Human Lifestyle

Woke fairly early with headache which lasted all day, despite medication.

Spent the morning doing stuff in the house, including replying to my agent (which I later hand-delivered).

I went to buy bread and got a good 'yesterbake' deal from Thomas the Baker on Tang Hall Lane.  I chatted with the guy who delivers the unsold bread and rolls etc to this shop, where it's sold for half price and two for one, so effectively quarter price.  Anything still unsold after this goes to a dog biscuit manufacturer in Doncaster, I think he said.

On the way back I said hello to Jamie, who had 'news' for me... a tree had blown over in his garden overnight and he was busy chopping it up for me to take away!  He also showed me his petrol chainsaw which he is thinking of selling; he showed me how it worked, which it did first time.... but then it refused to start again. 

After lunch a BT Openreach van drew up and our next door neighbour explained that the cherry tree in our front garden had swayed around so much in the wind that it had pulled his phone line out, as the lines to his house and ours go through the tree's top branches.  The good thing is that since the tree is ours, and the damage to our neighbour's line, he doesn't get charged for the repair.  BUT if our wire comes off due to our tree, we'd get a large bill for the repair.  So I got my big stepladder which reaches up to 9 metres, and spent over an hour carefully lopping back quite a few branches so there were none brushing up against either of the wires.  Then I spent more time pruning these branches down into stove-length sticks and shreddable twigs.  The smaller sticks went into a paper potato sack where they'll sit for a year or more to dry off.

I collected our youngest son, taking his bike down on my trailer, via my agent's house which is near the Steiner School.

In the evening I cycled to the York Open Studios event at Bar Lane Studios. My good friend Jonathan, who is the artist Dexter, was showing his work, as were dozens of other people..... I met loads of my friends and really enjoyed myself.

Came home via Freshways and brought back a trailer full of compostable goodies. 

Aiming for another early night, as feeling ropey.

Woken by the phone and it was Richard, David's cousin, saying David's scan earlier this week had revealed something not too good, and he was therefore in hospital.  And therefore don't come at 4pm to work for David.  I may get time to go and see him in hospital in the next few days.

At about 11 I set off for the Steiner School for the financial interview for next year's fees.  As we only submitted our info a few weeks ago, the info hasn't changed and so our contribution is the same. 

I came back via the log pile just off Fulford Road.  I've found out the land belongs to the MoD and therefore they don't want the logs.  The treesurgeon took most of them, but because I spoke to them, they've left some for me.  So I came back with a very well loaded trailer, and did a bit of splitting and stacking, and later some chainsawing too.

I also did some cooking; I prepared some leeks and potatoes and an onion and stick of celery, and made a leek and potato soup which Gill and I had for tea.

At lunchtime I got confirmation that I'll be able to see Colin and Lucy next Wednesday after the Wipe Out Waste event, so in the afternoon I went to town to get my return ticket from Weston Super Mare to York.  I called in to Cycle Heaven as my front sprocket (chain wheel) is wearing down, which is why it's been jumping when I've pushed hard on it.  Also, my brakes are really not up to the job, and I find them very difficult to tighten.  So Ash tightened my brakes and said he'd order a stainless steel sprocket and replace the brakes with much better ones.  That'll be done next week when I'm in London.

I cycled on to the station and then on to Millers Yard and along the cycle track to home.

I popped round to collect more wood off Jamie, and met his wife Bernie. 

The leek and potato soup was lovely, had it with a couple of mini pitta breads warmed on a sheet of aluminium foil on top of the stove.

Gill and I had a game of Scrabble and I chopped up red peppers and put them for drying.  More yummy sweet paprika on the way....

A good day, busy busy busy....

I wondered if I was going to go to Edwina's but I got a message first thing saying she'd be at home tomorrow, not today, so that meant I had a free day... more or less! 

Gill took our youngest into school by bike, and I waited in for the Suma order to be delivered.  I lit the stove so our eldest could have a bath and hair cut.  I washed up and stacked some wood, visited Jamie and collected another 4 sacks of smoke-free 'Homefire' coal which he wanted me to have.  I initially refused, when he asked about the logpile, saying that I didn't burn coal, so he said he'd take it down to the boat moorings and see if he could sell it there.  But when I saw him yesterday, he asked me if I had a fundamental objection to using coal, and I ummed and erred... he said that he really didn't want to drive it down to the moorings to see if he could flog it, and he'd much rather I had it, 10 sacks for £10.  Well at that price, and with that story, I couldn't refuse.  I do have one sack already, which was rescued from a skip several years ago, and I just haven't got round to using it.  Anyway, this long-lasting coal will supplement the wood, and I'll use it when it's very cold, and to keep the stove going overnight (which I can do with wood anyway!).

I helped do the lugging around of the Suma delivery.  Later, Marian came to pick up her single item, and look at my usable wood collection in the garage; she picked 2 pieces which she'll be able to use.

After lunch I went down to the Steiner School with pliers, wire, screws, Maurice's rawplugs and masonry drills, and some paperwork for the school, and using his battery-driven drill, I made 2 holes in the wall behind where the new compost bin is, to attach it to the wall, so that if/when a Steinery child climbs on the pallets, they don't come away from the wall and fall on the kid.  I hope!  I sorted a bit of roughage into the base prior to dealing with the assorted dalek bins which need wire netting putting underneath... so yes, their contents will be put in layers in the new bin, with the very woody material overflowing from the school's New Zealand bins.

At 3.30 I cycled home with our youngest. We passed a ripe skip and I asked the builder about the piles of wood in it; he was happy for me to have that, so I went back and filled up my trailer twice with lots of planks and dismantled pallets.

I had an early tea, rice-based, and got ready for work.  I had a booking for St Chad's Scouts group from 7.15 til 9pm.  I did a quick show and then there was 50 minutes for free-play workshops.  This all went well.  I'll be doing another session either in a week or 3 weeks, depending on what Tracey Smith comes back to me with about a possible gig next week.

So a good day.... apart from the disturbing news of mass homelessness, thousands killed and now the radiation leaks in Japan.  Very sad, shocking.