Human Lifestyle

Had quite a few things I had to do today, but it was a goody.  I got up fairly early and after my usual bowl of cereal and soya milk, loaded up my bike trailer with a very large number of plastic stacking fruit boxes.  I also put some on my pannier rack and some on my handlebars... it looked great, and wasn't heavy so was no bother to steer or stay upright.

But I needed to get to Millets as early as possible, to check out a tent which Gill had spotted, which would solve our summer holiday problem for next summer.  This summer's short camping excursion proved that our existing tent is too small for me and both boys, let alone the whole family!  But as the boys enjoyed camping, we have tent-ative plans for next summer and Gill's been looking out for a four-person tent, and in Millets she found a half price Berghaus Cuillin 4.

So I headed down there first and found it hadn't sold, so I reserved it and said I'd be back later with some money.  Then I cycled out to Scarcroft Road to where Dave Broughton, of Edible York and Abundance fame lives, and delivered the crates.  I hope I put them into the right back yard, as no-one was in!

I then went to Priory Street but the meeting I'd been invited to was at midday and I'd got there at 11, so i parked my bike and walked into town, went to the cash machine and then to Millets, and came out with the really heavy tent bag on wheels... and went back to CVS and then the Green Streets meeting started slowly coming together.

This project started about a year ago, with the Stockholm Environment Institute and the City of York Council working to develop a way to spread the message of carbon reduction and greener living in certain streets and neighbourhoods.  They chose a few areas and found some local champions to carry the project forward.  One group of people contacted them and asked to be involved.  I was aware what was going on but wasn't involved.  In January 2010 the project started with a baseline carbon calculation, and then a series of easy interventions and approaches followed, until August when the second calculation of the carbon footprint was made.  One team only managed a 1.7% decrease, whereas the best had a 17% reduction.  The average was 11%.  One of the confounding factors was the very cold weather which meant increased home heating in the early part of the experiment.

So this afternoon, it was a review of the project, awards and some discussion about the way forward.  Quite a few of my friends were there, and I'd been invited as I'd expressed an interest in some of the proposed follow-up work.  I also brought home all of the paper plates and some of the thrown away food for composting.

However, I popped into the Brigantes to meet Andy and Dave, our two Green Councillors, to look at the election leaflet which is being put together for the By Election on 14th October in my Ward.  We made quite a few edits. I then cycled home, the trailer completely filled with the new ginormous tent, but still picked up one sack of compostables at Country Fresh and half a bag at Freshways.

Had a very busy evening and was unable to complete my blog before I got too sleepy, due to lots of my friends chatting with me on the computer.

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.