Quite an early start, as taking our youngest into school at 8.30ish... cycling in was really cold but no ice on the roads, fortunately.
Had a busy morning.. lots of paperwork to do and admin which hasn't got done whilst the boys have been at home over the holidays. So registered to do my tax online and a variety of other things, including jarring up dried fruit. But also played some Scrabble on Facebook! Gill went for lunch in town with Alison and Melody.
Kept the stove going all day and toasted crumpets for lunch, well, part of lunch. The day went oh so quickly... and before I knew it, 3pm and time to cycle down to school again and pick up out little 'un. The Green Thumbs assembly about the Blue Peter Mission Nutrition Bring and Buy Sale is on Friday so chatted with Julia about when this is going to be practiced. fortunately I don't need to be there... just to attend the assembly.
I did a little bit of logpile management and came in to have tea... spaghetti and tomato/broccoli topping, all done on the woodstove.
Then off out to the Tang Hall Community Centre to facilitate the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel meeting... dealt with just two applications but it was good to be with Andrew and Stephen who are both more knowledgeable than me about planning matters. Carolyn didn't turn up... I rang her when I got back and she'd fallen asleep and missed the meeting. She was glad I'd checked on her, as she's usually very reliable and knew that if she'd fallen or something, I'd be able to alert someone or do something... although thinking about it, not sure what.
This meeting took an hour and I came home via the cycle track to pick up sticks for kindling and logpiles.
Boys finished a game of Yu-Gi-Oh and went to bed. I typed up minutes from last night's LETS meeting and sent them off.
Showing posts with label Green Thumb Gang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green Thumb Gang. Show all posts
I took the boys to school and when the children were all in school I turned all 3 compost bins, putting the oldest material in sacks for maturing, the next oldest in the third bin and the recently interred material in the second bin, leaving the first nearly empty for refilling.
Came home for just after 10 and did some stuff around the house before lunch, including getting a message from Green Thumbs Julia saying she is unwell and is not at school, and could I head-up this afternoon's gardening club, and she gave me a list of things to do, well, suggestions! After lunch I sorted out some planting media as one of the things suggested was to plant some more seeds. However when, after school, I facilitated gardening club, we did things like weeding the large pots of veg we planted 3 weeks ago, and digging over some borders, adding rich garden compost and planting some of the veg in which we potted up 2 weeks ago... Someone found a 1906 penny, someone else found a tiny air-gun pellet, and another person found a sheep's molar tooth... We also found worms, a ladybird larva and a beetle. We all had a good time.
I tidied up and got home by 4.45, in time to have some pasta and get my bike ready and my eldest son's bike ready to cycle to the other side of town to attend the briefing meeting of the 'Gifted and Talented Summer School' to which he's been invited. We set off at 5.10 and got to Manor school at 5.40, just half an hour, not bad. Better than the bus, much better. It was a good meeting and my lad is keen to explore Mathematics further as his main topic, so let's hope it isn't too oversubscribed and he loses out in a lottery, which was suggested as a fair way to choose people if there's more applicants than spaces. A good cycle home, took less than half an hour as there's more downhill on the way back! Seems like it, anyway.
I had half an hour in the garden putting a load of stuff in one of my tumblers, before coming in and watching the first part of Big Brother 9 on Channel 4... which Gill and I both enjoyed, and I did washing up followed by a lot of peeling, coring and slicing apples for drying.
Some good late-night chat with K on Skype, getting easier after some differences of opinion and fallings out, but we both want to remain on good terms so both working at it.
Came home for just after 10 and did some stuff around the house before lunch, including getting a message from Green Thumbs Julia saying she is unwell and is not at school, and could I head-up this afternoon's gardening club, and she gave me a list of things to do, well, suggestions! After lunch I sorted out some planting media as one of the things suggested was to plant some more seeds. However when, after school, I facilitated gardening club, we did things like weeding the large pots of veg we planted 3 weeks ago, and digging over some borders, adding rich garden compost and planting some of the veg in which we potted up 2 weeks ago... Someone found a 1906 penny, someone else found a tiny air-gun pellet, and another person found a sheep's molar tooth... We also found worms, a ladybird larva and a beetle. We all had a good time.
I tidied up and got home by 4.45, in time to have some pasta and get my bike ready and my eldest son's bike ready to cycle to the other side of town to attend the briefing meeting of the 'Gifted and Talented Summer School' to which he's been invited. We set off at 5.10 and got to Manor school at 5.40, just half an hour, not bad. Better than the bus, much better. It was a good meeting and my lad is keen to explore Mathematics further as his main topic, so let's hope it isn't too oversubscribed and he loses out in a lottery, which was suggested as a fair way to choose people if there's more applicants than spaces. A good cycle home, took less than half an hour as there's more downhill on the way back! Seems like it, anyway.
I had half an hour in the garden putting a load of stuff in one of my tumblers, before coming in and watching the first part of Big Brother 9 on Channel 4... which Gill and I both enjoyed, and I did washing up followed by a lot of peeling, coring and slicing apples for drying.
Some good late-night chat with K on Skype, getting easier after some differences of opinion and fallings out, but we both want to remain on good terms so both working at it.
Gill took the boys into school and we were able to have some time together before getting on with stuff around the house... tidying up the back room before my old friend Mark came round for lunch. Was really good to see him, we don't see each other more than two or three times a year but we go back to 1987, as he was my first friend in York and I have clear memories of where and when we met. It was good to catch up with his news over a sandwich.... he's writing a book, a novel loosely based on fact, a kind of adventure book for 8 to 11 year-olds... sounds great!
After he went I had to sort out some seed compost for this afternoon's Green Thumb Gang first meeting, where we are planting some seeds.
Gill went to school first to pick up the boys and I went down 10 mins later to get ready for the gardening club. This met at 3.30 and was a great success, good teamwork, enthusiastic children and lots of seeds planted! Fun was had, learning happened, and I was able to pick up some recently cut softwood logs on the way home....
A quiet and happy evening, although one child adamantly refused to do some homework, so we just let it go and he'll have to deal with it himself.
Wrote a couple of letters in the evening, whilst watching Question Time on telly.
After he went I had to sort out some seed compost for this afternoon's Green Thumb Gang first meeting, where we are planting some seeds.
Gill went to school first to pick up the boys and I went down 10 mins later to get ready for the gardening club. This met at 3.30 and was a great success, good teamwork, enthusiastic children and lots of seeds planted! Fun was had, learning happened, and I was able to pick up some recently cut softwood logs on the way home....
A quiet and happy evening, although one child adamantly refused to do some homework, so we just let it go and he'll have to deal with it himself.
Wrote a couple of letters in the evening, whilst watching Question Time on telly.
A reasonable day... A slow start but at 10ish I got up as at 10.30 was expecting a visit from someone from The Stove Gallery/Pete The Sweep to fit a replacement 'Turbobaffle' which is the part of the stove which makes it smokefree. It sits in the top of the firebox and takes air from an inlet beneath the stove and the air is channeled through a long labyrinth within the baffle which heats the air up. The air then enters the firebox through lots of tiny holes, giving jets of fresh hot air, causing much turbulence and complete combustion, high thermal efficiency and 'smokefree' status. But an expensive bit of kit. The old one had somehow become overheated and had become mis-shapen and wasn't functioning at full whack. Will have to treat it with more respect. I will have to tell Gill NOT to leave the bottom-air open as this makes the stove too hot and can damage the turbobaffle. She often forgets to close it down after opening it up to ignite fresh fuel, and I come in to find it open and her getting on with whatever, having forgotten to close the spinner at the bottom....
So I waited for the stove person and got a phone call saying he'd be late. I split logs and cut sticks. Then the chap came, he was really nice and wrestled with the stove for a long time, eventually putting the turbobaffle in, replaced the rope-seal on the door and was interested to read my latest column, published today in Community Care, on 'Healthy Hobbies'.
Lunch and all too soon it was time to go to school. Gill got the boys, I attended the first AGM of the Green Thumb Gang and we agreed a constitution, all over in half an hour. I whizzed along to St Nicks to attend a sustainability surgery and give composting advice. This was followed by the Hull Road Ward Committee Meeting which was very quick.
Home for tea.
So I waited for the stove person and got a phone call saying he'd be late. I split logs and cut sticks. Then the chap came, he was really nice and wrestled with the stove for a long time, eventually putting the turbobaffle in, replaced the rope-seal on the door and was interested to read my latest column, published today in Community Care, on 'Healthy Hobbies'.
Lunch and all too soon it was time to go to school. Gill got the boys, I attended the first AGM of the Green Thumb Gang and we agreed a constitution, all over in half an hour. I whizzed along to St Nicks to attend a sustainability surgery and give composting advice. This was followed by the Hull Road Ward Committee Meeting which was very quick.
Home for tea.
