Human Lifestyle

I slept in late, which was lovely. I didn't get dressed til after midday.  I half-listened to Gardener's Question Time on Radio 4.  Gill went to the Co-op for soya milk as we've run out of our Suma order supply, but forgot to get goats cheese so I went to get that for her.  On the way back I picked up some branches that John and Elizabeth emailed me about, and I was shown their huge rabbit and we chatted about beans, slugs and comfrey.  I also collected some pallets from a neighbour who had asked me to recycle them.

I did a pick-up from Country Fresh; Richard was just leaving as he had a gig this evening, so Martin sorted me out with 4 boxes of compostables, which included a big pile of tomatoes.

I did some work in the garden, unloading the Compostumbler and refilling it, and doing some weeding in the area which I hope to make into a raised bed.

Last thing, whilst making tomato soup, I watched On A Clear Day, a really good 'feelgood flick' about a man's attempt to swim the Channel.

I'm wondering if I am just a 'night owl' or have Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome. My sleep patterns match the description in this really well, but I'm lucky that my lack of a regular 9-5 work and a wife who sleeps in the evening and gets up at 6am means that it isn't much of a problem.

Got up reasonably early, despite going to bed at 4am or about that.  And a good day, sorting out the pile of wood at the front of the house mainly, but I also visited Country Fresh and collected a god big job-lot of compostables, plus some groceries.

At 5.30 I headed down to town for my care work with David, and he'd been invited to meet Geoff at The Habit, so I took him there and we chatted and drank coffee, and chatted with a chap from the Green Chemistry department at the University.   We didn't stay long and went past the Minster back to Stonegate, where we chatted with Trevor Rooney and another chap whom I met with a bunch of political activists on our drive, who also greeted David warmly.  However, neither of us could remember his name...

When we got back to David's, he wanted to have another go with his wheeled walking frame, and we did a 'round the block' walk.  Then I put his evening meal together and did a bit of sorting stuff out, and got away for 8pm.

Later, I got a message from Hann, who wanted to have a break from the goings-on in the shared house, so I agreed to meet between our houses and we both came back here, and had an hour's animated conversation whilst I prepared red pepper for drying.  We walked back together after midnight and I then cycled home, head full of new concepts and ideas.  Good stuff!

I got up early as was expecting Tracey Smith to be here at about 10am.  The plan was to walk into town and to go to El Piano, and maybe meet up with people who wanted to meet her.. but only one person had responded with a 'maybe', and then I got a message to say she was running late, so I cancelled the cafe meeting and waited for her to arrive.

As it was, I don't think she'd have wanted to go into town... she wanted to have a cuppa, a chat, and a wander down the garden.  She was making a film with her camcorder about people who were either downshifted or in the process of downshifting, so she interviewed me in our front room, and then took more footage down the garden.  I was showing her one of my wormeries, which has some adult drone flies emerging... their larvae are one of my favourite compost beasties... they're 'rat tailed maggots' and they like the wet areas at the base of my fruit and veg rich compost bins, and, apparently, wormeries.  Anyway, I found a newly emerged adult, with wings not yet inflated.  I had it on my thumb... and a robin swooped in and snatched it.  For me, it wasn't that surprising, as the garden is full of robins which follow me around and love me for the invertebrates I uncover and make available.  However, Tracey was delighted, and said she'd like to try to capture it on her camera.  I found another fly (which don't actually do a lot of flying; they seem to prefer to walk, certainly when newly emerged, even with fully pumped-up wings) and put it on my hand... and within less than a second, the robin had had it again!  Luckily (or unluckily for the fly) I found a third, and waited for Trace to get her camera ready... and bingo, she got the shot... followed by the robin very close to her, eating the hover fly.  I really love the way I help turn unwanted waste into robins!

So, we moved down to the riddling machine, and beyond to the radiator beds and the current New-Zealand bin which is running at close to 60 Celsius.  I think she was quite impressed!

I gave her a bag of riddled compost and she took me to her car where she had a present for me... some freshly laid eggs from the chickens belonging to her previous host, Denise Nesbitt.  Near her car was a table top sale run by two young children... they were getting rid of unwanted toys and things they'd grown out of, so  I suggested Tracey add this to her downshifting and recycling film.  I found Jo, their  mum, and Tracey interviewed her and the children.

And soon it was time for her to go.... I'd have loved to spend more time with her, show her St Nicks, and the best bits of York... but another time maybe!

After lunch I cycled up to the house with the shredded wood available, as the owner there had asked if I wanted any more of the shredded tree.  He was wrestling with a huge base of a holly tree, and had quite a bit of root material and other wood, so I took a load of woodchip and on the next journey, the burnable stuff. He hadn't sawn up the huge holly trunk, but said to come back later.

Then I visited Richard at Country Fresh... and he had some tomato plants in; I bought 4 different types.  I got potatoes and tomatoes, and 5 boxes or bags of gunk for the hot heap.

The Press was delivered, and we paid our weekly bill.  I was surprised to see that on page 3 there was a photo of the Easter procession of the cross being taken through the streets of York, with Dr. Sentamu at the front just behind the cross carrier.  I had said hello to him whilst pushing David up Spurriergate... and the Press photographer had caught this and today, the picture was published.  I rang David to tell him... he was about to ring me as he too gets the Press.  He asked if I could get a copy of this picture for him.

Then I did a load more riddling and when it was cooler, I started work on the raised beds which have become a bit neglected, and need planting up with crops.  I have potatoes chitting so I took out lots of weeds (bramble seedlings, goose grass and others)  and I found that the ultra tough winter has killed our fennel, which has been growing really well there for many years.

Just before tea I visited the house up the road and picked up the holly trunk... about a metre long and over 30 cm diameter, I could only just lift it into my trailer, it must have been over 50kg.  And I popped into see Debbie and picked up a load of aluminium cans she's saved for me.

So a busy day, hot and sweaty, so lit the stove and got bathwater ready for a 1am bath before bed...

I had a bit of a lie-in which was good, and when I came down I filled in the Census form, although I found it complicated and had to make a few corrections, crossings out, explanations, and I accidentally spilled some coffee on it. Whoops.  Methinks the American arms manufacturer who has won the contract might not make any profit on our form.  The boys filled in their sections, and then Gill did hers; she too had to help the form administrators understand what she was putting.  It's nice to know a real person will be dealing with our information, not some faceless computer.

However, as it was lovely outside I got out into the garden as I still had more compost stuff to sort out, and I got quite a bit done.

But then after lunch I remembered I was supposed to take my bike to Cycle Heaven to get the new disc brakes fitted, as the original ones wear down really quickly and the little plastic wheel used to tighten the pad has broken off and the mechanism gets too difficult to tighten up even with pliers.  Very unsatisfactory.  So, at some expense, I'm having disc brakes fitted with pads which are twice as big, and hopefully will wear down half as fast!  I also need a new front chain wheel, or sprocket, but the stainless steel one hasn't arrived yet so I'm having an ordinary one fitted to make the bike safe, and if/when the more resilient one arrives, that will replace the one being put on today.  So I cycled down and left my bike and trailer there, and came home on a replacement bike, which doesn't have all the three gears working. 

I popped in on Rich at Country Fresh and bought some fruit and veg, and loaded a box and a bag of recyclable materials on the rack, and came home and continued my work in the garden.

Gill came down the garden at about 7pm and suggested I come in and watch Countryfile and have tea, which was pasta and mushrooms.

I was glad to come and sit down as I have been very busy today, and I watched a programme about the Japanese Earthquake and then a Brian Cox offering about light whilst playing Scrabble.

Another quite relaxing day.... although I did do some hard work in the garden.

But the day started with a telly morning... Country Tracks, which I enjoyed, interspersed with washing up, which I am bored of.

But a good lunch... Gill had bought some tasty tomato bread and I had some with hommous in, really good.

In the afternoon, I did some moving stuff around in the garden.... half emptied the Compostumbler which has only half composted the last batch, but I need the space so I transferred the material to a half-full dalek which is now completely full.  I put about 10 bucket loads of gunk into the Compostumbler, including a load of compost worms which will find conditions in there very favourable, I'm sure.

Toward the end of the day I visited Richard at Country Fresh to do his resource recycling for him, and got a bag of reduced price veggies in return.  I picked up a large sack from Freshways too.  All this went down the garden and went either in one of 3 tumblers or a static pile, depending on the materials.  Anything that rats really like eating (for instance, potatoes and avocados) go in tumblers where rats can't get at them.  Things like cauliflower stalks and mooli are not so tasty to rats and go in an ordinary 'open' heap, one of the New Zealand bins raised up off the ground to reduce rat ingress. 

I got a text from Debbie but by the time I responded, she'd gone out but I had some conversations with the feral children who live near her, and they enthusiastically got some aluminium cans for me, and stamped them flat too.

Lots of Scrabble in the evening, and assorted conversations about the Census, and a zero-growth economy, and the fact I look a bit like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, apparently.....

I got up fairly early wondering if I had a gig today; I'd written 'Goole?' in my diary but no details.  I hadn't got a booking letter... well I don't think I had anyway.  But I did half expect a phone call saying 'see you at 2pm then' or somesuch!

Fortunately this didn't happen and I was able to spend the day doing useful things at home. So first thing I lit the back room stove and watched Country Tracks and did the washing up.  The newly empty bowl allowed me to sort through a carrier bag full of pretty manky tomatoes, thrown out by the two retailers.  I washed them and cut out the bad bits... which ended up as over half of the bag full.  However... I collected a large colander full of trimmed tomatoes.  I used a reject onion, a bought potato, a stick of celery, and fried these up first, then added the tomatoes, chopped with scissors.  I stewed this gently on the stove for several hours, and will tomorrow season it and 'whizz' it to a smooth soup.

After lunch I did some work outside... I gathered together a load of twiggy bits, trimmed off sticks and branches, and hedge trimmings, and shredded them as I needed some woody stuff for the composting.  I cut back some old brambles and fed those through the shredder too.  I didn't get a chance to put the stuff on any of the heaps though, as I remembered that Mandy Waggett had invited me to collect a load of wood she'd sorted out of her garage (and put on Freecycle) so I went round with some paper sacks to load it up, and filled the trailer and two sacks.

Gill made tea... the left over butterbean and veg stew with some extra bits, and a topping of mashed potato and sweet potato, so a sort of cottage pie.

I went out after this and brought another trailer full of logs home, and decided to call it a day.  But then I sorted out a load of nails and ironwork pulled out of the grate, and put this for recycling (I take it to Hazel Court) and stripped a bit of copper wire, and shelled some pumpkin seeds too.  As usual, I didn't start winding down til about 2am, well after The Sky at Night.

A good day which started with a lie-in and then Country Tracks on telly with my breakfast branflakes and muesli.  I spent some time researching my evening tomorrow, an RSA meeting in Newcastle.  This doesn't start til 5.30, which means I will be able to attend Stella Rawson's funeral at 11am at Holy Trinity Church in Heworth, on the corner of Melrosegate and East Parade. 

After lunch I serviced my youngest son's bike, as it needed oiling and a puncture repaired.  I also cut the front privet hedge, as we've used up all the logs which are usually stacked next to it so it's accessible, so 20 minutes with the shears and it was looking a bit less shaggy.  The very cold weather has taken off many of the leaves, so I'm looking forward to it growing again as it looks dreadful.

I visited Richard down at Country Fresh and discussed whether I could get a lift to London for the Falling Spikes gig at the beginning of February, and Rich thinks I could get a lift back but not down there, as a couple of people are going down with them but not coming back.  This probably makes it unlikely that I'll go.  But there are more local gigs planned.

I did a bit of chainsawing, some pallets, a few recently acquired logs, but not much as Gill came out and told me I was being loud and some time ago I'd agreed with a religious neighbour down the road that I wouldn't split logs on a Sunday.  Well I wasn't splitting logs, but the chainsaw on the pallet was fairly loud.

Later I went on a foraging expedition and came back with 4 pallets and a few logs.

When the children were asleep we filled in the forms for the Steiner School, as they need to know our income and expenditure, to work out how much the donation is that we should give.  This was complicated but I think we got most of the information together.  Now we need to photocopy loads of it to present to them.  I don't like paperwork.