Human Lifestyle

Up at a civilised time... 8.30am. I had breakfast and did emails and waited in for a chap from Harris builders who said they were coming round at 10am to collect the contract for our solar hot water system. Gill went out to go to Priory St for something, and I waited... and waited... wanting to go out into the garden and do more hedge. At 10.50 I rang the company and left a message saying I wasn't happy with being told I'd be visited at 10am and was waiting in... and I am too busy to be messed around. I got an apologetic message back saying the chap had been held up in Harrogate (so why didn't he ring me?) and would be here at 1pm.

I went into the garden and dug up more hedge. Just before 1pm I came in for lunch and awaited the builder. He actually came at 1.45. I suppose I'll have to get used to 'builder time'. The York Press had already arrived and I was delighted to see that they had published an article about the Charity Fancy Dress Ball, including David's photo.

I had a bit of time in the garden but towards 3pm I got my bike ready to go and get our youngest, as Gill had had a 'ladies who lunch' meeting in town and was only just getting the bus back home (she rang me to check I was collecting him) I arrived a bit early, despite collecting my first two sacks of autumn leaves on Windmill Lane. I had an extra plastic sack so when I got to school I couldn't help but check the playground bins. The school is STILL not recycling the huge volumes of fruit the children throw away. In just 5 minutes I filled a plastic sack with half-eaten apples, banana skins, raisin packets, paper towels. I weighed it with my spring balance when I got home... 17 and a half kilos. I also retrieved 12 uneaten apples, two uneaten bananas, one unopened orange, one uneaten peach and a bag of grapes, uneaten. These were all thrown away and NOT RECYCLED. I will wash these and eat them myself. I also checked the big bins and these were full of mixed waste including plenty of recyclable material such as metal cans and cardboard and paper. The dedicated paper bin was overflowing but had some non-paper items in it. This means it will probably be rejected and will go to landfill.

Shame on you Lord Deramore's School. I started trying to get you to compost your fruit for schools waste in 2001. And 8 years later, you have removed the bins you grudgingly let me install, have lost several parts of my bins, making them useless, and are now putting about 8Kg/day easily biodegradable fruit waste into landfill. Shameful. I am SO ANGRY.

I am also very angry with the City of York Council for letting this crap situation continue. I let them know I don't know how long ago, and was promised that there would be some changes and that Lord Deramores School would be dragged in to the 21st Century and be taught how to behave in an appropriate manner when you are a school teaching children who will have to cope with catastrophic climate change caused precisely by the kind of ignorance and lack of care that the school is demonstrating. I am FURIOUS. I even spent many hours helping to start and then volunteering with Green Thumbs, primarily to facilitate a composting area or project... and now Green Thumbs isn't happening and the children aren't learning about gardening. I think they should give the money back to the Co-op who would re-allocate it to a worthy project.

What more can I do? I want to embarrass them into action. I want them prosecuted. I need to tell them and the world what I think of their attitude. Schools exist to prepare the next generation to get by in the world. They teach various skills. They should set a good example. This school is showing the children that they just don't care. This is quite plainly wrong.

I cycled home with my load of leaves to make into leafmould, sack of compostable fruit stuff and the bag of nice fruit which I'll have over the next few days with my muesli.

I then spent another two hours getting hedge out, cutting off the tops and shredding the thinner twigs for composting, cutting up the larger sticks for drying and recycling into heat, and putting the roots (35 today) into a plastic sack so another Freecycler can have them and plant a new hedge. I came in at 6pm and had a nice plate of Bulgar wheat with roast veg, watercress, carrot-sticks, baked beans and a cheese straw. Not bad!

At half 6 I headed off to the Millennium Bridge, as Councillor Andy D'Agorne had invited me to see the new lighting possibilities there. When the bridge was built, it did have some good lighting but then vandals discovered they could easily destroy the lights, and also, repairs and replacements meant the bridge had to be closed. So, the Council have teamed up with Philips Lighting, and this evening were looking at a variety of lighting solutions. To cut running costs and reduce the frequency of replacing them, the bridge will have LED (light emitting diode) technology. This will allow very dynamic colour changes, for special occasions, or white light for normal use. When Philips re-did the lighting on a bridge in, I think, Newcastle, the cost of lighting the structure dropped from several tens of thousands of pounds a year to just £4k, if I remember the quote correctly. There were some interesting conversations about renewable electricity and some of the lighting choices. The reduction in overall energy use is the greenest thing about the project.

I had to leave at 7.20 as I was due at a York in Transition meeting at The Stables.

This was a good meeting, with a visitor from Spofforth and a small bunch of the committed Transitioneers. It was a relaxed but productive meeting, one which leaves me with a few jobs to do... including working on the supporters leaflet. I had a chat with Di afterwards, and agreed to visit her in a couple of weeks to plan a first meeting of the Huntington and New Earswick Transition Initiative. I decided not to go to the pub afterwards as I was tired.

Home soon after 10pm. Despite tiredness, stayed up til 2am writing and watching the last episode of Electric Dreams on BBC4.

Woken early as school creates a lot of tension in this house... sometimes so much Gill talks about home education. But both boys did get over the morning difficulties and got to school on time.

I had another free day... and made best use of the morning spending time with Gill as this just isn't possible when the boys are around. Between 11 and 12 we both went round to see Maria, and have a coffee and chat. She gave me a bowl full of plums off her very well-laden Victoria Plum tree, and a load of 'Discovery' apples, windfalls. I will dry some of these. Gill wants to make a crumble with the plums.

Home for lunch, after which I got several phone calls, one from the organiser of the Charity Fancy Dress Ball I worked at on Saturday, about David's photos, as she wants a couple to send out with the press release. David is happy to sell them to people who want a happy memory of a fun evening.

Later, I was loading some more fruit and veg material into the CompoSphere and began to roll it, as instructed, and it fell apart. The fixings provided are just not good enough, I'll replace them all with stainless steel bolts. This evening I emailed the manufacturers to give them feedback.

I came in at 6.30 and rushed down a plate of pasta, and then cycled off to the Fulford Social Hall with my laptop, an essential part of the presentation that Peter and I were giving to the Fulford Women's Institute. We used part of the brilliant film A Farm for the Future with Rebecca Hosking who first hit the headlines with her 'Plastic Bag Free Modbury' and now is well known for exploring peak oil, climate change and Permaculture through this BBC documentary.

The talk/film/discussion went well. Good to get the Transition message across to a bunch of people who were NOT 'the usual suspects' (OK, Candy was there, but everyone else was not a regular green-group attendee!) However, afterwards I did chat to one woman, who turned out to be Jane, a Green Party member, but I've only ever met her in a Green Party setting once. Several people were interested in getting speakers into their school or community group, which is good.

Cycled home and did a bit of fruit preparation and the usual writing which you have just read. Oh, and some lively discussions on facebook!

A very busy day today with two gigs... and quite complicated travel arrangements.

I got the 9am bus from very near where we live out to Market Weighton, where a Brownie leader was waiting to take me from the bus stop to her car, to go to Goodmanham where the Girl Guiding people own a place called Paxwold, where Brownies go and have resedential events. Last time I visited, I cycled out, but today I didn't have time as I had a second gig at 6pm.

I was part of the Girl Guides 100 year celebrations... a residential activity event with all sorts going on. Today was the first day, and I had 5x 45 minute sessions with about 25 girls in each workshop. I did a very quick whip-through the skills and that left 35 minutes for them to have 'free-play' with a 5 or 6 minute swap-round so participants could get to try different things.

I had lunch provided, which was nice of them, and I think the workshops worked well, despite being very short. I was busy til 3.30 when I quickly packed up, and in costume, got a lift back to Market Weighton to await David coming to pick me up. He came at 3.55, a bit later than planned, a bit flustered as today was the first time his car hadn't started, ever! He'd called a couple of friends and Ben I think had come along to give him a jump start.

Anyway, he got to me with plenty of time. I directed him accross country to Stamford Bridge, Stockton on Forest, Haxby, Shipton and Newton on Ouse, and we were at Linton on Ouse by 5pm. The gig was at the Air Force base there, but they were expecting me and David and had tickets with our names on at the gate.

The event was the Charity Fancy Dress Ball. I had a good time unicycling round as the guests arrived and then did a lot of workshopping inside. David ended up being the main photographer and negotiated a deal with the organisers.