Woke late, and got up to watch Country Tracks which was good.
I eventually got dressed. A bit later I cycled down to St Nicks via Country Fresh, picking up a couple of sacks of bits and bobs, plus the fruit and veg we need over the next few days. And so to St Nicks to get busy again with the compost bays. I worked really hard and have now turned about half of the material. I picked up a couple of logs on the way home, and said hello to my friends at Freshways. They were dealing with some drunk youths. One of them fell over my trailer. He was initially abusive, but soon apologised to me for being abusive... walking towards me, I thought he was going to hit me... but he shook my hand and then wobbled off.
Later, after dark, Gill asked me to return the DVD which she'd got out yesterday, so I cycled down there and came back with another load of logs from the dump the tree surgeon uses.
Another quiet evening, although I tried to re-write an email I once sent about a complicated subject to make it part of a web page. All will be revealed soon enough!
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Saturday 6th February 10
Up at a reasonable time so that I could get to St Nicks for soon after 10am, as I'd promised to dig out the compost bay which is over-full, and it needed turning into the next bay.
I took my fork and spade down in the trailer and fully expected to have a couple of hours work by myself... peace and quiet, with the birds singing around me and an occasional dog walker passing by.
There was a lot of work to do; the composting area is a concrete base with 4 walls of breeze blocks, about 6 metres long, a metre high and about a metre between each wall. Each bay therefore is about 6 cubic metres of space. A pet shop regularly drops off sacks of sawdust and pet bedding, and this makes up the majority of the material, but I have on occasion added stuff and other people probably do too. But no-one is completely in charge or responsible.
So, I started getting the second bay ready for the contents of the first, and did about half an hour, with a short chat to Sue the Priest, out walking her dog, and anticipating the service in Doncaster this afternoon. Then I was joined by a 20 year old student, who offered to help and I let her have the fork, which is easier to use, and she worked at one end of the pile and I started towards the other, but in the middle whilst standing in the empty bay and adding to the pile that she was also adding to. We talked about all sorts of things, her history degree, her half Chinese ancestry and peoples' attitudes to race, lots of other subjects. We worked together for well over an hour. I think we shifted about a quarter or a fifth of the compost. Lots more needs doing!
I went into the Environment Centre at about 12.30 and the Eco-Active volunteers were all having lunch, and John invited me to have lunch too. I did, and chatted to a nice Chilean guy and a female student from Minnesota.
Home to a peaceful house... our youngest had gone to a birthday party and wasn't due back til 7pm. I busied myself in the front, trying to tidy up after the unwanted planks and packing wood had been almost tossed everywhere after yesterday's sorting of good from bad. I chainsawed up quite a bit more and built a good stack on the right of the door.
When I came in for a coffee I chopped up two huge onions, rejects because of surface blemishes, and slow-fried them on the stove, hoping that they would come in useful for tonight's meal.
Later, Gill decided to treat our eldest to a DVD from Blockbusters and a bag of chips from the Chinese takeaway just beyond it. So they ate together and I made myself a meal based on the onions. I had couscous (free as the bag had split), sweet red pepper paprika (made from thrown-away peppers) cooked in marmite water (to clean out the nearly empty jar) and a couple of, shock horror, bought mushrooms. Oh, and there was a 'crust' of Edam cheese left in the fridge because Gill cuts this cheese parallel to the rind, leaving a half centimetre of wasted cheese..... but not if I can help it, so I chopped that into small cubes and mixed them in just before I plonked it on my plate. Delicious! And 90% free materials... only the olive oil, mushrooms and cheese was paid-for. Even the heat to cook it was free. I really like meals like this!
A nothingy evening followed... bit of telly, kept the stove going as it's another cold night, played on the laptop for ages.
I took my fork and spade down in the trailer and fully expected to have a couple of hours work by myself... peace and quiet, with the birds singing around me and an occasional dog walker passing by.
There was a lot of work to do; the composting area is a concrete base with 4 walls of breeze blocks, about 6 metres long, a metre high and about a metre between each wall. Each bay therefore is about 6 cubic metres of space. A pet shop regularly drops off sacks of sawdust and pet bedding, and this makes up the majority of the material, but I have on occasion added stuff and other people probably do too. But no-one is completely in charge or responsible.
So, I started getting the second bay ready for the contents of the first, and did about half an hour, with a short chat to Sue the Priest, out walking her dog, and anticipating the service in Doncaster this afternoon. Then I was joined by a 20 year old student, who offered to help and I let her have the fork, which is easier to use, and she worked at one end of the pile and I started towards the other, but in the middle whilst standing in the empty bay and adding to the pile that she was also adding to. We talked about all sorts of things, her history degree, her half Chinese ancestry and peoples' attitudes to race, lots of other subjects. We worked together for well over an hour. I think we shifted about a quarter or a fifth of the compost. Lots more needs doing!
I went into the Environment Centre at about 12.30 and the Eco-Active volunteers were all having lunch, and John invited me to have lunch too. I did, and chatted to a nice Chilean guy and a female student from Minnesota.
Home to a peaceful house... our youngest had gone to a birthday party and wasn't due back til 7pm. I busied myself in the front, trying to tidy up after the unwanted planks and packing wood had been almost tossed everywhere after yesterday's sorting of good from bad. I chainsawed up quite a bit more and built a good stack on the right of the door.
When I came in for a coffee I chopped up two huge onions, rejects because of surface blemishes, and slow-fried them on the stove, hoping that they would come in useful for tonight's meal.
Later, Gill decided to treat our eldest to a DVD from Blockbusters and a bag of chips from the Chinese takeaway just beyond it. So they ate together and I made myself a meal based on the onions. I had couscous (free as the bag had split), sweet red pepper paprika (made from thrown-away peppers) cooked in marmite water (to clean out the nearly empty jar) and a couple of, shock horror, bought mushrooms. Oh, and there was a 'crust' of Edam cheese left in the fridge because Gill cuts this cheese parallel to the rind, leaving a half centimetre of wasted cheese..... but not if I can help it, so I chopped that into small cubes and mixed them in just before I plonked it on my plate. Delicious! And 90% free materials... only the olive oil, mushrooms and cheese was paid-for. Even the heat to cook it was free. I really like meals like this!
A nothingy evening followed... bit of telly, kept the stove going as it's another cold night, played on the laptop for ages.
Friday, 5 February 2010
Friday 5th February 10
Gill woke me up at 8.30 as requested, and I was breakfasted and dressed by 9 which was good as Carolyn was on time, to come and 'triage' the wood that I've got to decide which is good for building bee hives and which is fit just for burning. The wood which came yesterday from Hull also had some pieces which seemed OK for beehive construction... very opportune that they came yesterday and the wood was needed today!
So Carolyn cycled away with some, and I'll take a trailer full down to St Nicks at lunchtime, after my next visitor.
On the dot of 10am, Lizzie arrived. I met her through a email discussion list we're both on, and she asked if anyone who fitted her criteria would be willing to help her with her dissertation. This is an undergraduate linguistics degree, and Lizzie is wanting to study how people tell stories about their life, or 'narratives'. She's less interested in the content, the story, but more into analyzing the language used. So I messaged her and she sent me the consent forms, and today she was visiting a friend in York, so this morning she walked up from Walmgate and arrived, as intended, at 10.
The study took about 2 hours, and she recorded nearly all of it... only switching off when I went to make a coffee or load the stove. Her questions were fairly general, things like 'Can you tell me about one thing that stands out as a memory from your childhood?' and 'tell me about four important people from your life', and a string of similar questions. I enjoyed telling her about these bits of my life, I am naturally a 'sharer' and I'm not shy or at all private. So it was good for both of us. I'm looking forward to learning what she does with the transcript, and what interesting linguistic stuff she pulls from it.
Lizzie then left to walk into town, and I loaded up my bike trailer with all the planks which Carolyn had sorted out as 'good for building a beehive with', and cycled down to St Nicks, where Carolyn and I popped them in the lock-up. She's making a first one as a test, and then on 20th Feb, there's a public beehive making meeting/workshop. This fits nicely with a series of workshops about bee keeping I've seen advertised, the first one is this Tuesday, and I think Peter's going on it.
Home for lunch... and after lunch felt very tired but I kept going and did various bits and bobs around the house.
I popped into to Country Fresh on the way into town, and picked up one sack of mainly cabbage leaves. Then onto my building society where I took out cash and then went to top up our 'Suma' bank account with a cheque from a friend on our food co-op, my cash, and I did an electronic transfer too... so that there is enough money in that account to pay for next week's Suma order. I also paid out water bill. Then I came home, but decided to deliver the cabbage leaves to the St Nicks compost area, where I occasionally put excess materials. They have ample sawdust, dumped there by a pet shop, so I always cover up the fruit and veg with the sawdust. It is quite convenient.
On the way, I met my friend Sue, who is a priest, and we often have some interesting conversations. We talked for about 20 minutes, covering a range of subjects.
Then I went to put the compostables on the sawdusty heap and and as I was doing that, David from St Nicks told me I should have asked first... I thought I just had to inform the staff I d added to the heap, not ask permission. So I had a chat with John, and agreed that I would turn this compost over the weekend. A kind of penance? Well, a voluntary act of trying to make things better...
And back home. A very quiet evening. A fair bit of chatting with friends on facebook and email.
Lots of angst about the changes that facebook have made to celebrate their sixth birthday, but I'm sure we'll get used to it.
So Carolyn cycled away with some, and I'll take a trailer full down to St Nicks at lunchtime, after my next visitor.
On the dot of 10am, Lizzie arrived. I met her through a email discussion list we're both on, and she asked if anyone who fitted her criteria would be willing to help her with her dissertation. This is an undergraduate linguistics degree, and Lizzie is wanting to study how people tell stories about their life, or 'narratives'. She's less interested in the content, the story, but more into analyzing the language used. So I messaged her and she sent me the consent forms, and today she was visiting a friend in York, so this morning she walked up from Walmgate and arrived, as intended, at 10.
The study took about 2 hours, and she recorded nearly all of it... only switching off when I went to make a coffee or load the stove. Her questions were fairly general, things like 'Can you tell me about one thing that stands out as a memory from your childhood?' and 'tell me about four important people from your life', and a string of similar questions. I enjoyed telling her about these bits of my life, I am naturally a 'sharer' and I'm not shy or at all private. So it was good for both of us. I'm looking forward to learning what she does with the transcript, and what interesting linguistic stuff she pulls from it.
Lizzie then left to walk into town, and I loaded up my bike trailer with all the planks which Carolyn had sorted out as 'good for building a beehive with', and cycled down to St Nicks, where Carolyn and I popped them in the lock-up. She's making a first one as a test, and then on 20th Feb, there's a public beehive making meeting/workshop. This fits nicely with a series of workshops about bee keeping I've seen advertised, the first one is this Tuesday, and I think Peter's going on it.
Home for lunch... and after lunch felt very tired but I kept going and did various bits and bobs around the house.
I popped into to Country Fresh on the way into town, and picked up one sack of mainly cabbage leaves. Then onto my building society where I took out cash and then went to top up our 'Suma' bank account with a cheque from a friend on our food co-op, my cash, and I did an electronic transfer too... so that there is enough money in that account to pay for next week's Suma order. I also paid out water bill. Then I came home, but decided to deliver the cabbage leaves to the St Nicks compost area, where I occasionally put excess materials. They have ample sawdust, dumped there by a pet shop, so I always cover up the fruit and veg with the sawdust. It is quite convenient.
On the way, I met my friend Sue, who is a priest, and we often have some interesting conversations. We talked for about 20 minutes, covering a range of subjects.
Then I went to put the compostables on the sawdusty heap and and as I was doing that, David from St Nicks told me I should have asked first... I thought I just had to inform the staff I d added to the heap, not ask permission. So I had a chat with John, and agreed that I would turn this compost over the weekend. A kind of penance? Well, a voluntary act of trying to make things better...
And back home. A very quiet evening. A fair bit of chatting with friends on facebook and email.
Lots of angst about the changes that facebook have made to celebrate their sixth birthday, but I'm sure we'll get used to it.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Thursday 4th February 10
A very interesting and busy day.
I took our youngest to school, a very easy morning, thank goodness.
Chatted to the St John's Grounds Maintenance team chaps who were about to feed a lot of pruned vegetation into their shredder, and they were VERY happy for me to take the large Christmas tree trunk on my trailer, and said they'd sort out any other big sticks and branches for me, and leave them for me to collect. Nice chaps!
So, home with a big load of waste tree trunk. I then had a short time to get several sacks of mature compost from the bottom of the garden in the wheelbarrow up to the top, as a bit later today I'm expecting visitors from Hull to pick some up. I found 6 sacks of 10 to 20kg and one sack of perhaps 30kg.
I then came in and cleaned up, as at 11 I was expecting our first visitor, Chris from Ploughcroft, who I asked to give us a quote for putting a solar photovoltaic system on our roof. This company had given a competitive quote to Anna Semlyen, and I'd been inspired to see what it would cost us, bearing in mind the grant of £2400 and the forthcoming 'feed-in tariff' which will guarantee a financial return for 20 years.
Chris arrived soon after 11 and told us our roof was perfect for the photovoltaic panels, as it is South-facing, and the hot water panel is off to one side of the roof, leaving enough space for the electricity-producing ones. He calculated that we could get 6 panels on, which would generate 1200w whenever it was daylight. He told us that the feed-in tariff had been set somewhat above the expected figure, and was at 41.3pence per kwh. This system would cost in the region of £6500, but the grant would bring this down to within our reach at just over £4000, and would bring in a steady income from the electricity generated. He will send a detailed quote soon, and the company's electrician would visit early next week to check our electrics.
I liked Chris, we talked about quite a few green issues, social issues, personal politics, etc, and I would be happy to have his system. We'd have to borrow to pay them, would then pay back some of the loan (the Credit Union doesn't give penalties for early payback) when we got the grant, and we'd use about £2000 of our savings.
Chris left soon after midday and within half an hour, Jayne and Derek arrived from Hull. They contacted me through Vyouz, the virtual skip site. They wanted to give me some waste wood, and take away a sack of wood ash (this was free) and give me something for the large load of compost. They came in and had a cup of tea each, and we chatted about the stove, their allotment and lottie shop, and then we went down the garden to see where the compost makes itself. When we got back up to the top of the garden again, we loaded up their boot, and they offered £16 for perhaps about 90kg of compost. I was happy with this. Nice people, hope they enjoy using it!
I then had lunch, and chatted to Gill. Then I got a phone call... it was Chris from Ploughcroft. He said that he'd got bad news for me... he'd just heard that the Government had stopped the photovoltaics grant, as of last night. This was about 7 weeks before they were due to do this. This was a blow. With the added cost of £2400 to our final bill, we probably won't be able to put these panels on our roof... but we'll continue with finding out about the different installers and systems available.
Gill ironed my Fiddlesticks clothes and I got ready to go out to work... off to the Bishopthorpe Beavers, about 20 minutes cycle away. I'd done my circus show for them before Christmas and tonight it was balloons. I got changed and stuck inflated balloons between my unicycle spokes, I'd brought it along specially to hold them. The boys were delighted to see me and we had a brilliant hour, loads of fun.
At 7, I got changed back into 'civvies' and cycled back to my side of town, picking up a long branch on the way. I was due at St Nicks for a York in Transition meeting and I chaired, as well as participating. We had an enormous list of things we could be doing so we went through the list and kind of weeded some of them out, things we haven't got the time or personnel to do.
Home just before 10pm and all was well, I went onto the computer and dealt with emails and other stuff. At about 1.45am there were a series of short power cuts which made nearby house alarms go off and our fridge make a funny noise. Oh dear.
I took our youngest to school, a very easy morning, thank goodness.
Chatted to the St John's Grounds Maintenance team chaps who were about to feed a lot of pruned vegetation into their shredder, and they were VERY happy for me to take the large Christmas tree trunk on my trailer, and said they'd sort out any other big sticks and branches for me, and leave them for me to collect. Nice chaps!
So, home with a big load of waste tree trunk. I then had a short time to get several sacks of mature compost from the bottom of the garden in the wheelbarrow up to the top, as a bit later today I'm expecting visitors from Hull to pick some up. I found 6 sacks of 10 to 20kg and one sack of perhaps 30kg.
I then came in and cleaned up, as at 11 I was expecting our first visitor, Chris from Ploughcroft, who I asked to give us a quote for putting a solar photovoltaic system on our roof. This company had given a competitive quote to Anna Semlyen, and I'd been inspired to see what it would cost us, bearing in mind the grant of £2400 and the forthcoming 'feed-in tariff' which will guarantee a financial return for 20 years.
Chris arrived soon after 11 and told us our roof was perfect for the photovoltaic panels, as it is South-facing, and the hot water panel is off to one side of the roof, leaving enough space for the electricity-producing ones. He calculated that we could get 6 panels on, which would generate 1200w whenever it was daylight. He told us that the feed-in tariff had been set somewhat above the expected figure, and was at 41.3pence per kwh. This system would cost in the region of £6500, but the grant would bring this down to within our reach at just over £4000, and would bring in a steady income from the electricity generated. He will send a detailed quote soon, and the company's electrician would visit early next week to check our electrics.
I liked Chris, we talked about quite a few green issues, social issues, personal politics, etc, and I would be happy to have his system. We'd have to borrow to pay them, would then pay back some of the loan (the Credit Union doesn't give penalties for early payback) when we got the grant, and we'd use about £2000 of our savings.
Chris left soon after midday and within half an hour, Jayne and Derek arrived from Hull. They contacted me through Vyouz, the virtual skip site. They wanted to give me some waste wood, and take away a sack of wood ash (this was free) and give me something for the large load of compost. They came in and had a cup of tea each, and we chatted about the stove, their allotment and lottie shop, and then we went down the garden to see where the compost makes itself. When we got back up to the top of the garden again, we loaded up their boot, and they offered £16 for perhaps about 90kg of compost. I was happy with this. Nice people, hope they enjoy using it!
I then had lunch, and chatted to Gill. Then I got a phone call... it was Chris from Ploughcroft. He said that he'd got bad news for me... he'd just heard that the Government had stopped the photovoltaics grant, as of last night. This was about 7 weeks before they were due to do this. This was a blow. With the added cost of £2400 to our final bill, we probably won't be able to put these panels on our roof... but we'll continue with finding out about the different installers and systems available.
Gill ironed my Fiddlesticks clothes and I got ready to go out to work... off to the Bishopthorpe Beavers, about 20 minutes cycle away. I'd done my circus show for them before Christmas and tonight it was balloons. I got changed and stuck inflated balloons between my unicycle spokes, I'd brought it along specially to hold them. The boys were delighted to see me and we had a brilliant hour, loads of fun.
At 7, I got changed back into 'civvies' and cycled back to my side of town, picking up a long branch on the way. I was due at St Nicks for a York in Transition meeting and I chaired, as well as participating. We had an enormous list of things we could be doing so we went through the list and kind of weeded some of them out, things we haven't got the time or personnel to do.
Home just before 10pm and all was well, I went onto the computer and dealt with emails and other stuff. At about 1.45am there were a series of short power cuts which made nearby house alarms go off and our fridge make a funny noise. Oh dear.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Wednesday 3rd February 10
I got up quite early and took our youngest to school and then continued sorting out the waste packing crate wood, which has 'arrived' just at he right time, as we've used a lot of the very dry logs and the majority of what we have left are more recently cut. So this very dry stuff will help eke out the logs which are ready to burn now.
Gill went out, to meet her sister in town, and I kept busy outside but had the phone outside too, and received several phone calls. One was a photovoltaic panel installer, who is coming to give us a quote on Monday. This stems from my friend Anna Semlyen, who has had four quotes for pv panels, and posted the two cheapest quotes on facebook yesterday. I hadn't realised that firstly, the price has come down about 50% since I last found out how much it would cost, and secondly, the government grant of £2400 finishes at the end of March, and thirdly, 'feed-in tariffs' start in April. Anna had worked out the costings and pay-back times... and suddenly, photovoltaics look just within our reach, financially.
I got trapped in an email vortex after lunch... and another photovoltaic company responding to my enquiry this morning... they are coming tomorrow. I had two questionnaires to fill in about green festivals, one for a 'United Nations Music and Environment Initiative' and the other from a guy who's doing a dissertation.
Gill rang at 2.45, she was just about to get the bus back from town, so I cycled down to school to pick up our little one. We walked back together, chatting. The class had all signed a petition asking for a longer PE lesson, at the expense of French. Active Democracy at school... great! I wonder what the result will be?
I did some more wooding and got the backlog of logs finished... everything in the front garden (woodyard) is now cut, and there's a large pile of logs to split.
Gill made a quiche for tea, with sliced and stir-fried sprouts with tomato, and a really good potato and sweet potato with cashew nuts and sesame seeds thing. What a wonderful and creative cook!
Later on, I had to do some writing for the forthcoming Earth Centre visit.
Gill went out, to meet her sister in town, and I kept busy outside but had the phone outside too, and received several phone calls. One was a photovoltaic panel installer, who is coming to give us a quote on Monday. This stems from my friend Anna Semlyen, who has had four quotes for pv panels, and posted the two cheapest quotes on facebook yesterday. I hadn't realised that firstly, the price has come down about 50% since I last found out how much it would cost, and secondly, the government grant of £2400 finishes at the end of March, and thirdly, 'feed-in tariffs' start in April. Anna had worked out the costings and pay-back times... and suddenly, photovoltaics look just within our reach, financially.
I got trapped in an email vortex after lunch... and another photovoltaic company responding to my enquiry this morning... they are coming tomorrow. I had two questionnaires to fill in about green festivals, one for a 'United Nations Music and Environment Initiative' and the other from a guy who's doing a dissertation.
Gill rang at 2.45, she was just about to get the bus back from town, so I cycled down to school to pick up our little one. We walked back together, chatting. The class had all signed a petition asking for a longer PE lesson, at the expense of French. Active Democracy at school... great! I wonder what the result will be?
I did some more wooding and got the backlog of logs finished... everything in the front garden (woodyard) is now cut, and there's a large pile of logs to split.
Gill made a quiche for tea, with sliced and stir-fried sprouts with tomato, and a really good potato and sweet potato with cashew nuts and sesame seeds thing. What a wonderful and creative cook!
Later on, I had to do some writing for the forthcoming Earth Centre visit.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Tuesday 2nd February 10
A good day, I took our youngest to school... most of the way, as yesterday.
I picked up another load of packing case wood and then did some sorting of this and some sawing, but it started raining so I put the stuff away and came in, at about 11am.
But we needed bread and stuff from the chemist so I cycled round to Tang Hall Lane, and then, as I had to take back a carton of soya milk which when I opened it, was curdled like yoghurt, to the other Co-op on Hull Road.
Then some inside stuff, emails and facebook messages, washing up and talking with Gill, and lunch.
I had a few bookings and phone calls to deal with after lunch and all too soon it was time to go to school to pick up our youngest, and he came back home sitting on my bike rack.
I popped down to Country Fresh for groceries and brought back a load of compostables too. I spent about an hour in the garden before it got too dark to continue.
Sad to get a message during the evening that a friend of mine has seemingly tried to end her life and is now in hospital, having been found after a friend reported her missing. I arranged to go and see her in hospital tomorrow.
Nice teatime, quiet evening...
I picked up another load of packing case wood and then did some sorting of this and some sawing, but it started raining so I put the stuff away and came in, at about 11am.
But we needed bread and stuff from the chemist so I cycled round to Tang Hall Lane, and then, as I had to take back a carton of soya milk which when I opened it, was curdled like yoghurt, to the other Co-op on Hull Road.
Then some inside stuff, emails and facebook messages, washing up and talking with Gill, and lunch.
I had a few bookings and phone calls to deal with after lunch and all too soon it was time to go to school to pick up our youngest, and he came back home sitting on my bike rack.
I popped down to Country Fresh for groceries and brought back a load of compostables too. I spent about an hour in the garden before it got too dark to continue.
Sad to get a message during the evening that a friend of mine has seemingly tried to end her life and is now in hospital, having been found after a friend reported her missing. I arranged to go and see her in hospital tomorrow.
Nice teatime, quiet evening...
Monday, 1 February 2010
Monday 1st February 10
A good day. I walked down towards school with our youngest but left him at Field Lane to walk the last bit on his own. Later this year he'll walk to school by himself, or probably with a couple of local friends. When he goes to secondary school in September, he'll have to walk in either by himself, with friends or with his elder brother.
I cycled back to this end of Windmill Lane (picking up the weekend's aluminium beer can harvest!) and turned right to go and deliver a letter to the other school. On the way back from there, I saw a large pile of packing case wood in someone's front garden, so I cycled in and rang the doorbell. I asked if the wood was unwanted, and if it wasn't, could I have it as some of it would be great for helping to construct the beehives. I have no idea what had been packed in this, but there was loads... in fact, so far today, seven trailer loads of clean softwood pallet-type planks.
At 11.30 I was back at school to have a meeting with the headteacher. We discussed various educational matters, and also how the school is attempting to deal with the green agenda. We spent just over an hour talking, and I went away reassured and feeling a lot more comfortable with going there. I look forward to hearing about the green audit and to seeing how they change their waste and recycling situation, currently poor, and having gone backwards since I was forced to stop composting last year. I made several suggestions including weblinks to some rotating composters and ideas about renewable power generation. I remain optimistic.
Home for lunch, more wood collecting, cycled down to school for a third time to collect our youngest... but he wanted to come back with a friend in their car, so I cycled back and picked up another load of packing case wood.
A simple tea of baked potato and cauliflower cheese, and then out to the LETS EGM, an 'Extraordinary General Meeting' which I chaired. We debated two issues... whether York Local Exchange Trading System needed to change its membership fees structure, and whether we should have a Co-ordinator post at the next AGM. Currently, we charge £5 or Y5 (five pounds sterling or five Yorkys) as an annual membership, plus Y12 as an annual admin fee. But this meeting decided that we would simplify this to an annual fee of £12 or Y12 or any combination of the two currencies adding up to 12, with the membership due in April, with reminders to non-payers sent out with the AGM info (held in July)and if not paid by the AGM, the membership would cease. We agreed that we would have the post of Co-ordinator available at the next AGM.
It was a good meeting, two new members and several old friends. It was a quick meeting, I was back by 9.30.
I had my pudding which I'd helped Gill make, but hadn't had time to eat before the LETS meeting: bread and butter pudding with extra fruit. We had a waste loaf... white sliced bread just past it's sell-by date, obviously still edible but unwanted by one of the shops I help with their recycling. So, a greased bowl. Margarine (or other grease of your choice!) on bread. We put a bit of sliced fruit in amongst the bread slices, and a bit of sugar sprinkled over, only this time Gill used maple syrup, and the fruit was banana and kiwifruit slices. Then Gill mixed 3 eggs with a similar volume of milk, whisked it up and poured it over, and bunged it in the oven on Gas Mark 5 or 6 until it was cooked. Delicious!
I watched the lecture by Sir Terry Pratchett about how his Alzheimer's has made him look at how society deals with death, and arguing for a dignified system for people to be able to end their own lives legally when faced with a terminal/debilitating illness. Having been thinking about my friend Jean's demise, I have to agree that if that is what someone wants, then a civilised society should respect that, and facilitate a way for people to die before they are in such a state to not be able to express their pain, frustration and poor quality of life. I am not scared of death, but certainly don't want to experience the long slow deterioration that affects so many. I'm fearful of that kind of 'pre-death' experience. I would choose a self-induced demise if I could see the inevitable future of incurable cancer, or Alzheimer's, or any other terminally degenerative disease. But I know that many people don't agree with this view, and I understand it is a difficult debate. The programme left me thoughtful.
I cycled back to this end of Windmill Lane (picking up the weekend's aluminium beer can harvest!) and turned right to go and deliver a letter to the other school. On the way back from there, I saw a large pile of packing case wood in someone's front garden, so I cycled in and rang the doorbell. I asked if the wood was unwanted, and if it wasn't, could I have it as some of it would be great for helping to construct the beehives. I have no idea what had been packed in this, but there was loads... in fact, so far today, seven trailer loads of clean softwood pallet-type planks.
At 11.30 I was back at school to have a meeting with the headteacher. We discussed various educational matters, and also how the school is attempting to deal with the green agenda. We spent just over an hour talking, and I went away reassured and feeling a lot more comfortable with going there. I look forward to hearing about the green audit and to seeing how they change their waste and recycling situation, currently poor, and having gone backwards since I was forced to stop composting last year. I made several suggestions including weblinks to some rotating composters and ideas about renewable power generation. I remain optimistic.
Home for lunch, more wood collecting, cycled down to school for a third time to collect our youngest... but he wanted to come back with a friend in their car, so I cycled back and picked up another load of packing case wood.
A simple tea of baked potato and cauliflower cheese, and then out to the LETS EGM, an 'Extraordinary General Meeting' which I chaired. We debated two issues... whether York Local Exchange Trading System needed to change its membership fees structure, and whether we should have a Co-ordinator post at the next AGM. Currently, we charge £5 or Y5 (five pounds sterling or five Yorkys) as an annual membership, plus Y12 as an annual admin fee. But this meeting decided that we would simplify this to an annual fee of £12 or Y12 or any combination of the two currencies adding up to 12, with the membership due in April, with reminders to non-payers sent out with the AGM info (held in July)and if not paid by the AGM, the membership would cease. We agreed that we would have the post of Co-ordinator available at the next AGM.
It was a good meeting, two new members and several old friends. It was a quick meeting, I was back by 9.30.
I had my pudding which I'd helped Gill make, but hadn't had time to eat before the LETS meeting: bread and butter pudding with extra fruit. We had a waste loaf... white sliced bread just past it's sell-by date, obviously still edible but unwanted by one of the shops I help with their recycling. So, a greased bowl. Margarine (or other grease of your choice!) on bread. We put a bit of sliced fruit in amongst the bread slices, and a bit of sugar sprinkled over, only this time Gill used maple syrup, and the fruit was banana and kiwifruit slices. Then Gill mixed 3 eggs with a similar volume of milk, whisked it up and poured it over, and bunged it in the oven on Gas Mark 5 or 6 until it was cooked. Delicious!
I watched the lecture by Sir Terry Pratchett about how his Alzheimer's has made him look at how society deals with death, and arguing for a dignified system for people to be able to end their own lives legally when faced with a terminal/debilitating illness. Having been thinking about my friend Jean's demise, I have to agree that if that is what someone wants, then a civilised society should respect that, and facilitate a way for people to die before they are in such a state to not be able to express their pain, frustration and poor quality of life. I am not scared of death, but certainly don't want to experience the long slow deterioration that affects so many. I'm fearful of that kind of 'pre-death' experience. I would choose a self-induced demise if I could see the inevitable future of incurable cancer, or Alzheimer's, or any other terminally degenerative disease. But I know that many people don't agree with this view, and I understand it is a difficult debate. The programme left me thoughtful.
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