Quite an early start as I went round to Maria's with my eldest so he could do his science lesson and I moved about 20 sacks of compost in the wheelbarrow from the back garden, through Johan's workshop and tipped them out into the front garden, in piles all over, so that Maria can rake or brush them over the soil. I finished that in about 40 minutes and then carried on digging out the second New Zealand bin and putting it into the third, removing sticks and stones and rubbish... not that there was a lot of rubbish, but a few uncomposted tea-bags, bits of plastic, etc. The sticks went on the top of heap number 1, with all the fresh material on.
Maria and our lad did experiments to see how quickly hot water cooled down in differently insulated receptacles. Simple, but good hands on experiments, good to see scientific technique being done.
We came back at the same time Gill came back from the Steiner School, she'd been volunteering at the shop.
I was sorting out something outside when a neighbour, Jamie, stopped by, and invited me to see his logpile! He was planning on getting a stove; he'd visited me a couple of years ago and seen the stoves. However, he hasn't got round to it, and he's just learned that his wife has a serious illness, so he's selling his logpile for £50. I said yes, because it is a mix of hardwood and softwood, well seasoned, and there's a lot of it. I think £50 is a good price.
I came back for lunch, and arranged to go and see David on Sunday night.
In the afternoon I needed to sort out various things as I'm going to Sheffield tonight to attend the Community Composting Network meal, and tomorrow the AGM and conference. I'll be staying over at my brother's house.
I popped down to see Richard to give him another 5 bags of seed compost, collected 4 sacks of 'resources'. I also collected two trailer loads of logs from Jamie round the corner. Then needed to get ready to go to Sheffield!
I got to the station in good time to get my ticket and take the bike (no trailer!) over to Platform 9 to get onto the Plymouth Train, which went via Leeds and Wakefield to Sheffield. I got into Sheffield just before 7 and it didn't take me long to cycle up to the Blue Moon where the Community Composting Network members were gathering for a social meal.
As usual with Blue Moon, the food was excellent, and I enjoyed meeting the other CCN people, some of whom I knew and others I got to know!
It wasn't far from Blue Moon to where my brother lives, behind the station, and I found myself slowly tacking up a huge hill but it was really only about 5 minutes cycling uphill, the rest was either flat or down a gradient.
I got to Tom's at 10pm, and he and Kate were out at an event, so I knew there were babysitters there. They left as soon as I'd got my bike into the garage, and I went on Tom's computer to chat on facebook, before peeling off to bed and reading more of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, my World Book Night title.
Maria and our lad did experiments to see how quickly hot water cooled down in differently insulated receptacles. Simple, but good hands on experiments, good to see scientific technique being done.
We came back at the same time Gill came back from the Steiner School, she'd been volunteering at the shop.
I was sorting out something outside when a neighbour, Jamie, stopped by, and invited me to see his logpile! He was planning on getting a stove; he'd visited me a couple of years ago and seen the stoves. However, he hasn't got round to it, and he's just learned that his wife has a serious illness, so he's selling his logpile for £50. I said yes, because it is a mix of hardwood and softwood, well seasoned, and there's a lot of it. I think £50 is a good price.
I came back for lunch, and arranged to go and see David on Sunday night.
In the afternoon I needed to sort out various things as I'm going to Sheffield tonight to attend the Community Composting Network meal, and tomorrow the AGM and conference. I'll be staying over at my brother's house.
I popped down to see Richard to give him another 5 bags of seed compost, collected 4 sacks of 'resources'. I also collected two trailer loads of logs from Jamie round the corner. Then needed to get ready to go to Sheffield!
I got to the station in good time to get my ticket and take the bike (no trailer!) over to Platform 9 to get onto the Plymouth Train, which went via Leeds and Wakefield to Sheffield. I got into Sheffield just before 7 and it didn't take me long to cycle up to the Blue Moon where the Community Composting Network members were gathering for a social meal.
As usual with Blue Moon, the food was excellent, and I enjoyed meeting the other CCN people, some of whom I knew and others I got to know!
It wasn't far from Blue Moon to where my brother lives, behind the station, and I found myself slowly tacking up a huge hill but it was really only about 5 minutes cycling uphill, the rest was either flat or down a gradient.
I got to Tom's at 10pm, and he and Kate were out at an event, so I knew there were babysitters there. They left as soon as I'd got my bike into the garage, and I went on Tom's computer to chat on facebook, before peeling off to bed and reading more of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, my World Book Night title.
