Human Lifestyle

Gill woke me by coming and turning the radio on in the bedroom as our friend Anneliese Emmans-Dean was on Woman's Hour, with some of her wonderful poetry (hear it here from about 14 mins 20 seconds in) so after that I got up and before breakfast, went to buy bread at Thomas's. 

A bit later I did a round trip to Hazel Court, disposing of wet carpet, some electrical equipment I found in a skip and I put it in the WEEE skip for recycling, some metal in the metals skip, and 3 sacks of drinks cartons.  I had no hassle whatsoever from anyone... in fact I had 2 nice conversations, one with a pet-fancier (rabbits?) who gave me his old straw bedding and another chap called Jeff whom I had a 10 or 15 minute chat with!  From here I went on to Country Fresh to see Richard and pick up some veg for us and for Debbie, and quite a lot of compostables.

Delivered Debbie's veg, home to deal with ours and before the light went, loaded some gubbins into the Compostumbler and then helped Gill prepare some sprouts for tea.  The sprouts were a bit bitter, (and we'd stir-fried them) so we added a tiny bit of sugar, some bouillon, herbs and sesame seeds... this made them delicious!  I had this with the second half of the rice/stuffing mix, and a bit of celery soup on top.  It was a good meal.

I'd been invited to Andy D'Agorne and Denise Craghill's New Year's Eve party, so I set off at about 8 and delivered Anna's TENS machine back to her... which wasn't really any use to Gill as TENS is good at localised pain, not the all-over type.  But good to know that Anna hires them out.  She was just setting off to the party, with her neighbour Pauline.  I cycled along to Broadway and was pleased to find quite a few people already partying, including a photo quiz which was fun.

I especially enjoyed talking to Will whom I know from the Green Party and his 12 year old son who was very bright and politically opinionated!  My friend Tracy, from York Green Festival days, was there with one of her friends. Guy was there, and Catherine who's voice I like, and Dave Taylor...although I didn't have a chance to speak to his partner Chris who people speak highly of, but I've never really got to know her.  There were others too... a buzzing party.  I left at about 11and cycled home via a collectible waste wooden structure which only just fitted on my bike trailer, but will make excellent kindling.

Saw the New Year in with Gill and the boys, which was really nice, lots of hugs all round. 

Up early... woke up having a dream that my eldest son was pulling my duvet off me telling me to get up.  He wasn't, but I did.

And had a good day.... did some tidying by taking compostables down the garden, and decided to dig out the Compostumbler, as I had a bit of cooked food to put in which I didn't want to put in an open heap.... as it attracts rodents.  So, I decanted about half of the Compostumbler contents into a dalek, and was delighted to find the centre was full of live compost worms.... not moving much, as some of the rest of the tumbler contents was frozen solid, but the middle had a healthy population of living but slow-moving worms.  Oh joy!  Anyway, I added the 2 bags of paper plates and party food from the home schoolers party, which has been sitting quite happily in the studio... some of the time at sub-zero temperatures. I also had a 20kg sack of chapati flour which had got wet with the studio pipe-burst, so I put quite a bit of that in the tumbler as well.

Anyway, we'd been invited to Jane's Scrabble Tournament, but Gill had said that she couldn't imagine our boys enjoying it and so she wanted to stay at home and I could go and play Scrabble.  So at about 3pm i cycled down to town with the cheque which arrived yesterday, for the 5 days of Santa in Kirklees.  I was glad to get that into my account!

Then onto Fishergate for an afternoon of Scrabble.  I arrived at the same time as Andy D'Agorne and the house was already full of a whole load of Jane's Mum's friends (Jane inherited the house when her Mum died) and our other Green councillor, Dave Taylor.  I was pleased to meet Jane's partner Dave, who's from Hull.  Later, Jennifer and Jamie arrived, and Peter, who lives less than a minute's walk away.

After a bit of chat, including talking sculptures with Jane's Dave, I had the first of two games... the first was against Jane's Dave, who won, Jamie and Tracey, and the second was against Dave Taylor (the winner), Peter and Jennifer.  I came third in both games.  Not my usual standard... but I really enjoyed the games.

There was one other Scrabble game going on, plus something similar called Upwords which I'd love to have a go with.  Looks really good!

Jane had done a load of lovely baking... apparently a new skill, or art, as actually she's an artist, and so we all got fed, and there was plenty to drink, and stimulating conversation.  A really good event.

I left at 9ish, not sure exactly, and cycled home, collecting nothing at all.  Gill and the boys were happy, they hadn't done anything, but were fine.

I slept in and when I got up, my top dressing had come off revealing a neat pair of 'butterfly sutures'.  It isn't clear whether I have normal stitches as well.  Gill replaced the gauze and attached it with tape.

So I had a sedentary day, mostly.  Wrote my piece for the Ward Election newsletter, and dealt with more fruit.

Later, I installed a dalek compost bin which came home from Lord Deramore's minus it's lid and basal door.  I used a load of bits of rock and concrete to block the door hole and I'll use something to put on the top.  I half-filled it with the contents of the medium Compostumbler, and started refilling the tumbler with shredded shrubs, shredded rotten wood and a couple of sacks of greengrocers stuff. 

I picked some beans for tea. I picked a lovely looking bright orange winter squash, which should keep for quite a few months.

In fact, tea was excellent.  Someone (err, was it Loony?) had suggested making a bread and butter pudding but make it savoury with layers of veg instead of fruit.  I had a thrown away wholemeal loaf, so Gill and I made an experimental meal.  The beans were chopped up and put in a dish with onion, mushroom, tomato and courgette, with herbs and a bit of bouillon, and microwaved for a few minutes to soften them.  The bread was dipped in a mix of goats milk and egg, and some put in the bottom of a greased pyrex dish.  Then a layer of veg mix, and another layer of bread, and so on, finishing with a layer of eggy bread, and some goats cheese grated on top.  This was microwaved to heat it through, and then put in the oven to crisp the top and make sure it was really well cooked.

It was delicious, a really nice meal.  We'll be doing a version of this again!

A quiet evening, wrote the minutes out for the YiT meeting last week as I had a gentle prompt from Peter that I hadn't done it yet.

A kind of relaxing day, except that I had an accident with the blackberry and apple fruit-leather-to-be. I was using the vacuum cleaner to remove the fruit flies which were being a bit too interested in the tray, balanced on the big saucepan on the stove. I'd lined the pan with a plastic sandwich bag, as when the leather dries, it is really easy to take the sheet of fruit pulp out and peel the plastic off it and put the damp sheet on a rack to dry further. BUT the vacuum cleaner sucked the plastic bag and dislodged the tray, which spilt all over the top and side of the stove, hearth, and carpet in front. Whoops.

I was able to pour the rest of the blackberry and apple into a receptacle, as I hadn't lost all of it, but I then had to do quite a bit of clearing up. I was very annoyed with myself, as preparing the fruit took AGES!

The rest of the day was just fine. I received two books I bought yesterday from Amazon, using a gift voucher for £20 which I got for filling in a questionnaire months ago. As I've been asked to speak at the screening of Colin Beavan's 'No Impact Man' on 7th September, I've bought the book so I can read it first. I also bought Mark Boyle's book 'The Moneyless Man, A Year of Freeconomic Living'. So I've got a lot of reading to do now... as if I hadn't already!

I did some work outside too, picked beans and a tromboncino squash, and windfall apples for drying, and I dug out a dalek bin of very mature compost into sacks which I've stored in the broken Compostumbler, and half-filled the newly emptied dalek with material from the medium sized Compostumbler. I then started to fill that Compostumbler again.

I really enjoyed an hour of weeding the pond-to-be area, another patch of ground elder, it is most satisfying.

Apart from that, I did relatively little today!

Woke relatively late but got going quickly and had a very busy day.

I paid a quick visit to Alligator and Country Fresh and brought back 2 full sacks from Alligator and one box from Richard. I loaded these immediately into the Compostumbler.

I was out at the front and heard our neighbour Marion doing her hedge with an electric trimmer so I went to say hello. Whilst talking to her I noticed the tree above, an ornamental Prunus of some sort, had got lots of fruits on it... the first time it's fruited since we've been here. They were like large cherries or small plums. I tried one and it was lovely, tangy and sweet. Marion had one as well, and liked it too.

So, later I got the big stepladders and picked as many as I could, and I got a tray full, at least three kilos. I then found the tree in our Roger Phillips 'Trees in Britain' book: it's a Pissard Plum, Prunus cerasifera var. atropurpurea, a dark-leaved sport of the Cherry Plum or Myrobalan. Here's a good article about this fruit tree.

Whilst I had the ladders in the front, I helped Marion by lopping some of her hedge, at the top where she couldn't reach, and I had loppers and ladders so I did it for her. I also put the ladders up against the big pine tree which I'm slowly removing. It is too close to the house, shades our front room and the roof, which wouldn't be good if I put photovoltaics on it. But I'm not removing it all in one go in case the ground swells with the increased moisture that would then not be being transpired, and puts cracks in the house walls. I removed several branches, and cleaned out the gutters too.

I then cut back the Wisteria. This is a thug... I cut it back last year before the work on our roof, and it is already up on the roof again. I was quite brutal. Our youngest helped me by holding a builders bag open so I could collect the large amount of prunings, which I'll shred tomorrow I expect.

So, a very busy day... later on I tried to prepare some of the Cherry Plums for drying but I don't think this will be the best way of preserving them. Stewing will be better.

Woke at 9.30 and got up feeling refreshed and happy.

However in the back of my mind was the fact that today was the deadline for getting the Hull Road Ward Funding bids in... and I didn't want to miss it, nor face Anna's despair for not doing it, so I rang the Council and someone from the Neighbourhood Unit said yes, the forms would be in reception waiting for me.

So I got there just before midday and filled in all three forms. The first was easy... a suggestion that the Ward needs a public notice board. The second was an 'under £500' suggestion, and I put that York in Transition would like fruit and nut trees planted in the ward... the places decided by local people, and the number of trees dependent on the cost of digging the holes and installing tree guards and stakes, etc. I did suggest that the holes could be dug by volunteers but I somehow doubt that will be realistic. We'll see! The final application, to the 'over £500' pot, was something I made up on the spot... I hadn't thought about it in advance. I suggested a one-day home energy event, in the ward, with stalls from renewable energy providers, insulation companies, the Energy Efficiency Advice Centre, groups promoting public transport, cycling and walking, and community groups offering related things... I estimated the cost of the venue to be £300, publicity £300 and refreshments £50... and I asked for £590 grant, the rest to be found from stall holders fees and donations for refreshments. Again, this would be a Transition event.

All this took an hour and a half. The applications will be considered and then the best ones which fit certain criteria will go forward to the Ward Committee and local people will allocate the budget to the schemes they like... and not to the ones they don't!!! So I won't know the outcome of this process until February 2011. The money won't be available until April and will need to be spent between April 2011 and March 2012. This is the first time I've put in suggestions.

I came away from the Council reception quite frazzled but glad I'd done it. I put a cheque into my Fiddlesticks account and came home via Country Fresh and picked up a box, a bag, another box, and then from Freshways, another bag. Lots of lovely composting to do!

When I got back, at 3pm, I had lunch, and then later, went into the garden to deal with the medium-sized Compostumbler... I emptied it into a dalek and immediately refilled it with shredded hedge, lilac and holly plus a large load of chopped veg and fruit, mouldy sliced bread and cardboard takeaway food cartons with biodegradable plastic windows...

I came in to help Gill do tea, peeling some thrown away but perfectly usable sweet potatoes, and a large handful of freshly picked pea beans. So we had pasta salad, rice salad, sweet potato chips... but the pea beans got left in their pan of cold water, uncooked, so they'll be for tomorrow's tea.

Later I helped Gill with some washing (I went to get it off the washing line and helped hang it up next to the stove) and did some washing up. I really enjoyed a programme on BBC4 on Blondie, which was one of my favourite bands as I was growing up. I was one of millions of teenage boys with a Debbie Harry poster on my bedroom wall..... I still think she's hot!

More paperwork today... but I started by visiting the Woodlands MS Respite Care Centre, over the road, to sort out whether I can help with their logs and trees 'problem'. I had a tour round the back with Richard the Grounds Maintenance chap. He's been overseeing some clearing and there is a lot of usable wood. There is also some 'crown lifting' needed. However, if I'm going to go and do that, I have to go through the volunteer process, and get CRB checked etc. What a bind... but I'm going to go for it. It will be worth it in the long run.

I came back and tried to do some paperwork (including the application to be a volunteer) but got distracted, and ended up outside as it was a nice day, warm and muggy but not raining.

Later in the afternoon I visited Rich at Country Fresh, to get veggies and three or four sacks/boxes of recyclables. I then emptied the medium Compostumbler into a dalek and began to refill the tumbler. I also visited some builders at about 4pm who had said I could have a load of untreated timber offcuts from the extension they were building.

Gill made a pasta and home-grown green bean tea (mostly Jack Edwards Pea Beans) which was enjoyed by all. Our eldest made a lemon cheesecake which I liked.

So, a low key day, lots of recycling and preparation for keeping our logpiles well stocked!

In the evening I watched a film I've been wanting to see for quite a while, on More4, 'The Cove'. This is an excellent film about the unnecessary, cruel and stupid slaughter of tens of thousands of dolphins in the town of Taiji, Japan. Very few people in Japan know about this, but the meat is on sale labelled as whale, and it contains extremely high levels of Mercury, which causes babies exposed 'in utero' to have disabilities (see Minamata). The Japanese do not want this slaughter to be exposed, and local people made it extremely difficult for the film-makers to document the practice. But they managed to do some really well thought out covert filming, including cameras hidden in pretend rocks. The film is exciting, moving, shocking, informative and very memorable. For me, it is just more evidence about how we are mismanaging the Planet, abusing other sentient beings and, in this case, polluting our own species!

If you missed the film, you can buy the DVD (or download) There are also practical actions to try to stop this slaughter, which takes place every September.

A very relaxing morning, much needed after a busy weekend.

But the afternoon was more active... at 1.45pm I cycled down to the National Centre for Early Music off Walmgate where our youngest son was performing with his class in a musical journey about Sir Francis Drake. Gill had cycled down earlier to secure tickets and I arrived with 5 minutes to spare, and sat with Gill . As well as singing, our son played the figurehead at the front of the ship, when the group were in their 'ship' configuration. They did a lot of moving around, and sang from the back of the hall, sang in 'rounds' and played instruments as well as doing some basic acting. There was a narrator and a chap playing a harpsichord. It was very good and quite moving to see these 10 and 11 year olds doing such brilliant work.

I cycled back quite quickly, picking up two sacks of resources from Freshways. I noticed that these contained quite a few chillies, and Melody and Simon's son had asked me to tell him when there was a good haul of chillies, as he wants to experiment with fermenting them to make a sauce. So I rang them and was told that he'd come round between 5.30 and 6 to help sort them out.

I then filled the medium Compostumbler completely with the sacks of material I collected a day or three ago. I came up the garden just in time to meet the chilli expert and we spent 25 minutes sorting out four bread-bags full of assorted chillies from the other unwanted, unsold stuff. He was delighted.

I came in for tea and then had a fairly quiet and relaxing evening... watched a programme about Concorde, and dealt with two unloved but very edible pineapples. And had the stove on, so I could wash up in really properly hot water!

A kind of busy but nothingy day.... although lovely to be doing things in the garden and I did quite a bit of compost heap management including taking a very heavy solid pallet down the garden which will serve as a base for a Komp 700 hexagonal compost bin I've got, which I've recently emptied and removed the previous base, as it had been breached by a rodent and I don't welcome that.

I did some filling of a medium sized Compostumbler which is working very well... not the 14 days waste to compost as the company deceitfully boasts, but it is quick, and allows the wet stuff to rot down quickly and get hot before it is taken out after a month and allowed to sit and finish off for a year or two. The value of these tumblers is that the initial decomposition is very rapid indeed, reducing the bulk and preventing the problem of stuff getting compacted and anaerobic... in quickly built 'sit and wait' heaps, I occasionally find mummified oranges etc in layers where they have been compressed and the acidity has reduced the bacterial activity. Composting things in a tumbler first avoids this problem, as the pre-tumbled material rots very well once it has been placed in a maturation bay or dalek.

In the evening I cycled down to Bikerescue as I want to talk to Bernie about something, but she wasn't there so I left a message. Then I went on to the Millennium Bridge to meet up with Dave Broughton and others from Abundance, an 'al fresco' meeting. I was a bit early and spent a few minutes picking up litter left by picnickers or end of term revellers. Candy and Anna B turned up, and then Andy D'Agorne, and about half a dozen other people dropped by and chatted which was great! Enjoyed this social a lot.

Cycled home through Walmgate Stray and the University.

A busy morning... got up soon after 9am to be ready to take the spare seeds from the York in Transition seed swap along to the YUMI Community Garden.

So, after breakfast and a shower I cycled along to the Danesgate Skills Centre on Fulford Cross and arrived on the dot of 10.30. Sasiki and her colleague Helen Hays, a garden designer, were there waiting, and Nick Haines, the organiser of the seed swap, had just arrived. The idea was to hand over the seeds and get some photos of the handover. A handful of users of the garden arrived; a Mexican woman who's been in York for just one week, to learn English and do her MSc, and two Chinese women and a small boy.

The Press didn't turn up, so we took our own photos and will submit these with some extra copy and hope the Press will run a story next week about our two organisations working together.

I came back via Country Fresh, St Nicks and Freshways, getting home at about 12.30, to find a peaceful household.

I spent the afternoon in the garden, taking stuff down from the conservatory which Gill is tidying, and then I got stuck down there, digging out a compost heap. But halfway through the afternoon, our youngest came down and said we had a visitor... it was Alan Leach, who used to live next door to us in Emerald St, with his three children. I spoke to him on facebook yesterday... he asked if he could drop off a bag of kitchen biodegradables. So it was really good to see him, as haven't seen him for a while.

So they all had a wander down the garden, but didn't stay long. I got on with my rearranging my heaps... I dug out one pallet heap and turned it into a 1 cubic metre builders bag which fits into a wooden holder, and dug out both my Compostumbler bins. All the tumbled material needs to sit in a 'New Zealand Bin' (pallets lined with cardboard) for quite a while before it's ready to use as compost. The adverts saying 'makes compost in 14 days' are complete nonsense. Also, I'm going to have to retire the largest Compostumbler as the metal sheet sides have corroded and now flex so much that the door catches bulge out and prevent the cylinder revolving all the way round. I might be able to purchase new metal bits... the plastic end pieces are fine, it's the sheet metal which is rusting. This is a disappointment as it cost a lot and I'd have hoped it would last a decade or so, but it's only lasted about 6 years I think.

Gill had made a nutloaf mix for tea, and using a plastic tub, formed it into rounds and fried them, making home-made burgers, which we had in bread rolls, with baked beans and mushrooms.

Later in the evening I blanched some grapes to make raisins, and chopped up more pears to dry them.

I got a message from the journalist at The Press saying that the story about YiT and YUMI would probably be in the paper early next week.

A good day!

Did quite a bit in the garden and building a logpile on the left of the front door, looking out, visited Richard at Country Fresh and met a nice law student called Gita, who knew of me as 'Compost John' from discussions at the Students' allotment.

Spent quite a bit of time sorting out the stuff from there, loading up the big Compostumbler with shredded hedge and greengrocers' unsold goodies.

I had an early tea... an aubergine thrown out for no good reason, and some slices of 'nutolene' that Gill found in the loft, in tins from a Suma order years ago. They are dated best before sometime in 2008 but as far as I'm concerned, it's OK, and 5 hours later, I'm not dead. I sliced this and fried it on the stove, and made two 'burger' things with Foccacia rolls that Gilly bought, with broccoli, baked beans and some home-made coleslaw.

Then I went out to 'The Climate Connection' meeting organised by York and Ryedale Friends of the Earth at the Friends Meeting House in town. This was a meeting to give information about the path towards the vital Copenhagen talks next week, and a chance for York people to hear what some local decision makers think about it, and ask them questions.

My friend Kate Lock chaired, and the panel were Andreas Heinemeyer from the Stockholm Environment Institute, Andrew Waller who is the leader of the City of York Council, Hugh Bayley our MP, and Mike Childs from FoE. The format was that they each had a chance to say what they wanted and then faced a couple of questions before the next panellist came on. Then all four of them faced a 'Question Time' type situation.

Andreas presented his take on climate change, which as a scientist had plenty of facts and figures, but as a father, had a soft side too. I've seen him present this before and he's one of the best, very accessible and easy to listen to.

Andrew Waller had a slide show showing some of the ways which York is responding to the issues. He had just come back from the Leeds City Region Housing Strategy and learning that York is to have it's own 'Urban Eco Settlement' where the British Sugar site was. He had slides of the Eco Depot, built with straw and with an innovative automatic ventilation system, and the Clifton Moor Eco Business Centre built by The Helmsley Group. I didn't know that York has a Passivhaus, (here's a good pdf from Leeds Metropolitan University on the development) but I did know about Elm Tree Mews in New Earswick, six homes heated by one ground source heat pump and with other built-in innovations. He mentioned the Joseph Rowntree Housing Association's other eco-experiment (to-be) at Derwenthorpe, near Osbaldwick and a 1930's semi they've bought and are retrofitting to high ecological standards. Andrew then turned to the carbon emissions from Council activities and property, which they have promised to reduce by 25% by 2013 using a carbon management system. This includes a new school which is heated with wood pellets, and a campaign to get shops to keep their doors shut in cold weather, keeping the warmth in (but hopefully not the customers out!)

Hugh Bayley was on good form and he too was pleased about the 'Eco-District' to be built on the brown-field British Sugar site. I didn't make any more notes about what Hugh said, nor any from Mike Childs apart from he was talking about leadership and the power that ordinary people have to lobby our leaders. The Climate Change Act only got through because of the thousands of us pushing the Government into it.

The Question Time bit of the meeting was excellent, with a first question on population and another on economic growth. I asked if any of the panel had measured their carbon footprint and which calculator they'd used. Mike said he had done his but had forgotten what the figure was, and that he 'was doing enough'; Andreas said he'd done lots of them and they all came up with different figures, but as he refused to fly, he was pleasantly surprised how low it was, Hugh admitted it was something he was going to have to do, to be able to say whether he manages his personal 10:10 pledge, and Andrew also didn't give a figure. Kate was the only one who knew her CO2e footprint had dropped from 16 tonnes to 12 over the 2 years she was writing her book. I suggested that people try The Carbon Account as it was so easy and visual. It actually doesn't matter which one you use... what's important is that people measure it now, make changes, and use the same calculator again to see the changes. Kate added some information about the Green Streets Challenge which she is involved with (door knocking!) and there were further questions about the Local Transport Plan and a complicated one about outcomes and policy.

All together it was a packed evening, with lots of information and I really enjoyed it.

I didn't hang around for too long, and was home by 10pm. I read Gill my notes and then typed up my blog whilst listening to music on BBC 2 and then Channel 4.

A day with not much on the agenda apart from at midday we were due to collect our friends' son from the station, as he's come up from Leamington Spa for a couple of nights to spend time with our boys.

Also, Gill had booked her bike into Cycleworks to have the handlebars replaced.. the more or less straight ones were giving her backache, but she thought that curved ones would be easier for her. She'd asked at Cycle Heaven and they said they wouldn't do it! Weird. So she asked at Cycleworks, which is our nearest bike shop, and they said yes, and today was the day. So in the morning I cycled her bike (me on mine, holding her handlebars with my right hand, with hers freewheeling alongside) down the road and left it there. Mid afternoon, I went down and got it back. On the way back in the morning I popped into St Nicks and got my preserving pan back.

So the rest of today was filled with sorting stuff out in the garden, moving things around, digging out a compost heap, putting stuff from the small Compostumbler into that pallet bin, refilling the Compostumbler, tidying up my messy plastic bag habit, setting up the new wormery.

Then in the evening, amongst other things, I did lots of paperwork... wrote an article for a magazine, wrote a couple of important Fiddlesticks emails, made several rail times phone calls, and more.

Later on, got myself ready for a trip down to London tomorrow. I've been invited to a party and a Fiddlesticks booking. I'm using the Grand Central service on both journeys as it was the cheapest.

How lovely to have a Bank Holiday Monday with no work!

Quite a lazy morning, and then did washing up and had lunch, and at 1.30 set off with our youngest to Fulford Show. We cycled down together, which was nice, as our eldest said he'd prefer to walk, so he and Gill turned up about an hour later, by which time we'd walked round once and I'd settled in to helping on the Green Party stall, selling books at 5op and tombola tickets, which although I never buy my own, I enjoyed selling.

It was a really good event, with lots of stalls... mainly fundraising with tombolas and the like, but also a little train ride, races, tug-o-war, and in the nearby Social Hall, competitions for best vegetable, painting, kids mini-garden and many other categories. I was delighted to see that our friend Melody won second prize in the mis-shaped vegetable competition, for a green bean which had got itself into a spiral, beaten by a cucumber in a broad smile shape.

The boys had a good enough time as they met friends there, and I was pleased to meet lots of people I knew. Our eldest went back with Melody and family, I cycled back with our youngest as far as Melody and Simon's and left him there, and zoomed down to Country Fresh, rather too fast. My trailer tyre hit something and bounced up, overturning the trailer and bending part of the trailer frame which is a nuisance. I either need to hit it back into shape with a big hammer (back of the axe?) or take it to the welders to have it heated up and bent back, for which they will charge me £10.

Anyway, I returned home with a big box of bananas and a box of mixed compostables and a sack of similar. Collected a sack from Freshways too... so as soon as I got home I went to unload the stuff into the Compostumbler which is now full again. And steaming.

The family came home, with Melody and her family, so there was suddenly a garden full, bouncing on the trampoline and making loads of noise. A lovely day.

We had the carrot soup for tea, with toasties... I've got to say it is one of the best carrot soups I've made. Probably as Gill added some cooked potato and whizzed it up and seasoned it, so it was a joint effort.

I had a very late night preparing 17 red peppers and a large pile of plums all for drying. I love dried plums, and my sweet red pepper paprika makes my soups and stews totally yummy. But having the stove burning on warm evenings makes it like a sauna in here....

An early start as various things to do in town, did most of them (paid cheque in, paid water bill, visited Anti Gravity, picked up mouldy oranges from Millers Yard) but as I didn't take a shopping list, I forgot to go to the Post Office to pick up a parcel. Duh.

So when I got home, and confessed my error, Gill suggested I cycle down again (after lunch!) and get the parcel (it was for the children) and get coffee from Oxfam and Gill-friendly ice cream from Sainsbury's. So I did this.

Fortunately I got back in enough time to do some compost management, filling the old Compostumbler.

We had a good tea... the leek and potato soup I made yesterday, plus assorted bits of quiche and cold pasta leftovers.

I then popped round to Lynn with some LETS stuff, and on to the Green Festival meeting in Stonegate, which was very productive.

A late start after a late night. But I got up in time to get on my bike and heading for Clifton Moor for a meeting at midday. I had responded to a message about some unwanted garden equipment sent to people on the Low Moor Allotments email list a couple of weeks ago, and had a phone conversation with one of the old lady's daughters. The lady had been bereaved and her keen composter husband had several good bits of kit which she was selling, as she wasn't quite as keen as him!

So I viewed the mid-size Compostumbler, a Can-O-Worms wormery and a 'Merlin' wormery. I was mainly interested in the Compostumbler, and we'd negotiated on the price and I'd been offered it for £70, very reasonable. I bought the Can-O-Worms and she gave me the other wormery. They were VERY surprised that I was able to get all these on my bike and trailer, although I'm glad they didn't see my trailer fall over when I turned the Bumper Castle corner! The Compostumbler stayed on the trailer and I was able to pull it upright again quite easily, and I managed to get home slowly and more carefully.

I got home at about 1.30 and had lunch, and waited for my friend Friedmann, whom I met on a Critical Mass cycle ride ages ago, and his new partner Bettina, and his 14 year-old son. They came at 2.30 and we had a good chat over a cuppa, then a walk down the garden, then I took them to St Nicks. I really enjoyed their company, and was glad they came with me... and they might participate in the Eco-Active day next week.

I came home and got on with setting up the new Compostumbler, and doing some tidying up.

After 8pm I popped round to a Freecycler called Mark who was offering a set of 3 juggling balls and some size 10 'Dr Marten' shoes with steel toe caps. I had a good chat with him as he is a keen cyclist, has just bought a unicycle (but cannot ride it yet!) and is about to go and work at BikeRescue.

So a very busy day.

Another work day... shouldn't complain! Lucky to have it!

So, started with a shower as yesterdays hour-and-a-half cycle back from Barmby Moor against the wind had rendered me reasonably fragrant. Gill didn't mind of course, but my employers today would have done and I like to try to make a good impression.

So, got to the station for about 10.20 and bought a ticket to Hull and was on the 10.40, where I wrote out my invoice for the day's work. This was for a community event organised by Tesco Extra in the St Stephen's Centre. As it was raining, I decided not to attempt working outside where the rest of the stalls were, so after I got changed, I set up my stuff in the centre against the Tesco window, and immediately was engaged by some youngsters who wanted to see me ride the unicycle (people often assume that I can't!). About 10 minutes later a security man approached me and told me that cycling wasn't allowed in the centre, so I didn't do any more unicycling at all. So, from 11.55 til 3.50 I worked constantly, except for about 7 minutes to eat my sandwiches at about 2pm. I did mainly devilstick workshops and juggling, and had some lovely successes with this with people who said 'I can't do that' and then, with a few minutes coaching, could. At one point a chap came along who was good with the diabolo, so I let him use Derek and that was quite fun as I was able to talk to Derek with someone else making him do tricks... and misbehaving, as usual! It was an instant 'double act'. There were other entertainers around, including stilt walkers, costumed characters, another balloon modeller, facepainters and various others. So it was a fun day.

The Tesco people seemed to like what was going on and were happy to let me go shortly before my official 4pm finish, as my train was due to leave at 4.01, the next one not being til 5.25.

So I was back in York quite soon, and as I came up to my bike, there was an old chap looking intently at my bike in the station racks. He was obviously admiring it, not trying to steal it or damage it, so I explained about my asking Cycle Heaven to build the strongest bike they'd ever built, and we chatted for a while.

On the way home I picked up two sacks of stuff from Country Fresh... and when I got home and got changed, I put a load of this in the compostumbler with a sackful of the shredded material I prepared last week.

I didn't eat until after 7pm, a plate of rice and vegetables, followed by a raspberry, loganberry and gooseberry crumble. Berry tasty!

I was just finishing off my email/facebook session when there was a huge crash outside and Gill, sleeping on the couch next to me, lept up. I immediately knew it was a logpile falling over, but it was quite a spectacular noise. Gill went back to sleep and I spent 20 minutes partly re-doing it and clearing the way for our neighbours to use the shared passage between the houses. Glad it decided to collapse when I was around to sort it out. It may have not coped with several big rainstorms today... Gill says there was a violent hailstorm here today.

Slept well if not for very long, and had some of the worst muesli for breakfast I've had for quite a while. Next time I visit Ali I'll buy her some cereals!

I did some sorting out of Ali's bokashi bins and wormery whilst she got up and ready to go down to University. I went with her and had lunch (thanks Ali!) and then got the tram to the station and within 20 minutes the Edinburgh train came and I put all my unicycles and bags of circus stuff in the cycle store area, and chatted to a really nice bloke called Paul, who was on his way to Newcastle so he could take the train to the West side of the country and cycle 'Coast to Coast' for charity. He'd just become a grandfather and was raising money for the unit where his tiny baby grandchild had spent it's first few weeks. We had a lovely chat and the journey went quickly.

Back home by 3pm, did the washing up (straight in there!) and took compostables down to one of the bins... then went down to Country Fresh and collected 2 sacks and a box to keep my heaps hot! I emptied the Compostumbler and reloaded it. I picked some loganberries. Gill did pasta for tea. I made a tomato sauce using small tomatoes thrown away by Country Fresh.

Whilst eating tea I received a phone call from a recent client. I've never had a phone call like it. Someone had overheard some of my Fiddlesticks balloon modelling banter and had complained. Now although I'm a children's entertainer, some of my humour is aimed over the heads of the children and is meant for the Mums, Dads, Grandads, Nanas and other adults. Most of this risque or slightly lewd humour is just suggestive, innuendo and has always been greeted with hilarity. I'll give you a couple of examples. If an adult woman asks for a balloon rabbit, I quickly rustle one up and then as I hand it over, I sometimes ask if she'd like extra batteries for it. If I'm making a dog, I occasionally hold the tail in the wrong position for a half second, as the adult watches, and say, 'it's important to get the tail in the right place' before moving it round to sticking out of the rear of the animal rather than pointing forwards between it's legs and under it's tummy. Again, this is for the adults and the child generally doesn't see and of course doesn't understand the chuckles. My handler for the gig was contacting me as the complainant had to be taken seriously and my response also had to be taken into consideration. I talked him through my innuendo-laden jokes (I have four including the two above) and explained how I decided whether these were appropriate in the situation, as well as saying that I was sorry that someone had been upset by my humour. Apparently it wasn't the recipient of the balloon or the comments, but someone who had overheard it. The board of the organisation will be meeting soon, and my handler will get back to me with their response. I offered to do my next gig for them with the suggestive humour removed, if this is what they wanted.

I then spent quite a long time sorting out my computer, deleting emails and replying to some and more e-communication necessity. Lots to do on the computer this evening.

Another work day, but didn't have to leave until 11.30 as I was due to get the 12.15 train to Leeds, and be picked up at 1pm. This went smoothly, as did the rest of the day. Alan my handler from Friends of Middleton Park was waiting at the station pick-up point and drove me to Middleton Park, where I sat under a tree and had my sandwiches before the keyholder arrived to unlock the compound where I worked last year, and where Alan and several volunteers serve refreshments.

I did my show which was enjoyed by a reasonably sized group of children and adults (20?) and then a workshop followed, including some equipment that belongs to the Friends of Middleton Park. I made lots of balloon animals too, whilst people were trying to juggle or ride the fun wheels and pedal go. I had a very jolly time, really enjoyed myself. The session was supposed to finish at 4 but it over-ran a bit, and I didn't get back to the station until nearly 5pm.

Arrived home after 6pm, so a good day's work, for which I've already been paid, something to do with how the group is funded. I'm doing a second session there on 30th August.

Gill had made an asparagus quiche with potatoes and a mushroom and pea thing, which was good, but I had to rush out as I'd agreed to meet Helgi, who's in charge of the music stage at this year's York Green Festival, to see what he'd found out about bands who might perform. We listened to some of them on MySpace and researched others and he banged out emails to them. I enjoyed meeting his two younger brothers who were keen on pillow fighting me, and their parents Lara and Adrian. I'm impressed with Helgi's maturity; he's only just 15, and he's in several bands and is very able. I'm aware I'm breaking my rule of not naming children on this blog by naming him, but in my mind he is an adult already and I know he isn't bothered by this. I have a lot of respect for him, and am enjoying working with him.

I left his place at about 9 and picked up several items from a skip on the way back, and did a bout of Compostumbler filling when I got back. Came in after 10 and settled down to deal with the inevitable pile of emails.