A peaceful start to the day, and I got ready to leave at 11am to cycle to the station to meet my friend Laura and her parents, who are staying in York for a couple of nights.
They arrived at 11.35 and we walked into town to El Piano via Barley Hall. I had a hot chocolate and the others had drinks too, and discussed where to meet later. Then we split, Laura and I wandering through town via a pastie shop and the market, Anti Gravity Shop and then on to St Nicks where I had my pastie, and then showed Laura around.
On the way home I found some more Oyster mushrooms, and when we got back I fried those immediately. Laura was pleased to meet Gill and the boys, thought the boys were very engrossed in the computer and didn't communicate much, but although Gill and I see Laura as young, they see her as an adult!
We spent an hour or so at home and then went back into town... I cycled with her on my crossbar (a favourite way of transporting someone!) and we ended up at the Minster, which we wandered round. I followed Laura into the shop and was highly amused to see a wealth of 'Green Man' carvings and teeshirts etc... this is a very pagan or Celtic symbol of a man's head with ivy coming out of his mouth, symbolising rebirth (see Wikipedia for info and images). I like the Green Man symbolism... I suppose the rebirth meme is consistent with Christianity, so no actual conflict really.
Then we walked through the Shambles and to the Castle, Clifford's Tower, and up to the Pizza Hut where we ate. As we still had an hour before she needed to meet her parents, we walked down to the Millennium Bridge, over it and back up to King's Staith, where the Ghost Walk was to leave from, and we met up with Laura's parents... and I left her with them. They had been back to Barley Hall where an archaeologist from the Hungate dig was doing a talk, which they had enjoyed immensely.
I came back home, stopping to talk to my friend David, who has had a good photo session with a fairly well known York science writer. When he said her first name, I knew her surname before he said it... I'm a bit of a fan as she writes for NewScientist, and I like her writing. I've never met her but would like to.
I got home at 8.30 and helped put the boys to bed.
Showing posts with label Barley Hall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barley Hall. Show all posts
We both woke late, which wasn't good as we were expecting visitors and had to tidy up one of the rooms to make it presentable... I whizzed the soup and chopped up a Turk's Turban squash and microwaved it before roasting it in the oven.
Then at midday, my younger brother Tom, his wife Kate, her mum Jenny and three children arrived; we were a bit flustered but soon calmed down and made coffees and chatted, then warmed the soup and rolls, and served the with slices of roast squash. This seemed to be reasonably received.
We had a bit more chat and then Tom wanted to visit York centre, as Jenny hasn't seen it for 10 years and that was her first visit... so the visitors piled into the car and I went with them, we drove to the Monkgate car park and I took them to the Minster, where we looked at the roof bosses designed by Blue Peter viewers and tried to find the oldest tomb... then out to Stonegate where were entertained by my friend who's name might be Michael Mime, or purpleman, who was doing his cyclist 'statue' and for a donation in the tin, offers to paint the donor's hair purple.
From there we looked briefly into Barley Hall, walked down The Shambles and into Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate and then to the Anti Gravity shop, where Martin was only too happy to shop the children some of his awesome 'Yoyo Monster' tricks. Then back to Monkgate and Tom gave me a lift back to Hull Road as he was going this way back to Sheffield anyway... A lovely visit, I really enjoyed seeing them.
A large pile of washing up faced me when I got back home but I ploughed through it bit by bit whilst playing Scrabble on facebook, blogging, persuading the children to go to bed and encouraging Gill with her lovely arty doodles!
Then at midday, my younger brother Tom, his wife Kate, her mum Jenny and three children arrived; we were a bit flustered but soon calmed down and made coffees and chatted, then warmed the soup and rolls, and served the with slices of roast squash. This seemed to be reasonably received.
We had a bit more chat and then Tom wanted to visit York centre, as Jenny hasn't seen it for 10 years and that was her first visit... so the visitors piled into the car and I went with them, we drove to the Monkgate car park and I took them to the Minster, where we looked at the roof bosses designed by Blue Peter viewers and tried to find the oldest tomb... then out to Stonegate where were entertained by my friend who's name might be Michael Mime, or purpleman, who was doing his cyclist 'statue' and for a donation in the tin, offers to paint the donor's hair purple.
From there we looked briefly into Barley Hall, walked down The Shambles and into Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate and then to the Anti Gravity shop, where Martin was only too happy to shop the children some of his awesome 'Yoyo Monster' tricks. Then back to Monkgate and Tom gave me a lift back to Hull Road as he was going this way back to Sheffield anyway... A lovely visit, I really enjoyed seeing them.
A large pile of washing up faced me when I got back home but I ploughed through it bit by bit whilst playing Scrabble on facebook, blogging, persuading the children to go to bed and encouraging Gill with her lovely arty doodles!
Woken by shouting, what a pity. However, I plodded down and quietly and sleepily went to sit down between the warring parties which did the trick... I didn't have to say anything or do anything connected to the previous behaviour, just a 'good morning darlings' and the aggression subsided and Gill was able to take them into school. I got ready to go and meet Pippa down the road to give her a tour of York.
When I got to the BnB Pips showed me some pictures of her trip to Morocco, on a so-called 'eco tourism' visit. It did look pleasant, but of course she flew there and back, and I've come to regard this kind of thing as a bit indulgent, whether it is 'eco-tourism' or otherwise. However, I don't judge my friends on their behaviour, as I like them for more than their lifestyle choices. I was glad to walk with her to the station with her suitcase in my trailer where she put the suitcase in storage for the day.
We walked into town and I parked my bike in St Helen's Square and locked it up. We then walked down to the Spurriergate Centre where she'd bought a card yesterday but then found it had a religious text in, and they were good enough to allow her to exchange it for a secular one.
Then a wander up to Barley Hall through the little alleyways, and had a look around that which was good in the daylight as I mainly see it at night when I've been working there as 'Jester Jigglesticks'. When we were walking down Stonegate, met Jenny my AVP friend, with one of her friends who was also receiving a personalised tour of York. Jenny suggested that we ought to go to Marks and Spencer on Parliament St, and go to the top floor 'Menswear Department' as there was a fantastic view over the roofs to the Minster. So true, one of the best views in York I think!
From there to The Shambles, Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate, the charity shop where my friends Debbie and Rosalind work, Barnitts (Pippa likes shopping so I thought she ought to see Barnitts!) and then up Petergate to Bootham Bar and onto Gillygate to go and see Dylan at Millers Yard Positive Living Centre (more than a Healthy Living Centre!) and then a quick pop into the Minster and Shared Earth, and then sat down to eat a pastie for lunch. Finally, a visit to the Guildhall where there was a door open I hadn't seen before, and it led to a tunnel under the Guildhall to the River Ouse... a bit of a treat for me too as I hadn't been down there before.
Then we said our goodbyes and I cycled home as I had a date with the pre-schoolers who were about to have a session with worms!
I collected several different types of worms from the garden, plus some other beasties including slugs, centipedes, millipedes and beetle larvae. I took these into the school and had a fascinated and captive audience for 45 minutes, including putting together a Wiggly Wigglers wormery which lets the children see how worms mix up layers of soil. Very satisfying to enthuse 4 and 5 year olds in the most important subject there is, viz respecting the Planet and all life on it.
I brought the boys home and we had a very quiet evening. Later in the evening I was on the computer and a friend from my teen years contacted me and told me how important I'd been in her rather troubled life, it was lovely to catch up and to hear how my friendship had been so important.. very moving.
When I got to the BnB Pips showed me some pictures of her trip to Morocco, on a so-called 'eco tourism' visit. It did look pleasant, but of course she flew there and back, and I've come to regard this kind of thing as a bit indulgent, whether it is 'eco-tourism' or otherwise. However, I don't judge my friends on their behaviour, as I like them for more than their lifestyle choices. I was glad to walk with her to the station with her suitcase in my trailer where she put the suitcase in storage for the day.
We walked into town and I parked my bike in St Helen's Square and locked it up. We then walked down to the Spurriergate Centre where she'd bought a card yesterday but then found it had a religious text in, and they were good enough to allow her to exchange it for a secular one.
Then a wander up to Barley Hall through the little alleyways, and had a look around that which was good in the daylight as I mainly see it at night when I've been working there as 'Jester Jigglesticks'. When we were walking down Stonegate, met Jenny my AVP friend, with one of her friends who was also receiving a personalised tour of York. Jenny suggested that we ought to go to Marks and Spencer on Parliament St, and go to the top floor 'Menswear Department' as there was a fantastic view over the roofs to the Minster. So true, one of the best views in York I think!
From there to The Shambles, Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate, the charity shop where my friends Debbie and Rosalind work, Barnitts (Pippa likes shopping so I thought she ought to see Barnitts!) and then up Petergate to Bootham Bar and onto Gillygate to go and see Dylan at Millers Yard Positive Living Centre (more than a Healthy Living Centre!) and then a quick pop into the Minster and Shared Earth, and then sat down to eat a pastie for lunch. Finally, a visit to the Guildhall where there was a door open I hadn't seen before, and it led to a tunnel under the Guildhall to the River Ouse... a bit of a treat for me too as I hadn't been down there before.
Then we said our goodbyes and I cycled home as I had a date with the pre-schoolers who were about to have a session with worms!
I collected several different types of worms from the garden, plus some other beasties including slugs, centipedes, millipedes and beetle larvae. I took these into the school and had a fascinated and captive audience for 45 minutes, including putting together a Wiggly Wigglers wormery which lets the children see how worms mix up layers of soil. Very satisfying to enthuse 4 and 5 year olds in the most important subject there is, viz respecting the Planet and all life on it.
I brought the boys home and we had a very quiet evening. Later in the evening I was on the computer and a friend from my teen years contacted me and told me how important I'd been in her rather troubled life, it was lovely to catch up and to hear how my friendship had been so important.. very moving.
Woke at 5.30ish and lay listening to my wife breathing, and then we got up at 7, the boys still asleep so we had breakfast and I lit the stove from the embers from last night, to reheat my bathwater for later. When the boys awoke and were rowdy I went back to bed and slept for an hour, then took the bathwater up and washed my hair so I'm clean for my gig today.
We were expecting the BBC Inside Out team to come at 12ish as they're filming me at St Nicks today, but they rang and said could I meet them at St Nicks and they'd film me arriving at 12.45, as the event starts at 1pm.
So an early lunch and got into costume and was on time at Bull Lane, to meet Lucy the producer and Phil the Film. Phil took a couple of takes from different angles of me cycling towards the Environment Centre, and one of me entering the compound. The event was called The Big Recycle Day, or 'Junk Swap'. The idea is that people bring unwanted goods and items to the tables, and then can take stuff they want back with them... simple and very effective for keeping things out of landfill and getting them reused.
My role was to firstly do some 'junk juggling' to entertain the kids, I challenged them to find objects which I could juggle and they found it hilarious when I dropped them! I was 'miked up' before this, so the BBC could 'catch' what I was saying and use the footage in their film about my 'green' lifestyle. I was lucky to find a youngster who started off as a non-juggler, and learned the pattern of three throws quickly but because of his small hands had problems catching them, but he persevered and was well on the way to being a good juggler when I finished that part of the event. Next was the 'Compost Bin Drumming', samba rhythms bashed out on 'daleks' and caddies, again filmed by the Beeb. Then I did a composting talk for children, and then an hour or so of my full Circus Skills Show, with juggling, devilsticks, balancing, 'Derek the Diabolo' and unicycle, lots of participation and fun. I was glad to finish as it was hot, and I then had a look through the junk tables and found a video of Grace Jones, hope it's OK.
The junk swap finished at 4, and then Kate the Columnist held her food tasting which will provide some information for her book on Green Living. She had purchased a range of food, both organic and the same type of food in non-organic. She had labelled these A and B, and made forms for the tasters to make comments about which they preferred. We weren't trying to work out which was organic or not, just our preferences and why. I tried and compared carrot and red pepper, bread and hommous, crisp-breads, cheese, crisps and shortbread, plus some wine and orange juice. An interesting exercise. During this, I was delighted to overhear Kate talking to some of her neighbours whom she'd invited, telling them that they could bring their kitchen scraps round to put in her compost bin. I told her that I was very proud of her, as she's gone from being a non-composter, through the York Rotters training, to being a compost guru herself, just fantastic! I'll write to the Press about that!
Came home and Gill had made tea... more food! So I had a small baked potato and salad, then put together a birthday present for my friend Ste, who is having a 40th birthday party tonight in Barley Hall. I'd asked his wife Helen if some home-made dried fruit would be an acceptable present, so I did a jar of interesting mixed dried fruit.
At 7 I set off for Ste's party with just my balloon modelling stuff and a change of clothes so when I'd done my balloons I could get changed. Ste was around when I arrived and in a medieval costume, and was delighted with the dried fruit. I locked the bike and set up inside Barley Hall where there were already some children with their families, and started doing a selection of balloons and giving people a go doing their own. I suppose this bit lasted an hour, then Ste made a speech thanking people for coming and telling us a bit about Barley Hall and that the food was waiting upstairs. We sang 'Happy Birthday' and went to find the food. As most people were dressed up, I didn't feel the need to change out of my glad rags and stayed colourful and silly all evening. Enjoyed meeting my old friend Deborah, who about 15 years ago made it clear to me that my skills as an entertainer could make me some money. Also Thea and John, and a nice chap Dave who lives just round the corner from us, who is going to install a 'ground source heat pump' in his house and garden to replace his 1960's central heating. I learned from him a little bit more how these work, and I look forward to perhaps seeing this being installed and working. Also Rachel, whom I chatted to and she wants to come and see the composting in the garden.
A lovely social time. At 11, when it was due to close, I gathered together most of the empty bottles and cans and filled my cycle trailer to get them recycled. Helen and Ste were so pleased with my help during the evening they gave me a bottle of Mead that somone had brought along... one of my favourite drinks!
Got back and enjoyed watching a bit of 'Sgt. Pepper revisited' on TV with Gill. Didn't do my blog as too tired and tipsy.
We were expecting the BBC Inside Out team to come at 12ish as they're filming me at St Nicks today, but they rang and said could I meet them at St Nicks and they'd film me arriving at 12.45, as the event starts at 1pm.
So an early lunch and got into costume and was on time at Bull Lane, to meet Lucy the producer and Phil the Film. Phil took a couple of takes from different angles of me cycling towards the Environment Centre, and one of me entering the compound. The event was called The Big Recycle Day, or 'Junk Swap'. The idea is that people bring unwanted goods and items to the tables, and then can take stuff they want back with them... simple and very effective for keeping things out of landfill and getting them reused.
My role was to firstly do some 'junk juggling' to entertain the kids, I challenged them to find objects which I could juggle and they found it hilarious when I dropped them! I was 'miked up' before this, so the BBC could 'catch' what I was saying and use the footage in their film about my 'green' lifestyle. I was lucky to find a youngster who started off as a non-juggler, and learned the pattern of three throws quickly but because of his small hands had problems catching them, but he persevered and was well on the way to being a good juggler when I finished that part of the event. Next was the 'Compost Bin Drumming', samba rhythms bashed out on 'daleks' and caddies, again filmed by the Beeb. Then I did a composting talk for children, and then an hour or so of my full Circus Skills Show, with juggling, devilsticks, balancing, 'Derek the Diabolo' and unicycle, lots of participation and fun. I was glad to finish as it was hot, and I then had a look through the junk tables and found a video of Grace Jones, hope it's OK.
The junk swap finished at 4, and then Kate the Columnist held her food tasting which will provide some information for her book on Green Living. She had purchased a range of food, both organic and the same type of food in non-organic. She had labelled these A and B, and made forms for the tasters to make comments about which they preferred. We weren't trying to work out which was organic or not, just our preferences and why. I tried and compared carrot and red pepper, bread and hommous, crisp-breads, cheese, crisps and shortbread, plus some wine and orange juice. An interesting exercise. During this, I was delighted to overhear Kate talking to some of her neighbours whom she'd invited, telling them that they could bring their kitchen scraps round to put in her compost bin. I told her that I was very proud of her, as she's gone from being a non-composter, through the York Rotters training, to being a compost guru herself, just fantastic! I'll write to the Press about that!
Came home and Gill had made tea... more food! So I had a small baked potato and salad, then put together a birthday present for my friend Ste, who is having a 40th birthday party tonight in Barley Hall. I'd asked his wife Helen if some home-made dried fruit would be an acceptable present, so I did a jar of interesting mixed dried fruit.
At 7 I set off for Ste's party with just my balloon modelling stuff and a change of clothes so when I'd done my balloons I could get changed. Ste was around when I arrived and in a medieval costume, and was delighted with the dried fruit. I locked the bike and set up inside Barley Hall where there were already some children with their families, and started doing a selection of balloons and giving people a go doing their own. I suppose this bit lasted an hour, then Ste made a speech thanking people for coming and telling us a bit about Barley Hall and that the food was waiting upstairs. We sang 'Happy Birthday' and went to find the food. As most people were dressed up, I didn't feel the need to change out of my glad rags and stayed colourful and silly all evening. Enjoyed meeting my old friend Deborah, who about 15 years ago made it clear to me that my skills as an entertainer could make me some money. Also Thea and John, and a nice chap Dave who lives just round the corner from us, who is going to install a 'ground source heat pump' in his house and garden to replace his 1960's central heating. I learned from him a little bit more how these work, and I look forward to perhaps seeing this being installed and working. Also Rachel, whom I chatted to and she wants to come and see the composting in the garden.
A lovely social time. At 11, when it was due to close, I gathered together most of the empty bottles and cans and filled my cycle trailer to get them recycled. Helen and Ste were so pleased with my help during the evening they gave me a bottle of Mead that somone had brought along... one of my favourite drinks!
Got back and enjoyed watching a bit of 'Sgt. Pepper revisited' on TV with Gill. Didn't do my blog as too tired and tipsy.
