bag and her notes which she'd prepared to guide her through her talk, plus her home-made beauty products, and went to the York Rotters stall which was supplying a cut-out compost bin, bokashi bins, compost caddies and compost info fridge magnets from WRAP. By 3pm there were about 10 people wanting to hear the talk and as I was doing it, others arrived. Also, a lady representing Swale Organics came, bearing a Swale Organics veg box so I included that into the talk. Kate gets a veg box from Goosemoorganics and they'd supplied a £10 sack of veg for display, so I included that in my talk too. One of the things about a veg box is that it produces less packaging waste and Kate had collected a bag of packaging from Tesco where she had bought the equivalent veg to the £10 Goosemoorganics bag, which has minimal packaging, and most of it is compostable at that.... I finished the talk with a piece on composting, bokashi, wormeries and the help that York Rotters offers to would-be composters and existing compsters to encourage them to compost more...
I delivered the bag of veg to the Peaseholme Centre for the homeless as asked, delivered Kate's bag of packaging and her home-made beauty products back to her, and cycled home via Country Fresh and picked up two boxes of compostables from them.
Gill had created tea... home grown potatoes and cauliflower cheese, and a slice of bread. Simple but good. At 7 our babysitter Sarah arrived and we went to the Secondary School Cheese and Wine Reception to meet the teachers and other parents. Home soon after 9, boys had been exceptionally well behaved and Sarah had had an easy time. I gave her a copy of Kate's book as she refused payment in cash.
Finished my column, emailed it in. Watched 'Easy Rider', one of my favourite films....
Tried to get my column finished but had so many phone calls including one from Kate Lock who was going to give a talk at the Food Festival this afternoon but cannot do it now and has asked me to do it... she was going to promote her book 'Confessions of an Eco Shopper' but her daughter had been sent home from school unwell, so she couldn't do the talk.
Well, I did it! I picked up Kate's veg bag and her notes which she'd prepared to guide her through her talk, plus her home-made beauty products, and went to the York Rotters stall which was supplying a cut-out compost bin, bokashi bins, compost caddies and compost info fridge magnets from WRAP. By 3pm there were about 10 people wanting to hear the talk and as I was doing it, others arrived. Also, a lady representing Swale Organics came, bearing a Swale Organics veg box so I included that into the talk. Kate gets a veg box from Goosemoorganics and they'd supplied a £10 sack of veg for display, so I included that in my talk too. One of the things about a veg box is that it produces less packaging waste and Kate had collected a bag of packaging from Tesco where she had bought the equivalent veg to the £10 Goosemoorganics bag, which has minimal packaging, and most of it is compostable at that.... I finished the talk with a piece on composting, bokashi, wormeries and the help that York Rotters offers to would-be composters and existing compsters to encourage them to compost more...
I delivered the bag of veg to the Peaseholme Centre for the homeless as asked, delivered Kate's bag of packaging and her home-made beauty products back to her, and cycled home via Country Fresh and picked up two boxes of compostables from them.
Gill had created tea... home grown potatoes and cauliflower cheese, and a slice of bread. Simple but good. At 7 our babysitter Sarah arrived and we went to the Secondary School Cheese and Wine Reception to meet the teachers and other parents. Home soon after 9, boys had been exceptionally well behaved and Sarah had had an easy time. I gave her a copy of Kate's book as she refused payment in cash.
Finished my column, emailed it in. Watched 'Easy Rider', one of my favourite films....
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Wednesday 24th September 08
I took our youngest to school and came back in good time to get myself ready to go to work in Harrogate, for their CarFreeDay activities.
I got the 10.11 train and was met in Harrogate by a camera operator from BBC Look North who wanted to get some footage of me advertising the event. So we walked to the St Peter's Church and I got changed into Professor Fiddlesticks and went outside to unicycle around and invite people into St Peter's to see the exhibition materials from Sustrans, the Christian Ecology Network , FoE and others.
As I finished doing the unicycling around, the group toddle arrived... actually a group of about 10 mums with pre-school kids in push chairs and buggies. I don't know where they'd walked from, but they were the sort of 'customer' who might usually go places by car. I was expecting a school group to entertain but it turned out that the youngsters were these pre-schoolers! So I did a half-hour show aimed at the mums, Vicar and his helpers, and the CarFreeDay volunteers... which seemed to go well.
Then Yvonne invited me to come to lunch... which I wasn't expecting. We went to a mock-French place and the service was slow and several people didn't get what they asked for. I had a tomato soup and baguette 'pizza'. Thanks to Malcolm Margolis for this. At least the long wait allowed us to chat!
Back to St Peters where the displays were starting to be taken down, and I chatted to a nice couple called Rachel and Dan, with a cute baby, and an enthusiastic chap called Lee and his friend Adrian...
I went to get the 3.05 train but missed it by 3 minutes so read my NewScientist and got home before 5. On the Leeds 'Look North' there was a brief mention of Professor Fiddlesticks, see
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/england/realmedia/looknorthyorkslincs/looknorth?bgc=C0C0C0&nbram=1&lang=en&nbwm=1&bbram=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=16x9&bbwm=1#
It's about 3 minutes 20 seconds in...
Later in the evening I got a call from a friend/neighbour who had a bust-up with her 17 yr old daughter and she'd locked her out of the house, partly as the daughter had some large chaps with her and Mum was not feeling safe. I negotiated that the daughter came in, got her overnight stuff and rang one of her brothers who said he'd let her sleep over for a night. I stayed in the house whilst the daughter got her stuff together and left. Happy families eh?
Nearly finished my column on Electrics and Gadgets, but it's too long so will edit it down tomorrow.
I got the 10.11 train and was met in Harrogate by a camera operator from BBC Look North who wanted to get some footage of me advertising the event. So we walked to the St Peter's Church and I got changed into Professor Fiddlesticks and went outside to unicycle around and invite people into St Peter's to see the exhibition materials from Sustrans, the Christian Ecology Network , FoE and others.
As I finished doing the unicycling around, the group toddle arrived... actually a group of about 10 mums with pre-school kids in push chairs and buggies. I don't know where they'd walked from, but they were the sort of 'customer' who might usually go places by car. I was expecting a school group to entertain but it turned out that the youngsters were these pre-schoolers! So I did a half-hour show aimed at the mums, Vicar and his helpers, and the CarFreeDay volunteers... which seemed to go well.
Then Yvonne invited me to come to lunch... which I wasn't expecting. We went to a mock-French place and the service was slow and several people didn't get what they asked for. I had a tomato soup and baguette 'pizza'. Thanks to Malcolm Margolis for this. At least the long wait allowed us to chat!
Back to St Peters where the displays were starting to be taken down, and I chatted to a nice couple called Rachel and Dan, with a cute baby, and an enthusiastic chap called Lee and his friend Adrian...
I went to get the 3.05 train but missed it by 3 minutes so read my NewScientist and got home before 5. On the Leeds 'Look North' there was a brief mention of Professor Fiddlesticks, see
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/england/realmedia/looknorthyorkslincs/looknorth?bgc=C0C0C0&nbram=1&lang=en&nbwm=1&bbram=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=16x9&bbwm=1#
It's about 3 minutes 20 seconds in...
Later in the evening I got a call from a friend/neighbour who had a bust-up with her 17 yr old daughter and she'd locked her out of the house, partly as the daughter had some large chaps with her and Mum was not feeling safe. I negotiated that the daughter came in, got her overnight stuff and rang one of her brothers who said he'd let her sleep over for a night. I stayed in the house whilst the daughter got her stuff together and left. Happy families eh?
Nearly finished my column on Electrics and Gadgets, but it's too long so will edit it down tomorrow.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Tuesday 23rd September 08
I took our youngest into school... I'm impressed with his road sense.
At about 9.30 I went to St Nicks (See their new website!) to help them with a group of 36 primary school children who have booked an 'eco day' with them. John had asked me to come today and Friday, two days work... paid and something I like doing, helping people understand about waste and recycling, composting and re-use.
So I was there from before 10 but the school party didn't arrive til nearly 10.30. They were given a brief intro to the centre from John ('Saint John') and then I took half the group as 'John the Rotter' and we discussed composting whilst John did something with the other half inside. We then swapped over and I had the other half for another 30 minutes. They loved the wormery and asked some great questions! Then it was lunch (in two halves again, the non-lunching half going to the play area) swiftly followed by a 'sort your waste' game. Then I had half the group for a re-use/recycle/dump game and a matching card-halves game..... then the second half for the same, whilst John took the other group to the Council's 'Eco Depot', which is the largest straw bale building in Eurpoe and has loads of PV panels, rainwater lorry wash facilities and now, a large wind turbine.
So, we were finished by 2.15 and I came home with a cycle trailer load of chunky branches which I saved from going through the hired shredder a few weeks ago, and have been donated to me.
I went to school to pick up my little one and came home tired, but needing to get on with my column which has to be in by the end of the week.
However, I had a phone call from BBC Radio York who wanted to interview me about tomorrow's Harrogate Car Free Day so I agreed to cycle down to the studio and chat to Gemma. When I got there, via my GP surgery to give in a repeat prescription request, she wanted to do two interviews, one on Car Free Day and one on York in Transition's eco building walk on 28th September. I obliged.
On the way back I went to Sainsburys to get Marmite and Ribena, and succumbed to one of their superb multi-seed loaves, which are delicious although expensive.
I cooked some fresh spaghetti and an onion/tomato topping for Gill and myself, and she made a microwaved cake to create a trifle using home grown raspberries, blackberries and a tin of 'summer fruits' I found in a skip. Delicious!
Later in the evening, watched Griff Rhys Jones on Anger which was very interesting since all three males in this house have some degree of it. I hope the second programme offers a few solutions! I wonder if they'll visit an AVP workshop or a graduate of one? I recorded the programme but I think it has too much swearing to show it to our eldest child. Pity.
At about 9.30 I went to St Nicks (See their new website!) to help them with a group of 36 primary school children who have booked an 'eco day' with them. John had asked me to come today and Friday, two days work... paid and something I like doing, helping people understand about waste and recycling, composting and re-use.
So I was there from before 10 but the school party didn't arrive til nearly 10.30. They were given a brief intro to the centre from John ('Saint John') and then I took half the group as 'John the Rotter' and we discussed composting whilst John did something with the other half inside. We then swapped over and I had the other half for another 30 minutes. They loved the wormery and asked some great questions! Then it was lunch (in two halves again, the non-lunching half going to the play area) swiftly followed by a 'sort your waste' game. Then I had half the group for a re-use/recycle/dump game and a matching card-halves game..... then the second half for the same, whilst John took the other group to the Council's 'Eco Depot', which is the largest straw bale building in Eurpoe and has loads of PV panels, rainwater lorry wash facilities and now, a large wind turbine.
So, we were finished by 2.15 and I came home with a cycle trailer load of chunky branches which I saved from going through the hired shredder a few weeks ago, and have been donated to me.
I went to school to pick up my little one and came home tired, but needing to get on with my column which has to be in by the end of the week.
However, I had a phone call from BBC Radio York who wanted to interview me about tomorrow's Harrogate Car Free Day so I agreed to cycle down to the studio and chat to Gemma. When I got there, via my GP surgery to give in a repeat prescription request, she wanted to do two interviews, one on Car Free Day and one on York in Transition's eco building walk on 28th September. I obliged.
On the way back I went to Sainsburys to get Marmite and Ribena, and succumbed to one of their superb multi-seed loaves, which are delicious although expensive.
I cooked some fresh spaghetti and an onion/tomato topping for Gill and myself, and she made a microwaved cake to create a trifle using home grown raspberries, blackberries and a tin of 'summer fruits' I found in a skip. Delicious!
Later in the evening, watched Griff Rhys Jones on Anger which was very interesting since all three males in this house have some degree of it. I hope the second programme offers a few solutions! I wonder if they'll visit an AVP workshop or a graduate of one? I recorded the programme but I think it has too much swearing to show it to our eldest child. Pity.
Monday, 22 September 2008
Monday 22nd September 08
I took our youngest to school. I came back to have an interesting discussion with Gill about blogging, and then we were both invited to have a coffee with our friend and neighbour Maria, and some of the conversation continued there and Maria was able to put some of the issues into perspective which was good, and the chat helped us both.
Lunch with Gill and then down to the station to pick up a visitor from London who is up in this area because of business, but had booked to see YorkLETS members to offer us some software which should help us run the system quite a lot better. We walked through York, stopping for a coffee at El Piano, and then walked on to St Nicks as I had to have a chat to John about tomorrow's work I have there, with a bunch of school children who are visiting on an 'Eco Day'. I'm working 10 til 2 and we had to talk through what was needed re times and activities.
Then back home for a few minutes before walking round to Ben's to have a look through the software. We were impressed and will be debating the situation at the next Core Group meeting.
Our visitor had a bite to eat with me and Gill and then headed back down south, getting a lift to the station with Ben who drove down to collect his partner Jill.
Got a lovely email from a supportive friend regarding the turbulent times we've had this weekend. How good it is to have friends like we've got. Life would be much tougher without them.
Enjoyed watching Bruce Parry in the Amazon, despite all the puking. Started writing column on electrical stuff and gadgets but got distracted looking at energy websites and similar.
Lunch with Gill and then down to the station to pick up a visitor from London who is up in this area because of business, but had booked to see YorkLETS members to offer us some software which should help us run the system quite a lot better. We walked through York, stopping for a coffee at El Piano, and then walked on to St Nicks as I had to have a chat to John about tomorrow's work I have there, with a bunch of school children who are visiting on an 'Eco Day'. I'm working 10 til 2 and we had to talk through what was needed re times and activities.
Then back home for a few minutes before walking round to Ben's to have a look through the software. We were impressed and will be debating the situation at the next Core Group meeting.
Our visitor had a bite to eat with me and Gill and then headed back down south, getting a lift to the station with Ben who drove down to collect his partner Jill.
Got a lovely email from a supportive friend regarding the turbulent times we've had this weekend. How good it is to have friends like we've got. Life would be much tougher without them.
Enjoyed watching Bruce Parry in the Amazon, despite all the puking. Started writing column on electrical stuff and gadgets but got distracted looking at energy websites and similar.
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Sunday 21st September 08
Woken by my youngest child obviously being beaten by my eldest.
Came down to find Gill sitting on top of the eldest to stop him attacking the youngest, and complete chaos. This was all to do with homework and the boy's resistance to doing it. When he had calmed somewhat, Gill let him go and he went upstairs to scream a lot and break things, this being normal in our household.
After a few minutes he came in whilst I was eating my cereal and Gill was sitting crying on the couch, and he said he was sorry. I responded that his apology did not undo what he had done and he went ballistic and attacked me, my cereal bowl got kicked out of my hands and the contents went everywhere. In retrospect I should have just heard and accepted his apology despite my anger about his previous behaviour. I really have no idea how I should deal with an 11 year-old shouting abuse at me, telling me to 'shut up' if I try to talk to him about anything which he construes as criticism, and hitting my wife and younger child.
We are seriously considering sending him to boarding school as we cannot cope at home. He threatens to run away and sometimes we wish he would as then we might get the help we need.
What do we do?
Well, the question resulted in several responses, a couple positive or sympathetic, one quite dismissive. But the afternoon went well and things were calm, despite there being homework around. We've found that 10 minute bursts are best.
Later on in the afternoon I had a visit from my friend Lorna and we went for a meal... just a pizza and salad, and then a walk down to the Millennium Bridge and up through Walmgate Stray where I showed her my allotment. Got back soon after 8pm and I wrote my paid blog on Car Free Day and anger. See http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/
I publicly apologise to Gill and my family for again talking about family issues within this public domain. I shouldn't do it, and should try to limit it to my life and my attempts to be 'low carbon'. I do find this difficult though after over 20 years diary/journal writing and my very open nature. But in future I will try to limit what I put as I have upset Gill by being so public.
I am sorry and will try harder.
Came down to find Gill sitting on top of the eldest to stop him attacking the youngest, and complete chaos. This was all to do with homework and the boy's resistance to doing it. When he had calmed somewhat, Gill let him go and he went upstairs to scream a lot and break things, this being normal in our household.
After a few minutes he came in whilst I was eating my cereal and Gill was sitting crying on the couch, and he said he was sorry. I responded that his apology did not undo what he had done and he went ballistic and attacked me, my cereal bowl got kicked out of my hands and the contents went everywhere. In retrospect I should have just heard and accepted his apology despite my anger about his previous behaviour. I really have no idea how I should deal with an 11 year-old shouting abuse at me, telling me to 'shut up' if I try to talk to him about anything which he construes as criticism, and hitting my wife and younger child.
We are seriously considering sending him to boarding school as we cannot cope at home. He threatens to run away and sometimes we wish he would as then we might get the help we need.
What do we do?
Well, the question resulted in several responses, a couple positive or sympathetic, one quite dismissive. But the afternoon went well and things were calm, despite there being homework around. We've found that 10 minute bursts are best.
Later on in the afternoon I had a visit from my friend Lorna and we went for a meal... just a pizza and salad, and then a walk down to the Millennium Bridge and up through Walmgate Stray where I showed her my allotment. Got back soon after 8pm and I wrote my paid blog on Car Free Day and anger. See http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/
I publicly apologise to Gill and my family for again talking about family issues within this public domain. I shouldn't do it, and should try to limit it to my life and my attempts to be 'low carbon'. I do find this difficult though after over 20 years diary/journal writing and my very open nature. But in future I will try to limit what I put as I have upset Gill by being so public.
I am sorry and will try harder.
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