Monday 14th November 11

Quite a good day, got a lot of garden work done.  I had left my ladders next door as Marion had asked me if I wouldn't mind taking off a couple of branches off our pear tree which overhang their lawn, and every August their lawn gets covered in fallen pears, making it slippery and attractive to wasps.  Marion is concerned that Dave, her husband, who isn't very steady on his feet, might slip on the pear mush, and their grandchildren get stung by a wasp.

So I took off two lower branches, using the loppers to take off smaller branches and the bow saw to remove the thicker ones.  The biggest was only about 15cm in diameter, so not a big limb.  I took off one smaller branch higher up, and funnily enough the tree looks nicely balanced and by next spring it won't look like any major surgery has taken place.  I shoved all the branches over the hedge and tomorrow I will chop and shred that material.  There's quite a lot of work to do there, but will give me some valuable 'carbon-rich' compostable materials and a bit of stove-fodder.

Then I took down the Wisteria at the front of the house.  Ken, our other neighbour, is worried about a small crack in the concrete of our shared driveway.  He thinks the roots of the Wisteria might have done damage to the drains, and he doesn't like the leaves which fall either.  So these reasons, as well as the plant being very unwilling to flower properly, are why I took it down.  I expect I'll have to take up some concrete to remove the roots, and I think this is when Ken will take up more concrete to check his drain.  I'm not that worried about the drains... there is a drain running from one end of the driveway which goes to the sewer at the back of the house, but this only drains the driveway and isn't critically important.  However, I think that checking it is intact and that water isn't draining into the house foundations is a sensible thing to do.

I finished taking the Wisteria down at about 5pm, so I came in and put some food together.  Gill had gone into town to collect the boys from school and then to go and see Matt Baker arrive in York on his rickshaw.  I had my tea and at 7.10, set off for Priory Street to the North Yorkshire Humanist Group.

This was Tim Stevenson's take on 'Introduction to Humanism'.  I've considered myself a Humanist for some time, without knowing all the details about what it actually is, just the basics.  In a nutshell, Humanism uses science and reason to help us decide what kind of society to work towards.  I enjoyed the meeting and if readers are interested in what Humanism is, this website would be a good place to start.  For me, this makes more sense than anything else I've heard about how to live, plus 'explanations' about why we're here and what it's all about.  The website has a little questionnaire that is easy to answer (it's multiple choice!) and this will tell you whether you're a humanist.

Sunday 13th November 11

Another goodly day; although woken by a phone call soon after 9, from Rob in Robin Hood's Bay, confirming my performances for the Victorian Weekend.

But I'm glad I got up as I had a relaxing morning before going to work in Haxby, I set off soon after 1pm, in costume, and cycled the 5 and a half miles to the Memorial Hall which was the venue for the party.  The 4 year old boy (about to turn 5 on Wednesday) was very excited, and had invited his whole class.

So about 25 children turned up, with them about 30 grown ups who nearly all stayed! So there was a fabulous audience and we had a really good show.  I really enjoyed it, and the balloon workshop went well too, with lots of adults getting involved in that.

I managed to finish on time... just... and soon got packed up and left.  I decided to visit someone in Wigginton whom I bought a unicycle from a few years ago... and they had emailed me months ago to ask if I wanted to buy another.  Their son had gone through a unicycle phase and out the other end, so there was a spare uni available.  I will probably pass this on to the Steiner School who are setting up a circus school.

So I came home with 3 unicycles on my trailer.  Once I'd got unloaded, I did very little during the rest of the evening, apart from some more pears, some washing up, and watched The Secret Millionaire on Channel 4.  It is a brilliant concept, and the end part of the programme makes me tearful without fail.

Saturday 12th November 11

An enjoyable and productive day, again starting off with a phone call, this time from someone who had found me through facebook and asked about a Professor Fiddlesticks party, and I'd said yes, please ring and we can discuss it.  So that's a booking for next weekend.

We spent some of the day getting our youngest ready to go for a sleepover with a group of friends.  But as we were doing this, Gill spotted someone in our front garden and she told me to come and look.... but it was just my friend Wendy who was unloading used guinea pig and rabbit bedding for me to compost.  I went to say hello and she and her 17 year old son Ryan came in to see our two guinea pigs, and spent quite a bit of time chatting with Gill and our youngest, and cuddling the guinea pigs, and sharing tips about guinea pig care, etc.  I left them to it!  But I learned that they like bark to nibble, especially willow bark (maybe it dulls their pain?) so I gathered a load of willow bark from some old logs for her to take away, and some apples too, which all her pets (50 guinea pigs, 20 rabbits) love eating.

Our youngest went out, then our eldest went to see a friend... which gave us a 'window' of 2 hours to do with what we wanted.  We used it very well.

On the dot of 4 our eldest came back, his friend coming to have a sleepover here a couple of hours later.

I spent some time doing yet more pears for drying, and was pleased that Charles, an old friend of mine, came to visit and chat, drink tea, and sample pears both fresh and dried.

So a fairly sedentary day, but nice and social, and lovely to have some time with Gill with no pesky kids around!!!!

11/11/11

I was woken by the phone and it was a nice Fiddlesticks enquiry... I'm not available on the date the mum wanted but she's going to get back to me when she's spoken to another mum and they might book me for a joint party, the week after the date she wanted.

I had a quiet day, although in the afternoon I did some chainsawing, splitting and stacking.  I got quite hot and sweaty doing it; it's really good exercise!

I had another Fiddlesticks enquiry, did some fruit, washed up, made up some more muesli, but not a huge lot else happened.

Thursday 10th November 11

I was due to go to donate platelets today but I woke up sneezing and with a runny nose, so I rang and cancelled, as they like you to be well, and I just wasn't feeling like it.

However, I felt better during the day, and did some composting and chainsawing, and at 6 went to work with David, and we went out to City Screen, where we had half an hour of peace and quiet, then we were joined by Geoff Beacon, and his and David's mutual friend Alec, who was an interesting chap.

I left David's at 8 and visited a logpile on the way home, coming back with a good load on my trailer.

Wednesday 9th November 11

A sensible start today, up at 8.30 so I could gather together the pears I wanted to take to Scoop.  I took two trays full, hoping that more than half would sell.  I took the kilo of dried pears and 500g of dried apples.  I set off at 9.45, very slowly so not to damage the pears which were very soft and juicy.

When I got there, the shop was shut and 3 students waiting for it to open.  And the bumping around in the trays had damaged some of the pears, which was a pity.  I'll have to find a better way to transport them.  One of the students found a porter who unlocked the door and let me put the pears and dried fruit in the room, and then locked up again.  Apparently the shop was short-staffed as quite a few students had gone to London to the 'stop privatising education' march.

I went home via a logpile and then went to have a coffee with my friend Julie B, which extended into lunch.  I got back in good time to go to Country Fresh and then on to the Guildhall to attend the Environment Forum meeting at 4.30.  I got there at about 4, and got a very rude haranguing from the caretaker who said 'what would happen if I got injured in the room before the meeting?'  All I was doing was sitting reading quietly.  Ridiculous man!

The EF meeting was good.... a presentation from Matt Barker from the City Car Club, a car-share scheme.

Then there was an update about Treemendous York, and following that, a chat with Professor Alan Simpson, who authored the 'York: New City Beautiful' report last year. 

Nothing much happened in the evening.

Tuesday 8th November 11

Well whoops, I was due to be at Seacroft Hospital to donate platelets at 10.50 and I woke at 10.30.  I rang the hospital and rebooked for Thursday.  They thanked me for ringing.

So, a bit of an unexpected morning as I thought I'd be woken at 8 and be leaving the house at sometime after 9 to get on a bus to Leeds.  As it was I just did some more fruit and got the dried fruit ready for Scoop tomorrow.  I was surprised how light apple rings are, and how many jars of them it took to make just half a kilo.  The pears are much denser, and I easily got a kilo from about 3 and a half jars.  However, the student price I agreed is quite a lot less than I get if I sell some privately, a jar full (used to contain 700g peanut butter) goes for about £4, but the student price is £7 for 3.5 jars of pears and I think I put about 4 jars of apple into a bag and that only weighed 500g, or £3.50 student price.  The fresh ones are looking like a better deal, as there's no processing, just several days up trees, and I'm getting £1.70/kg for them.  Anyway, I'll get a bit of money and the lovely Scoop-ers will get some delicious and fairly cheap dried fruit!

I used the afternoon to do some chainsawing and splitting as I've started collecting logs again. 

Then at 7pm I headed over to the University to attend the New Generation Society (affectionately known as 'Thinking and Drinking'!), a presentation by Ieuan Ferrer called 'Why Meat is (usually) Murder'. This was good, quite thought-provoking and very well put over.  The argument was based on the premise that eating meat increases the demand for food (as the food animals eat a third of the food grown, which could be eaten directly by people, and are inefficient processors, converting only a small percentage of the grain/soya or whatever into meat), and suppresses the supply of food (same reason) and increases the cost of food, all of which contribute to some of the problems regarding our global diet... malnutrition in some areas and in some communities, obesity in others. There was a debate afterwards which I contributed to, after which I came home via a logpile.