A fairly relaxed day... spent most of the morning writing my last Community Care blog, and doing other computery stuff. I went to buy bread, visited several ripe skips, had lunch and spent some time in the garden. Raj rang and I went down to Freshways. I planted more squash plants, some in the remaining spaces in the raised beds and others in containers.
Gill went to pick up our youngest and I cooked tea. I harvested the Chicken of the Woods mushroom, cleaned it up (it incorporates bits of wood etc into it's surface) and cubed it quite small. Fried onion, rescued peppers and cubed a squash which again, was a freegan find. Added the cubed Chicken of the Woods. Then chopped up 3 tomatoes and put them into the frying veg, and added some of the new season basil out of the conservatory. Finally, added a tin of cannelini beans to this. Gill then fried some already cooked potatoes in extra virgin olive oil, and we all had this, with the last of yesterday's asparagus quiche. The mushroom/pepper/bean thing was the best meal I'd had for ages, and I always like Gill's quiche. Lovely meal, everybody loved it!
I made a phone call at 7 to my Sister who knows more about Runescape and billing than I do; we did make a payment for our son to be a paid-up member of this a month or two ago, but the other day this level of access stopped, so I turned to Anna for advice. With her help, I resubscribed to a small monthly payment.
At 8 zoomed round to Lynn's to help her celebrate her 45th Birthday. Glad to see so many friendly old faces, Will, Phil, Helen, Stephen and Alison, and new friends Tony and Sharon.
I got home soon after 10.30 and settled down to try to empty my perennially over-full inbox, write this, and get some water warmed up to do the washing up...
Showing posts with label Blog for Community Care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog for Community Care. Show all posts
A relatively slow start to the day but awaiting our friend Justin coming round to look at a malfunctioning plug socket, one of the rocker switches has been, on occasion, not switching off.. so definitely time to replace it.
Moving some furniture to allow access meant doing some cleaning, and I lit the stove to do a large pile of washing up. I also blanched about 5 bags of grapes and put them on the tray balanced on the pan of washing up water to dry. So a quite domestic day.
We did spend quite a bit of time with the Euro Election results, which in the UK at least are quite disturbing. Glad our two Greens were re-elected, very unhappy that the electorate in two areas think that the British National Party are worth voting for. Do they not realise that these people are Nazis? Griffin has even been convicted and put in Jail for racist activity! I am ashamed that the people of Yorkshire and Humberside have voted in Andrew Brons (there's a Teutonic name!) and he doesn't represent my views. Not In My Name!
I did a little bit of stacking and hedge cutting then shredding before going out to see the first showing of The End of the Line at City Screen. This was quite disturbing. As I don't eat fish, and haven't for 25 years, I feel I'm doing my bit to stop the devastation of our oceans... but there is a lot more I could be doing. One thing I'll do is to write a review for my Community Care blog... I haven't written a blog for them for 2 or 3 weeks so it's about time to do one!
Moving some furniture to allow access meant doing some cleaning, and I lit the stove to do a large pile of washing up. I also blanched about 5 bags of grapes and put them on the tray balanced on the pan of washing up water to dry. So a quite domestic day.
We did spend quite a bit of time with the Euro Election results, which in the UK at least are quite disturbing. Glad our two Greens were re-elected, very unhappy that the electorate in two areas think that the British National Party are worth voting for. Do they not realise that these people are Nazis? Griffin has even been convicted and put in Jail for racist activity! I am ashamed that the people of Yorkshire and Humberside have voted in Andrew Brons (there's a Teutonic name!) and he doesn't represent my views. Not In My Name!
I did a little bit of stacking and hedge cutting then shredding before going out to see the first showing of The End of the Line at City Screen. This was quite disturbing. As I don't eat fish, and haven't for 25 years, I feel I'm doing my bit to stop the devastation of our oceans... but there is a lot more I could be doing. One thing I'll do is to write a review for my Community Care blog... I haven't written a blog for them for 2 or 3 weeks so it's about time to do one!
Woken by shouting but things seemed to calm down, thankfully. Our eldest got ready to go to Games Workshop with a friend. This is a shop space in town where people can buy different models, mostly plastic, and there's a central table where the different games can be played. He took sandwiches for lunch and ate those outside the shop.
I did quite a bit of paperwork, Gill got some documents photocopied at the Co-op and I sent those off.
So Gill and our youngest had quite a bit of time in the garden. I filled three containers with a mixture of old used compost and fresh rich compost, and planted three varieties of potato. I also planted two types of sweetcorn seed (Indian Rainbow and Blue Jade) in modules (little pots) and several sorts of beans, including unidentified runner beans, Cherokee Trail Of Tears and my favourite, Jack Edwards Climbing Pea Bean. Some of these bean seedlings I hope to sell at Country Fresh, but most will go in the garden and at the allotment. I sorted out a lot of detritus from the conservatory and planted yet more tiny yam balls, some of which were beginning to sprout on the floor of the conservatory.
Gill and our youngest went to visit Ashley and family up the road, leaving me to wait for our eldest to get back.
Charles rang up... he's a Green Party friend but he's going away for a Scottish Mountain-Climbing holiday over the Euro-Election season, and won't be able to cast his vote, either in person or by post. So he's asked me to be his proxy, and a postal vote will be sent to me to fill in and send off. We had a good chat and a wander down the garden, and the family returned from their various travels.
A good tea; spinach, chard, broccoli with pasta and chunks of yesterday's nutloaf, with garlic bread and cheese.
Bathed the kids (hey, they do it themselves these days, but I carry the water upstairs!) and watched telly and played Scrabble.
Wondered whether to do my Community Care Blog on the new North Yorkshire Credit Union which has opened this weekend. This means that the services of a Credit Union are now available to anyone living or working in North Yorkshire, as well as the City of York. I am feeling very pleased, and indeed a bit proud, since I started the ball rolling with York Credit Union, and am member number 0001. I've had nothing to do with the development of North Yorkshire Credit Union, but am still really happy that the Credit Union advantage is now available for so many more people, in Selby, Scarborough, and all over the County.
Watched my counter approach 10,000 page views since September last year...
I did eventually write my Community Care blog! It took over two hours.
I did quite a bit of paperwork, Gill got some documents photocopied at the Co-op and I sent those off.
So Gill and our youngest had quite a bit of time in the garden. I filled three containers with a mixture of old used compost and fresh rich compost, and planted three varieties of potato. I also planted two types of sweetcorn seed (Indian Rainbow and Blue Jade) in modules (little pots) and several sorts of beans, including unidentified runner beans, Cherokee Trail Of Tears and my favourite, Jack Edwards Climbing Pea Bean. Some of these bean seedlings I hope to sell at Country Fresh, but most will go in the garden and at the allotment. I sorted out a lot of detritus from the conservatory and planted yet more tiny yam balls, some of which were beginning to sprout on the floor of the conservatory.
Gill and our youngest went to visit Ashley and family up the road, leaving me to wait for our eldest to get back.
Charles rang up... he's a Green Party friend but he's going away for a Scottish Mountain-Climbing holiday over the Euro-Election season, and won't be able to cast his vote, either in person or by post. So he's asked me to be his proxy, and a postal vote will be sent to me to fill in and send off. We had a good chat and a wander down the garden, and the family returned from their various travels.
A good tea; spinach, chard, broccoli with pasta and chunks of yesterday's nutloaf, with garlic bread and cheese.
Bathed the kids (hey, they do it themselves these days, but I carry the water upstairs!) and watched telly and played Scrabble.
Wondered whether to do my Community Care Blog on the new North Yorkshire Credit Union which has opened this weekend. This means that the services of a Credit Union are now available to anyone living or working in North Yorkshire, as well as the City of York. I am feeling very pleased, and indeed a bit proud, since I started the ball rolling with York Credit Union, and am member number 0001. I've had nothing to do with the development of North Yorkshire Credit Union, but am still really happy that the Credit Union advantage is now available for so many more people, in Selby, Scarborough, and all over the County.
Watched my counter approach 10,000 page views since September last year...
I did eventually write my Community Care blog! It took over two hours.
A good day. I spent most of the morning writing my Community Care blog, which was quite difficult and took me about 3 hours, but I like what has come out.
Lunch was just after 1pm, the usual sandwiches, and then, after washing up and preparing a huge load of apples (very slightly wizened 'golden delicious', I got a bag of about 40 of them = 160 apple rings, now drying on the stove), I went into the garden and spent a few very happy hours doing assorted compost-related activities.
Gill transplanted self-sown Aquilegias into the top bit of the garden to make space for broad beans to go in the raised beds.
Lunch was just after 1pm, the usual sandwiches, and then, after washing up and preparing a huge load of apples (very slightly wizened 'golden delicious', I got a bag of about 40 of them = 160 apple rings, now drying on the stove), I went into the garden and spent a few very happy hours doing assorted compost-related activities.
Gill transplanted self-sown Aquilegias into the top bit of the garden to make space for broad beans to go in the raised beds.
A happy evening.
Not too brilliant a start to the day but the kids did get off to school more or less on time.
I then had breakfast and caught up on emails etc and just before Will arrived I got washed and dressed. Will came to work towards another attempt at a funding application for YorkLETS, so that we can go from a paper-based organisation to an 'online' web-based one, where members can control their own offers and wants rather than have to go through the core group. Will had downloaded and printed off the Awards for All information, so we went through this and transferred some of the info from the previous application form which we ran out of time to submit.
We had coffees and chats and it was really nice to see him on good form. I then had to do some more emailing to sort out various LETS issues, and at about midday made a return phone call to Community Care who phoned yesterday, and was told a new date for my next column, and the one after that... and then the reason for the phone call yesterday, they are making some changes and that second column will be my last. My blog will also finish. I have mixed feelings about this as I've enjoyed the chance to write about things I care about, and I've enjoyed being paid to do the columns, but it's been really difficult to find something new every week to blog about. So in July, I'll stop writing for them... and will be seriously looking for another publication who'd take me on. Anybody want to give me a job? Maybe this space will give me time to finish my book!
Later in the afternoon, we all took a trip into town and ended up having a family meal in Pizza Hut which was quite nice. We don't eat out very often and this was a bit of a treat. We walked home.
I then had breakfast and caught up on emails etc and just before Will arrived I got washed and dressed. Will came to work towards another attempt at a funding application for YorkLETS, so that we can go from a paper-based organisation to an 'online' web-based one, where members can control their own offers and wants rather than have to go through the core group. Will had downloaded and printed off the Awards for All information, so we went through this and transferred some of the info from the previous application form which we ran out of time to submit.
We had coffees and chats and it was really nice to see him on good form. I then had to do some more emailing to sort out various LETS issues, and at about midday made a return phone call to Community Care who phoned yesterday, and was told a new date for my next column, and the one after that... and then the reason for the phone call yesterday, they are making some changes and that second column will be my last. My blog will also finish. I have mixed feelings about this as I've enjoyed the chance to write about things I care about, and I've enjoyed being paid to do the columns, but it's been really difficult to find something new every week to blog about. So in July, I'll stop writing for them... and will be seriously looking for another publication who'd take me on. Anybody want to give me a job? Maybe this space will give me time to finish my book!
Later in the afternoon, we all took a trip into town and ended up having a family meal in Pizza Hut which was quite nice. We don't eat out very often and this was a bit of a treat. We walked home.
A relatively quiet day... did my Community Care blog first thing about the morsbag people I saw at Kirkbymoorside. This took til nearly lunchtime, what with emails and the addictive Scrabble.
Although it was raining, I did some logsplitting, some of the big rounds of sticky pine from my neighbour, and then stacking it in the back garden under the logstore cover. This is one of the only places there's space at the moment.
Mid afternoon I made the first part of a nutloaf with breadcrumbs, peanut butter, chopped nuts, onion, leek... and then Gill finished it off.
I also did some work in the composting area, and got a load of purple sprouting broccoli up to the house just before tea... so that's what we all had, nutloaf, lightly steamed broccoli and a few other bits and pieces. Fruit and ice cream followed. Delicious!
The boys did their homework with minimum of fuss and we had a quiet evening.
Although it was raining, I did some logsplitting, some of the big rounds of sticky pine from my neighbour, and then stacking it in the back garden under the logstore cover. This is one of the only places there's space at the moment.
Mid afternoon I made the first part of a nutloaf with breadcrumbs, peanut butter, chopped nuts, onion, leek... and then Gill finished it off.
I also did some work in the composting area, and got a load of purple sprouting broccoli up to the house just before tea... so that's what we all had, nutloaf, lightly steamed broccoli and a few other bits and pieces. Fruit and ice cream followed. Delicious!
The boys did their homework with minimum of fuss and we had a quiet evening.
Wrote my Community Care blog
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/2009/04/green-man-switches-off.html
After lunch I put my trailer onto my back rack and carefully cycled it down to Cycle Heaven where I'd checked that they'd be able to fit the new inner tube it needs. I had to be very careful cycling down as part of the trailer was sticking out, but got to the shop without incident. They sorted the problem within 10 or 15 minutes, replacing the shredded inner tube and putting a new tyre on, as the old one had torn. It was good to get back on my bike and have the trailer bouncing along behind again!
I went through town and to my GPs and then to inSainsburys and then via the cycle track where there were still logs and branches to harvest, so came back with a trailer load plus Freshways stuff on top of this too!
I planted some more seeds... courgette and zucchini tromba, a weird-looking curved courgette, I grew one last year so this year am planting quite a few more.
Gill made some cheesy scone pastry and made a pie with it, using yesterdays spaghetti and tomato/bean mixture, with new potatoes and some salad from the garden. Lynn had emailed me inviting me to provide her with some composting worms, so I went to delve in a wormy heap for pets for her new wormery (actually one that Ben had made out of stacking plastic boxes, and sold on the LETS).
I came in for tea and enjoyed the whole plateful, and asked Gill what one of the salad leaves was. She said 'Good King Henry' and I said I hadn't noticed her picking that, as I'd put that right down the bottom of the garden, near where I was harvesting worms. I asked where she'd got it, and she described the place where I thought I'd put some 'black salsify' or Scorzonera, so I looked that up to see if the leaves were edible. I found that Scorzonera leaves were totally different to the leaves Gill had harvested... so what had I eaten? I knew I'd harvested some tasty roots from that plant, so I looked through various books and on the web to see if I could find it. Eventually, with family panicking around me, wondering if I'd been poisoned, I found it was Skirret, Sium sisarum var sisarum. I cannot find anywhere about the leaves being good to eat... just indications that it might be like some other Umbelifers, ie not good to eat...!
Anyway, I stayed conscious during the meeting at Lynn's house, which was a LETS working group discussion about the constitution and managing the membership, and I was able to contribute quite sensibly. I also remembered to take the worms with me, and enjoyed seeing Lynn's garden.
Got back home after 10 and did a load of washing up as Gill had fallen asleep as soon as the children were in bed. Then onto the computer...
Nice photo of me in the Press:
http://www.thepress.co.uk/search/4304325.Green_issues_on_the_big_screen_in_York/
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/2009/04/green-man-switches-off.html
After lunch I put my trailer onto my back rack and carefully cycled it down to Cycle Heaven where I'd checked that they'd be able to fit the new inner tube it needs. I had to be very careful cycling down as part of the trailer was sticking out, but got to the shop without incident. They sorted the problem within 10 or 15 minutes, replacing the shredded inner tube and putting a new tyre on, as the old one had torn. It was good to get back on my bike and have the trailer bouncing along behind again!
I went through town and to my GPs and then to inSainsburys and then via the cycle track where there were still logs and branches to harvest, so came back with a trailer load plus Freshways stuff on top of this too!
I planted some more seeds... courgette and zucchini tromba, a weird-looking curved courgette, I grew one last year so this year am planting quite a few more.
Gill made some cheesy scone pastry and made a pie with it, using yesterdays spaghetti and tomato/bean mixture, with new potatoes and some salad from the garden. Lynn had emailed me inviting me to provide her with some composting worms, so I went to delve in a wormy heap for pets for her new wormery (actually one that Ben had made out of stacking plastic boxes, and sold on the LETS).
I came in for tea and enjoyed the whole plateful, and asked Gill what one of the salad leaves was. She said 'Good King Henry' and I said I hadn't noticed her picking that, as I'd put that right down the bottom of the garden, near where I was harvesting worms. I asked where she'd got it, and she described the place where I thought I'd put some 'black salsify' or Scorzonera, so I looked that up to see if the leaves were edible. I found that Scorzonera leaves were totally different to the leaves Gill had harvested... so what had I eaten? I knew I'd harvested some tasty roots from that plant, so I looked through various books and on the web to see if I could find it. Eventually, with family panicking around me, wondering if I'd been poisoned, I found it was Skirret, Sium sisarum var sisarum. I cannot find anywhere about the leaves being good to eat... just indications that it might be like some other Umbelifers, ie not good to eat...!
Anyway, I stayed conscious during the meeting at Lynn's house, which was a LETS working group discussion about the constitution and managing the membership, and I was able to contribute quite sensibly. I also remembered to take the worms with me, and enjoyed seeing Lynn's garden.
Got back home after 10 and did a load of washing up as Gill had fallen asleep as soon as the children were in bed. Then onto the computer...
Nice photo of me in the Press:
http://www.thepress.co.uk/search/4304325.Green_issues_on_the_big_screen_in_York/
Woke late and wasn't feeling too brilliant, drippy nose, headache and blocked sinuses. However, this was the first free day to sit and write, so wrote my Easter blog!
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/2009/04/green-man-on-dirty-coal.html
Melody came round whilst I was doing this and her son played with ours. So writing was a slow affair as there was chatting and coffee drinking... but by 1pm I was finished. I got dressed and had a late lunch. Lit the stove and did a big wash up and at about 5pm went to the allotment and dug out lots of dandelions and cut back brambles, ready for spuds going in. Rebuilt a pallet compost bin and pulled out loads of sticks from the stuff which came out of it, putting these back into the new pile.
Came back at nearly 9 and reheated the food which Gill had left for me... potatoes, peas, squash and a slice of quiche followed by lemon cake. Yummy.
A very quiet evening.
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/2009/04/green-man-on-dirty-coal.html
Melody came round whilst I was doing this and her son played with ours. So writing was a slow affair as there was chatting and coffee drinking... but by 1pm I was finished. I got dressed and had a late lunch. Lit the stove and did a big wash up and at about 5pm went to the allotment and dug out lots of dandelions and cut back brambles, ready for spuds going in. Rebuilt a pallet compost bin and pulled out loads of sticks from the stuff which came out of it, putting these back into the new pile.
Came back at nearly 9 and reheated the food which Gill had left for me... potatoes, peas, squash and a slice of quiche followed by lemon cake. Yummy.
A very quiet evening.
Woken too early by a phone call from one of the boys' friends, who then came round.
I had breakfast and then tried to find something to do for my Community Care blog... I'm not feeling inspired at the moment.
So I used someone else's inspiration... Danny Chivers, a poet, whom I met at a gathering of Climate Speakers in London earlier this year. See http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/2009/03/green-man-wonders-how-to-get-t.html
I love this poem! It's even better hearing him perform it whilst you read along...
Got this done by midday and got dressed and up, ready to go to Sheffield for a performance of the Ukulele Orchestra.
I was picked up at Sheffield station soon after 2 and spent some of the afternoon with Ali and her daughter and their new PA Sarah, who is lovely too. At 5ish, we headed down to town on the tram to go to the Blue Moon, to meet up with Al's parents and an ex-carer who's become a friend and a soon-to-be ex-carer who they will both miss. This meal was part of a Mother's Day present from Ali to her 84 year old Ma. Blue Moon is a lovely place, veggie and vegan, and caters for other special diets such as gluten free. I had a good main meal, a cauliflower thing with some spinach and feta pie with salads... and some of Ali's too, as she didn't like the bean-heavy thing she had ordered, so I was stuffed and didn't have cake. Sarah took Ali's daughter home, as he was very tired... she is only 5years old.
Then the short walk to the newly refurbished Crucible Theatre, where the brilliant Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain were due to perform. I knew nothing about this bunch but was really impressed. A line-up of 7, as one member (Kitty) wasn't well, so I hope she gets better soon. But the performance was awesome... really, really clever, funny, very 'tight' arrangements with brilliant mixing of different songs. All of us enjoyed it, although Ali's parents missed some of the 'in jokes' according to her Dad, as many of the pieces were post 1960s and some post-Punk. Afterwards, we hung around as Ali wanted to get her CD and DVD signed.. she has bought a Ukulele, as she used to play the guitar but has found it more and more difficult to hold but the Uke is more manageable. Her daughter has also got one and loves the UOOGB too. They have another fan as of tonight!
We went home on the tram and I had a comfortable night on a sofabed, the one the PA usually uses... she slept on a matress on the floor in Ali's daughter's bedroom.
I had breakfast and then tried to find something to do for my Community Care blog... I'm not feeling inspired at the moment.
So I used someone else's inspiration... Danny Chivers, a poet, whom I met at a gathering of Climate Speakers in London earlier this year. See http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/2009/03/green-man-wonders-how-to-get-t.html
I love this poem! It's even better hearing him perform it whilst you read along...
Got this done by midday and got dressed and up, ready to go to Sheffield for a performance of the Ukulele Orchestra.
I was picked up at Sheffield station soon after 2 and spent some of the afternoon with Ali and her daughter and their new PA Sarah, who is lovely too. At 5ish, we headed down to town on the tram to go to the Blue Moon, to meet up with Al's parents and an ex-carer who's become a friend and a soon-to-be ex-carer who they will both miss. This meal was part of a Mother's Day present from Ali to her 84 year old Ma. Blue Moon is a lovely place, veggie and vegan, and caters for other special diets such as gluten free. I had a good main meal, a cauliflower thing with some spinach and feta pie with salads... and some of Ali's too, as she didn't like the bean-heavy thing she had ordered, so I was stuffed and didn't have cake. Sarah took Ali's daughter home, as he was very tired... she is only 5years old.
Then the short walk to the newly refurbished Crucible Theatre, where the brilliant Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain were due to perform. I knew nothing about this bunch but was really impressed. A line-up of 7, as one member (Kitty) wasn't well, so I hope she gets better soon. But the performance was awesome... really, really clever, funny, very 'tight' arrangements with brilliant mixing of different songs. All of us enjoyed it, although Ali's parents missed some of the 'in jokes' according to her Dad, as many of the pieces were post 1960s and some post-Punk. Afterwards, we hung around as Ali wanted to get her CD and DVD signed.. she has bought a Ukulele, as she used to play the guitar but has found it more and more difficult to hold but the Uke is more manageable. Her daughter has also got one and loves the UOOGB too. They have another fan as of tonight!
We went home on the tram and I had a comfortable night on a sofabed, the one the PA usually uses... she slept on a matress on the floor in Ali's daughter's bedroom.
Gill took our youngest into school and I had a slow start, doing a bit of paperwork (rewriting an invoice which got ripped up by someone with a temper) and writing my Community Care Blog, which I'm very happy with, and thanks to reader James who suggested I do something on Earth Hour. Gill went out to the dentist as part of a filling had broken off, so I had a quiet lunchtime and then went to get our youngest, walking back through the woods along Windmill Lane chatting.
I washed and blanched a load of grapes when I got in, putting them for drying on the stove, and then took 4 sacks of rubbish from the composting operations down to Country Fresh to put in their bin... after all, it would have gone there much earlier if I hadn't have taken it home wrapping up all the biodegradables, sorted it out to recycle the compostable stuff and bagging up the waste, mainly plastic film and packaging.
Richard was visibly upset when I arrived... there'd been an incident in the street which had saddened him. A member of the public had gone into the Spar shop just up the road from his greengrocers, leaving their little daughter's pet Staffordshire bull terrier dog attached to the railings outside. When they came back out, the pet had been taken. Now this in itself is upsetting, but more so when the reason is inferred. Apparently, docile domestic pet Staffies are targeted by people who get a kick out of watching dog fighting, and they use the non-fighting dog as 'bait', for training purposes. Absolutely sickening. I'm not keen on dogs but I dislike animal abuse a lot more, and I think that anyone who gains pleasure from using animals as entertainment, or seeing animals getting hurt or killed is pretty low. I include fox and deer hunters, badger baiters, hare coursers, dog racers, horse racing enthusiasts, dog fighters, people who go to watch animals in circuses and more. I think we should completely rethink our relationship with animals. We can have ethical relationships with animals, there are plenty of well-kept pets and companion animals which have their needs met and do not suffer. Then there are 'working' animals such as draft horses, sniffer dogs and guide dogs/hearing dogs, truffle-hunting pigs, pigeon-scaring birds of prey... there are so many species of animal we use, and there is heated debate about the rights and wrongs of this. I haven't even mentioned laboratory animals, used to test drugs, vaccines and cosmetics, and many other procedures... it's an ethical minefield! I've been vegetarian for well over 20 years and have opinions about the millions of animals which are kept specifically for slaughter... another ethical dilemma.
Anyway, diatribe over... life goes on despite all the suffering, and I came home with a new garden fork and spade which were on sale in the greengrocers, a buy-one-get-one-free deal, for £8, plus a penny's worth of compostable resources. Called in on Freshways on the way back for more.
Gill and I had the last of the amazing tomato soup she made yesterday, plus a mix of mashed swede, potato and butternut squash, and a rice-loaf thingy with red pepper, done in the microwave, and mushroom sauce on top! Restaurant Cossham is a good place to get fed! And I didn't mention stewed pears with chocolate sauce and a slice of lemon cake... no wonder I'm a bit tubby round the middle....
Evening... a York Green Festival meeting at St John's College/University or whatever it is now, with just 10 of us there... quite a good turn out, I think we're a strong team! We have a team leader on Music, Kids area, Infrastructure and Council liaison, Publicity, Finances and Stalls. Excellent! This meeting lasted less than two hours and I got home, with logs in the trailer, at 10pm. To a peaceful house, hooray!
I washed and blanched a load of grapes when I got in, putting them for drying on the stove, and then took 4 sacks of rubbish from the composting operations down to Country Fresh to put in their bin... after all, it would have gone there much earlier if I hadn't have taken it home wrapping up all the biodegradables, sorted it out to recycle the compostable stuff and bagging up the waste, mainly plastic film and packaging.
Richard was visibly upset when I arrived... there'd been an incident in the street which had saddened him. A member of the public had gone into the Spar shop just up the road from his greengrocers, leaving their little daughter's pet Staffordshire bull terrier dog attached to the railings outside. When they came back out, the pet had been taken. Now this in itself is upsetting, but more so when the reason is inferred. Apparently, docile domestic pet Staffies are targeted by people who get a kick out of watching dog fighting, and they use the non-fighting dog as 'bait', for training purposes. Absolutely sickening. I'm not keen on dogs but I dislike animal abuse a lot more, and I think that anyone who gains pleasure from using animals as entertainment, or seeing animals getting hurt or killed is pretty low. I include fox and deer hunters, badger baiters, hare coursers, dog racers, horse racing enthusiasts, dog fighters, people who go to watch animals in circuses and more. I think we should completely rethink our relationship with animals. We can have ethical relationships with animals, there are plenty of well-kept pets and companion animals which have their needs met and do not suffer. Then there are 'working' animals such as draft horses, sniffer dogs and guide dogs/hearing dogs, truffle-hunting pigs, pigeon-scaring birds of prey... there are so many species of animal we use, and there is heated debate about the rights and wrongs of this. I haven't even mentioned laboratory animals, used to test drugs, vaccines and cosmetics, and many other procedures... it's an ethical minefield! I've been vegetarian for well over 20 years and have opinions about the millions of animals which are kept specifically for slaughter... another ethical dilemma.
Anyway, diatribe over... life goes on despite all the suffering, and I came home with a new garden fork and spade which were on sale in the greengrocers, a buy-one-get-one-free deal, for £8, plus a penny's worth of compostable resources. Called in on Freshways on the way back for more.
Gill and I had the last of the amazing tomato soup she made yesterday, plus a mix of mashed swede, potato and butternut squash, and a rice-loaf thingy with red pepper, done in the microwave, and mushroom sauce on top! Restaurant Cossham is a good place to get fed! And I didn't mention stewed pears with chocolate sauce and a slice of lemon cake... no wonder I'm a bit tubby round the middle....
Evening... a York Green Festival meeting at St John's College/University or whatever it is now, with just 10 of us there... quite a good turn out, I think we're a strong team! We have a team leader on Music, Kids area, Infrastructure and Council liaison, Publicity, Finances and Stalls. Excellent! This meeting lasted less than two hours and I got home, with logs in the trailer, at 10pm. To a peaceful house, hooray!
I did the school run, or should that be school ride or school cycle? Then I got out the electrics and did a bit of chainsawing and splitting, til about 10.30 when came in for a coffee and started to prepare to write last weekend's Community Care blog which has got a tad late... but got distracted reading about the latest Climate Camp meeting and a couple of other email newsletters that I receive.. But, hey, it's all really interesting stuff and some of the stuff I get makes its way into my CC blog...
I did manage to do my blog.... eventually! Did it on the church in Bradford I visited on Sunday.
Also had a phone call from Blue Peter about the Green Thumbs Gang 'Mission Nutrition' Bring and Buy plus Assembly... they are looking for things to film. They wanted to speak to someone in the school, so I suggested ringing the Head. I cycled into school very excited and happy with the small possibliity of our project being filmed for Blue Peter...
Had a good chat with Ali late on and offered to go over tomorrow to support her during an interview she has to have... it will also give me the chance to deliver assorted Xmas presents to family over there.
I did manage to do my blog.... eventually! Did it on the church in Bradford I visited on Sunday.
Also had a phone call from Blue Peter about the Green Thumbs Gang 'Mission Nutrition' Bring and Buy plus Assembly... they are looking for things to film. They wanted to speak to someone in the school, so I suggested ringing the Head. I cycled into school very excited and happy with the small possibliity of our project being filmed for Blue Peter...
Had a good chat with Ali late on and offered to go over tomorrow to support her during an interview she has to have... it will also give me the chance to deliver assorted Xmas presents to family over there.
I took our youngest to school, with him making the decisions when to turn right (there are two right turns on the way into school, one off the Hull Road at the traffic-lighted junction with Windmill Lane and the other at the far end of Windmill Lane) and I'm impressed with his road sense and his hand signals.
Pottered around at home and then whipped off my Community Care blog about non-diagnosis and walking, and just before 11 cycled round to see Anita to share my news with her and give her the SUMA book, as she's an occasional contributor to the Food Coop. Stayed there for a couple of hours, also enjoyed the company of her current au pair, a 21 year-old chap from Brixton, hoping to make it 'large' in the music biz. Back for lunch, used up the last of the bread and went to get some more. Gill was having a rest-day but got up before I went to collect our little-un again.
Gill made a pie for tea, using yesterday's meal leftovers, a few extra tomatoes and a pastry lid... with broccoli and some little salad potatoes I'd rescued from a sack of allegedly compostables and prepared earlier.
After tea I went out to the LETS meeting which was only 3 of us, and I chaired and took minutes. David and I stayed behind for a while and chatted which was nice. Then, as agreed with Gill (who used to be a nurse) I took myself along to the Hospital as I gave myself a small burn on the stove door last night, by accident, and this evening Gill spotted a 'track' leading from it towards my armpit which indicates the first stage of septicemia or blood poisoning. However, the medics who eventually saw me said that it wasn't serious enough yet to give me antibiotics, and if it got worse I could go in again and see them, or it might get better by itself. Got back (with a log in the trailer found on the cycle track!) at 1am, having read another NewScientist... I think I'm back in sync with the right week again, for the first time in a year or so!
Pottered around at home and then whipped off my Community Care blog about non-diagnosis and walking, and just before 11 cycled round to see Anita to share my news with her and give her the SUMA book, as she's an occasional contributor to the Food Coop. Stayed there for a couple of hours, also enjoyed the company of her current au pair, a 21 year-old chap from Brixton, hoping to make it 'large' in the music biz. Back for lunch, used up the last of the bread and went to get some more. Gill was having a rest-day but got up before I went to collect our little-un again.
Gill made a pie for tea, using yesterday's meal leftovers, a few extra tomatoes and a pastry lid... with broccoli and some little salad potatoes I'd rescued from a sack of allegedly compostables and prepared earlier.
After tea I went out to the LETS meeting which was only 3 of us, and I chaired and took minutes. David and I stayed behind for a while and chatted which was nice. Then, as agreed with Gill (who used to be a nurse) I took myself along to the Hospital as I gave myself a small burn on the stove door last night, by accident, and this evening Gill spotted a 'track' leading from it towards my armpit which indicates the first stage of septicemia or blood poisoning. However, the medics who eventually saw me said that it wasn't serious enough yet to give me antibiotics, and if it got worse I could go in again and see them, or it might get better by itself. Got back (with a log in the trailer found on the cycle track!) at 1am, having read another NewScientist... I think I'm back in sync with the right week again, for the first time in a year or so!
Quite an early start, to get ready for the train home from Burton on Trent. Got the 10 something northwards and changed at Doncaster which saved half an hour, as the original train went to York via Leeds.
Back into York at 1pm, collected some veggies for home at Country Fresh and got home to find a relatively peaceful situation, although the previous evening hadn't been that way. And the afternoon wasn't too peaceful either, as the ever-present homework was causing problems and there was a lot of answering back, shouting at me to shut up, and at one stage, the child in question ripped my tee shirt. I decided the best policy was to remove myself from the hostility so I went and did my emails and researched a little task that Community Care has set me, to nominate my heroes and villains of this year. Not easy, I don't have many villains in my life!
Took bathwater upstairs for our youngest and had tea, on my own as I'm not watching 'Little Dorrit' but everybody else was. But trawled through over 100 emails and replied to a WRAP questioner about composting in schools. Tried to pull together my Community Care blog, which I want to do about my non-diagnosis. Might do that tomorrow.
Back into York at 1pm, collected some veggies for home at Country Fresh and got home to find a relatively peaceful situation, although the previous evening hadn't been that way. And the afternoon wasn't too peaceful either, as the ever-present homework was causing problems and there was a lot of answering back, shouting at me to shut up, and at one stage, the child in question ripped my tee shirt. I decided the best policy was to remove myself from the hostility so I went and did my emails and researched a little task that Community Care has set me, to nominate my heroes and villains of this year. Not easy, I don't have many villains in my life!
Took bathwater upstairs for our youngest and had tea, on my own as I'm not watching 'Little Dorrit' but everybody else was. But trawled through over 100 emails and replied to a WRAP questioner about composting in schools. Tried to pull together my Community Care blog, which I want to do about my non-diagnosis. Might do that tomorrow.
I got up just before 8; Gill had been up since before 6 with our son, still trying to get his homework finished. He finished most of it at 8.20. I took our youngest to school at 8.30.
I got home and had a short while with Gilly before my meeting with Ali at the station. We first checked her return journey times and then went on into town to try to find a pen which writes in italics for her project, and ended up in a pen shop in Fossgate where the woman inside was very dismissive of the difficult access into her shop. She didn't apologise for the lack of ramp, just made some feeble excuse about most people not needing it or something like that. Neither of us felt we had the time or energy to stop and explain that as her shop wasn't very accessible, she wouldn't have that many wheelchair users coming in......
Onto El Piano for a hot chocolate and some filming about the list of words plus much tangental chat. Then on to the City Art Gallery which had let us use the Studio for the interview with Dexter and me. Ali and I had lunch... soup and a panini for me, Ali had quiche and salads. A nice little cafe. Then at 1pm we were able to move into the studio and set up... Dexter arrived soon after 1,30 with his partner, good to meet her properly. Dexter explained about the start of his interest in graffiti, 'retrograffiti' and reminiscence art. He'd brought along a small piece of his Dexterworld artwork, based on the life and work of Andy Warhol and some postcards and other reproductions of his larger pieces. We talked about my ideas about having the words different sizes and colour coded.
Ali got a train home soon after 3 and I bombed home. Early in the evening a housebuilder called Clive knocked on the door offering me some joist ends for the stove, and telling me about the green building group he's joined.
I went to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel meeting at Tang Hall Community Centre which I'm 'acting Clerk' of, and four of us looked through and discussed at least half a dozen planning applications, several of which were enlarging houses from 2 bedroom to 6 bedroom, almost certainly for student houses. There was also a huge pack about the new University campus, too chunky to look through in the hour we have, so one of the group will look through it and we'll have another meeting next week about that.
Home to a warm house, children peaceful, wife sleepy, I set to writing my paid blog which I'm happy with.
I got home and had a short while with Gilly before my meeting with Ali at the station. We first checked her return journey times and then went on into town to try to find a pen which writes in italics for her project, and ended up in a pen shop in Fossgate where the woman inside was very dismissive of the difficult access into her shop. She didn't apologise for the lack of ramp, just made some feeble excuse about most people not needing it or something like that. Neither of us felt we had the time or energy to stop and explain that as her shop wasn't very accessible, she wouldn't have that many wheelchair users coming in......
Onto El Piano for a hot chocolate and some filming about the list of words plus much tangental chat. Then on to the City Art Gallery which had let us use the Studio for the interview with Dexter and me. Ali and I had lunch... soup and a panini for me, Ali had quiche and salads. A nice little cafe. Then at 1pm we were able to move into the studio and set up... Dexter arrived soon after 1,30 with his partner, good to meet her properly. Dexter explained about the start of his interest in graffiti, 'retrograffiti' and reminiscence art. He'd brought along a small piece of his Dexterworld artwork, based on the life and work of Andy Warhol and some postcards and other reproductions of his larger pieces. We talked about my ideas about having the words different sizes and colour coded.
Ali got a train home soon after 3 and I bombed home. Early in the evening a housebuilder called Clive knocked on the door offering me some joist ends for the stove, and telling me about the green building group he's joined.
I went to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel meeting at Tang Hall Community Centre which I'm 'acting Clerk' of, and four of us looked through and discussed at least half a dozen planning applications, several of which were enlarging houses from 2 bedroom to 6 bedroom, almost certainly for student houses. There was also a huge pack about the new University campus, too chunky to look through in the hour we have, so one of the group will look through it and we'll have another meeting next week about that.
Home to a warm house, children peaceful, wife sleepy, I set to writing my paid blog which I'm happy with.
Woke up soon after 6 thinking about Dexter's artwork and how I'd like it to look, but also with a headache and running nose, so came down and lit the stove off last night's embers and had a hot chocolate and paracetamol.
I didn't go back to bed as intended but mooched around and was generally around as the family got up, and all was happy and pleasent until suddenly it wasn't, with the word 'bored' being bandied around. No-one wanted to go on a cycle ride with me and eventually, after lunch, Gill took them to the Tang Hall Library to find a couple of books each. They get through so many!
I did a little bit of garden work, sawing little logs (with bowsaw), splitting a couple of rounds with my axe and then cutting up a big pile of sticks with secateurs into three potato sacks. These will dry easily and be kindling for future stoves.
Not too bad an evening, although there were several huge outbursts which we took in our stride.
After the children went to bed, I did my paid blog on a good website called Worldometers and draught-excluding snakes, see http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/ for today's entry.
Still sniffly this evening, so took it easy, stayed warm.
I didn't go back to bed as intended but mooched around and was generally around as the family got up, and all was happy and pleasent until suddenly it wasn't, with the word 'bored' being bandied around. No-one wanted to go on a cycle ride with me and eventually, after lunch, Gill took them to the Tang Hall Library to find a couple of books each. They get through so many!
I did a little bit of garden work, sawing little logs (with bowsaw), splitting a couple of rounds with my axe and then cutting up a big pile of sticks with secateurs into three potato sacks. These will dry easily and be kindling for future stoves.
Not too bad an evening, although there were several huge outbursts which we took in our stride.
After the children went to bed, I did my paid blog on a good website called Worldometers and draught-excluding snakes, see http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/ for today's entry.
Still sniffly this evening, so took it easy, stayed warm.
A good day... took our little one into school and came back via lots of windblown leaves, and filled 3 sacks for the leafmold pile...
I spent the whole day inside, doing a load of washing up and fruit drying whilst Gill went to the dentist again. I spent quite a lot of time playing Scrabble on Facebook, between pots and pans and apple slices.... I must remember to choose a long time for goes as I had a short bit of game with a stranger and it was on a two minute timer, and she forced a win against me as I ran out of time... not really fair, but I've learnt from this! Most of my games are on a 24 hour or 7 day timer... much more civilised!
Gill went to school to fetch our youngest and at 4.20 I went to 'Meet the Teacher' as Parents evening is now called. Our youngest is doing well, good reading and writing scores, maths too, so we're proud of him.
I came back with four large sacks of leaves... the leafmold enclosure is looking pretty full now, but I'll build the sides up with cardboard whilst it sits down a bit!
A toasty evening with a big log on the stove and boys being relatively well behaved. More Scrabble as Gill snoozed... and then did my paid blog on a solution to the 'Credit Crunch'.
I spent the whole day inside, doing a load of washing up and fruit drying whilst Gill went to the dentist again. I spent quite a lot of time playing Scrabble on Facebook, between pots and pans and apple slices.... I must remember to choose a long time for goes as I had a short bit of game with a stranger and it was on a two minute timer, and she forced a win against me as I ran out of time... not really fair, but I've learnt from this! Most of my games are on a 24 hour or 7 day timer... much more civilised!
Gill went to school to fetch our youngest and at 4.20 I went to 'Meet the Teacher' as Parents evening is now called. Our youngest is doing well, good reading and writing scores, maths too, so we're proud of him.
I came back with four large sacks of leaves... the leafmold enclosure is looking pretty full now, but I'll build the sides up with cardboard whilst it sits down a bit!
A toasty evening with a big log on the stove and boys being relatively well behaved. More Scrabble as Gill snoozed... and then did my paid blog on a solution to the 'Credit Crunch'.
I took my little boy into school... he carried his own schoolbag instead of it just going in my trailer, to 'prove' that he could do it, so if one or other adult cannot carry it because bike basket or cycle trailer is full, he knows that he can carry the bag and cycle at the same time.
At about 9.30 I set off St Nicks for the second day teaching the kiddies from the Harrogate school, and popped into Bob's to give him the final cheque to pay him for stuff he spent for the Green Festival. The Harrogate kids arrived soon after 10 and John and I worked as a team, well a double act, Saint John and John the Rotter.
So whilst John took one group I did the rubbish game and half-card game, then we swapped and he took my first group to the EcoDepot to see the straw bales, big wind turbine and acres of solar panels...
The two groups ate lunch separately and I did the post-lunch waste activity with them, showing them how much of their packaging could be recycled, reused, composted or landfilled. After a play on the play area (swings, climbing equipment etc) I did a 25 minute composting and worms info/demo whilst John did something on climate change.... then we swapped over, finishing at 2pm.
I came straight home and started to get ready for going away tomorrow, when I'm off to Flamborough to go on a retreat, where I'm hoping to do a lot of writing and not much blogging!
However, as I'm away this weekend with no guaranteed internet access, I wrote my paid blog, on my take on the Credit Crunch, as well as doing a lot of washing up so I don't leave a huge pile of it for Gill to do...
At about 9.30 I set off St Nicks for the second day teaching the kiddies from the Harrogate school, and popped into Bob's to give him the final cheque to pay him for stuff he spent for the Green Festival. The Harrogate kids arrived soon after 10 and John and I worked as a team, well a double act, Saint John and John the Rotter.
So whilst John took one group I did the rubbish game and half-card game, then we swapped and he took my first group to the EcoDepot to see the straw bales, big wind turbine and acres of solar panels...
The two groups ate lunch separately and I did the post-lunch waste activity with them, showing them how much of their packaging could be recycled, reused, composted or landfilled. After a play on the play area (swings, climbing equipment etc) I did a 25 minute composting and worms info/demo whilst John did something on climate change.... then we swapped over, finishing at 2pm.
I came straight home and started to get ready for going away tomorrow, when I'm off to Flamborough to go on a retreat, where I'm hoping to do a lot of writing and not much blogging!
However, as I'm away this weekend with no guaranteed internet access, I wrote my paid blog, on my take on the Credit Crunch, as well as doing a lot of washing up so I don't leave a huge pile of it for Gill to do...
An early start as had been asked to be in Knaresborough for 10.30 for a photoshoot at 11. As the train got in at 10.35, I got the one before, to ensure I was at the venue in good time. So I arrived in Knaresborough at 9.35 and took just 10 minures to walk to King James High School... and had 45 minutes of unfettered reading time, George Marshall's 'Carbon Detox', an excellent book.
At 10.45 other Co-op and Knaresborough Car-Free Day photoshoot people started arriving, and my role was to be a unicyclist... an alternative means of transport, eye-catching, unusual! So I was in a static pic for the newspaper and did some action shots for the Co-op photographer.
I got the train back soon after midday... again, plenty of time for reading.
I called in on the Council Finance Centre to pay the second half of our Council Tax and Country Fresh just in case there was any recycling... which there wasn't.
Home after 1, lunch and emails, and then at 2.30, went to the City Screen to meet with Jackie from Northern Green Gathering, for a coffee and a chat as she was in York for a meeting. I had more time with Carbon Detox... it's a brilliant book, very easy to read, and wasn't unhappy she was late. We went to El Piano and chatted for over 2 hours, all sorts of subjects, nothing seemed off limits. I carried her luggage in my bike trailer towards the station and then cycled home, past queues of almost stationary traffic as there'd been some kind of blockage somewhere.
Home at 6ish, home-grown potatoes for tea with tomatoes from the conservatory, lettuce from the garden and cheese from the Co-op!
Quiet evening, did paid blog on Dexter's Art and IPCC suggesting not eating meat for one day per week...
At 10.45 other Co-op and Knaresborough Car-Free Day photoshoot people started arriving, and my role was to be a unicyclist... an alternative means of transport, eye-catching, unusual! So I was in a static pic for the newspaper and did some action shots for the Co-op photographer.
I got the train back soon after midday... again, plenty of time for reading.
I called in on the Council Finance Centre to pay the second half of our Council Tax and Country Fresh just in case there was any recycling... which there wasn't.
Home after 1, lunch and emails, and then at 2.30, went to the City Screen to meet with Jackie from Northern Green Gathering, for a coffee and a chat as she was in York for a meeting. I had more time with Carbon Detox... it's a brilliant book, very easy to read, and wasn't unhappy she was late. We went to El Piano and chatted for over 2 hours, all sorts of subjects, nothing seemed off limits. I carried her luggage in my bike trailer towards the station and then cycled home, past queues of almost stationary traffic as there'd been some kind of blockage somewhere.
Home at 6ish, home-grown potatoes for tea with tomatoes from the conservatory, lettuce from the garden and cheese from the Co-op!
Quiet evening, did paid blog on Dexter's Art and IPCC suggesting not eating meat for one day per week...
Woke up thinking about making a phone call to the bus company about taking my unicycle on the bus to Pocklington today and to the company who haven't paid me as I told them that if I'd heard nothing by 1st September, I'd start some actions to recover my payment.
The bus situation resolved itself... I did eventually get to speak to someone in charge and they suggested that putting the wheel of the uni in a bin liner would make it a lot more acceptable to have on the bus. So that's what I'll do....
I rang the non-paying company and eventually spoke to someone who knew about the situation and they assured me that the paperwork was being dealt with and that I'd get a cheque 'within a couple of weeks'. So if it's not with me by 14th September I'll have to do something more official. I did thank the lady and asked her to pass on my thanks to everybody who was dealing with it. Hopefully that will help get things moving...
A neighbour came to the door to ask me if I'd like some small conifer trees that they were taking out. I chatted to her about the trunks being useful but the leaves and twigs being less so, but that they were compostable and could go in the green bin or to Hazel Court. I offered to lend them my loppers to strip the twigs off the trunks, and after getting dressed, took them round and did one of the trees for them to show how I'd like to receive the tree trunks (which are only hedge height, 2 metres or so).
I did about half an hour's stacking and then came in to do emails. A friend has contacted me saying the thesis tools website she's tried to contact is not responding... and yes, when I tried, I couldn't get to my questionnaire either which is worrying. I have about 70 responses to my questionnaire on it and this is raw data for my book. I hope it comes back up and I can retrieve the information!
I had an early lunch and got myself ready for the bus to Pocklington. Gill decided to come too, with the boys, as it's a good place to visit and as it's the last day of the holidays Gill wanted to make it a good day. So we all got the X46 at Milson Grove (although it was late and that made me wonder if it was going to come and whether I would be able to get to work...!) We sat on the top deck and the skies were beautiful, clouds and interesting light.
My 'handler' met me at Pocklington bus station and drove me to POP Club which is held in a school building about 5 minutes drive from the bus station. I was welcomed by over 20 very enthusiastic children, as this was the second time I'd visited this summer and the first time it was fantastic! I managed to put my stuff down and go and get changed and within 5 minutes I was starting my show.
As most of the youngsters had seen my show before, I varied my routine a bit and we started with a chap who'd learned to juggle 3 balls since he first saw the show. He was able to just do a 'three-ball flash' (each ball thrown once and caught) and then he did four throws, and next a 'three-ball-cascade' where the balls were each thrown, and caught, at least twice each. When he did this he got a massive round of applause and cheering. Then I asked for a volunteer who could juggle two balls but wanted to be able to do three. The two-ball pattern is what I call 'school-girl-juggling' because the ball is thrown up with one hand, caught with the other and passed to the original hand in a more-or-less circular pattern. With 'proper' juggling, the balls are thrown up with either hand. The girl who volunteered was not able to do the three-ball pattern, but she still got a big round of applause for coming out and demonstrating the two-ball pattern. I also explained a little about the curve being called a parabola and how it is made up of an 'up', an 'accross' and a 'down', the first two being variable depending on how much force the thrower puts into it, and the third is gravity which on Earth is constant.
I then moved on to devilsticks, balancing, Derek the Diabolo, yoyo balls and finally unicycle. The show was very well received and they all enjoyed themselves as much as I did. There was a few minutes after the show and workshop for them to have a drink and a biscuit, and I got the 'freeplay workshop' ready. I laid out most of the equipment and when they were ready, spent a few minutes showing them the things I hadn't explained in the show, mostly diabolo which is really quite complicated to do, as there are three things you have to do simultaneously. Then I let then loose on the stuff, and did 3 minute blocks so everybody could try everything, well, almost!
Whilst we were coming to the end of that I started to inflate balloons for the balloon animal workshop, and at 4.10pm, I got everybody concentrating on the art of balloon modelling... and again, most of them loved it and succeeded in making something, although some of the animals looked a bit mutant. Finished off with the usual competitions to get rid of the animals I made, and by 4.50pm we were finished.
I got changed, was given my cheque, was driven to the bus stop where Gill and the boys were waiting... they'd had a good time at the Burnby Hall Gardens. They'd also done a bit of shopping and were all happy. Lovely bus journey home, nice tea, busy evening at YorkLETS core group meeting and late night on the computer doing a paid blog post on clothes swapping aka swishing.
The bus situation resolved itself... I did eventually get to speak to someone in charge and they suggested that putting the wheel of the uni in a bin liner would make it a lot more acceptable to have on the bus. So that's what I'll do....
I rang the non-paying company and eventually spoke to someone who knew about the situation and they assured me that the paperwork was being dealt with and that I'd get a cheque 'within a couple of weeks'. So if it's not with me by 14th September I'll have to do something more official. I did thank the lady and asked her to pass on my thanks to everybody who was dealing with it. Hopefully that will help get things moving...
A neighbour came to the door to ask me if I'd like some small conifer trees that they were taking out. I chatted to her about the trunks being useful but the leaves and twigs being less so, but that they were compostable and could go in the green bin or to Hazel Court. I offered to lend them my loppers to strip the twigs off the trunks, and after getting dressed, took them round and did one of the trees for them to show how I'd like to receive the tree trunks (which are only hedge height, 2 metres or so).
I did about half an hour's stacking and then came in to do emails. A friend has contacted me saying the thesis tools website she's tried to contact is not responding... and yes, when I tried, I couldn't get to my questionnaire either which is worrying. I have about 70 responses to my questionnaire on it and this is raw data for my book. I hope it comes back up and I can retrieve the information!
I had an early lunch and got myself ready for the bus to Pocklington. Gill decided to come too, with the boys, as it's a good place to visit and as it's the last day of the holidays Gill wanted to make it a good day. So we all got the X46 at Milson Grove (although it was late and that made me wonder if it was going to come and whether I would be able to get to work...!) We sat on the top deck and the skies were beautiful, clouds and interesting light.
My 'handler' met me at Pocklington bus station and drove me to POP Club which is held in a school building about 5 minutes drive from the bus station. I was welcomed by over 20 very enthusiastic children, as this was the second time I'd visited this summer and the first time it was fantastic! I managed to put my stuff down and go and get changed and within 5 minutes I was starting my show.
As most of the youngsters had seen my show before, I varied my routine a bit and we started with a chap who'd learned to juggle 3 balls since he first saw the show. He was able to just do a 'three-ball flash' (each ball thrown once and caught) and then he did four throws, and next a 'three-ball-cascade' where the balls were each thrown, and caught, at least twice each. When he did this he got a massive round of applause and cheering. Then I asked for a volunteer who could juggle two balls but wanted to be able to do three. The two-ball pattern is what I call 'school-girl-juggling' because the ball is thrown up with one hand, caught with the other and passed to the original hand in a more-or-less circular pattern. With 'proper' juggling, the balls are thrown up with either hand. The girl who volunteered was not able to do the three-ball pattern, but she still got a big round of applause for coming out and demonstrating the two-ball pattern. I also explained a little about the curve being called a parabola and how it is made up of an 'up', an 'accross' and a 'down', the first two being variable depending on how much force the thrower puts into it, and the third is gravity which on Earth is constant.
I then moved on to devilsticks, balancing, Derek the Diabolo, yoyo balls and finally unicycle. The show was very well received and they all enjoyed themselves as much as I did. There was a few minutes after the show and workshop for them to have a drink and a biscuit, and I got the 'freeplay workshop' ready. I laid out most of the equipment and when they were ready, spent a few minutes showing them the things I hadn't explained in the show, mostly diabolo which is really quite complicated to do, as there are three things you have to do simultaneously. Then I let then loose on the stuff, and did 3 minute blocks so everybody could try everything, well, almost!
Whilst we were coming to the end of that I started to inflate balloons for the balloon animal workshop, and at 4.10pm, I got everybody concentrating on the art of balloon modelling... and again, most of them loved it and succeeded in making something, although some of the animals looked a bit mutant. Finished off with the usual competitions to get rid of the animals I made, and by 4.50pm we were finished.
I got changed, was given my cheque, was driven to the bus stop where Gill and the boys were waiting... they'd had a good time at the Burnby Hall Gardens. They'd also done a bit of shopping and were all happy. Lovely bus journey home, nice tea, busy evening at YorkLETS core group meeting and late night on the computer doing a paid blog post on clothes swapping aka swishing.
Took the children to school.
Spent the morning typing in my paid blog, on 'Peak Oil'... very satisfying to explain this concept.
During the afternoon went to St Nicks and picked up my Big Recycle cheque and then picked up the kids from school, taking 5 sacks of compost down for gardening club. When we got back, went into town and paid in the cheque, plus the Colitis and Crohns cheque and a tax refund. Visited Cycle Heaven as a bracket on my bike had broken, so the front mudguard was loose, and they fixed it there and then, making a new 'custom' bracket for the job. Came back via Country Fresh and picked up 2 boxes of stuff for recycling.
Later, after tea, took 4 large sacks of compost down to school and spread them and the other 5 on a sheet under a tree to dry off a bit, took out some twigs and lumps of bark plus plastic contaminants, ready to mix with soil to fill the remaining containers for Green Thumbs on Thursday.
Had a bath in the evening to wash off the compost so I'm presentable for my gig tomorrow.
Watched 'Ideal' with Gill but it was the last of series 4, and it ended in a rather unsatisfactory way. It's a good programme, very funny and surreal, but quite 'dark' with the humour and this episode was very morbid. Hope that more are made though!
Spent the morning typing in my paid blog, on 'Peak Oil'... very satisfying to explain this concept.
During the afternoon went to St Nicks and picked up my Big Recycle cheque and then picked up the kids from school, taking 5 sacks of compost down for gardening club. When we got back, went into town and paid in the cheque, plus the Colitis and Crohns cheque and a tax refund. Visited Cycle Heaven as a bracket on my bike had broken, so the front mudguard was loose, and they fixed it there and then, making a new 'custom' bracket for the job. Came back via Country Fresh and picked up 2 boxes of stuff for recycling.
Later, after tea, took 4 large sacks of compost down to school and spread them and the other 5 on a sheet under a tree to dry off a bit, took out some twigs and lumps of bark plus plastic contaminants, ready to mix with soil to fill the remaining containers for Green Thumbs on Thursday.
Had a bath in the evening to wash off the compost so I'm presentable for my gig tomorrow.
Watched 'Ideal' with Gill but it was the last of series 4, and it ended in a rather unsatisfactory way. It's a good programme, very funny and surreal, but quite 'dark' with the humour and this episode was very morbid. Hope that more are made though!
