Human Lifestyle

Another good day, keeping busy and active.  I did quite a bit of work in the garden, finishing off splitting the last of the John Bibby logs, and stacking them under cover in the back garden too.

I did some riddling, as I've another order and need to make up a load of potting compost for the shop.

Mid afternoon I cycled down to Fishergate to deliver some spare Green Party election leaflets to Dave Taylor; it's the first time I've ever been to his house.  Chris, his partner, appeared, and she invited me in for a cuppa but I needed to go to Alligator and sort out their composting... they'd about two week's worth to collect and some of it was very liquidy. Anyhow, I brought a trailer-load home and immediately put it on the latest heap. I also got a tub of dairy-free blueberry Swedish Glace ice cream and a dairy free garlic mayonnaise from Alligator.... a bit of a treat!

Gill made an unusual tea.... a quiche which used slices of bread instead of pastry.  I'm not a huge fan of eggs but it was OK.  I enjoyed the baked beans and potatoes, and the red onion in the quiche.

Later, I did a large pile of washing up and sorted out the pineapple slices I put to dry last night.  I got some grapes today, so I started to go through them to prepare them for blanching and drying.

I got up at 9 and spent an hour making up my muesli, mainly cracking hazelnuts and extracting the now slightly shrivelled kernels.  However, they're still good for my muesli.  Gill was watching the run-up to the wedding on the telly but I didn't want to watch it so I went outside and split a few logs, did a bit of stacking, some compost riddling, digging out, and weeding too.  I had a lovely morning in the sunshine.

I came in at 1pm and watched some post-ceremony telly... Gill still entranced.  I saw the highlights on the news (which is all anyone needed to see really!) and then had a short time out in the garden before 3, when I got cleaned up and ready to cycle to City Screen to meet David and one of his other PAs Pauline, who had collected him to go and see The King's Speech... and David had got me a ticket too.  This was partly because Pauline had to go at 5, and therefore I had to take David home afterwards.

I really enjoyed the film, one of the best I've seen for a while.  David enjoyed it too, and lasted til the end, when we went for a coffee, and then a short circular walk along Coney Street, Ouse Bridge, North Street, Wellington Row, Lendal Bridge and back to David's house off Stonegate.

His tea didn't need any preparation, so I left at 7.30, half an hour earlier than planned... but I was happy with this and came home swiftly and Gill gave me some pasta and flatbread.

Here are some examples.

I had a good lie-in. I finished the risk assessment for the York World Naked Bike Ride and sent it to my two colleagues. Then more work out in the garden, including building the start of a new woodstack on the right of the front door, and unloading more boxes of biodegradables into the new Anderson air-raid shelter compost bin.  For the curious, this is made of two sheets of corrugated iron, as seen in this image, the ones with the curved tops.  Put on their side, like two letter j's, they form a good compost bin.  I line it with cardboard, and chuck in layers of shredded hedge and layers of unwanted fruit and vegetables.

I had my care-work at 6, and David and I had a good time.  We set out to go to the Library to return an audio-book, and then to the Theatre Royal to reserve tickets for The Crucible.  He couldn't buy them as we hadn't yet had confirmation from Lotte that she could go on the date chosen, a Matinee.  Then we went for a coffee at City Screen, and I got a reply text from Lotte, saying yes.  So once we'd finished the coffees, we went back to the Theatre and David bought his and Lotte's tickets.  I got a free one as I was going as David's PA.  Then I took him back to his house... I got his meal ready and sorted out his recycling... lots of newspapers and some old shirts which probably need to go for shoddy.

I came home soon after 8 and had an out-of-date tin of soup for tea, plus a cheese sandwich.

In the evening I did a big wash up and prepared a load more apples thrown out by the shops, and excellent for drying on my racks above the woodstove.

Woke slowly and spent much of the morning on the computer  but got into the garden before lunch and did a bit of work outside.

One thing I forgot to report yesterday was that the duck, which has been sitting on her nest in our fernery for 3 weeks, hatched her ducklings, and today, she took them all to our neighbour's pond, where it was just possible to work out that she'd got 11 ducklings.  Gill went round to next door and filmed them... she's very excited by all this.

I got a message from my friend Jackie that she was coming to York to participate in a 5 Rhythms Dance session, and could I meet her beforehand.  I said yes, and got on with chainsawing and splitting, just half an hour or so, whilst listening out for my mobile phone.

Eventually it bleeped and I replied that I'd meet her at 5pm n Parliament Street.  We decided to go to El Piano (not a surprise!) and sat outside in their courtyard behind the shop.  There was a table set out for preparing food (chopping boards, knives, onions, carrots) and soon, one of the El Piano staff came out and with her, two people I recognised from the Bejazzled night a few weeks back.  They were Ross and Leah, and they were having one of El Piano's 'learn how to cook' sessions.  They were having a go at bhajis and tinas, both deep-fried vegetable fritters held together with a floury batter.  Bhajis are onions with slightly spiced gram flour, and tinas are "a Bolivian delight, quite simply carrots & spring onions, a sprinkle of salt and sugar, rolled with rice flour and lightly fried" (see the El Piano menu pdf).  I was amazed that this 'how to cook' session cost only £2.50 per person, included a large glass of wine, and you could eat all the food you made!  This must be the best bargain in the whole of York, and I strongly suggest you, dear reader, try this activity as soon as possible, before the lovelies at El Piano realise the price is far too low and they make it a tenner per person!  It would make a fun activity for groups of people wanting to do something unusual which involved a glass of wine and a bit of food.  And you go away having learned how to make these classic dishes, taught by experts.

So, Jackie and I were offered quite a few bhajis and a few tinas by Leah and Ross, who were very friendly and lovely.  They left at 7 to go to something at the Grand Opera House, and I paid for our hot chocolate and pot of tea... and I took away a sack of the little wooden plates that the restaurant uses, and normally throws away.  They compost well... slowly, as they're thin wood, but it's an excellent material for bulking up my tumbler.  I walked with my bike and trailer up to Priory Street, left her there and cycled home.  I put the El Piano donation into the Compostumbler and did some weeding, and at 9pm, came in and had a small plateful of old noodles that hadn't been eaten by the kids.

Later I lit the stove and did the washing up (wishing we had wooden recyclable plates!) and had my usual evening of Scrabble, facebook, LinkedIn discussions and other communication.

I am in the city were above every luxury shop there are the offices of private banks. Zurich :-)