Wednesday 31st December 14

Today I went to town and bought a diary from Waterstones. Trees For Life haven't done a desk appointment diary for 2015, so I found another one, no photos. I paid using some money which was gifted to one of the boys, on a plastic card. They didn't want a book, so I will give them the cash instead.

I also got a ticket for Sunday's showing of the new digitally remastered 2001, A Space Odyssey.

Then I went round to the Cedar Court Hotel to see their 'Whisky Lounge' and it wasn't really suitable for the Outsiders meeting, as we can't have a table in there. I decided the Cedar Court wasn't right as they weren't able to be flexible. I tried two other hotels, one had a nice conference room but it cost £60. I went back to the Station Hotel but the bar smells of chlorine and has no atmosphere. So I tried the Park Inn, overlooking the river.  I think the bar might do. I need to ring the events person on Friday.

I came home with a huge Christmas tree and chopped it up.

I decided not to go anywhere for New Year celebrations, and saw 2015 in sitting on the couch with Gill watching Jools Holland.

Saturday 13th December 14

Up early as I'd been invited to attend a Green Party photoshoot for the 2015 elections. I got to Priory St for 9.30am and didn't have to wait, and was 'done' in 5 minutes.  I came back via a pharmacy where I asked advice about my affliction, and bought some decongestant.

I got home via Freshways and put several bunches of bananas on the stove to dry, and then got ready for work.  I took my costume, a job lot of balloons, and one devilstick and handsticks. I cycled to the station and arrived in Leeds at 1pm, and took just under half an hour to get to New Farnley, where I'd been invited to a charity event, a craft sale, to do balloon animals.

So this started at 2pm and I was reasonably busy, but I find it difficult to ask for £2 per balloon (I prefer just asking for a donation) and I didn't make that much money. BUT I did enjoy myself, and might have got some future work in the area.

5pm came and I got changed and cycled back into Leeds, and was back home by 6.30, and feeling quite a bit better than recently.

Tuesday 28th October 14

Slept til fairly late and had a busy day after that.Shelled 2013 walnuts, collected a trailer load of leaves from St Lawrence's, made a nutloaf for tea.  I also tried to source 20 pumpkins for Dave Taylor, for an event at City Screen on Friday.

Thursday 28th August 14

Getting back to 'normal' but still achy after so much hard work and cycling. I shelled 2013 walnuts, picked this year's hazelnuts, chopped a bit of wood, weeded the driveway, blanched some grapes for drying and made some plans to meet friends in the next few days.

I got a delivery of a parcel for Howard in the morning and chatted to the delivery chap, and had a visit from Nelly in the evening to collect the pasting table and gazebo for tomorrow's Frack-Free York stall in town.

Friday 21st March 14

A pretty awesome day with a lot crammed in.

Firstly we had a visit from Everest Windows, who fitted our front door and surround a couple of years ago, but we found out recently that they'd put one of the sealed units in the wrong way round, with the metallic film which reflects heat back into the building on the outside... so heat from outside was getting reflected back out, and heat from inside was just easily leaving.  So they sent a chap round to sort that out, and to replace the letter box which had got broken.

Then Dawn came round, as she was in Heslington visiting Sam, and she had lunch with us and showed us her photos of the Matterhorn and skiing in Zermat. It was really lovely to see her. I got my bike and trailer out to show her, and after she went, I loaded up the final 5 sacks of compost and took them to Holgate.

I pruned off some of the dead Elm whilst there and brought that back.  I rang Good Energy with our FIT reading, and Gas and Electric too.  I spoke to Anna and the parents about seeing them on Sunday. I spoke to Pippa and arranged to chat with her sometime.

Then I went to help Debbie with her bike as the chain keeps coming off.  I moved her back wheel back a little bit which tightened her chain, and I adjusted her gears.  She was very happy.

After tea and Gardener's World, I cycled round to Hazel's to deliver a sack of compost to her and John, and got a bottle of mead as a thank you, and some 2013 NewScientist magazines!

Tuesday 18th June 13

I got up early, so I could deliver food to The Stables and distribute WNBR flyers.  So I had breakfast and soon got busy on the computer.  I had to sign in to facebook and found a warning... the picture I'd used for the YWNBR event page had been deemed to be in breach of facebook standards, as if you look REALLY closely, you can see a cyclist's penis. So, I was on a 24 hour ban, unable to post anything.

I  took the food which is being taken onto Botton, and as soon as I'd delivered that, cycled up to the station as my gears were playing up, and Ash placed his magic hands on them and I think they work perfectly again.  I flyered bikes at the Station, Blake St, Petergate, Parliament St and Piccadilly before coming home.

I was able to do other things on the computer other than facebook, and I did quite a bit of work, learning how to do DropBox, and transferring the sustyork2013 email contacts into a document and then into a shared DropBox folder, and also completing the minutes from last night's meeting and wrote a brief update to send out to the YiT contacts.

I did manage to get into the garden later in the afternoon, and did a fair amount of shredding and pruning, cutting down some ivy to allow more light into the top garden.

So, a productive day.

Tuesday 4th June 13

Another busy day, sorting lots of stuff in the front garden so we can put in a big planter made from a pallet with sides.  Gill and I modified this by putting on two half pallets on the front and back to clad it, using No Nails glue and... nails!

I chainsawed up and split some remaining logs including some big 'rounds' which have been sitting there for quite a while. I stacked them in the back garden behind the willow tree.  I also weeded ground elder from the raspberry bed and did a little bit of compost management.

As it was very hot outside, I did some stuff inside, including an hour of preparing toilet roll tubes by cutting one end with a series of 1cm cuts and folding them in to make cardboard pots, and planting them up with pea beans.  I soaked a load a few days ago and have had a surprising germination rate.  I'll be able to take some to the seedling swap, and give a few to my parents and Cookie. 

Mid afternoon there was a delivery of a box of York World Naked Bike Ride 2013 leaflets which was exciting as I hadn't seen them... they were a gift from Peter Birkett, who's also paying for the banner to be made. This means that tomorrow I'll have to do a load of deliveries.....