Up early as Ali's daughter had to go to school and I was sleeping in the living room, and Ali's PA arrived at 7.30am to get the little girl up. So I woke to CBBC.
But Ali and I had to get going quite early too. We had our first PA/Carer and Playworker interview to conduct at 9.45, at the Friends Meeting House in the centre of Sheffield. One of her existing PAs came with us and we divided up the questions between us.
We interviewed 3 applicants before lunch and went to Blue Moon to eat. We had a fourth after lunch. Four really good and different applicants, all of them able to be offered work under Ali's Direct Payments scheme. This means she and her daughter (who also has care needs) are assessed and allocated a budget which they can spend on care more or less how they want. But this also means that Ali is responsible for advertising for and recruiting carers, and today was the end of the latest round of that process.
So it was a fruitful day and I came home tired but happy that Ali had got more carers, and her daughter has a playworker who will help her with her needs. I was happy with a cheque for the hours I'd worked. And some logs from the journey home.
And then in the evening I had a good chat with a friend using the new Googletalk voice messaging service, which is a bit like Skype, but perhaps not quite as good quality sound.
Showing posts with label Friends Meeting House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends Meeting House. Show all posts
Got up before 9am and got going after breakfast and email/facebook session... but then had to concentrate on the forthcoming election, as I have to get papers in as soon as possible. So I looked all through the Register of Electors which Andy, my Election Agent had sent me, and found about 25 people whom I either knew or thought that would sign my form saying they were happy for me to stand. This doesn't commit them to voting for me, or voting at all, but it does mean that they shouldn't sign someone else's form!
Over lunch I sorted out some more plums... they don't last long when sitting in a bucket with I don't know how many other plums, and quite a few were well on the way to compost. Sad, but I've been too busy to deal with all of them. But I filled another cake rack with halved and skinned plums, and balanced this over the warm woodstove....
During the afternoon, I popped round to a couple just round the corner, and explained that I wanted to ask them a favour but I wouldn't be at all offended if they said no. They were happy to fill in my form, and then we chatted about politics, lifestyles and all sorts for quite a while. Then I went looking for another two who live close by but neither of them were in.
A bit later I went out on my bike and got the next 7 that I needed (Gill was my proposer, and 10 are needed). This included a lovely old gent of 89 who was very pleased with some company, two Green Party members, a young chap who'd helped with the Green Festival, one of my neighbours and a friend who is politically active but I'm not sure she's a Green voter!
So I was done, all filled in, and this meant that I could take all the forms down to the meeting about the proposed incinerator. My agent said he'd be there towards the end.
The meeting was really interesting but when I got back home I had internet connectivity problems and ended up typing my blog out on Gill's laptop.
Over lunch I sorted out some more plums... they don't last long when sitting in a bucket with I don't know how many other plums, and quite a few were well on the way to compost. Sad, but I've been too busy to deal with all of them. But I filled another cake rack with halved and skinned plums, and balanced this over the warm woodstove....
During the afternoon, I popped round to a couple just round the corner, and explained that I wanted to ask them a favour but I wouldn't be at all offended if they said no. They were happy to fill in my form, and then we chatted about politics, lifestyles and all sorts for quite a while. Then I went looking for another two who live close by but neither of them were in.
A bit later I went out on my bike and got the next 7 that I needed (Gill was my proposer, and 10 are needed). This included a lovely old gent of 89 who was very pleased with some company, two Green Party members, a young chap who'd helped with the Green Festival, one of my neighbours and a friend who is politically active but I'm not sure she's a Green voter!
So I was done, all filled in, and this meant that I could take all the forms down to the meeting about the proposed incinerator. My agent said he'd be there towards the end.
The meeting was really interesting but when I got back home I had internet connectivity problems and ended up typing my blog out on Gill's laptop.
I got up before I needed to... the phone rang and I wondered if it was for me, and I came down to sleepily 'be there' which seems to be a good thing when the boys are getting ready for school. Just being around is a calming influence. If I say anything or interact, this is not the case, so I've learned to just 'be'. I've often said that I'm not very good at being and am much better at doing. But in this case, the doing is to just be, if that makes sense.
Anyway, at 10ish, Katalin arrived. She contacted me first before last year's York Green Festival and wanted to take photos of the event, and she did just that, recording the festival. She has a website coming soon... I look forward to seeing it! We had a cuppa and chat with Gill... and then a slow wander down the garden. She loved lots of what she saw, she was perhaps the most enthusiastic visitor I've had for some while! So she took pictures of wormeries, compost, flowers, untidy bits, me, and I don't know what else... I'll have to wait and see!
She left at about 1pm and I washed up and had lunch. In the afternoon I planted some more seeds, different sorts of climbing French beans from the YiT seed swap.
At about 4pm I bombed down to town to deliver a letter and came back via Country Fresh and Freshways. I spent a bit of time starting a new compost heap in the rain, in the metal sided bin, with the basal layers being lots of shredded hedge. Gill made a simple pasta, carrot, mushroom, asparagus, home grown purple sprouting broccoli mix, with a slice of freshly baked home made bread. This was delicious, as usual.
Then I went to town again to attend the FoE 'environment' hustings... the environment has hardly been mentioned in this pre-election run-up, so it was good to go to a meeting with all four main candidates in York Central, down at the Friends Meeting House, and hear what they had to say.
They all agreed that the most pressing environmental issue is that of climate change. All candidates said their parties would deal with it. I was quite impressed with Susan Wade Weeks the Tory, who describes herself as 'the greenest Conservative that you'll ever meet', and I really like the independent approach of Christian Vassie, the Lib Dem City Councillor and City of York 'Energy Champion'. The Green Party's Andy Chase was reasonable, and Hugh Bayley was his usual experienced and professional self. Four people who all care and think they could be the MP for York. My guess is that Bayley has such a big majority that he'll be almost impossible to dislodge, but I would love Vassie to get it. If it was a close-run thing between Bayley and Vassie, I'd vote tactically and vote Lib Dem, but I think I'll vote with my heart and vote Green. Although the Tory seems a nice person, and pretty green in some ways, I don't like all of their policies and don't trust them.
I enjoyed this hustings a lot, despite Hugh Bayley calling me 'Stephen' when he answered my question on how we can reduce the amount of meat consumed. I'd have thought he would remember my name by now; we've been communicating for many many years and have met on dog-knows how many occasions. I forgive him, he meets LOADS of people, and at least he tried! But he won't get my vote.... he didn't have a good answer to my question!
I chatted to a few of my friends afterwards and cycled home via a pile of pallets which loaded themselves onto my trailer and followed me home!
Anyway, at 10ish, Katalin arrived. She contacted me first before last year's York Green Festival and wanted to take photos of the event, and she did just that, recording the festival. She has a website coming soon... I look forward to seeing it! We had a cuppa and chat with Gill... and then a slow wander down the garden. She loved lots of what she saw, she was perhaps the most enthusiastic visitor I've had for some while! So she took pictures of wormeries, compost, flowers, untidy bits, me, and I don't know what else... I'll have to wait and see!
She left at about 1pm and I washed up and had lunch. In the afternoon I planted some more seeds, different sorts of climbing French beans from the YiT seed swap.
At about 4pm I bombed down to town to deliver a letter and came back via Country Fresh and Freshways. I spent a bit of time starting a new compost heap in the rain, in the metal sided bin, with the basal layers being lots of shredded hedge. Gill made a simple pasta, carrot, mushroom, asparagus, home grown purple sprouting broccoli mix, with a slice of freshly baked home made bread. This was delicious, as usual.
Then I went to town again to attend the FoE 'environment' hustings... the environment has hardly been mentioned in this pre-election run-up, so it was good to go to a meeting with all four main candidates in York Central, down at the Friends Meeting House, and hear what they had to say.
They all agreed that the most pressing environmental issue is that of climate change. All candidates said their parties would deal with it. I was quite impressed with Susan Wade Weeks the Tory, who describes herself as 'the greenest Conservative that you'll ever meet', and I really like the independent approach of Christian Vassie, the Lib Dem City Councillor and City of York 'Energy Champion'. The Green Party's Andy Chase was reasonable, and Hugh Bayley was his usual experienced and professional self. Four people who all care and think they could be the MP for York. My guess is that Bayley has such a big majority that he'll be almost impossible to dislodge, but I would love Vassie to get it. If it was a close-run thing between Bayley and Vassie, I'd vote tactically and vote Lib Dem, but I think I'll vote with my heart and vote Green. Although the Tory seems a nice person, and pretty green in some ways, I don't like all of their policies and don't trust them.
I enjoyed this hustings a lot, despite Hugh Bayley calling me 'Stephen' when he answered my question on how we can reduce the amount of meat consumed. I'd have thought he would remember my name by now; we've been communicating for many many years and have met on dog-knows how many occasions. I forgive him, he meets LOADS of people, and at least he tried! But he won't get my vote.... he didn't have a good answer to my question!
I chatted to a few of my friends afterwards and cycled home via a pile of pallets which loaded themselves onto my trailer and followed me home!
Gill took our youngest into school on foot, as it had snowed last night.
I was up and about by the time she got back, and we had a reasonably relaxing morning doing stuff around the house.
Got a message from my friend Gary Haq, who works at the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York, telling me about his new blog http://garyhaq.wordpress.com/ which I think is very good. He's very knowledgeable and has contributed to lots of studies, and published lots of stuff. It's about 'Human Ecology', which is something I sometimes list as one of my interests, so it's good to read about Gary's take on what's going on.
Gill went to town to buy train tickets for a trip to Birmingham next week, half term, she's taking the boys to meet friends and visit a science centre called Think Tank, which looks really good.
I processed quite a large pile of logs... chainsawing and splitting, to replace the various stacks of logs which have kept this house warm over the past few cold weeks. The logs I'm preparing now will be ready to use in a year or perhaps two, depending on how well they dry. Different types of wood dries at different rates, and some I store under cover, out of the wet... other logpiles are just raised up off the ground and have air all around them (they might look as if they are stacked against the house, but I leave a gap between the wall and logpile).
Then it was time to go and get or youngest. I gave him a lift back, and he had a friend visit for an hour or two. A peaceful evening.
After a pasta and cauliflower tea, I cycled off down to the Friends Meeting House to go to the York Green Festival meeting. We had no agenda... so I constructed one and chaired the meeting. There were 19 of us there... an excellent turn-out. Several more job-posts got filled, including the music co-ordinator and the event co-ordinator too, which is really good! I feel we're really going somewhere now.
I popped into the Golden Fleece to book a meeting room for a co-ordinators meeting, and there will be another 'public' meeting at St John's College on 9th March.
Home soon after 10, Gill asleep in a chair after a tough evening managing our little darlings.
I was up and about by the time she got back, and we had a reasonably relaxing morning doing stuff around the house.
Got a message from my friend Gary Haq, who works at the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York, telling me about his new blog http://garyhaq.wordpress.com/ which I think is very good. He's very knowledgeable and has contributed to lots of studies, and published lots of stuff. It's about 'Human Ecology', which is something I sometimes list as one of my interests, so it's good to read about Gary's take on what's going on.
Gill went to town to buy train tickets for a trip to Birmingham next week, half term, she's taking the boys to meet friends and visit a science centre called Think Tank, which looks really good.
I processed quite a large pile of logs... chainsawing and splitting, to replace the various stacks of logs which have kept this house warm over the past few cold weeks. The logs I'm preparing now will be ready to use in a year or perhaps two, depending on how well they dry. Different types of wood dries at different rates, and some I store under cover, out of the wet... other logpiles are just raised up off the ground and have air all around them (they might look as if they are stacked against the house, but I leave a gap between the wall and logpile).
Then it was time to go and get or youngest. I gave him a lift back, and he had a friend visit for an hour or two. A peaceful evening.
After a pasta and cauliflower tea, I cycled off down to the Friends Meeting House to go to the York Green Festival meeting. We had no agenda... so I constructed one and chaired the meeting. There were 19 of us there... an excellent turn-out. Several more job-posts got filled, including the music co-ordinator and the event co-ordinator too, which is really good! I feel we're really going somewhere now.
I popped into the Golden Fleece to book a meeting room for a co-ordinators meeting, and there will be another 'public' meeting at St John's College on 9th March.
Home soon after 10, Gill asleep in a chair after a tough evening managing our little darlings.
The morning was very tough and traumatic.
A peaceful lunchtime, Gill went to bed and I waited for the media students to turn up. They were much later than they'd said they would be but I made good use of the time and they arrived just before 2pm, just in time to discuss the next moves and show them the composting ops in the garden and fruit rescue situation.
I collected our youngest at 3 and the students came back again at 4.
We walked down to Country Fresh, me with my bike, they with filming equipment, to see my pick ups there and interview Shirley, who works there when Richard has his days off. During the conversations/chats, one of the students asked whether my coming in to collect recyclables had made her think differently or do anything different in her life, and she said that now, since seeing my dedication to separate recyclables out of the shop waste, she now recycles at home. This is EXACTLY what I want to happen. I am unable to TELL or FORCE others to create less waste, but by just doing what I do, I show others what is possible and then they are possibly more likely to change their ways as they can see it is the right thing to do. What Shirley said made my day. I had no idea that my voluntary actions had been part of a change in Shirley's behaviour, but I am extremely happy that she now bothers to recycle. Just excellent!
I left the students walking up Heslington Road and cycled off with my two sacks of compostables and found branch, to go to Scummerfield to get milk, cheese and pasta.
Gill made cauliflower cheese and macaroni for tea, very good it was too. I left again at 7ish to go down to the York Green Festival meeting at the Friends Meeting House, where Rand had organised a good agenda... which we didn't follow that closely! However, the media students were able to film some of the proceedings, and the 12 or so YGF volunteers were able to decide the date of the next York Green Festival, 6th September, and most of who does what. It was a very successful meeting, well chaired by Randall... flexibly.... and I think everybody who wanted to contribute was enabled to do so.
We finished at 9.30 and some of us went for a drink in Pivo Bar... a jolly occasion and Martin bought me a second pint which was good. Back home just after 11 where Gill was just finishing helping/encouraging our eldest to finish his homework. They'd had a lovely evening, lots of work had been accomplished and my Sister had 'met' him on the interactive computer game and they'd chatted and got on well. Thank goodness this evening was peaceable!
A peaceful lunchtime, Gill went to bed and I waited for the media students to turn up. They were much later than they'd said they would be but I made good use of the time and they arrived just before 2pm, just in time to discuss the next moves and show them the composting ops in the garden and fruit rescue situation.
I collected our youngest at 3 and the students came back again at 4.
We walked down to Country Fresh, me with my bike, they with filming equipment, to see my pick ups there and interview Shirley, who works there when Richard has his days off. During the conversations/chats, one of the students asked whether my coming in to collect recyclables had made her think differently or do anything different in her life, and she said that now, since seeing my dedication to separate recyclables out of the shop waste, she now recycles at home. This is EXACTLY what I want to happen. I am unable to TELL or FORCE others to create less waste, but by just doing what I do, I show others what is possible and then they are possibly more likely to change their ways as they can see it is the right thing to do. What Shirley said made my day. I had no idea that my voluntary actions had been part of a change in Shirley's behaviour, but I am extremely happy that she now bothers to recycle. Just excellent!
I left the students walking up Heslington Road and cycled off with my two sacks of compostables and found branch, to go to Scummerfield to get milk, cheese and pasta.
Gill made cauliflower cheese and macaroni for tea, very good it was too. I left again at 7ish to go down to the York Green Festival meeting at the Friends Meeting House, where Rand had organised a good agenda... which we didn't follow that closely! However, the media students were able to film some of the proceedings, and the 12 or so YGF volunteers were able to decide the date of the next York Green Festival, 6th September, and most of who does what. It was a very successful meeting, well chaired by Randall... flexibly.... and I think everybody who wanted to contribute was enabled to do so.
We finished at 9.30 and some of us went for a drink in Pivo Bar... a jolly occasion and Martin bought me a second pint which was good. Back home just after 11 where Gill was just finishing helping/encouraging our eldest to finish his homework. They'd had a lovely evening, lots of work had been accomplished and my Sister had 'met' him on the interactive computer game and they'd chatted and got on well. Thank goodness this evening was peaceable!
I took our youngest into school and was told that there was to be a Green Thumbs assembly to show the children the produce as it looked really good and the growers were so proud of it.
However it was going to be at 10.15 so I deliberated whether to go or not. Had a chat with Mrs P the headteacher about a composting message but she said this would complicate the assembly, so no composting message. I decided to do something practical at home instead.
I have recently built a new logpile to the left of the door (looking out) and I was filling the logbasket with logs from the top of the other side's stack, and disturbed a beautiful ichneumon wasp which was just laying an egg deep into the wood, presumably in a woodboring beetle or some other grub. The ovipositor was about the same length of its body and antennae, and it had beautiful reddish yellow legs, could have been Lampronata setosas which parasitises Goat Moths. It withdrew it's ovipositor and proceeded to walk around the log, gently touching the surface with its antennae and putting them into cracks and insect holes, smelling for prey to lay an egg on/in. Gill and I watched it for 10 minutes or so, it was absolutely exquisite! I couldn't now burn this log, as it had an ichneumon egg growing in a grub within... so I decided to put this one with several others under a hedge, as a 'wildlife refuge'. I found a good image on the internet and tried to download it but the resolution was poor... so I emailed the owner of the website, Kim, and he said I could use a better quality image. His site has some fantastic images, well worth a look! see:http://www.warrenphotographic.co.uk/ Thanks to them for this image! This is the first image I've been able to add to my blog, hope readers like it!!!
I had a busy afternoon, several visits including a Rotters visit to a Dutchman wanting advice about his 'dalek', an easy visit. Came home and got together 10 paper bags of dried fruit prizes for the York in Transition Quiz which Anna Semlyen and I have been preparing for. I cycled down to the Friends Meeting House at about 6.30 and when I got there, Anna had just got the room sorted out with five tables, each with 3 chairs, 3 sheets of paper and 3 pens. By 7pm, the advertised start time, we had got 15 bums on 15 seats... how lucky was that? Anna and I read out alternate questions, we had done quite different styles of question and on different 'green' issues. It was really good to hear the discussions on the tables (each table being one team) and the questions obviously caused much thought. I think a green quiz is an excellent way to present 'Transition' information... Anna had got some prizes from The Co-op and I had brought my dried fruit, so everybody got something. Most enjoyable! I can send enquirers a list of my questions (and answers!) if there are other green groups wanting to have a quiz as part of an awareness-raising event.
A less then easy evening followed, as had agreed to have a skype conversation with a friend and we don't see 'eye to eye' with everything. But it is an interesting friendship and I am always 'up for' learning and new experiences...
However it was going to be at 10.15 so I deliberated whether to go or not. Had a chat with Mrs P the headteacher about a composting message but she said this would complicate the assembly, so no composting message. I decided to do something practical at home instead.
I have recently built a new logpile to the left of the door (looking out) and I was filling the logbasket with logs from the top of the other side's stack, and disturbed a beautiful ichneumon wasp which was just laying an egg deep into the wood, presumably in a woodboring beetle or some other grub. The ovipositor was about the same length of its body and antennae, and it had beautiful reddish yellow legs, could have been Lampronata setosas which parasitises Goat Moths. It withdrew it's ovipositor and proceeded to walk around the log, gently touching the surface with its antennae and putting them into cracks and insect holes, smelling for prey to lay an egg on/in. Gill and I watched it for 10 minutes or so, it was absolutely exquisite! I couldn't now burn this log, as it had an ichneumon egg growing in a grub within... so I decided to put this one with several others under a hedge, as a 'wildlife refuge'. I found a good image on the internet and tried to download it but the resolution was poor... so I emailed the owner of the website, Kim, and he said I could use a better quality image. His site has some fantastic images, well worth a look! see:http://www.warrenphotographic.co.uk/ Thanks to them for this image! This is the first image I've been able to add to my blog, hope readers like it!!!
I had a busy afternoon, several visits including a Rotters visit to a Dutchman wanting advice about his 'dalek', an easy visit. Came home and got together 10 paper bags of dried fruit prizes for the York in Transition Quiz which Anna Semlyen and I have been preparing for. I cycled down to the Friends Meeting House at about 6.30 and when I got there, Anna had just got the room sorted out with five tables, each with 3 chairs, 3 sheets of paper and 3 pens. By 7pm, the advertised start time, we had got 15 bums on 15 seats... how lucky was that? Anna and I read out alternate questions, we had done quite different styles of question and on different 'green' issues. It was really good to hear the discussions on the tables (each table being one team) and the questions obviously caused much thought. I think a green quiz is an excellent way to present 'Transition' information... Anna had got some prizes from The Co-op and I had brought my dried fruit, so everybody got something. Most enjoyable! I can send enquirers a list of my questions (and answers!) if there are other green groups wanting to have a quiz as part of an awareness-raising event.
A less then easy evening followed, as had agreed to have a skype conversation with a friend and we don't see 'eye to eye' with everything. But it is an interesting friendship and I am always 'up for' learning and new experiences...
