Human Lifestyle

Well a tough start to the morning, going into school and having another meeting. 

This, and another unconnected incident, meant that a 10.30 meeting I was due to have was cancelled.  But it wasn't a vital one, just a social, but I was looking forward to it.

So, I did some more prep for tonight's meeting, contacted St John's again but missed the person who would be interested in the Waste Food Feast idea, and spoke with Briony Pete, who assured me that she'd be able to find the place OK.

I cycled round to buy some bread and get a prescription, and only fell off once.  Then I went to the other Co-op (we are blessed with two both within 5 minutes walk or cycle) to get goats milk, but there was none.

So, apart from these excursions, a quiet day. 

In the evening I got a message to say the Hull Road Planning Panel was cancelled due to the weather, but I was quite glad of this as I was attending the Waste Food Feast planning meeting at 8pm, actually I needed to get there by 7.30, to meet Briony.

I had assumed that G/020 was in G block in James College, which I'd found on the map, but that was a residential block so I went to the info place and the chap in there directed me to the depths of the Mathematics Department.  I couldn't find the room but then was accosted by Briony, who had found it!

I dumped my stuff in the room and retraced my steps to put up A4 posters directing people to the room from the car park, as I was expecting someone from City of York Council to turn up, and possibly other non-University people.  When I got back to the room, half the People and Planet group had appeared.  But no-one from outside the University came... but that didn't matter actually.

Despite not being able to use her laptop presentation, Briony explained about her job, working for Wastewatch, and the Feed the 1000 event in Hull. She explained about the size of the problem: 8.3 million tonnes of good edible food wasted in the UK every year, costing £12 billion in wasted production costs, transportation, storage, and disposal.  This works out at an average of £480 per household per year, and if there are children in the house, the average cost of wasted food is £680 a year.  When it is explained that this is about £50 a month in wasted food, many families do want to reduce that cost, and save the money.   The environmental cost, in terms of unnecessary carbon emissions, wasted resources, other pollution, is enormous.

So, there were some good questions from the students, and the discussion which followed helped us crystallise what is needed to happen next, a preferred option and a 'plan b'. And a long list of people who want to be involved in the organisation of the event.  Briony said she'd sort out a facebook page to help co-ordinate and facilitate communication.  So we all left feeling very positive.

I cycled along to Melody to collect the unsold dried fruit from the LETS fair, and left 2 jars in swap for the little bottle of truffle oil that her son had prepared.  He did really well selling his chili oil, truffle oil and herb-infused oil.

I collected 2 logs in the snowstorm and came home, and watched the More 4 programme on how the British National Party got trashed at the last election.  Very interesting, a good watch.

I'm really sorry but this post is just in italian. I'm not able to write the crochet pattern in english...maybe some of you can help me!


Eccomi, finalmente ho fatto il tutorial fotografico su come unire le piastrelline all'uncinetto direttamente una con l'altra.
Come ho scritto sopra e' solo in italiano perche' non so utilizzare i termini in inglese, ma se qualcuna di voi lo sa fare e mi vuole aiutare, mi fa davvero un grande favore!
Bene, incominciamo. 
Io inizio facendo la parte centrale delle piastrelline (p.), in questo caso con due colori diversi e con il disegno old america e una la porto a termine con l'ultimo giro (img.1). Prendo una p. e in uno degli angoli faccio tre maglie alte (img.2). Passo l'uncinetto (u.) nell'angolo della prima p. (quella che era gia' fatta) e unisco con un punto bassissimo (img.3-4). A questo punto le due p. sono unite e l'u. e' libero dal filo (img.5). Faccio altre tre maglie alte entrando sempre nell'angolo della prima p. (img.6-7-8). Proseguo facendo altre tre maglie alte nell'archetto della prima p. esattamente come farei per un normale giro. Il resto e' esattamente come una normale old america.
Si tratta di un metodo molto semplice, una volta capito il meccanismo ed anche molto piu' veloce. Inoltre non bisogna poi cucire insieme tutte le piastrelline, operazione che a me richiedeva almeno un paio di giorni nel caso delle coperte.


Sicuramente non sono stata abbastanza chiara, ma spero che le immagini e qualche prova possano essere di aiuto!

Well a very snowy day, it had snowed heavily overnight, but this didn't stop me doing what I needed to do.

My first appointment was at my dentist's in town, so I set off in good time and had no problems with cycling until i got to Deangate, which had deep slushy icy snow, broken up by assorted vehicles and was difficult to cycle through.  I fell off once here, which was funny as I was expecting to come a cropper somewhere along the route, and it happened just before I got to my destination.

So, had my teeth cleaned and I bought more TePe interdental brushes and cycled home, without incident.

Then we had a meeting at home with one of the teams who's helping us, to discuss home education.

Then we had lunch. 

I managed to chat to someone high-up at York College who may be able to help with the Waste Food Feast, and he gave me some good advice about what might be possible and what wouldn't.  I hope he gets to the meeting tomorrow.  I also made initial contact with someone from York St John University Student Union, as I want these students involved too.  Looks like the Waste Food Feast is slowly coming together.

Sometime during the afternoon a neighbour came round asking for a wheelbarrow of logs as they have a chimera thing in their back garden, so I reluctantly let them have a few, but I really don't feel able to let many logs go, as we need them to keep the house warm... there is no such thing as a spare log here.  The same can't be said for compost or dried fruit, I'm happy to get rid of some of those!  But I like to keep relationships sweet, so it was more of a social thing than anything.

In the evening I had a headache and I went to bed for a couple of hours but got up at 10 when the boys went to bed, as they woke me up.  Gill and I watched a programme on BBC iPlayer about bullying; very interesting.

Distance: 0.9 mile loop
Elevation: 8,694 ft
Elevation Gain: None


The trail around Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park is short, flat, and very scenic. I took my parents there on their recent Colorado vacation. We ate lunch on one of many picnic tables near the trailhead and then strolled the short route around the lake. The trail is well groomed, totally flat, and suitable for everyone. The views change constantly providing a great deal of variety in a short distance.


Sprague Lake has in interesting history as well. It is actually man made and was constructed by Abner Sprague who owned a lodge nearby long before the area became a National Park. You would never be able to tell this by the "naturalness" of the setting.


The lake is well stocked with fish and you can actually see them in the outlet stream and even larger specimens along the lake shore.

The first time I visited this lake, I only walked part way around, trying to judge if it would be suitable for the parental units. I did not notice at that time the stunning views of the Continental Divide including Hallett (12,713 ft), Taylor (13,153 ft), and Otis (12,486 ft) peaks that greet the visitor half way around. I wish ole Abner had sold his land to me so I could have that view for my living room window.

If you visit Rocky Mountain National Park, don't exclude Sprague Lake from your list, particularly if you are staying at the nearby Glacier Gorge Campground. There is a short 0.8 mile trail between the campground and the lake.

I started thinking on this post friday..I was working on one of my crochet project (as usual!) and I realized that my favourites places to put the different works that I'm doing, are the bowls! I have different bowls to separate the different works..some are little, some other big. I think that they are very helpfull when you work on different projects!


And yesterday I went with my husband in a small town near Eindhoven, in a second hand market and...I couldn't resist. I saw a beautiful blue bowl, vintage and hand made..now is on my coffe table, waiting for wool!







Ho cominciato a pensare a questo post venerdì..stavo lavorando su uno dei miei progetti all'uncinetto (come al solito!) e mi sono accorta che i posti preferiti in cui mettere i diversi lavori che sto facendo, sono le ciotole! Ho diverse ciotole per separare i vari lavori..alcune sono piccole, altre invece piu' grandi. Penso che siano molto utili quando si lavora su progetti diversi!


E ieri sono andata con mio marito in una piccola città nei pressi di Eindhoven, in un mercatino di seconda mano...e non ho potuto resistere. Ho visto una bella ciotola blu, vintage e fatta a mano..ora è sul mio tavolino, in attesa della lana!

I was happy to get a lie in, and Gill and I listened to The Archers in bed.  Lovely.

I watched Country Tracks after this whilst having breakfast, and got a phone call from Barry Potter who told me he'd be passing my house within the hour.  He wanted to come and check out the brewing stuff delivered a week or so ago, as he does a lot of brewing.  I got dressed and he arrived, bearing gifts of cyder, metheglin, mead and some honey, as he has some bees.

He went home with six plastic buckets, three 1 gallon demijohns, two half-gallon demijohns, some airlocks, crown corks and straining bags, net curtains etc.  Also, very pleased that he took two plastic crates for holding bottles.  So I've managed to give away all the unwanted brewing stuff.  Excellent!

So, a late lunch, listened to Gardener's Question Time and then went down to Country Fresh in a complete blizzard, and it was really nice to see Richard and we had a laugh, I did a bit of shopping and took away a sack of recyclables, although I won't be able to process them today as it's far too cold and snowy.  I might chop them up in the garage tomorrow and take them down the garden ready to put on the most accessible heap. I called into the Co-op on the way back and was glad to get home with the assorted goodies.

I spent the rest of the day inside, not doing a lot, bar kitchen stuff.  Hoping for an early night.

Up early as had to be in Huddersfield working by 10am, so I left the house at 8, cycled slowly though the snow and ice down to the station and got the 8.27 towards Manchester.  I met two nice women on he train who were heading to Manchester to meet some old friends, flying in to go shopping.  Both were interested in green issues, one had even trained as a York Rotter, but were seemingly not able to convert their concern into significant action.  This is not uncommon, and is partly due to lack of knowledge.  Hence my blog...see How do I do 'low carbon'?

Anyway, Huddersfield stopped the conversation and I had memorised my route to the market office, and it took me less then 10 minutes to get there.  The market office people had purchased a posh Santa outfit last year for the leader of the Council to wear, and they asked me to wear it.  I kept my own trousers, red dungarees, and had a tabard thing with a stuffed front, for belly-mass, and then a really nice cloak with hood.  And a beard/moustache with two elastics to hold it on, a big improvement on the single elastic that my Santa beard has, which does not stay on very well.  They had some welly-boot covers with bells on which were a great idea too.

My role was to walk round the French Market and greet the public and give out Christmassy Chocolate eggs.  Before starting I wasn't looking forward to this that much, but as I got down to it, I began to really enjoy it.  I especially enjoyed the genuine wide-eyed wonder of some of the children, the play-along-with-it make believe of some of the older children, including teenagers, and helping to overcome the shyness of another group of mainly young children.  Only twice did someone say they didn't believe in Father Christmas, shouted at me by a teen, and one lad tried to pull my beard.  But the overwhelming response was very positive.  I didn't feel the need to alter my voice, and I was able use my verbal humour to make people laugh, which I was pleased with.

This was my first time 'out and about' as Father Christmas... the previous occasions were in a hotel just giving a present or pile of presents to guests at the lunch table, whereas in the street it was a bit more of a natural situation with lots of different sorts of possible meetings.  About half a dozen children wanted to hug me (well, my legs!) and quite a few wanted me to pose for a photo with them.  I did two and a half hours before I was too cold to continue, and went back to the office for lunch. 

I enjoyed the sandwiches Gill made for me and defrosted, and then went out for a 3 hour stint of more of the same.  I almost didn't want to finish, but I got back to the office just after 4pm and quickly disrobed, put my fleece back on and got back to the station for the 4.26 train.

When I got back to York and cycled away from the station, my bike lights weren't working very well, in fact the front one wasn't working at all.  So I cycled down to Cycle Heaven and a few minutes fiddling revealed that my dynamo had worn out, or gone wrong due to overuse, so I spent £25 on a new one to replace it, and cycled away extremely well lit - much better.

I got in and Gill and the boys were very focused on some telly nonsense (a dancing competition, I think) so I made myself some tea; home grown beans mixed with a bit of tomato soup and cheese, to make a sauce to pour over a big pile of broccoli, all cooked on the woodstove.

I had an extended facebook Scrabble session, playing for over an hour, and enjoyed watching some lightweight TV nonsense... just different nonsense to what the others were into.

Spent the morning sorting out stuff for tomorrow's work in Huddersfield, looking at maps ant train times, contacting the market people... who were uncontactable and didn't get back to me... so I think I know what I'm doing, but it would have been good to have it confirmed.

I did a bit of assorted garden work, despite it being cold, and a visit to Country Fresh, and I sorted out a load of dried fruit for sale at tomorrow's LETS fair. I did 10 bags of 12 apple rings, 2 half pears, two half plums, two bananas, two kiwi slices, two pineapple slices, two persimmon slices... and labelled these for sale for £2 or £1 + Y1.  I also did  quite a few jars of fruit, again for a sterling and Yorky price, or just a sterling price.  I hope they all sell!

After tea I cycled down to Heslington to take the fruit to Melody.  I brought home a small bottle of truffle oil which had been prepared by their 12 year old entrepreneurial son.  He'd bought a 35 Euro truffle whilst on holiday in Italy and had worked out a way of recouping his money.  I now owe him £3.50's worth of dried fruit, which he loves, as a swap.

We all watched a good programme on the science of plants, and after that I had an interesting conversation with both boys based on an incident I'd read about because of a link in facebook, about a man who'd lost £80,000 from the roof of his car whilst driving to work, and a completely dissimilar event when our youngest found a pound on the sofa.  So we discussed the various ethical issues involved with finding lost money.  If you find a pound in the street, nearly everybody would just put it in their pocket.  Would you do it with a £2 coin?  A £20 note?  A roll of notes adding up to £100?  £1000?  Where is the cut off point?  What amount would you put in your pocket and think 'lucky me' and have no conscience, and at what value would you think 'I ought to report this find to the police'?  Obviously there's no 'right answer', it's one of those ethical dilemmas that occasionally people have to deal with.  This conversation led to a discussion about laws, speed limits, drugs, the age you can get married and more.  It meant they went to bed a bit late, but it was an interesting chat.

I did some more fruit later, and had a shave and a bath.

A sleepy day.  But I got up at 8.20 and during the morning took on a teacher role.  The curriculum our son was following had got onto cells so I asked him to find me a range of answers about Amoebae.  He did that with relish, and we went on to discuss organelles, symbiosis in lichens and corals, taxonomy and the differences between plant and animal cells.

Later, Gill went out and I did some work outside, in the snow flurries, moving green logs to a carefully stacked wall at the back and bringing nice dry ones from the store at the back to the front door stack.  I love stacking logs.  Makes all those childhood jigsaw puzzles worth it.

After tea I walked down to the Co-op and got cereals but they had some cheap bits and pieces which was nice, like a French Stick for 20 pence and a Mars Bar for 15p.  Rare treat, I hardly ever buy chocolate.

I did lots of other bits today including some tidying around the stoves, sorting out nails etc, ready for recycling, also washing up, the never-ending washing up.....

And, late on, I got my CV finished.  At least, finished to my satisfaction, and have sent it to my friend Beth who is a professional CV puller-aparter.  She'll put me right!

One of my earliest childhood memories is of a Stellar's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) stealing my lunch. They are notorious throughout the the far western portion of North America, particularly in National Parks. This specimen in Rocky Mountain National Park fit the stereotype perfectly. "He" was jumping all around me in a continuous circle hoping for a crumb or direct handout. Such behavior, while convenient for photographers, is heart breaking to see. No wild animal should subsist on any food than an American chooses to put in its mouth. Their real diet is berries, nuts, seeds, small crawly things, and even small rodents. We could learn a lot from this...minus the small crawly things of course!

The Stellar's Jay is a large bird, with a tall, dark crest. Related to the Blue Jay, it is also called the Pine Jay, Mountain Jay, or Long-crested Jay. Its large pointed beak can intimidate children or novice hikers who find their aggressive tactics a little too Jurassic Park for their tastes. True to form, the bird has learned to mimic the call of the Red-tailed Hawk. This vocalization scares off other birds so that the Stellar's Jay can sneak in to a prime feeding area.

I am so used to this bird, that I was quite surprised to learn that its range is very limited and that east of the Rockies it is virtually unknown. Out here, however, you can't set foot in a coniferous forest or open woodland without seeing one. If you do, just remember to hold on to your lunch!

I hope this note is finding everyone well.  We have so much to be grateful for, no? 
                                                            {image from Coco+Kelley}
My grateful things are pretty basic, with a few wild turkeys thrown in.

* Dad taught us manners. Nothing else in life really matters.
*  Mom made us all want to be like her in every which little way.  Even down to her cluttered walls, and her habitual100 high-kicks she did while she brushed her teeth.     
*  Family's Good health.
*  We have a somewhat cozy home. {The furnace is currently not working here.  Again. As I start to complain, I stop and realize just how good we really have it compared to some who are not fortunate enough to have a home.}
* I have work. 
* Exciting new challenges and opportunites ahead...

Wishing you all some warm and filling days ahead.


Love to all!

sharon

I had an appointment at 10 to see Jane, a newish green friend who shares a love of Scrabble and has a lovely wildlife garden.  We'd met at several meetings and had tried several times to meet up, failing on at least two occasions.  But today's meeting had been in the diary for a while and it was good to meet up, attempt a game of Scrabble, and then give that up as chatting and Scrabble were not very compatible, and then had some lunch.  Our conversations ranged from bird and tree identification, oil paintings, communication in relationships, optimism versus pessimism, food and a whole lot between. 

I came back via Country Fresh where Shirley gave me the usual sack of gubbins, and then via Freshways who had a sack for me.  I got back to find Gill and our eldest had gone into town to get some glasses repaired but they soon came in.  I did a little bit of log stacking, and then our friend Maria came round to talk to us about home education, as she is a tutor who has some private students who learn mainly chemistry with her.  She had a good pile of text books and advice about resource material to get him through to GCSE in the three sciences.  Later we accepted her offer of an hour a week tuition.  Things are beginning to fall into place.

I had a subdued evening, dealt with some admin stuff and tried to write an important email which I've been composing in my mind for a week or two.  Late on I prepared some more apple and then a large pile of yellow peppers which I'll use to make sweet pepper paprika once they're dried.

No, no, don't worry, I'm still a blue fan, but in these days I re-evaluated pink.
I start making a couple of garlands and I have to admit that is really fresh and I like it! As I said I'm still a very big blue fan..I remember as was yesterday..I was 3 and all my little friends were in love for pink.."pink is the Lady's color".."oh, my God" I thought "there's something strange in me, 'cause I like blue!" and in all my drawing I was used to painted myself in blue clothes..with blond hair (because fantasy was always with me!) but in a blue dress!
Anyway I started thinking that would be nice have something pink here..maybe..yes, you're right, a cushion!! I have a couple of pink gradation, and I decided to mix them with grey and my lovely white (I LOVE white in crochet items!). And since I finally learned how to join togheter the small pieces, some friends asked me a tutorial by images..I'm quite scared about it, I don't know if I'm good enough. By this way, I decided to use this new project for the tutorial that will be in italian only (I'm not able with the other code, sorry) but also by using images. 
Wish me luck!
(and sorry for my english..I think that this post is terrible!)

An odd day as we have decided to home educate our eldest child, as of today.  Gill spent quite a bit of time doing the required admin with the Local Education Authority and the school, and we'll be contacting the local home schooling group which is very active.  I've done a party for them, and I hope we can get involved in this group.
I'm not brilliant with major changes like this but I expect I'll get used to it.  Between us, Gill and I have a lot of expertise and learning, and we have a lot of contacts who could do some specialist teaching.  I am extremely disappointed that the school has been unable to accommodate our child's needs and has been unable to deal with the dreadful behaviour of some of the other pupils.

Anyway, we look forward to exciting and positive times ahead, and most important, happy times.

I did quite a bit of work outside... stacking logs, filling the leafmould pile, a bit of compost heap management, taking down bean vines and bringing in more dry beans.  I even found a meal's-worth of potatoes.  I had an appointment with the GP practice nurse for an asthma check and flu jab.  On the way back I collected a large sack of gubbins from Freshways.

In the evening I had a use-it-up meal and did some more apple prep for the dried apple production line.  I watched a great programme on the ultimate environmental absurdity, bottled water.  I had an email enquiry from a Tesco marketeer asking me to do a blog post about how Tesco is green.  I could hardly believe it!  I'll consider writing this up over the next few days.

After last week moving in the worst rainy day of the year. Here are some pictures of the apartment. It's work in progress but I am already happy of the result. In front of the chimney you can see my two "new" bedside tables :-)

A mixed day, with the usual Monday morning stuff and then recovery and housework and Gill and I having lots of talking about how we deal with what we're going through. 

Gill went to town to buy a coat as one's been stolen.  I stayed in and sorted out the tomato, bean and cucumber plants (now all dead) in the conservatory, carefully cutting them down, taking off tomatoes and beans (and a few yam tubercles) and piling the dead stems up for taking down the garden.

When the boys came in we had a big family conference and I expect we've got some news to share sometime soon.  However I have to discuss with the family about what I'm allowed to say here.

A peaceful evening.  I made two facebook 'event' pages, one for this week's YorkLETS Christmas Fair on Saturday, and the other for a Waste Food Feast preparatory meeting which it seems I'm organising.

Monday normally we're not too excited because it's the first day of the week. Because we have to go to the office, because we are already planning things for the weekend. Shortly said, we would prefer that after monday comes friday. Well today we're just happy that it's monday because what all nice things we saw today.

Distance: 6 miles round trip
Elevation: 8,787 ft - 10,220ft
Elevation Gain: 1,433 ft
Critters: Stellar's Jay


Loch Vale is a classic hike in Rocky Mountain National Park that many visitors do on their summer vacations. It is relatively easy, has interesting milestones along the way, and ends at a spectacular lake. It is suitable for beginning hikers.

I have snowshoed to Loch Vale many times but have not hiked it in the summer in a while and never as a destination in and of itself. Usually, it is just a milestone on the way to Sky Pond. On this trip, I had a friend visiting on a short Colorado vacation and this was a perfect trail for her.

The trail to Loch Vale begins at the Glacier Gorge Trailhead. At 0.9 miles is Alberta Falls, which rages in the spring and is frozen over in the winter. Tourists gather about the rocks snapping pictures of themselves. Be sure to stop here and look down into the gorge as well. This part of the trail is broad and well manicured. It winds through juvenile Aspens and conifers.

Above Alberta Falls, the trails switchbacks up the hillside until it enters Glacier Gorge, a wind tunnel filled with stunning rocks and "peak-a-boos". Along the way are large pull outs for landscape photography.

At 2.23 miles is the junction with Mills Lake and Lake Haiyaha. From this point, the trail heads up a series of switchbacks with views of the gorge (see winter route) . The switchbacks are not long or arduous. At the top is Loch Vale. There is a trail that circumnavigates the lake and lots of "beaches", rocks, and peninsulas to lounge on.

In the winter, this spot is one of the coldest in Colorado, but on this trip in early October it was balmy. My friend and I sat by the lake and ate lunch. An aggressive Stellar's Jay kept us company and ogled our sandwiches.



If you are visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, add this trail to your list. It won't disappoint. Add one mile to your trip and visit Mills Lake on the way back. From the LochVale/Mills trail junction it is a short 0.5 miles and minimal elevation gain to Mills.