A smooth morning... apparently the child who had to finish his homework got up at 5am to do it and was ready to go to school early! I left soon after with the other, and got to school on time as usual. On the way home I found some clumps of Flammulina, winter mushroom or velvet shank, so brought those back to add to the evening meal.
Gill and I had a tidying morning and sorted out the SUMA order. I quickly cycled down to the bank to pay in a cheque from one of the SUMA food co-op members and transfer some money into our SUMA account so we can pay for the order when it's delivered. After lunch I went to see David the photographer to look at the pics he's sorted out from the gig a few weeks ago. Some lovely shots of the audience enjoying themselves, but not that many good ones of me, mainly because of a non-uniform background confusing the images.
I picked up some stuff from Country Fresh and brought it home, going straight off to school to do the composting there and pick up our little one. He'd had a good day and was whistling loudly on the way home.
We got home at almost the same time as our eldest, who came back with a new friend who's not been here before. So a pretty happy bunch of children, very nice! Whilst the older two were on the computer, I played on the Wii at my son's request... he's much better than me so I let the team down somewhat and he then asked me to get off the team as he'd do better by himself!
But, it was a very nice Friday evening... we all ate together although the boys had baked potatoes and omelette and Gill and I had stir-fried veg (including the enokitake mushrooms I picked earlier and some reject sprouts which I had to peel/prepare quite carefully to get to the edible bits) with noodles... and I had some of the pickled walnuts from last summer. Very vinegary.
In the evening, checked out the trailers for a forthcoming film The Age Of Stupid, which looks really interesting. It's based on a surviving human (Pete Postlethwaite) in 2055 looking back and wondering why we didn't DO SOMETHING about the impending climate crisis which was obvious to anyone who understood basic science and could foresee the consequences of continued consumption of carbon fuel. The film comes out in March and promises to have more of an impact than An Inconvenient Truth. I look forward to it.
I also did a load more fruit drying, washing up and general household stuff whilst Gill snoozed... she's a 'lark' and I'm an 'owl' but we still find time to be awake together and enjoy each other's company...
Friday, 30 January 2009
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Thursday 29th January 09
Another 'good side of the bed' morning... with luck this is a new approach to getting up and ready for school! I cycled our youngest into school and cycled straight in to town in order to meet Stuart who's part of Visit York, to discuss my role in the York Residents' Festival, which for many years has been the York Residents First Weekend, where locals brandishing a 'YorkCard' could get in a whole load of visitor attractions free, and some places not usually open to the public, like the Minster Stoneyard. So this forthcoming weekend there is a new-look event, with a wide range of attractions open, plus activities and entertainments in Parliament St and St Sampson's Square. They've got a huge Tepee type structure for a sort of stage area, and I'm contracted to do 5 one-hour shows over the two days.
So I chatted to Stuart for 20 minutes and then headed to the station to meet a student called Sally who's doing a dissertation on supermarket waste food, and some solutions to the problem. She'd contacted the UK Freegan website and asked if anyone in the North East would be willing to talk about what they do to reduce this kind of waste, and I said I was happy to show her. She was due to arrive at about 10am but by 10.15 she hadn't turned up so I cycled home. An hour later I got a phone call from Ivana at St Nicks saying that Sally had found her way to St Nicks after missing her first train, and could I meet her down there.
I cycled down and showed her around the centre, then we walked back home via the supermarket who sell me their unsold veg and fruit for a penny per sack, so I can use whatever I can, and compost the rest. We had lunch and I gave her a little tour of the estate (!) and answered her questions as well as signing a release form to allow her to use the info I've given her. My request was that I would like to read her dissertation once it's done.
She walked back into town and I cycled down to school to collect our little one.
A peaceful evening until homework was mentioned. Homework is the absolute bane of all our lives as when it is due to be done, there is inevitable trouble. So, we all had a nice tea... Gill made a stew with my help... I prepared some of the veg, including Jerusalem artichokes which need careful peeling as they are rather knobbly, at least the ones I grow are! Gill made a cheese scone mix to put on top of the stew... the veg cooked on the stove, then the 'cobbler' placed on top, and bunged in the oven for half an hour to cook the scone dough on top. Totally yummy, as is over 90% of Gill's cooking. Whilst she was making this, I made tomato soup for the weekend, and Melody came, her son and ours spent time on the computer, having fun with 'Club Penguin'. Melody and offspring went, having done a SUMA order and had fun on the computer, respectively. We then had tea... very nice, all together. Then time for homework and it all kicked off.
The situation became so serious that I was unable to go out to the meeting I was supposed to, as I had to stay in and deal with the difficulties that were occurring. Extremely depressing stuff as when it happens, I feel like a rubbish Dad, even though I know I'm doing OK compared to many less-involved and less caring fathers.
Of course, non-parents cannot understand, and some parents with easy children won't either... and it feels slightly better when we get sympathetic comments from those in the know as we know we're not alone. One of the problems is that both children get teased about me and my compost toilet... this is obviously the weirdest thing I do in some people's eyes, and children can be so cruel and unthinking, especially to other children. I love my boys so much it really hurts to go through what we are going through, and I feel little pangs of guilt and responsibility... some from the fact that I was a difficult child and some of my traits are obviously heritable, and also because the lifestyle I lead means I stick out from the crowd and it's easy for my sons to get teased and bullied about what I do. And neither of them actually use the compost toilet... it's absolutely nothing at all to do with them!
So, I missed the YiT meeting and spent at least an hour keeping the peace. Things did eventually cool down... no-one can keep up that level of activity for long... it's obviously exhausting.
Had a very nice sympathetic phone call from a good friend who is going through something similar. Much needed support. By 11.20pm the homework was done... an amazing piece of work, really excellent!
What an evening, what a day, what a life!
So I chatted to Stuart for 20 minutes and then headed to the station to meet a student called Sally who's doing a dissertation on supermarket waste food, and some solutions to the problem. She'd contacted the UK Freegan website and asked if anyone in the North East would be willing to talk about what they do to reduce this kind of waste, and I said I was happy to show her. She was due to arrive at about 10am but by 10.15 she hadn't turned up so I cycled home. An hour later I got a phone call from Ivana at St Nicks saying that Sally had found her way to St Nicks after missing her first train, and could I meet her down there.
I cycled down and showed her around the centre, then we walked back home via the supermarket who sell me their unsold veg and fruit for a penny per sack, so I can use whatever I can, and compost the rest. We had lunch and I gave her a little tour of the estate (!) and answered her questions as well as signing a release form to allow her to use the info I've given her. My request was that I would like to read her dissertation once it's done.
She walked back into town and I cycled down to school to collect our little one.
A peaceful evening until homework was mentioned. Homework is the absolute bane of all our lives as when it is due to be done, there is inevitable trouble. So, we all had a nice tea... Gill made a stew with my help... I prepared some of the veg, including Jerusalem artichokes which need careful peeling as they are rather knobbly, at least the ones I grow are! Gill made a cheese scone mix to put on top of the stew... the veg cooked on the stove, then the 'cobbler' placed on top, and bunged in the oven for half an hour to cook the scone dough on top. Totally yummy, as is over 90% of Gill's cooking. Whilst she was making this, I made tomato soup for the weekend, and Melody came, her son and ours spent time on the computer, having fun with 'Club Penguin'. Melody and offspring went, having done a SUMA order and had fun on the computer, respectively. We then had tea... very nice, all together. Then time for homework and it all kicked off.
The situation became so serious that I was unable to go out to the meeting I was supposed to, as I had to stay in and deal with the difficulties that were occurring. Extremely depressing stuff as when it happens, I feel like a rubbish Dad, even though I know I'm doing OK compared to many less-involved and less caring fathers.
Of course, non-parents cannot understand, and some parents with easy children won't either... and it feels slightly better when we get sympathetic comments from those in the know as we know we're not alone. One of the problems is that both children get teased about me and my compost toilet... this is obviously the weirdest thing I do in some people's eyes, and children can be so cruel and unthinking, especially to other children. I love my boys so much it really hurts to go through what we are going through, and I feel little pangs of guilt and responsibility... some from the fact that I was a difficult child and some of my traits are obviously heritable, and also because the lifestyle I lead means I stick out from the crowd and it's easy for my sons to get teased and bullied about what I do. And neither of them actually use the compost toilet... it's absolutely nothing at all to do with them!
So, I missed the YiT meeting and spent at least an hour keeping the peace. Things did eventually cool down... no-one can keep up that level of activity for long... it's obviously exhausting.
Had a very nice sympathetic phone call from a good friend who is going through something similar. Much needed support. By 11.20pm the homework was done... an amazing piece of work, really excellent!
What an evening, what a day, what a life!
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Wednesday 28th January 09
Another peaceful morning; lovely. We never know if the boys will get out of bed 'one side' and get ready for school without a murmur, or 'the other side', and be quite resistant and uncooperative. Today was the good side!
Gill went to Art once I'd got back, I took some compostables down to the now steaming heap and saw a heron in the top of a neighbour's tree. It was having hassle from a crow, and soon flew off.
I did some log-management too, in the front, chopping up some big logs recently retrieved from various dumps, and splitting and stacking them.
Gill came back and had lunch, Will came round and we finished off the LETS Awards for All application, to allow us to get the LETS Link UK software which will allow us to become a web-based organisation. I'll now ask Melody to check the application, and I have to get our new bank signatories sorted, and find an independent referee.
I had a rest after lunch as I was suddenly absolutely bushed, but got up at 2.30 as I had to set off for work at about 3pm. I'd had a phone call yesterday to invite me to go and entertain Riccall Rainbows, the youngest of the Brownie/Guide continuum. They meet at 4.30 for an hour every Wednesday, and the client wanted me to go and do two sessions (or was it me that suggested this?), one today and one in a few weeks time. I'd agreed a ridiculously low fee... at this time of year, on a weekday, and in 'these times' of not much money around, I have to take any work I can get. So I decided on a route -Heslington, Fulford, Naburn Lane, Route 65 York-Selby cycle track, Riccall. So most of this ride was off-road, and took me about an hour... I didn't go over fast as I'd given it enough time to cycle steadily and get there in plenty of time. I saw my second interesting bird of the day, a lovely pale barn owl, between the sewage works on Naburn Lane and the cycle track.
I got to Riccall at 4pm and cooled off, waited for the keyholder to arrive and then I went and got changed and ready to rumble! Did my standard show, in 50 minutes, and cycled back, in very dark conditions (took my dynamo off for much of the cycle track bit... exciting cycling in the pitch black!) Arrived home at 7pm, really tired and looking forward to tea... I just had sandwiches as Gill had had her hands full whilst I was out and had not been able to cook for herself or me. The boys had some quiche and potatoes, but then needed a lot of 'looking after' so she was unable to get on. She was very glad to see me! I was able t calm things down and the problem homework got done and both of them got to bed at about 9pm. Phew!
A nice peaceful evening... including a phone call from my Aunty in Norfolk.. we chatted for half an hour and she was most supportive.
Spent quite a bit of time trying to find another speaker for the launch of Transition Town Kirbymoorside, which I've been invited to attend. I suggested finding a more 'normal' person to speak as well as me, as my tiny footprint might be seen as a bit unobtainable and my deep-green lifestyle not very realistic for the majority of ordinary folks trying to reduce their impact by 10 or 20%. I look forward to some replies. Any offers from newbie greenies happily considered, especially if you are not male, middle aged and bearded!
Gill went to Art once I'd got back, I took some compostables down to the now steaming heap and saw a heron in the top of a neighbour's tree. It was having hassle from a crow, and soon flew off.
I did some log-management too, in the front, chopping up some big logs recently retrieved from various dumps, and splitting and stacking them.
Gill came back and had lunch, Will came round and we finished off the LETS Awards for All application, to allow us to get the LETS Link UK software which will allow us to become a web-based organisation. I'll now ask Melody to check the application, and I have to get our new bank signatories sorted, and find an independent referee.
I had a rest after lunch as I was suddenly absolutely bushed, but got up at 2.30 as I had to set off for work at about 3pm. I'd had a phone call yesterday to invite me to go and entertain Riccall Rainbows, the youngest of the Brownie/Guide continuum. They meet at 4.30 for an hour every Wednesday, and the client wanted me to go and do two sessions (or was it me that suggested this?), one today and one in a few weeks time. I'd agreed a ridiculously low fee... at this time of year, on a weekday, and in 'these times' of not much money around, I have to take any work I can get. So I decided on a route -Heslington, Fulford, Naburn Lane, Route 65 York-Selby cycle track, Riccall. So most of this ride was off-road, and took me about an hour... I didn't go over fast as I'd given it enough time to cycle steadily and get there in plenty of time. I saw my second interesting bird of the day, a lovely pale barn owl, between the sewage works on Naburn Lane and the cycle track.
I got to Riccall at 4pm and cooled off, waited for the keyholder to arrive and then I went and got changed and ready to rumble! Did my standard show, in 50 minutes, and cycled back, in very dark conditions (took my dynamo off for much of the cycle track bit... exciting cycling in the pitch black!) Arrived home at 7pm, really tired and looking forward to tea... I just had sandwiches as Gill had had her hands full whilst I was out and had not been able to cook for herself or me. The boys had some quiche and potatoes, but then needed a lot of 'looking after' so she was unable to get on. She was very glad to see me! I was able t calm things down and the problem homework got done and both of them got to bed at about 9pm. Phew!
A nice peaceful evening... including a phone call from my Aunty in Norfolk.. we chatted for half an hour and she was most supportive.
Spent quite a bit of time trying to find another speaker for the launch of Transition Town Kirbymoorside, which I've been invited to attend. I suggested finding a more 'normal' person to speak as well as me, as my tiny footprint might be seen as a bit unobtainable and my deep-green lifestyle not very realistic for the majority of ordinary folks trying to reduce their impact by 10 or 20%. I look forward to some replies. Any offers from newbie greenies happily considered, especially if you are not male, middle aged and bearded!
Tuesday 27th January 09
A relatively peaceful morning, both children getting off to school as normal.
I got back and immediately went on the Government 'self employed' tax declaration website to submit my tax return. It was not easy... two businesses, interest from savings, a 'capital expense' ie my bike which I bought in Autumn 07, and I was advised to split the cost between my two businesses and personal use, a small 'loss' on 'John the Composter' the previous year to bring forward to the 07/08 year, but enough Fiddlesticks income to live on.... too complicated for my liking. I think that I'll hand over all my paperwork to an accountant for the 08/09 tax year, it'll be a lot less stressful!
This took all f the morning... but I did arrive at the end and a figure to pay. Hooray!
After lunch I bombed into town and got a cheque out and went straight to the tax office and gave it in.
Then cycled straight in to school and picked up our youngest, who'd had a good day. As I had just an hour before going into Leeds, I went to find a selection of different types and grades of compost, and two bags of worms which I'm swapping for some blackcurrant bushes. Also got a big mix of dried fruit together to donate to the shared meal.
Just caught the 5.28 train to Leeds... I didn't have time to get a ticket at the station and was prepared to buy one on the train. However, there was no conductor, so arrived in Leeds needing to get a ticket in the station platform area before going out through the new barriers. But there was no office open on the platforms, and the staff advised me to just walk through the barriers (which were open anyway!) and buy tickets at the ticket office. I did do this... a return, but could have avoided paying for the outward journey if I'd have wanted to.
An easy walk to The Common Place where the Leeds Permaculture Network was meeting. It was a social, with shared food and then an 'inspirational' talk from me with all you ever needed to know about composting, with exhibits and humour! It worked well and it seemed that we all enjoyed ourselves... I certainly did. The donations covered my travel and my dried fruit went down well. I swapped the worms for a large bag of assorted blackcurrant bushes and a spineless gooseberry. I will send another worm donation through the post as I feel Niels got rather less on that swap than me! The talk might result in some Compost Doctor contacts, some people coming to Carbon Detox, maybe something more...!
The train journey back was nice as I met Jill as in Ben-and-Jill, and her colleague Alex, both physicists at Leeds University.
Home soon after 10pm to a tired Gill who'd missed me.
I got back and immediately went on the Government 'self employed' tax declaration website to submit my tax return. It was not easy... two businesses, interest from savings, a 'capital expense' ie my bike which I bought in Autumn 07, and I was advised to split the cost between my two businesses and personal use, a small 'loss' on 'John the Composter' the previous year to bring forward to the 07/08 year, but enough Fiddlesticks income to live on.... too complicated for my liking. I think that I'll hand over all my paperwork to an accountant for the 08/09 tax year, it'll be a lot less stressful!
This took all f the morning... but I did arrive at the end and a figure to pay. Hooray!
After lunch I bombed into town and got a cheque out and went straight to the tax office and gave it in.
Then cycled straight in to school and picked up our youngest, who'd had a good day. As I had just an hour before going into Leeds, I went to find a selection of different types and grades of compost, and two bags of worms which I'm swapping for some blackcurrant bushes. Also got a big mix of dried fruit together to donate to the shared meal.
Just caught the 5.28 train to Leeds... I didn't have time to get a ticket at the station and was prepared to buy one on the train. However, there was no conductor, so arrived in Leeds needing to get a ticket in the station platform area before going out through the new barriers. But there was no office open on the platforms, and the staff advised me to just walk through the barriers (which were open anyway!) and buy tickets at the ticket office. I did do this... a return, but could have avoided paying for the outward journey if I'd have wanted to.
An easy walk to The Common Place where the Leeds Permaculture Network was meeting. It was a social, with shared food and then an 'inspirational' talk from me with all you ever needed to know about composting, with exhibits and humour! It worked well and it seemed that we all enjoyed ourselves... I certainly did. The donations covered my travel and my dried fruit went down well. I swapped the worms for a large bag of assorted blackcurrant bushes and a spineless gooseberry. I will send another worm donation through the post as I feel Niels got rather less on that swap than me! The talk might result in some Compost Doctor contacts, some people coming to Carbon Detox, maybe something more...!
The train journey back was nice as I met Jill as in Ben-and-Jill, and her colleague Alex, both physicists at Leeds University.
Home soon after 10pm to a tired Gill who'd missed me.
Monday, 26 January 2009
Moday 26th January 09
Another tough morning. I am not enjoying parenting one bit at the moment.
Took our youngest to school and came back to get ready for the Compost Doctors training; Catherine the York Rotters was also booked in so she picked me up and drove me to Elvington Airfield where the training was taking place.
Cath and Doug ran the training and I was slightly disappointed that the DEFRA offer is for 'third sector' organisations which promote composting, not individuals who might be wanting to be consultants. So if I am to be a 'Compost Doctor', I'll have to do it through York Rotters. Now York Rotters is a 'Master Composter' scheme... it trains up volunteers to promote home composting, not businesses' organics composting or 'commercial' composting. The Compost Doctors scheme is aimed squarely at businesses... schools, prisons, greengrocers with a garden behind the shop, a cafe within a park... basically any catering establishment with grounds in which to compost their catering waste and, importantly, grounds which can use the resultant soil-improver. However, I enjoyed the training and participated in my usual enthusiastic way, and the issue of working through York Rotters needn't be a barrier to my doing this consultancy work. It might be good for York Rotters, providing some good publicity and and some income.
The food was good, and I enjoyed meeting the other potential Compost Doctors, including Chris from Leeds BTCV who goes into schools and teaches about 'education for sustainable development', something I'm keen on. Hope to meet him again. The training finished just after 4.30 and Catherine and I came back into York. She too thinks that if I do the Compost Doctor stuff, she will not need to do much admin, so I won't be using up her core York Rotters time. So a decision is needed soon as I have just 8 weeks to do the work!
Things were calm at home... as calm as waiting for a volcano to explode. But we all had a civil teatime, not much talking and no arguments or the like. Gill manages to just keep going and kind of 'surf' over the difficulties, but I am feeling depressed.
However, I cheered up when I got a phone call from Kirbymoorside in Transition, who are launching their Transition initiative in April, and after seeing my spread in The Ecologist, have been asked to speak at the launch. How nice! I also got a Fiddlesticks booking for an event in Hull.
Took our youngest to school and came back to get ready for the Compost Doctors training; Catherine the York Rotters was also booked in so she picked me up and drove me to Elvington Airfield where the training was taking place.
Cath and Doug ran the training and I was slightly disappointed that the DEFRA offer is for 'third sector' organisations which promote composting, not individuals who might be wanting to be consultants. So if I am to be a 'Compost Doctor', I'll have to do it through York Rotters. Now York Rotters is a 'Master Composter' scheme... it trains up volunteers to promote home composting, not businesses' organics composting or 'commercial' composting. The Compost Doctors scheme is aimed squarely at businesses... schools, prisons, greengrocers with a garden behind the shop, a cafe within a park... basically any catering establishment with grounds in which to compost their catering waste and, importantly, grounds which can use the resultant soil-improver. However, I enjoyed the training and participated in my usual enthusiastic way, and the issue of working through York Rotters needn't be a barrier to my doing this consultancy work. It might be good for York Rotters, providing some good publicity and and some income.
The food was good, and I enjoyed meeting the other potential Compost Doctors, including Chris from Leeds BTCV who goes into schools and teaches about 'education for sustainable development', something I'm keen on. Hope to meet him again. The training finished just after 4.30 and Catherine and I came back into York. She too thinks that if I do the Compost Doctor stuff, she will not need to do much admin, so I won't be using up her core York Rotters time. So a decision is needed soon as I have just 8 weeks to do the work!
Things were calm at home... as calm as waiting for a volcano to explode. But we all had a civil teatime, not much talking and no arguments or the like. Gill manages to just keep going and kind of 'surf' over the difficulties, but I am feeling depressed.
However, I cheered up when I got a phone call from Kirbymoorside in Transition, who are launching their Transition initiative in April, and after seeing my spread in The Ecologist, have been asked to speak at the launch. How nice! I also got a Fiddlesticks booking for an event in Hull.
Sunday 25th January 09
I was lucky to get a lie-in til about 9.30 which was good, and we had a quite relaxed morning. At midday I set out with our eldest to visit his friend who lives a couple of miles away... perhaps a bit less than this, depending on the route taken. We had a good ride and nice chats whilst doing it. We both acknowledged that cycling together was a good thing to do and we should do more of it.
We cycled through the University and down towards Fulford, and to Candy and Eugene's. Candy was celebrating the near end of her job... she's sick of all the travelling, despite the ethical nature of the work... she is another 'low carbon wannabe' and has been going round businesses and helping them reduce their energy bills. But, it's been a cycle ride to the station, a train journey to Leeds, a 20 minute wait, a train journey to Bramley and then a one mile walk. Too much travelling... so she's jacking it in at the end of this week and is going to write a book.
She was chatting with our mutual friend Denise, and I spent a few minutes with them before cycling back via a well-known logpile. It was agreed that I'd collect my son at 7.30pm.
So, a quiet afternoon... our other son played on the computer and had some nice gentle times with Mum. I did various jobs around the home and garden, and we had a rice stir-fry for tea, containing the home-grown Oca tubers... a wonderful flavour. I wish I'd grown more of them! Trouble is they are daylight sensitive as well as frost sensitive, so they don't start making tubers til about 4 months after midsummer, so the longer after October they can be kept frost-free, the better. These were growing at the side of the house, protected from the worst of the early frosts, so plenty of pretty pink tubers.
7pm came all too soon and I cycled back through the University grounds to Candy and Eugene's, collecting 3 logs on the way. I had another little chat about shared interests before asking my little charge to find his shoes and get ready to come home. On the way out of their house, leaving by the back door, I tripped on a stick or mini-log that Eugene had collected for their Clearview stove (yet another person influenced by seeing ours!) and landed flat on my face in the gravel, with a log or branch somehow pinning my right leg down and wedged into my welly boot, I think. I couldn't move. I lay there for a few seconds mentally checking my limbs for breakages... and decided I was OK, but couldn't move. My son, who had been walking behind me, somehow moved the obstruction off my leg and I was able to get up. Although I knew I was bruised, I needed to get home (needed to get my child home actually) so we continued on our way home, chatting happily. He'd had a good time, with two friends, a variety of activities.
When we got home I told Gill how he'd rescued me and she put an ice pack on my calf, whilst my caring son looked after me. I think he must have been shocked to see me fall over and be unable to get up.
So, a very good day, plenty of bonding activity. And not a good day for my leg which is badly bruised. Listened to a bit of Equinox 107 and then a tear jerking film with Julie Walters playing Dr Anne Turner who after witnessing her husband dying from a degenerative illness, found she was developing something similar. So she decided that when it was almost too much to bear, she would commit suicide, and the drama, 'A Short Stay in Switzerland' was about this. Really powerful, had me in tears several times. Thought provoking too, as it' such a contentious issue. I do believe though, that we have a right to die in certain circumstances... and I would probably consider this option if I found myself in a similar situation. But would I be brave enough to go through with it? The drama alluded to the statistics that many who get the go-ahead from the Swiss Clinic decide not to do it.
Not too late a night as getting up early tomorrow.
We cycled through the University and down towards Fulford, and to Candy and Eugene's. Candy was celebrating the near end of her job... she's sick of all the travelling, despite the ethical nature of the work... she is another 'low carbon wannabe' and has been going round businesses and helping them reduce their energy bills. But, it's been a cycle ride to the station, a train journey to Leeds, a 20 minute wait, a train journey to Bramley and then a one mile walk. Too much travelling... so she's jacking it in at the end of this week and is going to write a book.
She was chatting with our mutual friend Denise, and I spent a few minutes with them before cycling back via a well-known logpile. It was agreed that I'd collect my son at 7.30pm.
So, a quiet afternoon... our other son played on the computer and had some nice gentle times with Mum. I did various jobs around the home and garden, and we had a rice stir-fry for tea, containing the home-grown Oca tubers... a wonderful flavour. I wish I'd grown more of them! Trouble is they are daylight sensitive as well as frost sensitive, so they don't start making tubers til about 4 months after midsummer, so the longer after October they can be kept frost-free, the better. These were growing at the side of the house, protected from the worst of the early frosts, so plenty of pretty pink tubers.
7pm came all too soon and I cycled back through the University grounds to Candy and Eugene's, collecting 3 logs on the way. I had another little chat about shared interests before asking my little charge to find his shoes and get ready to come home. On the way out of their house, leaving by the back door, I tripped on a stick or mini-log that Eugene had collected for their Clearview stove (yet another person influenced by seeing ours!) and landed flat on my face in the gravel, with a log or branch somehow pinning my right leg down and wedged into my welly boot, I think. I couldn't move. I lay there for a few seconds mentally checking my limbs for breakages... and decided I was OK, but couldn't move. My son, who had been walking behind me, somehow moved the obstruction off my leg and I was able to get up. Although I knew I was bruised, I needed to get home (needed to get my child home actually) so we continued on our way home, chatting happily. He'd had a good time, with two friends, a variety of activities.
When we got home I told Gill how he'd rescued me and she put an ice pack on my calf, whilst my caring son looked after me. I think he must have been shocked to see me fall over and be unable to get up.
So, a very good day, plenty of bonding activity. And not a good day for my leg which is badly bruised. Listened to a bit of Equinox 107 and then a tear jerking film with Julie Walters playing Dr Anne Turner who after witnessing her husband dying from a degenerative illness, found she was developing something similar. So she decided that when it was almost too much to bear, she would commit suicide, and the drama, 'A Short Stay in Switzerland' was about this. Really powerful, had me in tears several times. Thought provoking too, as it' such a contentious issue. I do believe though, that we have a right to die in certain circumstances... and I would probably consider this option if I found myself in a similar situation. But would I be brave enough to go through with it? The drama alluded to the statistics that many who get the go-ahead from the Swiss Clinic decide not to do it.
Not too late a night as getting up early tomorrow.
Saturday, 24 January 2009
Saturday 24th January 09
A reasonable day. Gill still feeling very poorly so I did all the shopping we needed... went to Thomas The Baker and the Co-op before lunch, and Country Fresh after, to get veggies and fruit, and then Scummerfield with my eldest (shock horror!) to get goats' milk. This was really nice.
I did a bit of chainsawing, splitting and stacking AND compost heap adding.
But the antibiotics seemed to kick in and Gill felt well enough to make a pizza which was delicious. I did a big tidy up of my piles of paper, finding multitudinous envelopes and sorting them into re-usable, compostable and 'have to tear out the window-able'. I then spent some time tearing out plastic windows and crumpling the rest of the envelope into a ball for composting... Envelopes are not suitable for putting with the paper recycling as the gum clogs up the recycling process and the windows are best put in the rubbish. I could just crumple up the envelopes with the plastic window.... and then remove the window out of the finished compost. But although I've put some complete envelopes with windows into various compost bins, I'm happy to spend a bit of time removing windows first.
During one of today's outbursts, our coat stand in the hall got broken which caused tears of guilt and regret. I didn't react or say anything, I just ignored the situation, as if I'd said or done anything, it would have caused things to get even worse. Therefore within a few minutes, everything had calmed down..... a good thing! I think I'm slowly learning to be a slightly better parent. Maybe. But in my day, pushing the coat stand over so it snapped would have earned some kind of punishment. Thus I feel as if I am partly neglecting my 'duties' as a parent, to instruct between right and wrong, to encourage good behaviour and discourage bad... parenting does give rise to so many dilemmas.
I did a bit of chainsawing, splitting and stacking AND compost heap adding.
But the antibiotics seemed to kick in and Gill felt well enough to make a pizza which was delicious. I did a big tidy up of my piles of paper, finding multitudinous envelopes and sorting them into re-usable, compostable and 'have to tear out the window-able'. I then spent some time tearing out plastic windows and crumpling the rest of the envelope into a ball for composting... Envelopes are not suitable for putting with the paper recycling as the gum clogs up the recycling process and the windows are best put in the rubbish. I could just crumple up the envelopes with the plastic window.... and then remove the window out of the finished compost. But although I've put some complete envelopes with windows into various compost bins, I'm happy to spend a bit of time removing windows first.
During one of today's outbursts, our coat stand in the hall got broken which caused tears of guilt and regret. I didn't react or say anything, I just ignored the situation, as if I'd said or done anything, it would have caused things to get even worse. Therefore within a few minutes, everything had calmed down..... a good thing! I think I'm slowly learning to be a slightly better parent. Maybe. But in my day, pushing the coat stand over so it snapped would have earned some kind of punishment. Thus I feel as if I am partly neglecting my 'duties' as a parent, to instruct between right and wrong, to encourage good behaviour and discourage bad... parenting does give rise to so many dilemmas.
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