Thursday 28th February 13

A good day, with a visit to a shop with my friend who's bank card I'm looking after at around lunchtime, and then mid-afternoon I did 3 hours DEFRA door-knocking. Really enjoyed this.

I headed off to town to get to the Friends Meeting House by 7pm for the followup meeting to 'Towards a Sustainable York 2013' which was due to start at 7.30. 18 other people attended which was a really good turnout.

I co-chaired with Lyndsey, all sitting in a circle. Everyone introduced themselves, just briefly... and then we recapped the different subjects which emerged from the meeting in January.  These were the York Green Network or Hub, a Vision and Future for York in Transition, Creating a Bee-Friendly York, Local Carbon Capture - biochar, Renewable Energy, Community Agroforestry Gardens, i-Travel York, Wellbeing in York and there was a late addition to the topics, Creating a Plastic Waste sculpture.

Lyndsey facilitated a voting system for these to decide the most popular. This resulted in 3 groups, the networking one, the wellbeing one, and a conglomerate of 3 groups, which we renamed the growing group. We had about 45 minutes discussion time and then regrouped to share our next steps.  The most advanced group, it seemed, was the Wellbeing group which had laid plans for a Wellbeing Festival, and several other events and actions.

Some of us then went to the Last Drop Inn, where although it was noisy, some good conversations were had.

Friday 8th February 2013

Up fairly early and went to the Thomas's Bakery on Tang Hall Lane to get some cheapo Yesterbake bread, and then I went into the Co-op to get a load of soya milk, and I was surprised to see Hugh Bayley, our MP, and Councillor Neil Barnes, our Ward Councillor.  They were there to officially open the new Post Office in the Co-op.

I chatted with Hugh for a while and he asked me if I'd help with a photo.  I joked that I'd be delighted to be in a photo with him just as long as no-one photoshopped a Labour Party badge onto me!  He gently explained that he'd like me to take a photo of him and Neil, so I did a series of snaps for them, next to the new counter.

A couple of minutes later I had another joke with him about him being up a ladder pretending to put the Post Office sign up on the wall.  I mentioned the DEFRA work I was doing with St Nicks and he was interested.

I then went to St Nicks to take all my filled-in forms in, and ask about continuing, and was given a form with all the roads yet to be done. There's still quite a bit of work to do.

I didn't feel like doing any door-to-door today as I wanted to do some more wooding, and I had a busy and enjoyable outdoor day.

Saturday 26th January 13 Towards a Sustainable York 2013

Up early so I could be at Priory St by 9.15.... in deep snow! 

Monday 21st January 13

A quiet day mostly inside, helped by cold weather. However, I did go to the 'Towards a Sustainable York 2013' planning meeting at 11.30, and after that, to Alligator to get supplies and compostables.

In the evening, went to the Seahorse to the York in Transition 'decision' meeting, and happily, we now have a new team of Directors, Lyndsey, David, Jon, and Barry and I will remain, but Barry will not be Company Secretary.

Friday 11th January 13

A real mix of a day; up early and got an email from Ivana about tomorrow's Rotters event in Bishopthorpe, to which I responded 'yes, will see you there but will see you soon at the Terrace Cafe in Auden House' as we'd agreed to meet there at 11.30.

20 minutes later we were there, I got in just a few moments before everybody else.  It was a good meeting, to finalise the arrangements for the Towards a Sustainable York 2013 event.  I have a Press Release to write.

We were finished within the hour, and I came straight home.  I did a bit of shopping for Gill, heavy stuff like cartons of soya milk and bags of potatoes.

In the afternoon I did another significant bit of willow pruning; I'm over halfway now.

I got an email from Georgina saying that she'd had a lot of thought about her various businesses, and she was sorry to say that she was not going to be persuing the 'Really Resourceful' food waste collection in York, and that I was to destroy the business cards.  Later in the day I had a good conversation with her and was assured that the decision wasn't to do with anything I'd done or not done, but what she was concentrating on, which is a bigger project.  We will work together on the Galtres Festival recycling, and perhaps with St Nicks if she's needed there.  I was disappointed for a while, but I'm sure something else will come along. 

Friday 4th January 13

Another good day, as it was mild and dry, so I did some more work on the big willow tree, and removed another two big branches, and then pruned them down at ground level.

In the afternoon I bombed down to town to get a cheque out for Yell. And my new website is ready to go live.  It needs just a couple of tweaks.... and my professorfiddlesticks.co.uk URL directing to it.

The other good thing was the Residents Weekend pamphlet was published and the Towards a Sustainable York 2013 event is in it!  Hooray!

At 6.30 I arrived at David's again and I took him to City Screen, just did an hour and a half.

In the evening I worked on tomorrow's 'fracking' talk in Malton.

Thursday 3rd January 13

Got up quite late and had a good day, the highlight of which was working with our youngest in the garden, just taking the last of the split oak logs down the garden, by hand, 2 or 4 at a time, and stacking them in a place just vacated by some dry logs which are now outside the front door, on their final drying cycle before use.

I stacked, he delivered.  We enjoyed working together... and although it was less than an hour, this was the best bit of the day for me.

At 5.30 I headed off to The Seahorse for a Sustainable York 2013 meeting.  Pleased that Alistair and Ivana were there too.  We got quite a bit sorted out.