Friday 14th August 09

Another good day... Up early as another phone call, and then at 11 a visit from Harrison Builders who had a chap walking around yesterday trying to interest people in having solar hot water... so today a team of 3 chaps came round and surveyed the place, looking at where the boiler is, and what kind of boiler it is, and the roof space, and they said it would be relatively simple. They were interested in the stoves, and enjoyed samples of dried fruit. I hope for a low quote!

The system they offer is by Alpha Innovation who offer 'flat plate collectors' ('Solar Smart') and I thought I wanted evacuated tubes... but I still haven't looked at all the possible options, and I've only had a couple of quotes so far. I'm keeping my mind open and wallet closed for the while!

Then sometime after 12, whilst I was riddling sawdust for the compost toilet, my next guests arrived, Ania and Lucas (pronounced Woo Cash, as he's Polish... they both are) who had asked if I might have some wood suitable for producing flavoured smoke. Lucas has got together with a friend and is purchasing a recently slaughtered pig, and is going to make sausages, hams and assorted other porky bits, including smoked stuff. Although I'm vegetarian, and have been now for 25 years or so, I am a realist and accept that 97% of the UK population do eat meat, and there is absolutely nothing I can do to change that, apart from being an 'out' vegetarian and showing people that you can lead a healthy and very active life without eating dead flesh.

So, they wanted some of my recently acquired apple, and I agreed to sort some out for them, and they were delighted that I was happy to barter this for some potatoes and other produce. I gave then a tour and Lucas said he'd be back at 6pm to pick up the wood.

Then I had lunch and continued outside, until Ben arrived as he'd asked how I was and I'd told him about my email woes, so he had a poke around Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird and Tiscali Webmail. My problem was that I'd made a second account on T-bird, one with my name and the other with my email address.. so he sorted that. But, there is still a problem. When I delete an email on T-bird, it doesn't delete on the Tiscali server which means I have to go through and delete on Webmail when I've already deleted on my email client. Bummer. Ben said he'd have a poke around and see if he could find more info.

Then Lucas came back, with a large volume of vegetation for me as a swap for the logs I sorted... about 15 kg of home grown potatoes, dug up today, and some leeks, beetroot, onions, courgettes AND a large jar of raspberry jam! He took away a car boot full of green apple logs, cut and split and ready to, well, burn slowly and smokily!

I cycled down to Country Fresh and picked up 2 sacks and 2 boxes of compostables, and had a good chat to Richard, as well as buying veg off him.

Then towards 7pm, Ivana came round and she had a tour, and we sorted out a bit of help from her... what a very busy day!

Later, I watched a good film with my eldest son, and Gill watched quite a bit of it... a 2007 offering I heard about whilst it was being filmed, called 'Grow Your Own'. Set on a Liverpool allotment, it is a 'human condition' story and was a good 90 minutes. I recommend it.

Thursday 13th August 09

I had a late start as at 2am when I'd finished watching Cell on BBC4, I went down the garden to lie on the trampoline to watch Perseids, and saw two good ones plus what I think was an 'Iridium Flare', where a satellite's solar panels briefly reflect sunlight. It was travelling South East between 2am and 2.30am.

Then I came in and Gill and I went up to the loft where we have a Velux window, and we saw a dozen good meteors between us... lovely!

But it meant we didn't get to bed til 3.30am.

So, a late start but I got up when I heard the phone, and it was for me, a Fiddlesticks booking confirmation. After this I had a very busy day... I did a lot of harvesting... poppy seeds, spinach, a courgette, some small but yummy 'Pink Fir Apple' potatoes, and whilst a young friend was here, I used the large stepladder to pick tiny pears from the huge tree mid-way down our garden. These usually ripen at the end of August and are eaten by wasps and starlings before we can get to them. So I picked what I could, dropping them to the waiting hands of the willing child helper, who caught 80% of them.

I did a bit of pruning too, some of the finished fruiting spurs of the loganberries which were sticking out a long way into the shared passageway, and a vigorous ivy. And I did some chainsawing and splitting.

Gill did a delicious tea with some of the crops... I enjoyed the spinach, tomato and Bulgar wheat portion of the meal best. But Gill's quiche was a close second. Or maybe it was the blackberry and loganberry crumble with custard which was the best bit?

At 7.30 I cycled fast into town as there was a York in Transition meeting at The Hansom Cab in Market St. This was an unstructured meeting to follow up the discussions that YiT members had at their weekend at Nook Barn a few weekends ago. I enjoyed this meeting as it flowed freely and everybody contributed, it was lively and good humoured, with 9 of us attending. We addressed the criticism that YiT was a 'Church of Transition' and just met and discussed worthy issues but didn't DO anything. We reviewed the big events we've organised, the many smaller events, the satellite Transition groups which have spawned from us and are being nurtured by us, and debated what we should be doing in the future and how we should do it. A few firm conclusions were arrived at, and we decided to have the next YiT meeting in the pub as it was obviously the right place to attract good numbers of people and have good communication.

I got home at 10pm with a sack of Country Fresh compostables and 6 bags from Gladys, who rang earlier to ask me to collect her garden clippings.

I spent a long time during the evening preparing pears... some I stewed in red wine and mead, others I cut into 6 slices and put for drying.

Wednesday 12th August 09

A late start after a late night. But I got up in time to get on my bike and heading for Clifton Moor for a meeting at midday. I had responded to a message about some unwanted garden equipment sent to people on the Low Moor Allotments email list a couple of weeks ago, and had a phone conversation with one of the old lady's daughters. The lady had been bereaved and her keen composter husband had several good bits of kit which she was selling, as she wasn't quite as keen as him!

So I viewed the mid-size Compostumbler, a Can-O-Worms wormery and a 'Merlin' wormery. I was mainly interested in the Compostumbler, and we'd negotiated on the price and I'd been offered it for £70, very reasonable. I bought the Can-O-Worms and she gave me the other wormery. They were VERY surprised that I was able to get all these on my bike and trailer, although I'm glad they didn't see my trailer fall over when I turned the Bumper Castle corner! The Compostumbler stayed on the trailer and I was able to pull it upright again quite easily, and I managed to get home slowly and more carefully.

I got home at about 1.30 and had lunch, and waited for my friend Friedmann, whom I met on a Critical Mass cycle ride ages ago, and his new partner Bettina, and his 14 year-old son. They came at 2.30 and we had a good chat over a cuppa, then a walk down the garden, then I took them to St Nicks. I really enjoyed their company, and was glad they came with me... and they might participate in the Eco-Active day next week.

I came home and got on with setting up the new Compostumbler, and doing some tidying up.

After 8pm I popped round to a Freecycler called Mark who was offering a set of 3 juggling balls and some size 10 'Dr Marten' shoes with steel toe caps. I had a good chat with him as he is a keen cyclist, has just bought a unicycle (but cannot ride it yet!) and is about to go and work at BikeRescue.

So a very busy day.

Tuesday 11th August 09

Wedding today..... I like weddings! I met Rachel through a science festival that I worked at, with my Professor Fiddlesticks Fun Physics show, within the last 8 or 9 years, I cannot remember when it was exactly. She has a zest for life which I liked, and we became friends... and last year she met Tony, who lost his wife to cancer a few years ago, and seemed like really good husband material.

So, Rachel booked me to go and entertain today, at Repton near Derby. I got the 11.27 train down to Derby and then a short trip to Willington, just another 7 minutes on the train, then to a bus stop where I waited 15 minutes for the 1.30 bus. This took me the mile to Repton, where I easily found the Pears Hall where the reception was to take place.

I chatted to the Caretaker, who took me up to the Pears Hall where I chatted to the DJs, who showed me where the 'meet and greet' session would be, in a courtyard/cloister behind the hall.

I had a couple of hours to kill, because of the timings of the public transport, so I found a nice pub called The Boot which had a mug of coffee for me, and I read my NewScientist for 45 minutes.

I got changed back at Pears Hall and waited for the wedding party to arrive, and did some unicycling and devilsticking whilst the guests assembled for the group photo.

Then the pre-meal bit of the reception, and luckily there were some 'game' teenage girls who were happy to have a go with the devilsticks, juggling and yoyoballs... and some children who wanted (and got!) balloon models.

I ate with everybody else, a nice buffet and then, during the speeches, I kept the children amused with more balloons and assorted circus tricks.

I really enjoyed my role, and was very happy for Rachel that she had found a good man, and of course I was delighted for Tony as Rachel is gorgeous.

I got a lift back to Derby, and got the 9.11 train back to York, which got in at 11pm, a very easy journey. I collected about 7 glass beer bottles from my carriage and popped them into a plastic carrier bag and slipped them into my trailer so I could put them in the recycling when I got home.

A lovely work day, all done by public transport or lift-share, and I felt I contributed well to the event. And I got paid... how lucky am I?

Monday 10th August 09

Ten years since our youngest son was born... and consequently an early start, as on birthdays, children don't stay in their bed very long and they wake early with the excitement!

But it was lovely to see him opening his cards and presents, and it didn't take him long to find the things in the garden hidden by his older brother.

I was really happy that he got a card from his grandparents, whom we don't have a lot of contact with, and he rang them up to say thank you.

I went to the building society, the Dentist's for a scale and polish, then on to the station to renew our family railcard, and bought tickets for today's trip to Scarborough.

The journey to Scar was good, and when we got there we headed down to the beach to dig channels in the sand and make our characteristic sand-castles with turrets made from dribbled wet sand. It was drizzly but not cold. Nice co-operation with the canal we built, at least, no arguing.

Then a bus trip round the headland to the North Bay, got off and walked up to the little railway and water-chute thing, and Gill watched us three have two goes on the water-chute... basically a wooden boat which slides into the lake, is hauled out back up the slope, and slides down in again. Fun!

Then down to the Peaseholm Park, where several times a week there is a 'Naval Battle' with 20 foot-long model boats, operated by a person inside, acting out a WW2 battle with model planes on wires, fireworks, explosions next to the boats and it was quite dynamic.

After this, our birthday boy requested a go in the 'dragon-boat' pedalo so Gill again watched, with her camera, and we had a good little go around. Then back to the bus, up the cliff lift and to the train which we just got, with one minute to spare...

I picked up a large load of compostables from Country Fresh, and a big head of broccoli for tea. Gill did linguine and a veg sauce... one of our youngest's favourites.

Several phone calls this evening, including one from a journalist from Toxin Magazine about the Big Green Gathering.

Sunday 9th August 09

A nice day with the family. I woke quite late but got busy in the kitchen after breakfast, and it was a peaceful and very productive day.

Gill had cut down some overhanging Lilac and cut back an overenthusiastic willow, and she wanted me to dispose of this cut material. I cut off the smaller branches and shredded them, and put the larger sticks aside to be cut to a stackable length for kindling.

I then got busy further down the garden, pruned the cherry tree... cutting the long branches back to half their length to make it easier to put the net over next year. I also cut several lengths of hedge, including one which had got very long and needed work with secateurs not the shears. I shredded all this to help it rot down more quickly. I have several sacks of this mainly woody material to add to heaps and tumblers which have the mainly fruity and veggie material on them, to help with aeration and carbon-nitrogen balance.

We harvested some potatoes from the woven green sacks where they've been growing all summer, very satisfying. I also picked some Jack Edwards Climbing Pea Beans and some broccoli and a small crook-neck squash, all of which Gilly melded into a lovely meal.

At one stage during the day I got my emails and there was a Freecycle offer from John Bibby, my friend who has had quite a bit of tree work done in his garden, offering a trailer-load of willow sticks. I replied and asked if he had any of the other wood left, the pear, laburnum and better-to-burn wood, and he replied and suggested I cycle round and pick some up.

So when I got there there were quite a few of the good-to-burn logs there, and John suggested that I fill his car up and he drive a load round. I was only expecting to take a bike-trailer's worth, but he was happy to be rid of the stuff as he wanted to clear his garden. So I loaded his car, and my trailer, and I cycled back and John drove round 20 minutes later, and I unloaded his car. I must now have one of the best collections of logs in York! And a heck of a lot of work to do!

Our eldest was also busy today, preparing for his younger brother's birthday tomorrow. He has made a complicated map of the garden and cut it up and hidden the different bits in various different places, so that when all of them are put back together it reveals the whereabouts of some buried treasure. This treasure is the birthday present. So there was various help needed with this task, including keeping his younger brother unaware of the preparations. A fun task.

So, a hard working day, good moods all round, productive, happy.

Saturday 8th August 09

Quite an early start as I had planned on getting the 8.57 tram down to the station, but I was 5 minutes from Ali's house when I suddenly thought 'where's my hat' and realised that I'd left it at Ali's house. So I rushed back and found it and asked Janet, Ali's PA, if she would ring a taxi for me, as I knew I'd never reach the tram in time and there's only two per hour, so the next one wouldn't get me to the 9.44 train on time.

So I got a taxi, had a good chat to the taxi driver, and was at the station by 9.20, in good time to buy a ticket to Warrington. The journey was pretty smooth and quiet until a couple got on with a large plastic pet carrier, which didn't contain a pet, but did have a handbag in it. This caused quite a few humorous comments. I hope they picked up their kittens and got them home safely. I enjoyed chatting to Jean, half of the Jean/Martin/Petcarrier couple.

I rang Philip, my Warrington City Centre management handler when I got to Warrington at 11am, and he met me and we walked up to the place where I was due to work at midday for three hours. There was a little gazebo up, in an area surrounding a circular water feature... it looked good enough for me. I had my sandwich at the nearby office, got changed and started work before 12. I had a reasonable response, not a huge crowd, but a good trickle of people all the time, many spending quite a lot of time with me, including one couple who spent at least two hours sitting on the edge of the water feature and they both joined in from time to time. Philip hovered around for much of the day, seemed happy that I was engaging enough people and doing what I was supposed to. The giveaway balloon models were a big hit, I had to restrict them to people who had given one of the skills a try. So lots of people trying the four-wheel unicycle, and several got as far as the one-wheeler! I had one new juggler who came to me with the ability to juggle two balls in one hand, and saying he couldn't do three... but left with a good three-ball cascade ability, and a couple of potential devilstick newbies who were pleased with their new-found skill.

I worked non stop, and at 2.40 Philip nodded to me, but I continued til 3 as I knew that the train wasn't that soon after 3 and the station was very close. I had an ice cream and a fruit juice drink at the station, to cool off... The train was at 3.44, destined to Scarborough. Chatted to Danny a tattooist, then to Nanda a software tester, and at Leeds my good friends Roswitha and Peter got on, which was a real treat for me. So the journey home went really quickly, and I was home at about 6pm. A very enjoyable day working.

And how lovely to see my family, who were all fine and Gill had made pizza for us all for tea.

I sorted out my email password problem, mostly. Thunderbird is still demanding a password and not accepting it, but allowing me to get my emails anyway! Very odd.