Human Lifestyle

Not too bad a day on the whole.  I spent most of the morning sorting my messy piles of paperwork, basically trying to find a booking letter which has mysteriously disappeared.  However, I did sort out loads of envelopes, tearing out the plastic windows and putting the rest for composting or lighting the stove.  I got a big pile of recyclable paper which went in the recycle bin and sorted out various documents to store for my business records.  The missing letter did not materialise.

After lunch I popped round to see the local vicar, Tim Jones, who had asked me to go and see his compost bin and give him advice.  I said I'd go and see it and tell him what needed doing, with the possibility of going again to sort it out.  I get on with him, I like his sense of humour, and I expect to go and work in his garden next week and do some pruning, shredding and compost heap deconstruction and reconstruction...

Then I cycled into town to put in a cheque, pay a bill and get some cash out.  We'd got a post card form the Post Office saying there was a letter for Gill with a £1.38 bill to pay on it, so I went to pick that up.  On the way back I popped into the alterations shop on Walmgate as my bum-bag had a broken zip, and I wanted to know how much it would cost to replace it.  The guy in there took one look at it, and said he'd mend it.  10 seconds later, don't know how he did it, but it was a fully functioning zip again!  Wow.  I gave him a pound coin.

Came back via Freshways who had two huge bags of gunk for me.  One sack had split so I asked for a new bin bag and I made the two sacks into three to enable me to get them home.  However, there were a lot of slightly over-ripe tomatoes so when I got in, I set to and created a big pan of soup on the woodstove.  Four onions, thrown away as they had manky outer skins, about 20 large tomatoes and a small potato.  I brought it to the boil, simmered it and will whizz it tomorrow, and add bouillon and herbs.  Yum!

A relaxing evening with Gill, enjoyed some good telly and companionship.

I had a bit of a lie-in as the boys were happy with the few presents they had in their 'Santa's sack' which Gill and I quietly slipped into their room last night.

When I came down, they didn't want to dive into their presents immediately, so I had my usual bran flakes and muesli and did my emails and had a few goes on facebook Scrabble.

Them before lunch we all gathered in the front room and the boys had their presents... lots of books mainly.  I gave Gill and the boys a York Monopoly as Gill's been mentioning it for ages, and I got mine from Our Celebration, which is mentioned in the game (I think in 'Community Chest') as they were offering a limited number for £20, cheaper than the advertised £25.  I hope they got them given as a fundraiser.   I was very happy to get 6 pairs of good quality socks and 3 handkerchiefs.  Excellent presents!

Because one present required batteries, I suggested that I walk down to Freshways (which is open, as it's run by people who don't celebrate Christmas) and as the boys don't get enough exercise, I said that one or both of them had to come with me.  Eventually, both of them AND Gill came down with me, a nice family walk, just 20 minutes or so, but it was nice.

I went out after a sandwich lunch and stacked logs... the very cold weather means we are racing through the supplies but there is still enough for several weeks more of the same.  I had offered to make a nutloaf for Christmas tea but the boys wanted pasta... so that's what they had, and I didn't need to cook.

I popped round to see Debbie, and had a pear cider there whilst chatting and she showed me some family photos from when her children were little.

When I got back, one of the children had walked past the back room telly with the magnetic darts board that someone gave them, and the red colour had disappeared from the screen, leaving it very greeny blue.  Apparently the darts had not been put onto the screen, but they contain super strong neodymium magnets and they only need to get near a sensitive object to affect it.  I wonder if the full colour will come back?

My Christmas tea was interesting: a few more onion bhajis thrown away by my friends at the greengrocer's, a couple of waste parsnips, some new potatoes left over form a couple of days ago... these all roasted for 20 minutes in the gas oven, with a small pile of pasta and a tomato sauce Gill made from some tomatoes which had become frozen whilst on display, thrown away, and rescued by me.  An incredibly cheap meal, with the only major ingredient purchased being the pasta, plus 20 minutes in the gas cooker.  But an unusual Christmas meal... or not, as I don't really celebrate Christmas.  If I didn't have children, I wouldn't bother. Not sure why they like to celebrate it, really.  It's mainly Gill who likes the tradition.

Anyway, the family watched telly in the front room, stuff I didn't want to watch, so I chatted with friends, played Scrabble, peeled and sliced melons for drying and had a quiet few hours.  I sent a few e-cards by Anita Sancha to friends, wishing people a 'Happy Winterlude'!  Later, I had a bath, with both big bathwater cans heated on the back room stove and it was a luxurious bath, very deep, very hot, and I must have spent a good half hour in it.  Lovely! I needed it as I've slept in the same clothes for a couple of nights and was feeling a bit grubby. 

An odd day as we have decided to home educate our eldest child, as of today.  Gill spent quite a bit of time doing the required admin with the Local Education Authority and the school, and we'll be contacting the local home schooling group which is very active.  I've done a party for them, and I hope we can get involved in this group.
I'm not brilliant with major changes like this but I expect I'll get used to it.  Between us, Gill and I have a lot of expertise and learning, and we have a lot of contacts who could do some specialist teaching.  I am extremely disappointed that the school has been unable to accommodate our child's needs and has been unable to deal with the dreadful behaviour of some of the other pupils.

Anyway, we look forward to exciting and positive times ahead, and most important, happy times.

I did quite a bit of work outside... stacking logs, filling the leafmould pile, a bit of compost heap management, taking down bean vines and bringing in more dry beans.  I even found a meal's-worth of potatoes.  I had an appointment with the GP practice nurse for an asthma check and flu jab.  On the way back I collected a large sack of gubbins from Freshways.

In the evening I had a use-it-up meal and did some more apple prep for the dried apple production line.  I watched a great programme on the ultimate environmental absurdity, bottled water.  I had an email enquiry from a Tesco marketeer asking me to do a blog post about how Tesco is green.  I could hardly believe it!  I'll consider writing this up over the next few days.

I had a lie in.  And then a fairly lazy day.  However I did go to Country Fresh for some potatoes and a cauliflower, via St Nicks with 5 demijohns for cider-making tomorrow.  I came back via Freshways, and did a bit of compost heap loading.

I also did a good lot of fruit slicing for drying, pears, apples and a couple of hands of bananas. I turned out the quince leather stuff, membrillo, and it wasn't completely set, so it went back on the stove on a metal sheet to dry off and set a bit more. I hope.  However, it tastes FANTASTIC!!

So, a pretty nothingy day... and what has this got to do with water, being as it's Blog Action Day, with the subject of water?

Well, I try to live my life with low levels of consumption of fossil fuels, resources and of course, water.  So, as today was a 'normal' day for me, what did I do, or not do, to reduce my water footprint?

Well I have a 'pirate wash' every morning, running the cold water tap over my flannel about 6 times and after each time, wiping my body down with that.  I don't really like showers but I have a bath once a week.  And this kind of low water use wash every day.

Diet is really important when considering embodied water.  Some foods are much more 'water heavy' than others, and meat is a good example of a foodstuff which has a huge water footprint.  So if I'd had a burger for breakfast (or equivalent, say a bacon sandwich) then that could have had a hidden water use of 24 litres just for one burger and bap.  But with a vegetarian diet, the embodied water is vastly less. See this water footprint calculator for some comparisons.  For breakfast, I have a bowl of cereals and soya milk, and a cup of coffee.  For lunch I always have sandwiches... nearly always vegan, ie bread, dairy free margarine and/or mayonnaise, hummous, peanut butter, marmite or avocado.  However, today one of my sandwiches was cheese and red pepper.  Cheese has a higher water footprint than plant-based foods, so a black mark against me here.  My evening meal was macaroni and cauliflower with a soya-milk and goats cheese sauce... reasonably low in embodied water, compared to a meat-based meal at least.

The biggest direct water use in most Western houses is the flush toilet.  We have two of these in the house but I much prefer to use my home made compost toilet, sometimes known as a dry toilet or sawdust toilet.  The only water I use directly is from a water butt to wash my hands afterwards.  However, the recycled tissue paper does require water in it's production, but I'm not giving that up!!!

The other activity connected with food is washing up.  I do the washing up in our house, and I'm very careful to keep the water use down here too, although I rinse the plates and saucepans with clean water and then leave them to drip dry/air dry, rather than wiping a (dirty) tea towel all over them... a great way to get bacteria all over your washed crockery.  I re-use the washing up water in the summer in our conservatory, but at this time of year the plants don't need as much, so today, the water was just tipped down the sink and would get cleaned up at the sewerage works.

Our water use has gone up recently.  Both boys now need to wash more, being as they are getting to 'that age' where boys start to emit adult male odours, and therefore they now use the shower more, and the washing machine has a few more smelly clothes to deal with.  This means our household of four uses 92 cubic metres of water a year (it's on a meter!), which is about 252 litres a day, or 63 litres each per day (23 cubic metres per year), if shared out equally.  This is direct water use, of course, as embodied water use is much more difficult to work out.  However, I did a rough calculation using this Water Footprint Calculator and it came up with 479 cubic metres per year for my personal water footprint.

I have written a special 'page' about my water use, as I feel it is a really important subject.  This can be found in the top right hand corner of the blog, or by clicking on this.  Thanks!

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!

Busy day.... up at 8am to get 10 sacks of compost down to the Barbican Edible York raised beds. I took the first 5 down and then continued into town to refill the Suma account as we've got a delivery next week and we'll have to pay the driver a cheque.

I popped into Country Fresh and Freshways on the way back and then took that lot down the garden and collected the next 5 sacks, and took them down. Lots of cycling!

Back at 11.45 to get ready to go to Manchester where I'm meeting with friends and then staying with Mark and Janie before going to DAD on Sunday.

The train journey was uneventful and quick, and I met Laura in the station, and in Cafe Nero we met Nomi and Jess, Ian, Amy, Simon (his birthday), Fiona, Katie popped in... and out, and in again, and there were others who's names I have forgotten or didn't learn. Then at 5ish I got a train to Stockport and Janie picked me up and we drove to Marple. It was good to meet Mark her husband again, and their two sons whom I get on well with, and it was interesting coping with their two overenthusiastic dogs.

As it was a nice evening I helped cut their front hedge, using a, electric hedge trimmer for the first time I think. Fun!

Tea was nice, pasta and veg stew, and as darkness fell we had a bit of juggling fun.

Later when the boys were in bed, I showed Janie some assorted videos including the Ethical Man ones that I am on.

An unhurried morning, and caught the 12.44 train back home, and was back before 3pm, coming via Country Fresh and Freshways; an empty trailer is a wasted journey.

A bit later, after dealing with lots of emails, I had a freecycling trip down the road to supply some mulch to someone and to pick up some wood and plastic carrier bags, which will get filled with riddled compost and go out again to people who want them.

I had two stale onion bagels for tea, with a good selection of fresh moist salads... the perfect complement to the unwanted bagels, which had been rejected by the children.

I did a bit of work in the garden, wormery management and another layer on a compost heap... and I brought in a load of leeks which one of the shops felt it couldn't sell, as they had a woody central 'core', actually the flower stalk. But surrounding this are ordinary leek leaves, and these I made into a soup, with some sweet potato similarly thrown out. So tomorrow we'll have leek and sweet potato soup, which I've never had before. Let's hope it's nice!

I also made up my muesli, using home-dried Asian pears, dried bananas and pumpkin seeds rescued from last Autumn's Pumpkin Day at St Nicks, which I've been trying to find time to de-shell so I get the 'naked' seed, as I don't like the roughage-laden outer husk. I'm still looking for a gadget which I can feed them into and will mechanically do this job, something about the size of a pasta-maker would be good!

A pretty quiet day in many ways. I did a lot of housework and some work on the computer, sliced up two pineapples and 8 kiwi fruit for drying, and did some compost heap management, a bit of chainsawing, some riddling, and bagging up of the clay soil from the wall excavations. Oh, and I installed this year's bean poles, some rescued long branches which I decided not to chop for firewood, as I thought ahead to their possible use.

I went to the Co-op in the afternoon, as Gill asked me to, and popped into a friend who is preparing to conquer her alcoholism, she hopes! I'm going to give her some support next week when she starts going through her detox. She will need a lot of strength and good luck. I went to the Co-op shop and then decided to go and visit Freshways... I didn't go yesterday which is when they do a big stock rotation and throw out an average of 40kg of fruit and veg. So I went there and picked it up (they'd put it round the back) and met a friendly student called Geeta, whom I know from the People and Planet Allotment. She'd gone to Freshways to buy candles... so I said, "I can give you some if you want.... as I've got bags of them in the loft, left over from assorted skip-diving."

So she came back and I found about 10 different candles for her and then took her on a tour down the garden to see the trees (all in bloom and at their prettiest) the Shiitake mushrooms, and the composting and recycling, etc. I think she enjoyed the visit. I enjoyed her visit, it feels good to give stuff unexpectedly!

An equally quiet evening. Tea was foraged sweet chestnuts (dried one Autumn, and then soaked and boiled), home grown Shiitake, rescued onion, and a bought tomato all cooked up together, with a toastie with blue cheese and black olive paste in it. Tasty stuff! Also had a nice Googletalk conversation with my Canadian friend/colleague Rory and made plans for a visit next month to Manchester, for the Spencer Tunick exhibition and the World Naked Bike Ride.

Bit of a lie-in til after 9, but then got busy with various outdoors activities... more gardening.

This time I attacked a hedge, a section of hedge that I'm not very fond of, it's hawthorn and incredibly prickly, huge long thorns which make it really difficult to manage. But I eventually fed all the cut bits through the shredder which means it will compost down really well, and hopefully the thorns won't be around when I come to riddle the finished compost!

Sometime in the afternoon I cycled down to see Anna Semlyen who has picked up the key for CVS, but cannot get to the venue until 6.30, so I offered to get there for 6pm to allow the band to set up and do a sound check. I also picked up the posters for the Ecocell talk which I've helped organise (and my eldest son did the poster for, added to by Anna) and the latest York in Transition Newsletter.

I visited Alligator to pick up their compostables, then Country Fresh where I got embroiled in a conversation with Florencia and a Chinese University lecturer, which was very jolly.

Then onto St Nicks to dispose of one of the sacks of resources from Country Fresh into the display composter, and to give Ecocell posters to John and Transition newsletters to Ivana... and then on to Freshways where I picked up another two sacks.

A bit later, I cycled round to Lynn's to deliver some seed compost.

So a busy day, nice and social, quite a bit of cycling and recycling... my favourite kind of day.

Another work day, so I started with a shave as I was feeling a bit over-fluffy, and wanted to make a good impression. I'd been invited by James to come and do a Fiddlesticks party for his young daughter, who turned 4 this week. However, this wasn't a usual booking, as James had found me at least a year ago via this blog (I think) as he has a keen interest in green issues, and we'd become facebook friends and chat pretty regularly, comment on each other's posts, etc... but never actually met. So I was looking forward to meeting James.

I left the house with all my kit in the trailer just after 11.30 and got to the station in good time, got my ticket and went to wait for the 12.18 on the usual platform. The train looked like it wasn't going anywhere and I hoped the train strike hadn't started early. I checked the board and whoops, the Harrogate train was leaving from Platform 10, in 2 minutes. I got to it with 30 seconds to spare... phew!

I had lunch on the train and was pleased to see James waiting at Pannal station, as agreed, when I left the train. He took me to Follifoot Village Hall where I met his wife and some friends... I got changed and then his 4 year-old daughter showed up with Granny, and soon lots of party-goers too. Virtually all of the 30 or so children were 3 or 4, with perhaps one older one.. but all the parents stayed and that made it a really good audience. I was very pleased that some of the grown-ups were 'game' and were happy to join in, and the show went well, as expected.

Then birthday tea, and after that, there was the balloon workshop... again, the parents did really well and helped their offspring make balloon animals, and I helped a bit too... The competitions at the end were fun too, and we finished on time, and everybody was happy, especially me, as I enjoyed myself, as usual.

James and family were happy and he took me back to the station in time for the 5.20 train. I slept lightly for most of the way back, as I always find gigs really tiring.

I came home via Country Fresh which was closed and they hadn't left anything out for me, so went to Freshways who had got 4 sacks for me, which I somehow managed to balance on my unicycles, pannier rack and handlebars to get them home... i do like my compost heaps to keep hot, so the more the merrier!

Gill fed me... well, gave me a plate-full of pasta and I fed myself, and soon after 7.30, Will popped round as he had asked me to provide him with a bag of seed compost and some tomato seeds, as he wanted to conduct an experiment using two different growing methods... one using hocus pocus, planting in moonlight and chanting, and the other just 'normal' planting. Well I think that was what he was going to do! Anyway, happy to let him have 10 Yorky's worth of compost, tomato seeds and egg boxes for planting in... and I look forward to the results!

A funny old evening, not sure what I got done but I seemed busy most of the time.

I got up early as I'd arranged to take some compost round to a friend for 9.30, so before breakfast I took the wheelbarrow down the garden and picked up 5 sacks of very old mature and lovely compost and put them in my trailer. Then I had breakfast.

The compost was appreciated, and I should get paid Yorkys for it, but I don't know how many yet... we didn't discuss that. What I did do was to check my friend's CV, as there is a job recently advertised that looks very desirable. I was able to pick up one mistake and make a few suggestions about other things to add or ways to improve the document.

I got back at about 11am, bearing cereals and bread from the Co-op and Thomas the Baker.

At midday, a chap I've met just once through York in Transition, Nick Haines came round, to discuss the Seed Swap which he is officially in charge of. He was pleased that I'd bought the 69 packets of seeds and he reimbursed me the £14. He'll claim that back off YiT once the event has happened. We talked about other aspects of the day, including whether I can do a presentation about how to make seed compost, and whether I can bring some ready-made seed compost to sell, or to give to people and ask for a donation, which is usually what I prefer to do. He agreed to canvas opinions of the other YiT people, and get back to me. He had printed off some colour posters, and we talked about publicity.

I gave him a little tour of the garden and by 1.15 he had gone. After lunch I cycled a poster down to Country Fresh, and picked up two sacks of biodegradables, then on to Alligator, who took two posters and gave me a bag of 3 dead cabbages and some red peppers which had started going off, I then came back home via Freshways who had a polystyrene box of mainly over-ripe bananas to be recycled. They also took a poster.

I then made a load of seed compost. I do a mix of 7 parts old riddled leafmould, 2 parts loam and one part rich garden compost. I prepared this with the big riddle and then the rotasieve, and bagged it up... 10 carrier-bags about half full. If this isn't going to be used at the Seed Swap, I'll either sell it via Country Fresh or just use it myself.

I came in at 7pm and Gill had made a rice-based tea which was lovely. At 8 my good friend Will arrived, as I'd asked him to come and help me interpret my questionnaire for my book, which I really must get on with. I showed him the questionnaire and the data so far, and the bits of the book I've already written. I think with him involved I'll get on a bit better. He is well organised and asked me to give him deadlines to do the various bits. He wants to be paid in Yorkys.

So, a busy day, productive and social. But I'm looking forward to tomorrow even more!

Up early to help keep the peace. And lo it was a peaceful morning!

Once the children were at school Gill and I were able to spend a quiet hour together and then I went out into the garden to gather the riddled compost into carrier bags... I filled 7. I also finished emptying out the Composphere which I should have returned to York Rotters in December (whoops) after testing it. The material within was only partially rotted so I put it on the top of a heap I've just finished filling with fresher stuff. I need to write a review, for York Rotters and for Composphere, so here it is:
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Links to the Composphere:
the manufacturers: Crompton Mouldings
several retailers: Original Organics, Green Rewards, home4eco, Natural Collection, and there are several others. Prices range from £75 to just over £100.

I've had the Composphere since June I think, but had some problems with it falling apart when I rolled it, but eventually the manufacturer sent some replacement bolts which do work, and hold the two halves together well. I filled it quite quickly with garden materials and fruit and veg from the greengrocer. I rolled it now and again, certainly not every day, but maybe once a week, and over the next month added a bit more as the material rotted down. I did notice that the holes in the base were quite small and rested more or less on the grass, and the contents remained quite wet. My view is that it could suffer from poor drainage due to it's design, but this could be improved by careful siting to allow maximum drainage. Over the winter months it was very cold and this would have slowed down the rate of composting, and I rolled it less often due to snow. However, I did still roll it around, and the half-full sphere was quite unwieldy... you need to be strong to roll it, and you need quite a few metres of free space to be able to roll it over more than once, although in a small space, you could swivel it round and continue rotating it in the direction needed to tumble the contents.
Yesterday and today I emptied it, using a medium sized garden fork. This was not that easy, although the aperture was just big enough for the fork I was using, but as I took the partly rotted material out, some got knocked off by the sides of the hole and it was a bit untidy. Some of the material had compacted a bit, the simple rolling motion had not broken apart the clumps and there was stuff in these which hadn't rotted as well as it hadn't received enough oxygen. None of the material was ready to use, and this was to be expected as it is ridiculous to expect to be able to make compost in less than 6 months... especially during cold winter months. I forked the stuff into a garden bucket and put it on one of my working heaps to continue to rot down.

This is a batch composter... it needs to be filled and then rolled regularly with no more additions, as it mixes newer material with older. After a couple of months with no new additions and regular rolling, it can be emptied and the material placed for maturation. I would regard this as a bit of a gimmick, a 'fun composter' for enthusiastic and strong gardeners with plenty of space. It is not the best tumbler on the market, nor is it rubbish. I give it 5/10. I don't think it will be a 'best seller', but it will be enjoyed by some. It certainly seemed sturdy and fit for purpose. I wouldn't mind having one to add to my collection.
John Cossham, March 2010
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I will send links to this review to York Rotters and Crompton Mouldings.

Anyway, I loaded my trailer up with the seven bags of riddled compost (which is 2 to 3 years old, but recently riddled) and the now empty Composphere. After lunch, at about 2pm, I cycled off to St Nicks to return the sphere to York Rotters for someone else to trial.

I had a chat with John, who is uncomfortable with my writing about the meeting we had on 22nd Feb, which he thought ought to have been confidential, as it concerned the complaints made about my over-enthusiastic and possibly unprofessional behaviour at last Novmber's Big Green Market, and my subsequent suspension as a York Rotter. However, no-one suggested that it should be confidential, and actually, I don't think that there was anything in the meeting which needed to be kept confidential. I don't mind anybody knowing about what I'm going through, and none of the complainants are named (I don't know who they are either!). Indeed, I think the process is quite positive, and I'm pleased at how the issues are being dealt with, despite being annoyed by the complaints in the first place.

For me, confidentiality is about protecting someone, something, or other information, and preventing that information going public. I cannot see anything in this process which needs protecting, but John asked me to look at my blog and consider removing anything which I thought might be upsetting to anybody or that could get taken out without detracting from the fact that it is my diary, and it's a meeting about me and my role in the organisation.

Later during the evening Edward rang up and we discussed openness, honesty and related subjects, and he agreed the world would be a better place if more people were honest and open, but that the reality of the situation was that many people cannot cope with it, and were in some instances frightened. I told Edward that to try to help the situation, I would remove any things that I thought were the most likely to be causing an upset. I could only find one. So that is now blanked out.

After dropping off the Composphere, I went down to town to see if I could give back a cinema ticket which I will not now be able to use (City Screen gave me my money back!) and then doubled back on myself to Country Fresh, where Rich was happy to have the bags of fresh compost. I picked up one large sack and two boxes of fruit and veg, and also two sacks from Freshways.

After a brief sit down with a coffee, I spent another hour in the garden... lovely and peaceful.

However, later on I felt a bit low as I have some paperwork and admin to do which I need to make time for and it's difficult to find the time and enthusiasm to do this.

A really lovely lazy morning. Which extended into the afternoon and I didn't get out of the house until 3pm. Richard from Country Fresh rang and said that someone had just bought the last 3 bags of compost which were left over from last season, and could he have some more. So I got 4 carriers full from down the garden and cycled them down to Richard. I got eggs and butternut squash, plus several boxes and bags of compostables. Called in on Freshways on the way back for another two sacks full.

These were taken down the garden and then I built a bit of logpile outside the front door, before it got too dark to continue.

Gill had used the tomato soup as a base to cook some other vegetables in, and on top had placed a slab of scone mix to make a 'Cobbler' which was very tasty and delicious.

I had a lot to do on the computer during the evening, a campaign wanted to use a story I had about a friend, but I had to contact the friend's relatives to check if it was OK to use the story... and it wasn't. So quite a bit of email traffic to and fro.

So, a fairly comfortable night but I have to say I'm very fond of my own bed! Very comfy mattress, and a nice cold wall to snuggle up against. I get so hot in most beds. This bed had no wall to go up against, thus I got too warm.

We got going fairly early and L took me to the bus station and I went on to the train station, where there was supposed to be a train to Scarborough at 10.44 or thereabouts, so as I had a 30+ minute wait, I sat in the waiting room and read NewScientist and who should walk in but Carolyn, from yesterday. She told me her daughter had rung up saying they'd had a difficult night and could she come back over to Leeds to help out! How lucky is her daughter to have a parent who can help with child-rearing! So we chatted and the journey went very quickly because of that, despite the train crawling along for quite a bit of the way, and arriving in York 40 minutes late.

I stopped off at Cycle Heaven as my back wheel and trailer attachment was misbehaving, and the magic touch was applied and it's back to normal again. I got in soon after 2pm.

After I had lunch I went to school to pick up our youngest... he got a lift back with a friend and I got back home well in advance of them. Bikes are faster than cars in York.

I visited Freshways and Country Fresh to stock up on recyclables (!) and got yet more bananas, and a load of garlic which I think I'll be able to pickle.

I spent a long time in the evening dealing with a large untidy pile of emails, including some interesting developments at The Earth Centre. Some developers have plans for it and are holding a couple of open days, the first on 9th Feb. I've emailed the group holding the open days, RTTG, and asked if I can attend. Their plans are to redevelop the site with 'intelligent sustainability' at it's heart, and crucially, for the locals especially, aim to have the site with open access and no entry charge.

A relaxed evening...

A good day, relaxed but seemed to get a lot done. Gill rang me from town and woke me up (!) so I got up and made up the stove and did some woodpile building out at the front.. keeping warm is the priority at the moment!

But when Gill came home, she realised that our eldest had left something at home that he should have had at school, so I cycled it in... only to be told that they were finishing at 1.25 and he wouldn't need it.

So I went down to Country Fresh and then Freshways, and came back with an ENORMOUS load of compostables... just as soon as the snow goes, I'll have to make a new pallet heap for all these sacks and boxes of stuff, which are currently just frozen solid awaiting 'disposal'.

The boys were very excited and hyper as Gill has bought tickets for Avatar tomorrow.

I helped Gill make tea, roast potatoes and nutloaf and broccoli/cauliflower... simple and delicious.

I jarred up more bananas and later put 61 fresh ones on the stove drying racks.

A good day.

A mixed day... peaceful morning but later I was only too happy to go out to leave things to calm down, as my existence just seemed to cause problems.

As pre-arranged with Helen, I cycled round with several bunches of bananas which it seems she's a bit of a fan of, and I spent a couple of peaceful hours chatting and drinking coffee. Her housemate came in and it was good to meet him, and I cycled back in the snow. Bumped into Graham and chatted with him for a short while, and then back home via Freshways.

And my going out had worked... all was back to normal and smiles all round! Great!

Gill and I watched a film about Margot Fonteyn which was quite relaxing too. I had a wonderful hot bath with both cans off the stove, trimmed my beard and washed my hair... very nice!

A better day, mood wise, and after lunch was able to get out and visit Country Fresh for two sacks of compostables and then to Freshways who also had done a clear out and had frost-damaged cucumbers for me (two boxes) and 2 sacks of mixed stuff. They also invited me to take two boxes of bananas which are darkened by the cold, but the fruit itself is perfect within. I hadn't got room on my trailer.

Then to the Co-op to do general shopping and had a nice chat with Maria. They had no soya milk in the fresh milk section. (We're just out of it; need to do another SUMA order) Came home and Gill asked me if they'd got any long life soya milk, so I cycled back and yes, they did have, so I bought three different types to see which one (if any) we like!

Then on to Freshways again and they gave me the frost-tinged bananas... so many! What am I going to do with them? I haven't space to dry them all, and the racks are full of kiwis! I put a message on facebook and considered freecycle. I cycled round to Bob's but he wasn't there, although one of his housemates was, and he took two bunches. Deb took two as well, but I'm still left with two big boxes worth, probably 100 hands between them. I ought to rig up some racks hanging off the crockery shelf which goes all around the room.

The Facebook message got several results... I'll be able to offload quite a few and I got literally dozens of recipes and ideas about how to use them.

A lovely evening... had a real game of Scrabble with Gill and listened to Sting on the telly playing some nice tunes from Newcastle and the North East, peeled bananas to dry on the stove and shelled pumpkin seeds, these still from 2008! I wish I could find a little 'kitchen sized' hand-operated pumpkin seed cleaner, which removes the crunchy outer shell and leaves the succulent seed in the middle. I'm currently doing them by hand. I looked on Google for these machines and all of them are kitchen sized... literally, as big as a room!

So, a good day. Thankfully!

Both the children slept downstairs because of the coldness of the house, so I don't know what time they woke up as it didn't disturb me! I woke slowly at 9.30 and came down and both were happily ensconced on the computer, and didn't open their presents til after 10am. I was pleased to get a NewScientist book 'How to Fossilise Your Hamster' and a relative had given me a bottle of red wine... as usual... and I don't drink red wine, hardly ever. I do use it in cooking though...

An hour later I was getting ready to go to work down at the Novotel, just an hour or two of Professor Fiddlesticks, no Father Christmas this year, due to a mistake by the hotel, it seems.

I cycled down in costume, and was immediately surrounded by people gathering for their Xmas lunch, happy to be entertained. I did some circus workshops and balloon modelling... and met the 'impostor', a nice young chap called Andrew who did some close-up magic. He told me he'd never done Father Christmas before; I wished him the best of luck!

So I did a continuous stint from 11.45 til 2pm... had a lovely, fun but full-on time. I came back via Freshways, who open every day... as they are Muslim, they open on Christmas day too, as it's not a holiday for them. I bought batteries for our youngest who has had a K-NEX present which has a motor... but no batteries. They gave me a box of unsold mini-aubergines, which look very much like they'll make a good meal tomorrow, a moussaka probably.

I got changed and watched The Queen's Speech before going into the garden and sorting some of the accumulated compostables into several of my 'dalek' bins. I got very cold, and when it got too dark to do more compost heap building, I took some dry logs to the front of the house so I can start to rebuild the severely depleted front-door logpile tomorrow.

So, warmed up, helped Gill in the kitchen, watched a few minutes of Happy Feet which our youngest was enjoying, and then 'The Gruffalo' which is a book I don't know but I enjoyed the TV version!

We got a phone call from my little brother who is coming over from Sheffield tomorrow with his family, and we had to decide whether to meet up in town and eat out, or to come here and have food at home. Neither of our boys fancied going into town so we rang back and said to come here. So then Gill and I got busy making chunky vegetable soup...

I also sorted out a large pile of pears, definitely in a state where they couldn't be sold, but I tidied them up and got them drying on the stove!

Gill woke me at 9.30 and asked me if I'd switched off the boiler last night as it wasn't working this morning. I told her that I'd put the thermostat down to 20 degrees last thing, but the central heating was still working when I came to bed. The pilot light had gone out and I couldn't work out how to relight it; there were no instructions or obvious places where to put a match or to press an ignition knob...

Anyway, we had to leave today so we stripped the beds, packed our bags, emptied the fridge, repacked our bags, worried about the time and whether the bus was going to get through today, worried about whether the pipes would freeze if the heating remained off, but got out of the house for 11.20, as Gill had looked at the bus timetable and told me that the buses were at 22 minutes past the hour. But the bus timetable at the bus stop said 52 minutes past the hour... so we waited. And waited... and the bus came on time! We got to Scarborough at the right time, 12.30, and were on the 12.47 train home and enjoyed sandwiches for lunch.

Back in York there wasn't more than 15 minutes to wait for the number 10 bus back to very close to our front door. The house was freezing! I lit both stoves and Gill went back into town to try to find some bits and bobs for the boys' Christmas presents.

I left the boys in the house, happy to be back on the computer, and went to Country Fresh to get some veg for Christmas meals and pick up the compostables before the three-day-weekend-closure. I decided to pop in to the Novotel, where I've worked for the past 5 or so Christmases, to check that all was OK for tomorrow. My agent had booked me for this in early spring, and as it was a repeat booking, I had expected it to go very smoothly. BUT... I'm so glad I went to say hello. The new manager told me that I wasn't booked and they had got another entertainer. But I knew that I had a contract with my agent. So I said that I would ring him and get back to the hotel... the manager said would I like to ring from the hotel. My agent wasn't at home, so I rang his mobile. He had just arrived at his son's house and was settling down to a glass of sherry. I explained the situation to him and he asked to speak to the manager. Ten minutes later, the manager appeared again and passed me a mobile phone and said that my agent wanted to speak to me. He asked if I could remember how much I was due to get paid for the gig tomorrow... and of course I remembered as it's one of the best paying gigs of the year. I passed the phone back to the manager, and a few minutes later, the phone came back to me and my agent asked me if I would be prepared to do a reduced gig tomorrow for reduced money? I felt that if I tried to hold out for my full employ, that might cause difficulties and might jeopardise future work at this hotel. So I agreed a short Fiddlesticks slot with no Father Christmas appearance for a very average fee, less than half of what I had agreed to for doing the full entertainment. The other entertainer would do some magic and do the Father Christmas stuff.

So, not very happy, despite not having to do Father Christmas which I don't enjoy doing. In retrospect, I wonder if I should have said that I wanted to do the work I was contracted to do and demanded my full fee? Not an easy decision to make.

I cycled back via Freshways who were glad to see me and were generous with their unsold limp herbs and over-ripe bananas.

The boys hadn't noticed I'd been away for an hour (!) and when Gill rang from town, she asked if I'd go to the Co-op to get some basics like cereal, milk, pasta and the like. I had put my bike away so I walked down, got a good pile of stuff and on the way back, the bus drew up and Gill got off, gave me a lovely kiss and we walked back together. We are just a great team!

We had a shop pizza for tea, with broccoli, and continued to keep the stoves going to try to warm the place up. A relatively calm evening.