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.

Up early as I had agreed to speak live to BBC Radio York about a quite sensitive subject.  I am going to prepare a 'page' about this, and will link this post to that page to explain.

So I was on soon after 7am, and I stayed up and spent chunks of the day listening to the 'player' to listen to the whole show.  I was disappointed with the rest of the programme 

I did quite a chunk of work in the garden and also visited Richard and picked up several sacks of compostables and a hand of bananas... not very local or in season but the children like them.

After lunch, Jennie dropped by to give me some Edible York postcards, which I'll deliver in the next few days to houses with big gardens.

I called round on a friend who is desperately fighting alcoholism, to see how they were and I met someone who is helping, and they went off to alcoholics anonymous together.  I squashed a huge load of aluminium cider cans and brought them back, the beginning of my new collection!  Then I visited a nearby wooded area where some shrubs and small trees had been taken down, and I came back with a trailer load of reasonable sticks and small branches, some of which I chopped up.

I collected a lot of windfalls as it's been windy, and I made space on the stove for more drying.  I had an enquiry from ITV about a homes-of-interesting-people programme, but I declined as I don't think it would be a good idea to have cameras round when we're so untidy and chaotic, and also, I don't want to embarrass the children.  I had a call from 10:10 about their recent emails to York in Transition and Professor Fiddlesticks being 10:10 organisations.  I had a long chat with Heidi, a 10:10 volunteer and I enjoyed this.

I did quite a lot of fruit prep in the evening and had a nice facebook chat with a new Malaysain friend who's into green issues.  I half watched a film I've seen before, 'At First Sight' with Val Kilmer.  Got my blog done for 1am, which is early for me!!!!

I had a busy and enjoyable day.

My first job was to try to finish the notes from last night's YiT meeting, so I got up before 8am and started transferring stuff from my notebook to an email, to send it to the others who attended the meeting so they could check the notes before they are sent out to the rest of the group.

But I got distracted by wanting breakfast and in order to do that I needed to wash up....... so I did a batch and had breakfast, and I didn't get the minutes completely done before I had to go to St Nicks to attend the Rotters Management meeting, starting at 10.

I really enjoyed this meeting; the current team is working really well together and I really like Sara our Council Waste Minimisation person, as she's very positive and easy to work with. We had a brief talk about Edible York and the possible development of a Master Gardener scheme. We reviewed the recent York Rotters events and some forthcoming ones. One thing we want to do is to make a video about our work, so we watched a couple of local films from local film-makers and discussed why we wanted it, what message, who it is aimed at, how it would be used. I volunteered to do an initial script, to work out how much info we can fit into the time available. We discussed the future of commercial waste recycling and whether we can promote composting in commercial premises. Again, I have a bit of work to do to find some info about this. Finally, it has been suggested in some parts of the media (Telegraph) that teabags should be torn up before adding to the compost heap, as some bags are made of non-biodegradable materials (ie certain sorts of plastic). We think that the advice is not necessary and might become a barrier to recycling these items, and lots of people don't have a problem with teabags. I do find some uncomposted tea bag 'ghosts' in my finished compost and I either ignore them or take them out along with other 'contraries'.

The meeting finished at about midday and I came home for an early lunch as my next appointment was at 1.40 at the Hospital, to have my plaster cast taken off and something else put on. I didn't have more than 15 minutes to wait before I was invited into the inner sanctum and 10 minutes later had the temporary pot cut off. My ankle and foot was quite swollen, and I admitted that I hadn't managed to take it easy. She asked if I'd elevated my foot at all, and I said that I'd had it up on a chair. She pulled my foot right up in the air and said 'like this?'... well I hadn't been told to do acrobatics! She said to reduce my swelling I had to raise it right up in the air, above my head! Then she explained about the two alternatives, and looked at the X-rays and prodded my foot. She decided on a removable plastic 'walker' with an inflatable inner to immobilise the ankle. This would allow me to exercise my foot with it off, and wash, but support it when up and about. I was very happy with this decision, and only had another 15 minutes wait for chap to fit it, and show me how to inflate it.

So I left the Hospital and cycled into town, popped in to see Dylan at Millers Yard, (seven sacks of oranges and coffee grounds!) went to the Guildhall to see about the hire of the Mansion House for a York in Transition Energy Event, and walked across town to cycle home.

Near the Barbican I noticed that the old compacted beds near the cycle track had been given low sides (raised beds) and filled with sand, which was a bit odd. A few yards further on, there was a queue of traffic on Kent St, pointing towards Fawcett St, and there was a female cyclist coming down the 'off side' of the line of traffic (nearer the centre of the road, presumably because the nearside, next to the kerb, was blocked by a thoughtless driver) and suddenly, a 4x4, I think it was a land rover, pulled out and did a U turn, very nearly knocking the cyclist flat. I was quite near and had a word with the driver and he was horribly abusive towards me. I wish I'd got his number plate as I would have reported him to the police. The lady cyclist was stunned and couldn't continue on her way for a few tens of seconds.... she must have been in shock that her life was so very nearly snuffed out. This kind of motorist behaviour makes me very angry.

Anyway, I managed to put my violent thoughts aside and got home.... and then found a message on email about the raised beds... Chloe, the contact person for Edible York, had asked the men putting sand into the beds to stop, and had asked if some compost or top soil could be put in. I messaged back saying that if she'd asked for compost, she'd get the YorWaste composted woody waste stuff, which is really an insult to the word compost, as it's only fit for mulch. It is composted green waste, processed hot and quick, and has few nutrients and when added to soil, is bound to rob the soil of nitrogen as it is very carbon-heavy. So I said that I would be happy to supply some rich 3 year old proper compost, to try to make these beds a bit better. So I cycled 7 sacks down at about 5pm, had a bowl of soup at 6 and another 7 sacks there, arriving at 6.30 when the work party was just getting going. My compost was most welcome. We removed some of the sand and bagged that up (I took 3 sacks away) and mixed in the council woody stuff with the sand and my rich well rotted compost.

Lynn Turner arrived as she was going to the LETS AGM, and there was also my friend Bill Eve, a lady called Ann who has visited my composting demonstration garden, Dave Broughton and several other Edible York stalwarts. After half an hour Lynn and I went to the Seahorse to the AGM, which I was chairing. This was a lovely meeting too... better attended than we'd expected.
Meeting details to be continued.......... too late to think straight.

Gill woke me just before 10 by telling me it was midday.... and then said 'April Fool'. She came to bed and then I got up and had breakfast. I went up just before midday and said, right I'm going to go and get our youngest now (fooling her that it was 3pm!) and we had another good laugh.

I spent most of the morning enjoying April Fool jokes posted on facebook... there were loads. I easily spotted the Garden Organic peas with faces one, the student living in the library one, the excellent 'Google translate for animals'(love the videos with this one!), making string out of Runner Beans, and my favourite, the AA Jet Pack one, which also has very well done videos. However, the April Fool by the Council for British Archeology had me thinking for a few minutes and therefore was the best, as it did have me fooled for a short time. I enjoyed them all. One of my friends posted something about Reiki, and I thought that was one too....

I enjoyed Anita Sancha's animation for The Big Green Idea, and the new campaign from Yorkshire Water, Edna and Mary 'Ow Much? . I also had a phone conversation with someone from this campaign, about all the ways I reduce my water use, and I said I would do something on this blog to explain what I do. I'll do that soon, in the 'Pages' section, top right.

Anyway, I came off the computer and got on with helping Gill move something heavy and then I did some stuff outside, and then at 3 I did actually go down to school to pick up our youngest.

I was extremely happy to see that Lord Deramore's School have finally bitten the bullet and got some compost bins installed!!!! Only 6 years or so after I suggested it might be a good idea, and tried to encourage them to do it!!!! The volunteer parent who was putting something into one of them didn't really welcome my offer of a suggestion that it would be better if the bin wasn't balanced on top of the soil surface, and my offering to put it down slightly into the soil, by digging a little channel for the 'foot' to sit in. This makes it slightly more rat resistant and also more stable. I guess that I'll just have to leave them to find out, by trial and error. Or I might indulge in some 'guerrilla composting' and bed the bins down for them. I did go back to my old ways and rescued some fruit bits and bobs from the bins, and put a load into the new compost bin... I just cannot help myself. The two bins there will be joined by one more, but this won't be enough for the 8kg/day the school produces. Also, they are positioned in a North-facing area, and will never get any direct sunlight, so decomposition will be slower than when mine were installed in full sun. But, again, they'll learn, I'm sure. They might even ask me what my advice is... I wonder? I doubt it somehow, I'm pretty sure they are completely pissed off with me.

I cycled my little one home and did a bit more outside work, before cycling down to La Tasca for 5.30pm, to meet Ali, her daughter and PA, who have spent the day in York, and invited me to share a meal with them. It was lovely... lots of different Tapas, and I had a bottle of cider. I did a little errand after the meal; cycled round to the station and collected Ali's suitcase from left luggage, and took it to her hotel room. I was really pleased to see my friends' daughter Emily Rhodes Bernays working there... I last spoke to her when she was a little girl and was one of the biggest Professor Fiddlesticks fans. She is now a beautiful young confident woman... what a difference 10 years makes!

And back to La Tasca, and Ali came with me to the Black Swan for a meeting of York Abundance, which is an offshoot of Edible York, which itself formed following a York In Transition 'Food Open Space' event. This was only the second meeting of Abundance. The idea is to find existing fruit trees and to ensure that any spare fruit is put to good use, and goes to local people who need it most. It was a fairly unstructured meeting but very productive. An abundance of bright ideas. Ali and I both contributed positively, and I managed not to volunteer, well done John.

I went back to Ali's hotel with her and spent a bit of time talking before cycling back home, where Gill was enjoying Sliding Doors on the TV. She'd had a good evening too.