Human Lifestyle

A good day as I had no appointments or particular jobs to do... so I did a lot of garden work, including sorting out chopped hedge sticks so I can build the raised bed next to the fence in the orchard, weeding, riddling compost and soil for planters.

During part of the day the boys went into the garden and hit lots of plants with sticks, so I then had to spend quite a bit of time tidying this mess up. They were mainly Green Alkanet, which is a bit of a weed in our garden. I quite often pull a load up as it's good bulk for the compost heap, but I like some left as they are good for bees too. The smashed up plants I pulled up to compost, but the long tap root is difficult to remove and it always grows back. But smashed plants aren't good to look at.

So I also cleared up lots of plastic sacks, so it was a mainly tidying day.

I had a big pile of ground elder for tea, with the rems of the nutloaf and some noodles and stir-fried veggies, including the last Shiitake mushroom off the oak log in the garden.

In the evening I had a quite a lot of assorted admin to do, with Naked Bike Ride stuff, York in Transition stuff, and more. I enjoyed Countryfile as it featured a nice chap growing loads of Shiitake in Welsh woods.

Got up at 9 as I'd arranged to meet a Freecycler who had asked for some compost. My response was to offer one free sack, which I could deliver (for free too!) But I said that if he wanted to have more than one sack, then I wouldn't be willing to give him the extra ones for free, and that I'd swap, barter or be happy with a donation for the extra ones.

He emailed back absolutely delighted! And asked when would be convenient to visit. We arranged this morning at 10.30. But when I got up I saw that it had snowed quite heavily overnight. I sent him a message suggesting that it might be best to reconsider this morning's meeting, and postpone it until later in the week. He phoned me back and said he'd been thinking the same thing. We arranged another meeting.

So I had a lazy morning in some ways... watched Country Tracks, which had some info on the new Feed In Tariff (or was that Countryfile this evening?) and did bits of washing up and fruit preparation.

After Gardeners Question Time on R4 I cycled down to see Richard who told me the saga of how he cut his hair, by accident (!), and I bought a large pile of goodies, and loaded up my trailer with 2 x 20kg sacks and 3 x at-least 15kg boxes of compostables, and slowly cycled home, stopping off at the Co-op for hommous, margarine and goats milk.

I was asked to come in to ensure that peace had broken out, and when this seemed to have happened, I had half an hour in the back garden to take the compostables down to the current heap... which has an internal temperature of over 60 Celcius, even though there's snow all around.

I got too cold to continue chopping up green potatoes so I came in.

Gill had made a spaghetti and Quorn mince thing, just as an experiment, but neither child liked the Quorn, although I didn't mind it. The mince version is far better than chunks. I like the fact it's made from a soil mould! Watched Countryfile.

The rest of the evening was peaceful. Thank goodness!

A bit of a late start to the morning, as one of the children joined us in bed during the night following a bad dream or something. I was also bunged up and woke with a swollen throat. But got downstairs at 10 to find Gill listening to the Archers and making bread, proving it next to the stove. An hour later she was dancing round feeling very pleased with herself and saying she'd made the best bread she'd ever made. And it is delicious.

I watched the Sky At Night on BBC iPlayer about the tiny impactor which was crashed into a shadowy crater to see if there was any water ice in the material at the bottom... but it was a bit of a non event in many ways because all the people expecting a huge 'splash' of material were very disappointed. Then I listened to a Radio 4 programme on Listen Again on crickets and grasshoppers. So a very sedentary morning.

But after lunch I did a load of fruit sorting... took dried fruit off the rack and put another load on... 30 small bananas from Freshways this time. I did this whilst listening to Gardeners Question Time on Radio 4.

But then I went outside and replenished the stack of logs outside the front door; this one's on the right looking out, so to keep the house warm and cook, we're now using the stack on the left which has been drying for one or two years in the open air, in the wind, rain and sun, and has had a few weeks under cover in our porch. I judge whether something is dry enough to go on the stove by just picking the log up and feeling the weight. Although the weight of a dry log depends on the type of wood it is, I can tell when they are dry enough. There is also a visual clue, if the log has split radially, and has developed cracks in it, it has lost enough moisture to burn.

Anyway, I continued this task til dark. I built a good pile which won't collapse as it dries off fully, as the logs are interlocked and even as they shrink the last little bit, I predict this one will be OK.

Gill made a good tea, quiche, potatoes, avocado and a slice of baked squash, reheated in the microwave. We watched 'Life' on BBC1, about fish, then Countryfile.

This evening I really enjoyed the music played by Equinox, who broadcast in York on 103.7 FM on Sunday afternoon/night, and on the web at Cranky Radio (well, sometimes!) and they hold events too, find out more here. I phoned in a dedication for Gill and the boys, as they were all enjoying the music. Lovely!

Not too early a start, but once up got the stove going so I could do the washing up, and watched 'The Big Questions' which was from York. Good to see my friends Claire and David Kennard being interviewed, although I'm not sure why they got front row... they always talk sense though, I have a lot of respect for them.

I recorded Countryfile and half-listened whilst I washed up, and at 11.30 cycled off to the allotment, hoping to get to the lottie shop before 12 which is when it closes on Sundays. However, I got waylaid in Country Fresh by a student journalist called Joel who was doing a piece about the shop and was interested in how the shop reduces it's waste stream. I 'paid my penny' for the bag of resources which in most other shops would be put in the bin as waste, and cycled to the allotment, missing the shop by 3 minutes, damnation!

But I did spend the next hour and a half doing my composting... emptied out a dumpy bag of overwintered and mature compost, and filled it back up with some nearly done compost from one of the pallet bins, removing larger sticks to put in the current heap.

I left at 1.45 and got home just in time to listen to Gardeners Question Time on Radio 4.

A quiet afternoon... did some stacking of Brazilian Pine and used the Compost Mate tool to aerate the current hot garden heap, which is still being added to and is risking getting compacted.

Gill did rice for tea. The boys did their homework. I washed up again.

Later, Gill and I had a game of Scrabble and she won for a third time in a row! I'm obviously losing my touch... too much Facebook Scrabble... perhaps it's sucking all my strength?

A good day... chilled morning watching The Big Questions and Countryfile, whilst playing Scrabble on Facebook and keeping the stove going. The bananas I loaded up yesterday are looking a lot smaller and soon I'll be able to move them to another cake rack to finally dry off. The banana glut has been caused by the heavy snow last week. Don't see the connection? Read on!

Every day, primary school children get a piece of fruit under the 'Fruit for Schools' scheme... it could be an orange or apple, banana or even a stick of carrot. This is a regular consumption pattern, so when the snow came, and a percentage of schools were shut for a few days, this meant that several hundred thousand pieces of fruit were left uneaten... and came back onto the market. So a box of bananas, which ordinarily might cost £15, became available for about £5. So, many fruit shops bought these and sold the bananas more cheaply than they usually do. But they go off quickly and some people don't like over-ripe bananas (I do though!) so that's why there are over 100 bananas still sitting in our hallway, waiting to have the chance to be rapidly air-dried, jarred up and bartered on the LETS, or given to friends as gifts, or even chopped up and put in my daily muesli.... or composted, which is what will happen to most of them.

So, Sunday afternoon was equally relaxed... did some wooding, visited Country Fresh on my bike which is just about on it's last legs (if that's not a misnomer) as the jumping drive cog is worse today... making it almost unrideable uphill with a load, but still OK on the flat or downhill...

Later, after tea, I made the same journey again, down to David's to see the photos he took down at the Residents' Festival and then last week down at the Museum Gardens. Some nice Fiddlesticks images, we think we almost have enough for David to start doing my new publicity leaflet.

During the evening I got both 5 gallon cans of bathwater hot so as I can have a bath tonight, as I'm doing some filming tomorrow up in Middlesborough, and although it's about frugal living (someone's trying to live on a pound per day, I think, and I've been asked to help and give some tips and advice), I do want to look clean and tidy... not as if I've been head down in a skip!

Had a bath and hair wash. Lovely!

A nice relaxed morning and enjoyed Countryfile. It was good to see my friend Guy Wallbanks interviewed in Whitby about how to have an ethical St Valentine's Day. Then I enjoyed Gardeners Question Time. I spent lots of time peeling dozens and dozens of lychees, which were unsaleable as they have some little patches of mould on the outer skin. But when this shell is peeled off, the fruit within is absolutely fine... so did loads, then peeled the fruit off the stone, and liquidised this fruit pulp with some apples to make a wonderful juice. I'll convert some of this into fruit leather, but we had some nice perfumed juice drink with our evening meal...

Mid afternoon went for a cycle with my eldest lad. He had some homework to do, making a virtual tour of York, so we went with Gill's camera down to Heslington to get photos of his school, the park, Heslington Hall and parts of the University. He decided where to take the pics, I took him to the places he wanted to see.

Then we went down to Country Fresh and got some bananas and tomatoes, plus recycling, and then on to Freshways where one of the guys offered my son some bananas and he was unsure whether to take them... he's not used to the generosity that shop-owners display to me, their volunteer recycler!

Pizza for tea and then I took some lychees up to Wendy in part payment for the exercise bike... I sorted out a couple of dozen with minimal mould on, and she was happy with these.

Bathed both the boys in stove-water and a very peaceful evening.

Another morning with initial aggro followed by loveliness! Gill and I had a lie-in after breakfast whilst the boyos peacefully watched some TV programme, and then they went on the computer.

I came down for 10.30 and filled the log baskets and got changed into my very-cold-weather performance clothes, watched a bit of Countryfile and set off so I could be in town for midday, my first appointment with the Residents' Festival.

This first midday gig was quite quiet, but after a while I did get a bit of an audience and the show went swimmingly. The second show, at 2pm, was excellent although it was getting colder and there were flurries of snow, and the last one, at 4, was just a workshop with a handful of people, some of whom had come to the previous shows and wanted to have another chance to try stuff out. My handler, Stuart, was very happy with what I'd done and told me the cheque would be with me by the end of the week.

As I left at 5pm, the blizzard started and it was really quite difficult to cycle because I could hardly see where I was going! However, I did make a planned stop at Country Fresh and picked up a couple of sacks of compostables.

When I got in, Alison was at home, sorting out her share of the SUMA order... quite a substantial share... nuts, seeds, washing liquid, pasta sauce and pesto. Yummy mix!

Gill had created a yummy mix of parsnip, broccoli, roast potatoes and assorted garnishes. Not bad at all!

A very quiet evening, I'm shattered as I've done 3 one-hour shows and six trips in and out of town with all my gear on the trailer...

Another poor start to the morning... Gill woke me gently getting back into bed, having got one boyo happily ensconced on his prefered computer game, and the other seemingly happily playing on the Wii, which he likes. We do not wan t them to sit together on the big computer because of yesterdays difficulties. Gill had come back to bed for a lie-in.

However, the child on the Wii wasn't doing as well as he had done previously and started wailing. Gill went downstairs to see what was wrongd told him that today he wasn't allowed to go and watch his brother, but WAS allowed to continue with the Wii. A severe case of 'grass being greener on the other side' then ensued, with maximum volume. Gill tried to ignore it and came back to bed, and explained the situation to me.

However, the 'mortally wounded' child came upstairs and proceeded to wail outside our door, which rather put paid to any lie-in or anything!

Is childhood always this difficult? Is parenting always this difficult? Well, no, sometimes it is much easier for both chld and parent, but this morning was a low pont for two parents and one child. The child in the other room with the more desirable computer game didn't even register there'd been a problem!

So, I came downstairs and put some hot water on the washing up (Gill had lit the stove on the embers from last night) and watched Countryfile, which was mainly a re-run of several previous clips.

Lots of housework today, and mid afternoon, a cycle down to Country Fresh to pick up just one sack of compostables and took it to the allotment, where I spent an hour or just more chopping back the ever vigorous brambles and piling yet another series of layers on the compost heap. Also cut back a large woody shrub just behind the noticeboard which is on the edge of my plot, dug some grassy lumps and turned them over, and chatted to a nice lady called Sue who's partner Jerry or Gerry went to the Solar buyers club last month. I really love being on the allotment.. it's not hugely productive and I'm not mega-organised, but it's a lovely place to be and, well, just mess around. I'll plant some broad bean in soon. I got six packets from Barnitts last month.

Arrived back as it grew dark, at about half four and had some chats with the child who has homework to finish, constructing a questionnaire about 'The News' and how different people receive it, what they think about it, etc. He finished writing it out in neat, and asked all the family members the questions. With help, he rang up various other people (mainly his own age) and got their responses.

We all watched 'You've Been Framed' whilst eating tea... the boys had baked potatoes with stir fry veg/nuts and we had the stir fry with rice. Very tasty.

Later, I half-watched Swarm and tried to get into the mood to do some writing... but I'm just not really feeling like it. This daily diary-account is just about the most I can get myself to do at the moment... and I've a paid blog post to do, my book to keep on with and a column due in at the end of the month...

A relatively peaceful morning but boys full of energy and aggression. I wasn't feeling up to much, tired and a bit headachey, so just sat and watched Countryfile and after lunch did a bit in the garden and then at about 2.30, to the allotment to dig up the last row of potatoes and remove some more brambles and lay a bit of mulch material... cardboard and a split bamboo window blind.

Came back to find Simon and his son visiting, after going to the York in Transition Eco-Freecycle-Swap event at the Friends' Meeting House, organised by Anna Semlyen. Apparently it was very successful and Simon was able to offload some spare keyboard stuff and a huge pile of butterknives found in a skip, and come back with a Christmas present for our friend Dexter plus a few other bits and bobs.

I wasn't my usual chatty self and as soon as they'd gone I went to bed and slept, coming down sometine about 8, and had a bowl of soup and the pastie Gill got yesterday. A quiet evening, although frustrating as something is going intermittently wrong with my email and internet... it keeps going off. Perhaps it's caught my bug and needs more sleep!

Later though, I was able to access the net and get emails and do this blog (but not my paid blog!) and I found a bug in my fairly new 'Feedjit' live stats tool. Previously, when I've accessed my blog and then left to see the live stats, the tool tells me that I've come onto Feedjit from my blog and has correctly identified that I'm in York. However, now it thinks I'm from Leighton Buzzard! I can tell this as when I hit the button 'remove my details' the Leighton Buzzard stuff goes. I emailed Feedjit to ask why they thought this was happening.

A good morning, went out to Hazel Court, the Council's waste and recycling depot, with a cycle-trailer load of drinks cartons, scrap iron, some throw-away electrical goods I've taken out of skips in order that they get recycled. Came back via Freshways, the new supermarket on the corner of Melrosegate and Hull Road, and made friends with Raj the manager.


Home to a pile of washing up, then a sit down with a coffee to watch Countryfile, which I watched whilst taking husks off pumpkin seeds. It'll be a long job, as I've got so SO many! But if I do a few dozen a day, I'll be finished by next Autumn!

It rained after lunch so I did some stuff inside but later I went to the allotment with some cardboard to use as a mulch, and I started cutting back the marauding brambles and chopping them into short lengths for composting. I stayed there til nearly dark and did quite a bit of work... probably not enough yet to not get chucked off... so I'll try to get on top of it this week, at least make an effort...

Gill had cooked spaghetti and veg for tea. I had that and then had to load up my bike trailer to go and visit someone. This was a result of an unusual request yesterday over the phone, and for once I'm going to hold back for a few weeks so the surprise is not compromised. I'll be able to tell all by the end of the month. But it is quite funny/odd/amazing.

Spent perhaps an hour there and came back across the Stray and was pleased to get home as it was still raining a bit. And...

I had developed a runny nose which is snot dice. Therefore a quiet evening in, being very friendly with my hanky. But did enjoy watching Stephen Fry and Graham Norton (not together!) with Gill. Gill dozed off to sleep and I spent time on my laptop, but when she woke at 1ish, just as I was about to go to bed, we remembered the SUMA order, which we can now do online, so I got my computer back on and I worked my way around the new SUMA website and placed an order, which will arrive, we hope, on Tuesday. Bed very late, after 2.30am.

A quiet and relaxing day mostly. Was late getting up, watched Countryfile with Gill whilst the boys had 45 minutes each on the computer. Gill made brownies and a quiche and I did a vast wash up, the only downside of so much home cooking.

Listened to Gardeners Question Time and we giggled to hear a question from a chap with 'just' 18 compost heaps in his garden. After which I went down the garden to add some bags of leaves to my leafmold pile and clear up the old squash vines, pick some bean pods and the last of the sweetcorn.

Finished making the soup started yesterday... added bouillon and herbs and whizzed it up with the handheld blender. Then reheated it on the stove. Gill bought a 20 pence loaf at Scummerfield and made some of it into croutons and that's what we had for tea... pumpkin soup, croutons, broccoli quiche and raw carrot, followed by brownies, fruit and ice cream. Blanched the sweetcorn and peeled the kernels off for tea tomorrow.

I developed a bit of a stuffed-up head and runny nose so went to bed for a couple of hours, but came down for 9pm to see the first installment of the Barbara Cartland dramatisation, as I am curious about her life as we share an ancestor (my middle name is her maiden name), but it didn't grab me that much. Gill loves dramas but I get a bit lost and sometimes find the plot difficult to keep up with. Good acting though.

The boys let us sleep in fairly late, but by 9am they were hungry and starting to fight, so I got up and helped Gilly get breakfast for them. A lazy morning really, did do about half an hour in the garden and then watched Countryfile and washed up.

Lots of childcare stuff during the day, they're both at a loose end and mooching around so tried to find things to occupy them which they were interested in and didn't result in 'Why would I want to do that?'

I did a lot of tidying up too, which pleased Gill, who was trying to keep going despite the pain.

Did a shop at the Co-op and Country Fresh, and at 4, visited Kate Lock to help her with her composting... a fairly dry bin of mainly animal bedding which wasn't composting down very well so we bagged that up and I took that bin down (a Comp 250) and replaced it with a 330 litre 'dalek' which I'd bought from St Nicks. We then 'turned' an existing bin's contents plus a sack of partly composted bedding into the newly installed bin, leaving one to be refilled. The other recently filled dalek was heaving with worms, as was a dustbin full of animal bedding and weeds. Kate has done so well with her 'green challenges', and she gave me a copy of her newly published book, Confessions of an Eco-Shopper. She also gave me a failed loaf she had tried to make using oat flour, but it hadn't risen (I explained why!) and I said it might make a good nutloaf... and was happy to be given it! Thanks Kate.

A peaceful morning as our eldest was up early and Gill said yes to him playing on the computer, which meant that our youngest got a lie-in til 9 instead of being interfered with and awoken. So Gill and I had a relaxed hour or so before the youngest woke up and demanded breakfast.

I spent an hour after my breakfast cutting a hedge which was getting unruly, and putting it through the shredder. Then watched Countryfile which was an anniversary edition and very enjoyable, especially Jon Culshaw's impersonation of John Craven.

A busy afternoon and evening. Spent quite a lot of time in the garden dealing with unruly hedge and shredding most of the clippings... and collected a large trailer-full of stuff from Country not-so-fresh and mixed it in with the woody clippings and completely filled a tumbler....

At 2 I had a visit from Jennie whom I met on a train a few weeks ago when she was carrying an armful of mint, and invited her to come and visit. She came with her husband Juan and had a tour and a good chat, what lovely people! Then at 5, whilst I was making tea, my friend Grange came, and we had a really good evening, all enjoyed the nutloaf, spinach, flower/herb salad and potato salad that I made.

A good relaxed chat on Skype carefully avoiding contentious subject areas!

A good start to the day, woke up slowly knowing I had no commitments today workwise... so had breakfast and went back to bed for half an hour before going into the garden to process some prunings that Gill produced this morning... some overhanging lilac and invasive holly.

Then came in to have a coffee and watch Countryfile. And then had lunch. And then went back into the garden again. Planted yet more beans and curcubits, and a couple of tomatoes from the BIG Recycle.

A lovely day... ended well too, with a Gill's home-made pizza and later, Jill and Ben came round and gave Gill an old unwanted laptop so she can do emails and the boys can too, plus search the web for homework etc. All Jill and Ben want in return is a load of dried fruit... which reminds me I must send some to my sister who has requested some!

Perhaps with a quieter week I'll find time to sort this out.

Another excellent day... not too early a start, infact after breakfast I went back to bed to read NewScientist, a treat. Then went on the internet to research energy performance certificates for tomorrow's talk at CVS, whilst watching Countryfile. The research was interesting and I'm glad that I've been asked to do the presentation, as it has forced me to learn something new.

A good lunch, and the rain stopped so I went outside but came back in to listen to Gardeners Question Time and do the washing up. Our eldest got a phone call reminding him that he had been invited to a friend's birthday party in Selby, a swim party.

A good session in the garden, loads of shredding of brambles and hedge cuttings, and planted some squash and beans in the raised bed which I made out of two bay-window radiators, back to back. I decided to remove a lot of brambles from the hedges, as we have enough blackberries and they look untidy. I have rescued a second pair of bay-window radiators, which are even bigger than the first pair... so I'm using that as a compost bin for now but will top it off with loam and plant into it... the warmth will be good to help the squash get going... I'll have some ready in a couple of weeks to go in there.

Gill made a quiche for tea with Jersey Royal potatoes. I spent some time on Facebook and deleting emails..... far too many in my inbox!

A good day, we all had lots of time in the garden... the boys had a friend round, I riddled/mixed some compost, loam and leafmould and planted 3 tubs of potatoes.

I watched Countryfile and listened to Gardeners Question Time... a very relaxing day indeed.

A very peaceful start to the day.

The day continued peacefully.

I half-watched Countryfile whilst doing a huge pile of washing up, the only complaints were that I'd made the living room too hot by lighting the stove to get washing up water.... but not a problem. I'd rather light the stove and burn a kilo of waste wood to get some hot water than put on the gas for a few minutes.... and it helps dry the bananas which are sitting on the wok-stand on top of the two-gallon pan.

I had an early lunch and set off with my eldest son to Rowntree Park to attend the York Rotters Worm Charming contest, with Gill and our youngest following on afterwards. I helped set up the grid of 16 squares 2m x 2m on the grass, and entrants started registering, including our two boys. I did some announcing with my loud voice and soon the event was underway.

Gill and I joined in with our boys attempts to get worms out of the soil and we got four by the end of the 15 minutes allotted time. However, a minute later, I spotted another one and I didn't stop to think and popped it into the pot. When the adjudicator counted the worms, our team was in equal first place with 5 worms. So there was a 'charm-off' with the two top teams going back to their plots and the first team to charm a worm was the winner. Gill and I encouraged ours to do lots of jumping up and down, and suddenly, there was the winning worm...

So they walked away with their prize, a 'Junior Wormery' by Original Organics, and I cycled it home. However, I had a niggly thought that I had cheated by putting in a charmed worm after the time had passed... and I shared my feelings with my eldest who has a keen sense of fair play and honesty, and I admitted to my wrongdoing. We decided that the best thing to do would be to tell Catherine the Rotters project manager, and to give the wormery prize back so it could go to the real winners. I offered to give one of my wormeries to the boys as a consolation, as I have three different types. This made me feel better. I blame my lack of impulse control and lack of 'thinking of consequenses', both of which I am aware of when I stop and think.

In the evening I came accross a good blog http://gco2e.blogspot.com/ which is worth reading if interested in carbon footprints etc.

Woke at the usual time but it was later than I thought as the clocks had gone forward so most of the morning had gone already... but did have some good family times then watched Countryfile between doing bits of washing up.

The weather was fine and we all spent some time outside, I chopped some hedge sticks to again try to reduce the still large pile of stuff removed to put the fence in. Even an hour of working with secateurs hasn't made the pile any smaller, it seems. But it was good to be outside and the children played on the trampoline and in the little house that Gill built.

Gill made a simple tea using a couple of oven-bottom 'stottie cakes' given to us by Debbie, who's a Geordie and had brought them back from Newcastle the other day when visiting. Gilly made a kind of pizza-analogue and something she called a Russian Salad with some leftover cooked carot, potato, cauliflower and some chives, spring onions and other fresh bits.

I had to do a column by the end of today so I spent some of the day researching 'healthy hobbies' and typed it in before midnight. However, this meant that I didn't do much of my paid blog, and whilst in the middle of it, I had a very intense conversation with K in America via Skype, which put paid to any more straight thinking...