A funny day for our 11th Wedding Anniversary! I slept for 9 hours, woken by Gill at 11am, with a phone call from Candy, offering to come and look at the bathroom lights for us. So she said she'd come round at 1pm, with her son who is friends with ours.
So, after breakfast (!) Candy arrived and after a coffee, she came up to the bathroom and when I got a stepladder tall enough, and turned off the upstairs lighting main, she extracted the existing halogen downlighters, and told us the good news, they are the sort which run off the normal 240 volt supply; there are no transformers to 12 volt bulbs. This was good as she had with her two new Supalite Mini GU10 7 Watt lamps, which replace the 60W halogen GU10s which gobble up the power, wasting most of it as heat. This will save us quite a bit of electricity in the long run... we don't spend a long time in the bathroom, but over the years, the savings will mount up.
Candy had bought these lamps for between £9 and £10 each, for use in her own house, but I think they were surplus to requirements. We gave her £20 for them, and an old brass and cast iron kitchen balance which we were going to freecycle or take to a charity shop, and she was really happy to be given that. She stayed with us as her lad was enjoying the company of our two plus another of their friends, and she chatted to me as I made a log wall, and a bit later, as I filled sacks with the last of the leafmould collected in 2009. She was happy to spend the afternoon with us as her husband was with a friend, and showing her round the City walls as a touristy experience.
Later on, after tea, our boys had another visitor and he stayed til after 9pm. I listened to Tracey Smith's Slow Down and Green Up show and did the washing up.
Later, I went out on my bike to collect leaves for the recently emptied leafmould enclosure. I have a good way of doing this... using my Wellington boot-clad foot I scrape up a load of leaves from the gutter by riding fast towards the leafy gutter, and then putting my boot into it, aiming to get a large pile by the time I come to a stop. So I collected 9 bin-bags full... and then went to pick up a trailer load of hazel logs too, getting in at half ten.
I had a bath and washed my hair, as I'm working tomorrow and want to look clean.
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Friday, 5 November 2010
Friday 5th November 10
An excellent morning as we had a visit from someone who was able to help us sort out a problem we are having... great advice, lovely chap, very professional and helpful. Both of us felt greatly relieved afterwards.
I had an early lunch and cycled down to town to the Big Green Market, where York Rotters were having a stall. This was my first time back for exactly a year... as it was at last year's Big Green Market that I received complaints about mentioning inappropriate subjects, so I've promised not to mention them, and have a minder to make sure I behave myself. So I did a 12.50 til 1.15 stint, chatted with quite a few members of the public, and LOVED IT. I had forgotten how much I enjoy talking with all-comers about their home compost heap. I love it when they find out that they can put cardboard on the heap, or how they can compost cooked food and meat scraps. Today I also had a 'growing mushrooms' enquiry which was a bit unexpected. And I kept to the subject... or rather kept OFF the subjects I'm banned from talking about, and everybody was happy. Especially me.
I came home via Country Fresh and Richard had a vast pile of stuff for me. I put a carrot sack and a thin polythene banana bag in the trailer and four boxes on top. Two boxes went on the pannier rack. One of the greengrocers who isn't as bothered about recycling had put about 15 bags of English pears and 5 pineapples in the bin, not in the recycling where I could take them. So these got rescued, and later I sorted out the pears (there were 70 in perfect condition) and had a bit of a wobbly about how I was going to use them all. We had pears with chocolate custard for pudding tonight, and I spent the whole of the David Attenborough programme halving, peeling and balancing pears on the drying racks. The pineapples will have to wait!
So, a good day. No money earned, but a lot of resources saved, and information shared about how to reduce waste by home composting.
I had an early lunch and cycled down to town to the Big Green Market, where York Rotters were having a stall. This was my first time back for exactly a year... as it was at last year's Big Green Market that I received complaints about mentioning inappropriate subjects, so I've promised not to mention them, and have a minder to make sure I behave myself. So I did a 12.50 til 1.15 stint, chatted with quite a few members of the public, and LOVED IT. I had forgotten how much I enjoy talking with all-comers about their home compost heap. I love it when they find out that they can put cardboard on the heap, or how they can compost cooked food and meat scraps. Today I also had a 'growing mushrooms' enquiry which was a bit unexpected. And I kept to the subject... or rather kept OFF the subjects I'm banned from talking about, and everybody was happy. Especially me.
I came home via Country Fresh and Richard had a vast pile of stuff for me. I put a carrot sack and a thin polythene banana bag in the trailer and four boxes on top. Two boxes went on the pannier rack. One of the greengrocers who isn't as bothered about recycling had put about 15 bags of English pears and 5 pineapples in the bin, not in the recycling where I could take them. So these got rescued, and later I sorted out the pears (there were 70 in perfect condition) and had a bit of a wobbly about how I was going to use them all. We had pears with chocolate custard for pudding tonight, and I spent the whole of the David Attenborough programme halving, peeling and balancing pears on the drying racks. The pineapples will have to wait!
So, a good day. No money earned, but a lot of resources saved, and information shared about how to reduce waste by home composting.
Thursday 4th November 10
Despite being a very overcast day weather-wise, I had a sunny day!
This was because my friend Janie came over on the train from Manchester with her bike and I took her down the West side of the Ouse, over the Racecourse and to the start of The Solar System.
Janie is not an experienced cyclist, and was already tired by the time we reached the Sun, the start of the ride, so we took it slowly to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, and then a stop at Brunswick Organic Nursery, where I bought 3 lovely squashes for about £2 each, plus a tub of bean salad and a bag of crisps. I was also accosted by Clare, who used to live near us in the Groves. I'm surprised she recognised me, as it's the best part of a decade since we last met, I think!
Janie and I cycled on to Jupiter, over the River Ouse and to Saturn, and at Neptune, we had a break and I had some bean salad and crisps, Janie had some cracker things, plus a few beans. I wasn't expecting her to get this far, and the wind was against us, but she said let's keep going all the way to Pluto.
So we cycled another mile, and I was glad that the old path, which used to be a whitish compacted stone surface, quite rough, with puddles and more of an 'off road' feel, has been covered with tarmac and is a really smooth ride, all the way to Pluto. So, we did it... and on the way back, the wind was behind us and it was considerably easier. We didn't need to stop, although Janie got off and walked a few times, but only for a few minutes at a time. I stopped in one place to pick up a trailer full of logs from the tree management at the side of the path. When we got to Naburn Station, I suggested that we go on the road to Fulford and then through Heslington and back to Hull Road.
When we got back, my family were relaxed and happy, and Gill pleased to see Janie and to hear about the cycle ride. Over a coffee, I worked out the distance we cycled, using an Ordnance Survey map and a piece of paper and a pencil, which allows the twists and turns to be straightened out, and the accurate distance then measured against the map scale.... and from the station to Pluto and back to our house was 19.4 miles. Wow, I wonder if that's the furthest that Janie has ever cycled in one go? For me, that would be a gentle 2 hour trip, but with Janie and the wind, and our stops, it took us from 11.45am til 4.30pm. A really good day. Good to be able to have some nice conversations with my friend, and see pheasants and lovely autumn-coloured trees, and to show her the amazing Solar System and Brunswick.
I had some use-it-up tea... pasta shapes, spaghetti, seconds asparagus and cheese sauce, after which I cycled with Janie back to the station so she could catch the 8.10 train back home to her husband and children.
I came back and collected 3 sacks of leaves to start restocking the leafmould cage. Gill made a loaf of bread. I watched the interesting Channel 4 programme about the green movement, which was good, as it echoed some of my views about genetically modified plants; I'm happy for this technology to be carefully explored and used, if it is deemed safe and beneficial. I'm referring to crops like golden rice, for instance.
This was because my friend Janie came over on the train from Manchester with her bike and I took her down the West side of the Ouse, over the Racecourse and to the start of The Solar System.
Janie is not an experienced cyclist, and was already tired by the time we reached the Sun, the start of the ride, so we took it slowly to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, and then a stop at Brunswick Organic Nursery, where I bought 3 lovely squashes for about £2 each, plus a tub of bean salad and a bag of crisps. I was also accosted by Clare, who used to live near us in the Groves. I'm surprised she recognised me, as it's the best part of a decade since we last met, I think!
Janie and I cycled on to Jupiter, over the River Ouse and to Saturn, and at Neptune, we had a break and I had some bean salad and crisps, Janie had some cracker things, plus a few beans. I wasn't expecting her to get this far, and the wind was against us, but she said let's keep going all the way to Pluto.
So we cycled another mile, and I was glad that the old path, which used to be a whitish compacted stone surface, quite rough, with puddles and more of an 'off road' feel, has been covered with tarmac and is a really smooth ride, all the way to Pluto. So, we did it... and on the way back, the wind was behind us and it was considerably easier. We didn't need to stop, although Janie got off and walked a few times, but only for a few minutes at a time. I stopped in one place to pick up a trailer full of logs from the tree management at the side of the path. When we got to Naburn Station, I suggested that we go on the road to Fulford and then through Heslington and back to Hull Road.
When we got back, my family were relaxed and happy, and Gill pleased to see Janie and to hear about the cycle ride. Over a coffee, I worked out the distance we cycled, using an Ordnance Survey map and a piece of paper and a pencil, which allows the twists and turns to be straightened out, and the accurate distance then measured against the map scale.... and from the station to Pluto and back to our house was 19.4 miles. Wow, I wonder if that's the furthest that Janie has ever cycled in one go? For me, that would be a gentle 2 hour trip, but with Janie and the wind, and our stops, it took us from 11.45am til 4.30pm. A really good day. Good to be able to have some nice conversations with my friend, and see pheasants and lovely autumn-coloured trees, and to show her the amazing Solar System and Brunswick.
I had some use-it-up tea... pasta shapes, spaghetti, seconds asparagus and cheese sauce, after which I cycled with Janie back to the station so she could catch the 8.10 train back home to her husband and children.
I came back and collected 3 sacks of leaves to start restocking the leafmould cage. Gill made a loaf of bread. I watched the interesting Channel 4 programme about the green movement, which was good, as it echoed some of my views about genetically modified plants; I'm happy for this technology to be carefully explored and used, if it is deemed safe and beneficial. I'm referring to crops like golden rice, for instance.
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Wednesday 3rd November 10
Another good day, despite being woken by sounds of distress. So, assorted housework in the morning and not getting time to sort out the leafmould which I was really hoping to do before the 2pm rendezvous at St Nicks with the University of York Green Party. I'd arranged this a couple of weeks ago, to show a group of students around the Environment Centre and Nature Reserve, and to open it up to others, I'd made a facebook 'event' for the tour.
I got there at 1.55 and there was also a group of University of the Third Age visitors who were wanting a look round, so I ended up taking them round too. We started with the 'passive solar design' of the building and the two types of solar panels, rainwater recycling and Sedum roof. I showed them a sample compost bin and wormery, and inside, the cut-out wheelie bin and the energy balance monitor, displaying the energy generated and used by the building.
Outside, we saw the recycling compound, and went up on the bund to see the James Street office and light industrial buildings which could have covered the St Nicks area too, had the local people not made a fuss. We saw the John Lally Wood and the older trees which were growing on the surface of the landfill when it was capped with clay. We went via the stone circle back to the centre, where Jonathan the Volunteer Manager gave a 5 minute presentation about the various volunteering opportunities available.
It was a really nice walk round; I always enjoy showing people round St Nicks. It is a very special place for me. One of the people on the tour was Emma, who's a mature undergraduate from Harrogate, who had asked if she could interview me for her Dissertation on Transition Towns. So she walked back with me and once ensconced on the sofa with a chamomile tea, she asked me a list of questions with a tape recorder going. This was good too.
But it left no time for doing my leafmould cage. It was getting dark by the time she left, so I didn't do any more outside, just bits and bobs in the kitchen, and after the children had gone to bed, another load of late-night fruit peeling, slicing and balancing on the drying racks.
I got there at 1.55 and there was also a group of University of the Third Age visitors who were wanting a look round, so I ended up taking them round too. We started with the 'passive solar design' of the building and the two types of solar panels, rainwater recycling and Sedum roof. I showed them a sample compost bin and wormery, and inside, the cut-out wheelie bin and the energy balance monitor, displaying the energy generated and used by the building.
Outside, we saw the recycling compound, and went up on the bund to see the James Street office and light industrial buildings which could have covered the St Nicks area too, had the local people not made a fuss. We saw the John Lally Wood and the older trees which were growing on the surface of the landfill when it was capped with clay. We went via the stone circle back to the centre, where Jonathan the Volunteer Manager gave a 5 minute presentation about the various volunteering opportunities available.
It was a really nice walk round; I always enjoy showing people round St Nicks. It is a very special place for me. One of the people on the tour was Emma, who's a mature undergraduate from Harrogate, who had asked if she could interview me for her Dissertation on Transition Towns. So she walked back with me and once ensconced on the sofa with a chamomile tea, she asked me a list of questions with a tape recorder going. This was good too.
But it left no time for doing my leafmould cage. It was getting dark by the time she left, so I didn't do any more outside, just bits and bobs in the kitchen, and after the children had gone to bed, another load of late-night fruit peeling, slicing and balancing on the drying racks.
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Tuesday 2nd November 10
A busy day ahead, with 3 meetings scheduled for the afternoon/evening. But Gill and I had a fairly busy morning too, dealing with yet another situation which has arisen. Life does not run smoothly for long.
However, a solution is on the horizon and I was able to spend a happy hour or so bagging up last year's leafmould, which has sat in a chicken-wire cage undisturbed for the past year. After a year of slow mouldering, I put it handful by handful into plastic sacks and leave it for another year. This initial sorting allows me to remove twigs and sticks which I put in the Compostumbler with a job lot of putrescible food waste. I also removed quite a bit of street litter... plastic mainly, and there were absolutely LOADS of pebbles, gravel, and small stones, some of which I was able to remove but the rest will have to be riddled out. I don't know where these came from, but since I collect sacks of leaves from all over the place, it's obvious that someone has swept up leaves from a gravelly area. Bit of a nuisance. I filled 6 sacks before lunch at 1pm.
I had the usual pile of sandwiches and headed out for my 2pm appointment, hopefully a conclusion to my year of not being an active York Rotter. John at St Nicks had drawn up a document which he emailed me this morning, Basically this is a set of rules I have to abide by if I'm to continue as a Rotter, including only wearing my York Rotters teeshirt at official engagements, and whilst representing the organisation, I'm not allowed to discuss the composting of dead bodies (including roadkill) or composting condoms (which are biodegradable if made from natural latex) or to talk about or make jokes about sex. But the really good thing is that Pat, one of the St Nicks management team, is going to be my 'buddy' whilst I'm working on stalls as a Rotter. I'm happy with this. I signed the document as I really want to get back to doing what I love, and working with members of the public, engaging them with home composting education. The other good thing which has happened because of the complaints from some oversensitive volunteers is that there has been some diversity training, so, hopefully, Aspergery people like me, ADHD-ers (we have one undiagnosed ADHD-er on the team) and other 'neuro-diverse' people may be better understood and perhaps tolerated.
Neuro-typical people (that's about 80 to 90% of the population) do find it difficult to understand what it is like to be neuro-diverse, ie autistic, depressive, Tourettes syndrome, Dyslexic, etc etc. It is difficult to understand ourselves sometimes. I can't explain why I am happy to have the same sandwich every day, at the same time every day, or why I find it difficult to 'read between the lines' of a conversation, or why I tend to be direct and very honest. So if I don't understand, it must be almost impossible for anyone else to get it. But learning about some of these traits is a start, and I think that more organisations ought to offer this sort of training.
So, by 3pm, John and Edward and I had talked around the subject enough and we'd all signed the document, and we'll review things in 3 months. I cycled home, picked up a beautiful but road-murdered male Mallard duck, had a coffee and at 3.40, headed into town to go to the Environment Forum at the Guildhall. We discussed a range of subjects, including the York New City Vision written by Professor Alan Simpson (59 page pdf document here) and the Forum response to the Allerton Waste Recovery/Incinerator plans. Perhaps the most important thing we did was to choose our new Chair, due to the resignation of Jonathan Tyler, who held the reins for several years very successfully. We accepted Kate Lock as our new Chair. She is ideal for this post, as she's passionate about sustainability, and York, is a good communicator, both verbally and in writing, and is not aligned to any political party or connected centrally to any one organisation. So, independent, able and keen.
We finished at 5.55 and I zoomed off to my third meeting, at Langwith College up at the University. I got there before 6.15, and soon found the People and Planet group, who had asked me to go and help them with one of their campaigns to get more composting happening at the University. When we split up into groups, I was able to present a short analysis of the issues: first looking at promoting composting off campus, to students living in rented and shared homes. Then the possibilities of recycling on-campus biodegradable waste: composting on site with bespoke composting machines such as the Big Hanna, Rocket or Ridan, (there are other solutions too) or composting/anaerobic digestion off site, such as the Future Energy Yorkshire site near Selby (which has some collaboration with the University) or indeed, the Allerton plant, if and when it is built. Obviously, I favour on-site solutions, as there's no driving tonnes of stuff around, and the material doesn't even become waste. I also explored, briefly, the reasons that the University should be recycling it's biodegradables. These include the People and Planet University Green League, reduced landfill/transport costs, reduced carbon emissions and setting a good example to students!
We finished at 7.30 and I picked up 2 logs on the way back, and enjoyed a pile of rice and veg with chutneys for tea. The evening was full of fruit prep, writing, a bit of Scrabble, lots of washing up... bed after 2am.
However, a solution is on the horizon and I was able to spend a happy hour or so bagging up last year's leafmould, which has sat in a chicken-wire cage undisturbed for the past year. After a year of slow mouldering, I put it handful by handful into plastic sacks and leave it for another year. This initial sorting allows me to remove twigs and sticks which I put in the Compostumbler with a job lot of putrescible food waste. I also removed quite a bit of street litter... plastic mainly, and there were absolutely LOADS of pebbles, gravel, and small stones, some of which I was able to remove but the rest will have to be riddled out. I don't know where these came from, but since I collect sacks of leaves from all over the place, it's obvious that someone has swept up leaves from a gravelly area. Bit of a nuisance. I filled 6 sacks before lunch at 1pm.
I had the usual pile of sandwiches and headed out for my 2pm appointment, hopefully a conclusion to my year of not being an active York Rotter. John at St Nicks had drawn up a document which he emailed me this morning, Basically this is a set of rules I have to abide by if I'm to continue as a Rotter, including only wearing my York Rotters teeshirt at official engagements, and whilst representing the organisation, I'm not allowed to discuss the composting of dead bodies (including roadkill) or composting condoms (which are biodegradable if made from natural latex) or to talk about or make jokes about sex. But the really good thing is that Pat, one of the St Nicks management team, is going to be my 'buddy' whilst I'm working on stalls as a Rotter. I'm happy with this. I signed the document as I really want to get back to doing what I love, and working with members of the public, engaging them with home composting education. The other good thing which has happened because of the complaints from some oversensitive volunteers is that there has been some diversity training, so, hopefully, Aspergery people like me, ADHD-ers (we have one undiagnosed ADHD-er on the team) and other 'neuro-diverse' people may be better understood and perhaps tolerated.
Neuro-typical people (that's about 80 to 90% of the population) do find it difficult to understand what it is like to be neuro-diverse, ie autistic, depressive, Tourettes syndrome, Dyslexic, etc etc. It is difficult to understand ourselves sometimes. I can't explain why I am happy to have the same sandwich every day, at the same time every day, or why I find it difficult to 'read between the lines' of a conversation, or why I tend to be direct and very honest. So if I don't understand, it must be almost impossible for anyone else to get it. But learning about some of these traits is a start, and I think that more organisations ought to offer this sort of training.
So, by 3pm, John and Edward and I had talked around the subject enough and we'd all signed the document, and we'll review things in 3 months. I cycled home, picked up a beautiful but road-murdered male Mallard duck, had a coffee and at 3.40, headed into town to go to the Environment Forum at the Guildhall. We discussed a range of subjects, including the York New City Vision written by Professor Alan Simpson (59 page pdf document here) and the Forum response to the Allerton Waste Recovery/Incinerator plans. Perhaps the most important thing we did was to choose our new Chair, due to the resignation of Jonathan Tyler, who held the reins for several years very successfully. We accepted Kate Lock as our new Chair. She is ideal for this post, as she's passionate about sustainability, and York, is a good communicator, both verbally and in writing, and is not aligned to any political party or connected centrally to any one organisation. So, independent, able and keen.
We finished at 5.55 and I zoomed off to my third meeting, at Langwith College up at the University. I got there before 6.15, and soon found the People and Planet group, who had asked me to go and help them with one of their campaigns to get more composting happening at the University. When we split up into groups, I was able to present a short analysis of the issues: first looking at promoting composting off campus, to students living in rented and shared homes. Then the possibilities of recycling on-campus biodegradable waste: composting on site with bespoke composting machines such as the Big Hanna, Rocket or Ridan, (there are other solutions too) or composting/anaerobic digestion off site, such as the Future Energy Yorkshire site near Selby (which has some collaboration with the University) or indeed, the Allerton plant, if and when it is built. Obviously, I favour on-site solutions, as there's no driving tonnes of stuff around, and the material doesn't even become waste. I also explored, briefly, the reasons that the University should be recycling it's biodegradables. These include the People and Planet University Green League, reduced landfill/transport costs, reduced carbon emissions and setting a good example to students!
We finished at 7.30 and I picked up 2 logs on the way back, and enjoyed a pile of rice and veg with chutneys for tea. The evening was full of fruit prep, writing, a bit of Scrabble, lots of washing up... bed after 2am.
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Monday 1st November 10
I knew that I had a load of paperwork to do, so when I got up at about 9am I got busy with sorting through things... so by the end of the afternoon, I had sent five cheques to four places: Yell Limited, Equity, Cozmic and my National Insurance. I paid the TV licence over the phone. I also tidied up all the pea beans which have been drying on a sheet of cardboard on the floor, and vacuumed the floor which was in dire need of it. I got a couple of telephone enquiries and other interruptions.
The assorted payments have left my Fiddlesticks account severely depleted, so I really have to do some more invoices... I have a few outstanding, as I really hate paperwork of this nature. But then mid-afternoon, something amazing happened... I got a phone call from an organisation I've been very interested in for a while, which is headed up by a woman I really admire, and it looks like I'll be able to meet her next week, and explore whether I can get involved in what they are trying to do. This is a potentially important development, but could also amount to nothing. I'm loath to give more information as I really don't want to do anything to prejudice the outcome. But I'm very excited and pleased.
On my way back from town (with cheques) I took advantage of a 'freegan' situation; someone had dumped a bin bag with some interesting things in - a fresh, uncut pumpkin, a bag of mushrooms, in good condition, several unopened jars of jam and other things, two heads of garlic. There were some opened jars of things which I'll not use... the contents will get composted and the jars washed out and re-used or recycled. But I had the mushrooms for tea, with some garlic, and the last of the pumpkin mix which Gill had made pasties with yesterday.
During the evening I enjoyed a LETS meeting, attended by Melody and my old friend Sue Hulbert. At the end of the meeting, Liz Sibthorpe came along and as she's moving away from York soon, she was handing over the YorkLETS archives, which the four of us looked through... with stuff all the way back to 1993 when we started. I was the reluctant recipient of this archive. It'll sit in my loft until someone else wants it.
I had a good chat with Sue afterwards and got back at 10pm, and got hot water on the washing up, which I did interspersed with Scrabble on facebook, blog, and working on the LETS press release for the Christmas Social on 27th November.
The assorted payments have left my Fiddlesticks account severely depleted, so I really have to do some more invoices... I have a few outstanding, as I really hate paperwork of this nature. But then mid-afternoon, something amazing happened... I got a phone call from an organisation I've been very interested in for a while, which is headed up by a woman I really admire, and it looks like I'll be able to meet her next week, and explore whether I can get involved in what they are trying to do. This is a potentially important development, but could also amount to nothing. I'm loath to give more information as I really don't want to do anything to prejudice the outcome. But I'm very excited and pleased.
On my way back from town (with cheques) I took advantage of a 'freegan' situation; someone had dumped a bin bag with some interesting things in - a fresh, uncut pumpkin, a bag of mushrooms, in good condition, several unopened jars of jam and other things, two heads of garlic. There were some opened jars of things which I'll not use... the contents will get composted and the jars washed out and re-used or recycled. But I had the mushrooms for tea, with some garlic, and the last of the pumpkin mix which Gill had made pasties with yesterday.
During the evening I enjoyed a LETS meeting, attended by Melody and my old friend Sue Hulbert. At the end of the meeting, Liz Sibthorpe came along and as she's moving away from York soon, she was handing over the YorkLETS archives, which the four of us looked through... with stuff all the way back to 1993 when we started. I was the reluctant recipient of this archive. It'll sit in my loft until someone else wants it.
I had a good chat with Sue afterwards and got back at 10pm, and got hot water on the washing up, which I did interspersed with Scrabble on facebook, blog, and working on the LETS press release for the Christmas Social on 27th November.
Monday, 1 November 2010
Sunday 31st October 10
Well a reasonable sleep; got up at 9.30 and had a relaxing morning watching Country Tracks and playing Scrabble on facebook. I also did some tidying of pumpkin seeds, taking them off the 10 or so sheets of newspaper where they have had their initial drying, and putting them onto fresh dry sheets, just 3 this time. There are an awful lot of seeds.
I visited my friend Debbie and returned some things she'd given me which I didn't want, and arranged to get her a few bits and bobs from the greengrocers. Then I went down to Country Fresh and did my shopping and picked up the 3 sacks of compostables. When I got back I did a bit of work in the garden, dug out the Compostumbler, putting the materials into a dalek, and immediately refilling it almost completely full. I collected the last of the quinces, which I expect I'll make into membrillo, as it's such an amazing taste. I also collected quite a few of the windfall Cox apples, which are very plentiful this year, although really small. I'll need to prune this tree this winter.
I was glad to have a facebook chat with my friend Loony, who's visiting my sister Anna in Sheffield, and a bit later another chat, by phone, with my brother, who's found himself hosting a Halloween party for Loony's daughter and Anna. I'm sure all the children will enjoy themselves.
Our youngest went out with a few of his friends to do Trick or Treat, and came back happy and overloaded with sweets. I popped out to collect my equivalent, logs, as I've found a dead hazel which hadn't been coppiced, and had therefore come to the end of it's life, with a height of about 8 or 10 metres and a trunk diameter of about 10 or 15 cm. If hazel trees are coppiced, ie cut down regularly, the tree regenerates almost indefinitely. I'm doing something similar to a huge willow in my garden, but instead of cutting at ground level, which is coppicing, I cut it at about 3 or 4 metres, and this is known as pollarding, which I do every 3 or 4 years. This also extends the life of the tree. So I came home with one trailer full of hazel logs and sticks, and will go back for more in the next few days.
During the evening I halved, cored and peeled more pears for drying, and a few Cox apples, and also did a few pumpkin seeds. A busy but good day.
I visited my friend Debbie and returned some things she'd given me which I didn't want, and arranged to get her a few bits and bobs from the greengrocers. Then I went down to Country Fresh and did my shopping and picked up the 3 sacks of compostables. When I got back I did a bit of work in the garden, dug out the Compostumbler, putting the materials into a dalek, and immediately refilling it almost completely full. I collected the last of the quinces, which I expect I'll make into membrillo, as it's such an amazing taste. I also collected quite a few of the windfall Cox apples, which are very plentiful this year, although really small. I'll need to prune this tree this winter.
I was glad to have a facebook chat with my friend Loony, who's visiting my sister Anna in Sheffield, and a bit later another chat, by phone, with my brother, who's found himself hosting a Halloween party for Loony's daughter and Anna. I'm sure all the children will enjoy themselves.
Our youngest went out with a few of his friends to do Trick or Treat, and came back happy and overloaded with sweets. I popped out to collect my equivalent, logs, as I've found a dead hazel which hadn't been coppiced, and had therefore come to the end of it's life, with a height of about 8 or 10 metres and a trunk diameter of about 10 or 15 cm. If hazel trees are coppiced, ie cut down regularly, the tree regenerates almost indefinitely. I'm doing something similar to a huge willow in my garden, but instead of cutting at ground level, which is coppicing, I cut it at about 3 or 4 metres, and this is known as pollarding, which I do every 3 or 4 years. This also extends the life of the tree. So I came home with one trailer full of hazel logs and sticks, and will go back for more in the next few days.
During the evening I halved, cored and peeled more pears for drying, and a few Cox apples, and also did a few pumpkin seeds. A busy but good day.
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