Up early as I had a busy day ahead... a full day of entertaining at the CTC Rally (the 'York Cycle Show') and then the Fifth York World Naked Bike Ride at 5pm.
So I left in good time, popping in to see Richard at Country Fresh as I haven't said hello to him for a few days, and then along Fulford Road to Hospital Fields Road and down to the Millennium Bridge.
I was pleased to find that the lovely Racecourse people had left Ebor Way open; the covered pathway with nice smooth concrete, which is ideal for teaching/learning unicycling. But before I got started, I visited the volunteer repair stall, which wasn't for repairing volunteers, but for voluntarily repairing bikes and the like.... so I gave them my unicycle which had a slow puncture, and they repaired it! For free! very kind of them... Then I visited the control tent and said hello, letting them know where I was planning to work. So, by 10.20, I was set up in Ebor Way and was soon busy with lots of children, a few teenagers and the occasional adult.
I worked solidly, without a break, until about 2.30 when, for some reason, the Racecourse management decided to shut the gates at the North end of Ebor Way, so that the flow of pedestrian and cycle traffic stopped, reducing the number of people using my services. But, at this time a young female unicyclist, R, whom I've met on several occasions, turned up and had several spins around on one of my unicycles, which was encouraging for other children her age and size (she's now 12) who were trying to learn by using the 3 sets of '4 wheel unicycles' and the one '2 wheel unicycle' thing (pedal go and fun wheels). However, this activity dried up, leaving me just with R, so I decided to decamp for the last hour onto the main field. But it was REALLY cold and much more windy here, and there were hardly any people wanting to try out stuff, so R and I just unicycled around a bit. The lumpy bumpy field wasn't as easy to unicycle around on, and at one stage I fell off and took the scab off my knee, which started to bleed again.... what a nuisance!
However, that last hour came to an end and at 4pm I was able to say bye to my little friend and cycle off into town to join the World Naked Bike Ride participants. I had brought with me a mask, requested by Melanie, 10 bamboos, for the flags, gaffer tape, for fixing bamboos, the megaphone, and my flagpole and flag. I got some of it set up and met up with Janie (ex Spencer Tunick, ex Manchester WNBR) and her son T, who has not ridden a bike very much, and curiously, was dressed as a mobile phone! Then I had to do some announcing, including Councillor Andrew Waller's message to the group, following his being contacted by a few members of the public unhappy with what we had planned to do. Some people are unhappy with public nudity, others about using Memorial Gardens as a starting point, citing 'disrespect'. So, to try to counter this view, I announced that the ride was dedicated to those who had been killed whilst cycling, especially those serving their country, the cyclist regiments and battalions.
Then Jesse Schust did a bit of an announcement; he's been looking after the UK WNBR for a few years and he's standing down, and I believe it is Tony who is going to keep those wheels turning. Then we moved to the start of the ride, which is a car park quite close to the River Ouse, behind a block of flats or apartments. Councillor Dave Taylor was being Dick Turpin for a while, and he launched the ride.
We'd discussed how the ride would be managed and I was asked to do the 'rear guard' and keep at the back of all the riders, so I kept this position all the way. It was a very slow ride, at walking pace for quite a bit of the way.... just as well for one participant who walked and jogged the whole way round with a skateboard under his arm, completely naked apart from shoes!
Our route went over the River Ouse, to the Minster, down Petergate to Church St and Parliament St, then wriggled round to Coppergate and Clifford St, round the oval road which goes past the Castle Museum, over to Tower Gardens, down river to Blue Bridge and onto Millennium Bridge. The other side of this we continued down river as far as the snicket which leads fairly steeply up to Terrys on Bishopthorpe Road. From here we went towards Bishopthorpe and crossed onto the start of the Route 66 cycle path to Selby, to the place where to occasionally used Racecourse Road crosses the cycle path, and where Ruby Milnes was tragically killed in 2008, when a lorry delivering portaloos to the Racecourse collided with her.
So this was the half way point, and we'd planned to have a 15 minute rest here, but it was REALLY cold and windy, so we had a brief stop of about 5 minutes. I did an announcement about the serious message of the ride; our vulnerability as cyclists, and I mentioned Ruby. We had a one minute's silence. After which people were keen to keep going!
I counted the participants here, and there were 97, and two had left the ride at the Millennium Bridge, so the number as far as I'm concerned was 100 on this ride. My CTC Rally friend R turned up here and so I said goodbye to her again. Our route back was along Albermarle Road, The Mount, Blossom St, Micklegate, Coney St and into Museum Gardens where people dismounted to get to the area where we got back into ordinary mode. There was a bit of discussion about the police presence. They had been understaffed due to other things going on, so we had mainly 'PCSOs', and their role was supposed to be 'observers'. However, when a couple of our stewards 'corked' a junction (stopping traffic to allow the riders to go through all in one block, for safety reasons) the PCSOs intervened and tried to prevent our people doing this. But later in the ride, the police behaved more sensibly and on one occasion corked a junction themselves, on The Mount, and then on Mickelgate, told us to stay as a block and ignore the lights which were changing, and if we'd obeyed them we would have been split as a group. We did get split a couple of times and this did not enhance safety. Ideally we need to be treated as a procession or convoy and kept as a group, and my guess is that next year, we'll try to sort this out beforehand.
So, it was a successful event with no accidents or incidents to speak of, no aggression from motorists and I heard no negative comments from members of the public. I was really impressed by Janie and especially her son who are both pretty novice cyclsts and for them, it was a tough ride.
I cycled back with Michael Nugent, our volunteer CRU... cycling response unit, a self employed ambulance bike rider from Essex who is a keen naturist, and I'd offered to give him somewhere to kip for the night. He'd parked outside our house and cycled in with Jesse, whom he'd given a lift to, and he had a wander down the garden, I picked some spinach and Gill added this to some noodles and other veg which we both enjoyed. After this he said hello to the children and then we had an hour in the Beeswing down the road, good chats.
A few more chats and laughs when we got back, and jolly conversations with Gill, but then he was tired and as he had to get up and go at some ridiculous hour, he went to sleep on the futon in the front room.
I wrote my blog. Which I hope gives you a flavour of an unforgettable day. But only if you were out in it would you know how cold it was!
Showing posts with label World Naked Bike Ride. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Naked Bike Ride. Show all posts
Spent the morning getting myself together for going to Manchester.
Got a train after lunch and got a seat, and deleted exactly 100 emails from my inbox.
When I got to Manchester I got a £1.50 streetmap, and then walked along to Canal St to Eazysleep where I'd booked a room, and had an hour's lie down before walking with my unicycle and little rucksack, and extendable telescopic fishing rod with a pink WNBR flag, and got to the park on Oxford Road just as other World Naked Bike Riders were gathering. I had a bite of tea which I'd brought with me, and practised unicycling in a mask which Tony had lent or given me. I decided I couldn't wear the mask as it kept on slipping and making my vision really difficult, and it would make it more likely that I'd fall off. I sorted the flag on the pole and held it on with a safety pin through the eyelet at the end. I decided not to have the pole fully extended as it was too huge. Janie from the Spencer Tunick photo installations showed up to do the ride and it was good to see her again.
Just before we set off I gave out leaflets for the Sheffield and York rides on the 19th, and by this time, there were well over 100 colourful and scantily clad participants. We had quite a lot of police escorts and the Friday evening Manchester public were very appreciative, apart from one Asian family of 4 who all stood with their backs to us as we cycled past. I was careful to lower my flagpole for when we went under the tram power lines, but at all other times I waved it gently to and fro. I got EXTREMELY hot and sweaty as unicycling is very hard work... everybody else was cold!
We ended up back in the same park after an hour; I estimate we cycled about 6 miles. I was exhausted. I met a chap, Ian, who had participated in the Spencer Tunick installation but had been out of the country and hadn't got his invitation to the preview, and as I wasn't able to go, i offered him my ticket.... except I couldn't find it, but I found out later that he went to the Lowry and said that I had an invite and that I couldn't go; they checked my name and let him in instead. Whilst we were walking together, he told me about his carbon calculator which I'll try out in the next couple of days.
I met up with a friend and after that had a relatively early night.
Got a train after lunch and got a seat, and deleted exactly 100 emails from my inbox.
When I got to Manchester I got a £1.50 streetmap, and then walked along to Canal St to Eazysleep where I'd booked a room, and had an hour's lie down before walking with my unicycle and little rucksack, and extendable telescopic fishing rod with a pink WNBR flag, and got to the park on Oxford Road just as other World Naked Bike Riders were gathering. I had a bite of tea which I'd brought with me, and practised unicycling in a mask which Tony had lent or given me. I decided I couldn't wear the mask as it kept on slipping and making my vision really difficult, and it would make it more likely that I'd fall off. I sorted the flag on the pole and held it on with a safety pin through the eyelet at the end. I decided not to have the pole fully extended as it was too huge. Janie from the Spencer Tunick photo installations showed up to do the ride and it was good to see her again.
Just before we set off I gave out leaflets for the Sheffield and York rides on the 19th, and by this time, there were well over 100 colourful and scantily clad participants. We had quite a lot of police escorts and the Friday evening Manchester public were very appreciative, apart from one Asian family of 4 who all stood with their backs to us as we cycled past. I was careful to lower my flagpole for when we went under the tram power lines, but at all other times I waved it gently to and fro. I got EXTREMELY hot and sweaty as unicycling is very hard work... everybody else was cold!
We ended up back in the same park after an hour; I estimate we cycled about 6 miles. I was exhausted. I met a chap, Ian, who had participated in the Spencer Tunick installation but had been out of the country and hadn't got his invitation to the preview, and as I wasn't able to go, i offered him my ticket.... except I couldn't find it, but I found out later that he went to the Lowry and said that I had an invite and that I couldn't go; they checked my name and let him in instead. Whilst we were walking together, he told me about his carbon calculator which I'll try out in the next couple of days.
I met up with a friend and after that had a relatively early night.
Had quite a busy morning, up just after 9 and dealt with a slight hangover by having a large coffee and 2 paracetamol, and a shower.
I needed to be in tip top condition for work... Professor Fiddlesticks had been booked by Anna, the organiser of today's 'Multi Sports Day' near the Fulford end of the Millennium Bridge, which was due to run from 2 til 4pm. So I had an early lunch and got going with my bike trailer full of the usual gear at just after 1pm. I also took a couple of bags of dried apple rings for the LETS stall, and the York World Naked Bike Ride leaflets.
Stuff was already happening when I got there, and I secured a place on the path with my bike propped up against a lamp-post and immediately there were youngsters wanting to have goes on the unicycles. So I was busy for over 2 hours, unicycling and helping people with the 4 wheel unicycle, 2 wheel unicycle and occasionally the one wheeler. Oh, and rewarding people with balloons and doing some unicycle and devilsticking demos.
But it wasn't a perfect day... we had gusts of wind, strong enough to lift up some of the gazebos, rain showers and even a hailstorm, but several nice patches of sunshine. There were at least 100 people there, possibly up to double that, and it seemed that everybody had a good time. I was pleased to see quite a few of my friends, including Tony my WNBR friend who had collected the Yorkshire WNBR leaflet, half of them for Sheffield, half for York, and he'd also got some flags. These will be available on the York Ride, at a slightly discounted rate.
I packed up soon after 4pm as I'd had a phone call just before I'd set out from Randall, who wanted me to help fill in a Risk Assessment for the forthcoming CarFree Network Street Party, and he was due to come round at 5pm. I got in at 4.50, and then got a phone call from Rand saying he'd been moving paving slabs around with his bike trailer and would prefer not to have to cycle from Acomb to Hull Road... so could we do the meeting by Skype?
So we had a 1 hour 45 minute Skype call, filling in the documentation and raising several important questions. At the end of it Gill gave me a bowl of home-made celery soup which was delicious, and then home-made 'stuffed crust' pizza with salads, also delicious. Gill is an awesome cook, and knows it, and loves it. She's always saying how much she likes being a mother and looking after us. We are all damn lucky.
I visited Ben as he had offered a CFL bulb on freecycle which would fit our ceiling light socket in the front room (downlighters) and he also might have a solution to my shaver conundrum. He'd found a large heavy transformer, a box with knobs on which changes mains power to whatever voltage you set the dial at, and analyses whether things are shorting, etc. In return, I'm taking a box of waste metal to the recycling site for him.
Later I did the washing up and sorted through the bananas and set about 30 of them to dry, and left my shaver charging on Ben's machine.
I needed to be in tip top condition for work... Professor Fiddlesticks had been booked by Anna, the organiser of today's 'Multi Sports Day' near the Fulford end of the Millennium Bridge, which was due to run from 2 til 4pm. So I had an early lunch and got going with my bike trailer full of the usual gear at just after 1pm. I also took a couple of bags of dried apple rings for the LETS stall, and the York World Naked Bike Ride leaflets.
Stuff was already happening when I got there, and I secured a place on the path with my bike propped up against a lamp-post and immediately there were youngsters wanting to have goes on the unicycles. So I was busy for over 2 hours, unicycling and helping people with the 4 wheel unicycle, 2 wheel unicycle and occasionally the one wheeler. Oh, and rewarding people with balloons and doing some unicycle and devilsticking demos.
But it wasn't a perfect day... we had gusts of wind, strong enough to lift up some of the gazebos, rain showers and even a hailstorm, but several nice patches of sunshine. There were at least 100 people there, possibly up to double that, and it seemed that everybody had a good time. I was pleased to see quite a few of my friends, including Tony my WNBR friend who had collected the Yorkshire WNBR leaflet, half of them for Sheffield, half for York, and he'd also got some flags. These will be available on the York Ride, at a slightly discounted rate.
I packed up soon after 4pm as I'd had a phone call just before I'd set out from Randall, who wanted me to help fill in a Risk Assessment for the forthcoming CarFree Network Street Party, and he was due to come round at 5pm. I got in at 4.50, and then got a phone call from Rand saying he'd been moving paving slabs around with his bike trailer and would prefer not to have to cycle from Acomb to Hull Road... so could we do the meeting by Skype?
So we had a 1 hour 45 minute Skype call, filling in the documentation and raising several important questions. At the end of it Gill gave me a bowl of home-made celery soup which was delicious, and then home-made 'stuffed crust' pizza with salads, also delicious. Gill is an awesome cook, and knows it, and loves it. She's always saying how much she likes being a mother and looking after us. We are all damn lucky.
I visited Ben as he had offered a CFL bulb on freecycle which would fit our ceiling light socket in the front room (downlighters) and he also might have a solution to my shaver conundrum. He'd found a large heavy transformer, a box with knobs on which changes mains power to whatever voltage you set the dial at, and analyses whether things are shorting, etc. In return, I'm taking a box of waste metal to the recycling site for him.
Later I did the washing up and sorted through the bananas and set about 30 of them to dry, and left my shaver charging on Ben's machine.
A quiet day... spent most of the morning sending photographs to my colleague in Canada, so he can help me decide which ones are suitable for the website, and doing publicity for the Fifth York World Naked Bike Ride. Oh, and washing up!
In the afternoon I planted about 20 sweetcorn plants in the raised bed... I needed to remove the old purple sprouting broccoli plants (which I fed through the shredder), and removed lots of American Land Cress which had self seeded itself all over. I left the self seeded perennial Spinach Beet and the self seeded Rainbow Chard. Then I broke up the hard ground with a fork, and sprinkled a sack of riddled compost all over this, and created a sort of grid of planting holes around the Chard and Spinach. I put a dollop of riddled compost in each of these and dug it into the base of the hole, then popped the sweetcorn into them, and watered them in. I hope we don't have any late frosts!
I did a load of pruning too, a renegade beech hedge, some unruly loganberry which has got to the wrong side of a fence and is making access to a water butt difficult, and I took a low hanging branch off the walnut too. All this was shredded and put in a tumbler with loads of waste fruit and veg stuff.
So, a busy day... too busy to remember that I should have gone to a lecture at the University at 6.30. I remembered at 10pm, too late to do anything about it. Duh me.
In the afternoon I planted about 20 sweetcorn plants in the raised bed... I needed to remove the old purple sprouting broccoli plants (which I fed through the shredder), and removed lots of American Land Cress which had self seeded itself all over. I left the self seeded perennial Spinach Beet and the self seeded Rainbow Chard. Then I broke up the hard ground with a fork, and sprinkled a sack of riddled compost all over this, and created a sort of grid of planting holes around the Chard and Spinach. I put a dollop of riddled compost in each of these and dug it into the base of the hole, then popped the sweetcorn into them, and watered them in. I hope we don't have any late frosts!
I did a load of pruning too, a renegade beech hedge, some unruly loganberry which has got to the wrong side of a fence and is making access to a water butt difficult, and I took a low hanging branch off the walnut too. All this was shredded and put in a tumbler with loads of waste fruit and veg stuff.
So, a busy day... too busy to remember that I should have gone to a lecture at the University at 6.30. I remembered at 10pm, too late to do anything about it. Duh me.
A good visit to York Cemetery today. I'd arranged a visit to John Waterston the Warden at 11am regarding the website which I'm collaborating with. I needed to take some photographs, but needed permission, and I also wanted to talk to him about some of the practices used in this cemetery.
We walked around the large Cemetery, which I know well as Gill and I have a plot booked, and about 20 years ago I planted a few trees on the new section. John told me assorted tales about life as a Cemetery Warden, and his plans, and how he deals with the public, and his employers the Trustees. All very interesting and I'll be able to say more once our website is launched.... not long now!
After the chat I took a few photographs with Gill's little camera, and I hope that my colleague in Canada likes some of them, and then the Warden allows us to use the ones that we want to use. Whilst wandering round, I chatted to a woman who was tending the grave of her parents, and I asked her if I could take a couple of photos, and I got her contact details in order to get permission to use these. Complicated stuff, but probably easier than having to purchase the rights to use images.
After the Cemetery, I called in on Alligator for three small bags of compostables, and then on into town as I needed to purchase a new journal/notebook. I'd been given a £10 WHSmith token over a year ago by one of Gill's sisters, and Gill had found it recently, so that's where I went. There were plain paper notebooks in 3 areas in the shop, and I eventually found one for £7. I queued up to pay for it, and was told that they didn't give change. Oh bother... what to do? I then spent another half hour trying to find something useful for as little over £3 as I could, and found lots of lovely books for around £20, but finally plumped for a tiny book called 101 Grow to Eat Ideas, by Gardeners' World Magazine, for £5. This checkout person told me that I could have put the £3 on a a card to spend later.... but I decided that as I'd spent half an hour trying to find the £5 book, I might as well have it. So, it took me an hour to spend a £10 token and a £2 coin. You can see I'm not very good at shopping.
Home via Country Fresh, where Richard's brother, Martin, who owns the shop, told me a woman had come in and bought all the carrier-bags of compost that I'd taken in... about 6 of them I think, and had given him £15 for the lot. Gill says this is a good price as in the Co-op, you can get an entire grow-bag for £1.15... but methinks this must be peat-based, and my stuff is really rich and needs to be mixed with other less rich soils, or top-dressed on existing growing media. So I was happy with my £15 and Martin asked me to bring in more bags. I'm delighted it's being used!
Home by about 2pm, lunch and some quiet indoor time, before doing a little bit outside.
In the evening I had a meeting at The Black Swan with my two friends from the World Naked Bike Ride.... we discussed publicity and permissions and stewards and many other things. It is all coming together well.
Home by 11pm, lit the stove, hot water for Gill to soak her feet and me to do the washing up, a pretty normal evening.
We walked around the large Cemetery, which I know well as Gill and I have a plot booked, and about 20 years ago I planted a few trees on the new section. John told me assorted tales about life as a Cemetery Warden, and his plans, and how he deals with the public, and his employers the Trustees. All very interesting and I'll be able to say more once our website is launched.... not long now!
After the chat I took a few photographs with Gill's little camera, and I hope that my colleague in Canada likes some of them, and then the Warden allows us to use the ones that we want to use. Whilst wandering round, I chatted to a woman who was tending the grave of her parents, and I asked her if I could take a couple of photos, and I got her contact details in order to get permission to use these. Complicated stuff, but probably easier than having to purchase the rights to use images.
After the Cemetery, I called in on Alligator for three small bags of compostables, and then on into town as I needed to purchase a new journal/notebook. I'd been given a £10 WHSmith token over a year ago by one of Gill's sisters, and Gill had found it recently, so that's where I went. There were plain paper notebooks in 3 areas in the shop, and I eventually found one for £7. I queued up to pay for it, and was told that they didn't give change. Oh bother... what to do? I then spent another half hour trying to find something useful for as little over £3 as I could, and found lots of lovely books for around £20, but finally plumped for a tiny book called 101 Grow to Eat Ideas, by Gardeners' World Magazine, for £5. This checkout person told me that I could have put the £3 on a a card to spend later.... but I decided that as I'd spent half an hour trying to find the £5 book, I might as well have it. So, it took me an hour to spend a £10 token and a £2 coin. You can see I'm not very good at shopping.
Home via Country Fresh, where Richard's brother, Martin, who owns the shop, told me a woman had come in and bought all the carrier-bags of compost that I'd taken in... about 6 of them I think, and had given him £15 for the lot. Gill says this is a good price as in the Co-op, you can get an entire grow-bag for £1.15... but methinks this must be peat-based, and my stuff is really rich and needs to be mixed with other less rich soils, or top-dressed on existing growing media. So I was happy with my £15 and Martin asked me to bring in more bags. I'm delighted it's being used!
Home by about 2pm, lunch and some quiet indoor time, before doing a little bit outside.
In the evening I had a meeting at The Black Swan with my two friends from the World Naked Bike Ride.... we discussed publicity and permissions and stewards and many other things. It is all coming together well.
Home by 11pm, lit the stove, hot water for Gill to soak her feet and me to do the washing up, a pretty normal evening.
I overslept... oh dear. I'd told Debbie that I'd be with her at 9am to go and deliver some Green Party leaflets. She had a meeting at 11 so needed to be back before then, but I woke at 10am and didn't remember about the leaflets til about 11. I popped a note through her door apologising and later she rang and we sorted out another time to deliver them.
Gill got really busy cleaning the downstairs loo, inspiring me to do a job lot of washing up with solar heated water, and some hoovering.
After lunch I was expecting Katalin to come and visit but she rang and said transport was difficult so could she come tomorrow. I had no problem with that and got busy in the garden, riddling yet more material for the large raised bed, and taking worms from this compost to one of the wormeries which I think needs some help... I've found some dead worms in it and some maggots. I wonder what that is about?
At about 5 I walked round to Debbie's and we walked down to Heslington Road to deliver 200 'Vote for Andy Chase' leaflets.
In the evening I met with Tony at the Black Swan to do some more work on the York World Naked Cycle Ride. We finalised the route, decided who was doing what with regards to contacting various people, and it's all coming together pretty well I think.
After this meeting, which took 2 hours, we spent another hour chatting and getting to know each other which was really nice, as although I've known Tony for a while, I've never socialised with him.
I got home just after 11.15 and lit the stove so I could do the washing up from tea time.
Gill got really busy cleaning the downstairs loo, inspiring me to do a job lot of washing up with solar heated water, and some hoovering.
After lunch I was expecting Katalin to come and visit but she rang and said transport was difficult so could she come tomorrow. I had no problem with that and got busy in the garden, riddling yet more material for the large raised bed, and taking worms from this compost to one of the wormeries which I think needs some help... I've found some dead worms in it and some maggots. I wonder what that is about?
At about 5 I walked round to Debbie's and we walked down to Heslington Road to deliver 200 'Vote for Andy Chase' leaflets.
In the evening I met with Tony at the Black Swan to do some more work on the York World Naked Cycle Ride. We finalised the route, decided who was doing what with regards to contacting various people, and it's all coming together pretty well I think.
After this meeting, which took 2 hours, we spent another hour chatting and getting to know each other which was really nice, as although I've known Tony for a while, I've never socialised with him.
I got home just after 11.15 and lit the stove so I could do the washing up from tea time.
Up at 8.50am when Gilly came upstairs saying she had to get washed and dressed, so she could take something into school which had been left behind. I told her that I would do it, and quickly got washed and dressed, got my bike out and delivered the thing to school by about 9.10.
Then Gill and I sat on the sofa, chatting whilst I was doing email stuff, until about 11, when I needed to get ready to deliver my compost to Rich and Moz... and have lunch with them. I also needed to get a shopping list together as I was planning to come back via Sainsburys. I set off with 4 sacks of very well matured compost at about 11.40, slowly as this was perhaps 70 or 80 kg, and I used the cycle track to get over to Burton Stone Lane where my buddies were waiting for me, and happy to show me their new house. They have a small yard with some pots of old soil in, and mainly dead plants, and the compost is to pep up the existing soil to enable them to grow a few crops and flowers to brighten up the yard.
I met Alex, who's the new singer with The Falling Spikes, who was visiting and writing songs with the more long-standing members. We chatted and listened to assorted tracks, on Spotify and YouTube... and then at 1.30 pizza materialised and that went down a treat.
Moz and I walked up to his ladyfriend's house, and Jenny was expecting us... she'd invited me to give her some advice on ground-elder removal. I was unable to give her good news on ground elder, apart from it being edible... which she knew anyway.
I left at about 2.45 and bombed into town, through to Sainsburys to get margarine and bread, and I was tempted by a bottle of cheap Baileys.
When I got home at 3.20, another visitor was waiting... Sue, whom I'd met at St Nicks a few days ago, had said she'd be coming sometime between 3 and 4, to collect some 'tiger worms' to start off her wormery. So we chatted a bit and when the restof the famly came in, we went down the garden to pick up some worms. Many of my compost bins have quite tight fitting lids, and worms seem to like sitting in the lids, which makes collection or harvesting very easy. So we collected quite a few... certainly enough to start one or two small wormeries. Sue also wanted a carrier bag of riddled compost, so altogether I'd had a good day of sales and info-sharing.
I had meant to get into the garden to sort out some compostables, but I got a email from some people in Bradford who wanted info on community composting, and this reply took some while.
And then tea was ready... a really thick tomato soup, and a slice of tasty nutloaf with fried mushrooms. Yummy!
And then it was soon time to go to the Black Swan for a World Naked Bike Ride planning meeting. Good to see Tony and Hugh... we more or less finalised the route, and discussed various other issues.
I got back soon after 9 and watched some of the 'Canoe Man' drama, washed up, played Scrabble on facebook, and did more washing up.
Then Gill and I sat on the sofa, chatting whilst I was doing email stuff, until about 11, when I needed to get ready to deliver my compost to Rich and Moz... and have lunch with them. I also needed to get a shopping list together as I was planning to come back via Sainsburys. I set off with 4 sacks of very well matured compost at about 11.40, slowly as this was perhaps 70 or 80 kg, and I used the cycle track to get over to Burton Stone Lane where my buddies were waiting for me, and happy to show me their new house. They have a small yard with some pots of old soil in, and mainly dead plants, and the compost is to pep up the existing soil to enable them to grow a few crops and flowers to brighten up the yard.
I met Alex, who's the new singer with The Falling Spikes, who was visiting and writing songs with the more long-standing members. We chatted and listened to assorted tracks, on Spotify and YouTube... and then at 1.30 pizza materialised and that went down a treat.
Moz and I walked up to his ladyfriend's house, and Jenny was expecting us... she'd invited me to give her some advice on ground-elder removal. I was unable to give her good news on ground elder, apart from it being edible... which she knew anyway.
I left at about 2.45 and bombed into town, through to Sainsburys to get margarine and bread, and I was tempted by a bottle of cheap Baileys.
When I got home at 3.20, another visitor was waiting... Sue, whom I'd met at St Nicks a few days ago, had said she'd be coming sometime between 3 and 4, to collect some 'tiger worms' to start off her wormery. So we chatted a bit and when the restof the famly came in, we went down the garden to pick up some worms. Many of my compost bins have quite tight fitting lids, and worms seem to like sitting in the lids, which makes collection or harvesting very easy. So we collected quite a few... certainly enough to start one or two small wormeries. Sue also wanted a carrier bag of riddled compost, so altogether I'd had a good day of sales and info-sharing.
I had meant to get into the garden to sort out some compostables, but I got a email from some people in Bradford who wanted info on community composting, and this reply took some while.
And then tea was ready... a really thick tomato soup, and a slice of tasty nutloaf with fried mushrooms. Yummy!
And then it was soon time to go to the Black Swan for a World Naked Bike Ride planning meeting. Good to see Tony and Hugh... we more or less finalised the route, and discussed various other issues.
I got back soon after 9 and watched some of the 'Canoe Man' drama, washed up, played Scrabble on facebook, and did more washing up.
A peaceful start to the day and at 10, Michael, a German chap who has a son at our son's school arrived, as he had invited himself round to find out how to make a compost heap which didn't attract rats. He lives near a farm which has lots of rats and his 'dalek' bin has regular rodent visitors.
So we went down the garden and I showed him the various 'dalek' bins which are on concrete or paving stones, and one on a proprietory plastic base, all of which are rat proof (OK, rat resistant!) and haven't ever been gnawed through or tunneled into. I showed him the GreenCone, which has (or had, as I set a trap) a rat living in the basket under the cone, having tunnelled through the soil and munched through the basket. I showed him the 'New Zealand Bins' made of pallets, which I construct on top of several pallets to raise them off the ground, and line with chicken wire. These are also rat deterrant, as the only way they can get in is through the top. I showed him the Compost Mate tool which I use to disturb the heaps, making rat peace and quiet impossible.
Then I showed him the four sorts of tumbler, all of which are either rat proof or would be really difficult for a rat to get into. He really liked the Sun Mar Compost Flow 400 litre jobbie, and I asked him to let me know which one he decided to get.
So then the next 'feature' of the day was lunch, and whilst having lunch and after, I contacted several organisations through their websites, to ask about using some photos for the website I am working on.
Then I emptied the wheelbarrow (sacks of compostables) and used it to take the logs I cut yesterday and took them to the new logpile for fresh logs which is on a pallet in the shared pathway between us and our neighbour. Some needed splitting too, which not only helps the thick ones dry faster, but makes the stacking easier and safer.
I had tea early, a pile of pasta parcels, broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkin, as the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel was at 6pm today, rather than the usual 6.30. We had a lot to deal with, including some quite complicated applications, and ones where we disagreed.
We finished at 7.10 and my next meeting was at 7.30 in the Black Swan, the first planning meeting of the 2010 York World Naked Bike Ride. Tony and Hugh came... Tony is the main organiser, and he'd prepared a check list/agenda which we worked through, including the route, publicity, police/council liason and assorted other bits and bobs. A good meeting, and on the way back I checked out a logpile, some of which found it's way into my trailer.
On the way out of St Nicks Fields, I saw two youths running off up one of the paths, from a rubbish bin which they had just set light to. There was another chap there, just standing and using his mobile phone. I stopped and looked into the bin, saw that it did indeed have some contents on fire. I parked the bike and said to the chap standing around that it ought to be put out, but I'd just had a pee so could he help? He declined, so I scrabbld around to find enough snow to chuck into the bin to eventually put out the small fire. The only thing the chap said was in response to my saying 'I wish there was more snow'.. and he just said 'you don't hear that very often'. I tried to chat to him a bit more but he was in a world of his own.
I came home, unloaded logs, put the bike away and came in, tired but happy that the meetings had been productive.
So we went down the garden and I showed him the various 'dalek' bins which are on concrete or paving stones, and one on a proprietory plastic base, all of which are rat proof (OK, rat resistant!) and haven't ever been gnawed through or tunneled into. I showed him the GreenCone, which has (or had, as I set a trap) a rat living in the basket under the cone, having tunnelled through the soil and munched through the basket. I showed him the 'New Zealand Bins' made of pallets, which I construct on top of several pallets to raise them off the ground, and line with chicken wire. These are also rat deterrant, as the only way they can get in is through the top. I showed him the Compost Mate tool which I use to disturb the heaps, making rat peace and quiet impossible.
Then I showed him the four sorts of tumbler, all of which are either rat proof or would be really difficult for a rat to get into. He really liked the Sun Mar Compost Flow 400 litre jobbie, and I asked him to let me know which one he decided to get.
So then the next 'feature' of the day was lunch, and whilst having lunch and after, I contacted several organisations through their websites, to ask about using some photos for the website I am working on.
Then I emptied the wheelbarrow (sacks of compostables) and used it to take the logs I cut yesterday and took them to the new logpile for fresh logs which is on a pallet in the shared pathway between us and our neighbour. Some needed splitting too, which not only helps the thick ones dry faster, but makes the stacking easier and safer.
I had tea early, a pile of pasta parcels, broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkin, as the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel was at 6pm today, rather than the usual 6.30. We had a lot to deal with, including some quite complicated applications, and ones where we disagreed.
We finished at 7.10 and my next meeting was at 7.30 in the Black Swan, the first planning meeting of the 2010 York World Naked Bike Ride. Tony and Hugh came... Tony is the main organiser, and he'd prepared a check list/agenda which we worked through, including the route, publicity, police/council liason and assorted other bits and bobs. A good meeting, and on the way back I checked out a logpile, some of which found it's way into my trailer.
On the way out of St Nicks Fields, I saw two youths running off up one of the paths, from a rubbish bin which they had just set light to. There was another chap there, just standing and using his mobile phone. I stopped and looked into the bin, saw that it did indeed have some contents on fire. I parked the bike and said to the chap standing around that it ought to be put out, but I'd just had a pee so could he help? He declined, so I scrabbld around to find enough snow to chuck into the bin to eventually put out the small fire. The only thing the chap said was in response to my saying 'I wish there was more snow'.. and he just said 'you don't hear that very often'. I tried to chat to him a bit more but he was in a world of his own.
I came home, unloaded logs, put the bike away and came in, tired but happy that the meetings had been productive.
Up early to get some riddled compost ready for Glenda, who asked me yesterday if I could come and sort out her Bokashi bins, and take the bokashi-ed stuff away, as she does not compost...
I cycled 3 carrier bags of recently riddled compost over, plus a sack of riddled last year. She was delighted, and also that I took away her 3 bokashi bins-worth. I'll help her set up a compost bin next time I visit.
Then went on to another friend who wasn't in but had left a Freecycle gift (a sewing machine!) and had asked me to break up an old bed. This didn't take long but then I got involved in a discussion with a neighbour, who seemed good at giving responsibility for sorting out the world's mess to everybody else but herself... corporations, governments, and she said twice that it was better to make little changes rather than not make any at all... which I agreed with, but then said that little changes were not enough. She got a bit pissed off with me. But then another neighbour came out, and saw my load of wood on the trailer and offered me some more, and was very very positive about what I'm doing as we loaded up even more stuff into my panniers etc.
So I came home with a huge load of bokashi-ed gunk, wood and sewing machine.
I processed some of the wood, enjoyed lunch did more stuff outside, washed up as Gill was preparing tea, and at about 4 Lorna turned up. She had really wanted to come on the World Naked Bike Ride, after participating in the Spencer Tunick photos over at Blarney Castle.
So we got ourselves ready, Lorna borrowed Gill's bike and we cycled into town, popping into Waterstones for a voucher for a birthday present and then the pastie shop before having a sit down in Museum Gardens awaiting the other naked riders. People started trickling in, painted up, or were painted by friends there and then. Lorna put my slogan 'No Fossil Fumes' and an arrow pointing downwards on my back, and she asked me to put 'I (heart) bikes' on hers.
Dave Taylor, Green Councillor sent us on our way, and the police escort was good. There were 100 people on the ride, 30 more than last year, and we cycled very slowly for about 90 minutes, about 6.5 miles, according to several people with mileometers on their bikes.
Lorna and I went via St Nicks on the way back, and then onto home where we warmed up and chatted with Gill, Lorna leaving at 8.30.
What a lovely day. Very enjoyable.
I cycled 3 carrier bags of recently riddled compost over, plus a sack of riddled last year. She was delighted, and also that I took away her 3 bokashi bins-worth. I'll help her set up a compost bin next time I visit.
Then went on to another friend who wasn't in but had left a Freecycle gift (a sewing machine!) and had asked me to break up an old bed. This didn't take long but then I got involved in a discussion with a neighbour, who seemed good at giving responsibility for sorting out the world's mess to everybody else but herself... corporations, governments, and she said twice that it was better to make little changes rather than not make any at all... which I agreed with, but then said that little changes were not enough. She got a bit pissed off with me. But then another neighbour came out, and saw my load of wood on the trailer and offered me some more, and was very very positive about what I'm doing as we loaded up even more stuff into my panniers etc.
So I came home with a huge load of bokashi-ed gunk, wood and sewing machine.
I processed some of the wood, enjoyed lunch did more stuff outside, washed up as Gill was preparing tea, and at about 4 Lorna turned up. She had really wanted to come on the World Naked Bike Ride, after participating in the Spencer Tunick photos over at Blarney Castle.
So we got ourselves ready, Lorna borrowed Gill's bike and we cycled into town, popping into Waterstones for a voucher for a birthday present and then the pastie shop before having a sit down in Museum Gardens awaiting the other naked riders. People started trickling in, painted up, or were painted by friends there and then. Lorna put my slogan 'No Fossil Fumes' and an arrow pointing downwards on my back, and she asked me to put 'I (heart) bikes' on hers.
Dave Taylor, Green Councillor sent us on our way, and the police escort was good. There were 100 people on the ride, 30 more than last year, and we cycled very slowly for about 90 minutes, about 6.5 miles, according to several people with mileometers on their bikes.
Lorna and I went via St Nicks on the way back, and then onto home where we warmed up and chatted with Gill, Lorna leaving at 8.30.
What a lovely day. Very enjoyable.
A slow start to the day, read several NewScientist articles, including one on how social networking sites like Facebook are helping medical advances, by helping people share info etc... very interesting!
At 11ish Gill and the boys went into town and I started to get ready to go to the St Nicks BIG recycle, finding stuff to put on the table for others to take. The idea is that unwanted items are brought to the event and can be taken by people who want them. I took a load of items that I got from Out Of This World when it closed, from the cafe. I got changed into my Fiddlesticks costume and cycled down with my full kit. The gate opened at 1pm and there was a rush for the tables of junk. It is always a popular 'do'. I found three tiny cabbage seedlings, another tomato plant and a few things which I would try to juggle at the 2pm junk juggling challenge. Children were invited to find me items they wanted me to try to juggle, and then pick three of them and challenge me to juggle them. I think I did OK, then did a juggling workshop with traditional juggling balls, which are significantly easier to manipulate. Then at 3pm I did a quick run through of my show. During the day I also answered some composting queries, showing several people the wormeries.
Soon after 4 I left for home and got changed out of my Fiddlesticks clothing and got on Gill's bike to go down to the World Naked Bike Ride which is in York for the third year. I wanted to be relatively anonymous on this, as I get booked by various church groups and conservatives who might not book me if I was seen or photographed naked in a protest. I am not ashamed of going on the ride, nor am I ashamed of my fairly ordinary body, I just want to avoid being on a front page of a newspaper with my face visible! So I ditched the 'Father Christmas on a unicycle' and this time wore a box on my head, which did raise some laughs and comments. There were 83 riders, up from 67 last year, and it was extremely good natured and enjoyable. We ended up in Museum Gardens for a picnic which was a happy social event.
Got home for about 7.30, and after a hot drink, went into the garden to cut hedge and prune shrubs, til just after 9, when Andy Chase the Green Party General Election Candidate came round with a load of leaflets to deliver in Hull Road Ward.
Gill and I had a good game of Scrabble which she won. I then had a good chat with K on Skype which was nice although I was really tired and probably wasn't a good conversationalist...
At 11ish Gill and the boys went into town and I started to get ready to go to the St Nicks BIG recycle, finding stuff to put on the table for others to take. The idea is that unwanted items are brought to the event and can be taken by people who want them. I took a load of items that I got from Out Of This World when it closed, from the cafe. I got changed into my Fiddlesticks costume and cycled down with my full kit. The gate opened at 1pm and there was a rush for the tables of junk. It is always a popular 'do'. I found three tiny cabbage seedlings, another tomato plant and a few things which I would try to juggle at the 2pm junk juggling challenge. Children were invited to find me items they wanted me to try to juggle, and then pick three of them and challenge me to juggle them. I think I did OK, then did a juggling workshop with traditional juggling balls, which are significantly easier to manipulate. Then at 3pm I did a quick run through of my show. During the day I also answered some composting queries, showing several people the wormeries.
Soon after 4 I left for home and got changed out of my Fiddlesticks clothing and got on Gill's bike to go down to the World Naked Bike Ride which is in York for the third year. I wanted to be relatively anonymous on this, as I get booked by various church groups and conservatives who might not book me if I was seen or photographed naked in a protest. I am not ashamed of going on the ride, nor am I ashamed of my fairly ordinary body, I just want to avoid being on a front page of a newspaper with my face visible! So I ditched the 'Father Christmas on a unicycle' and this time wore a box on my head, which did raise some laughs and comments. There were 83 riders, up from 67 last year, and it was extremely good natured and enjoyable. We ended up in Museum Gardens for a picnic which was a happy social event.
Got home for about 7.30, and after a hot drink, went into the garden to cut hedge and prune shrubs, til just after 9, when Andy Chase the Green Party General Election Candidate came round with a load of leaflets to deliver in Hull Road Ward.
Gill and I had a good game of Scrabble which she won. I then had a good chat with K on Skype which was nice although I was really tired and probably wasn't a good conversationalist...
As Gill's legs still hurt following the physio, I took the boys to school.
The morning was mainly concerned with creating a placard for Santa to carry whilst unicycling on the World Naked Cycle Ride. Gill and I finished the poem, which was started with help from our eldest son:
OH, OH, OH,
How will I cope
With not enough snow?
It won't be as nice
With much less ice.
Ho, HO, HO,
A solution I like
Abandon your car
And get on your bike
Take the train or bus
Or travel my way...
Unicycle or reindeer sleigh!
This was carefully written on a large piece of cardboard and the backs of posters found outside the Lloyds TSB, put for landfill!
Also did various bits of housework and garden jobs. Early on our Polish roofer Artur arrived to repair the tarry sheets on the studio roof, which had perished. Some of the wooden batons underneath have perished and will need replacing, but he reckons that it will be ok for another 10 years.
Next door are having scaffolding erected to replace soffit boards, finish their loft conversion and do some repointing. Good banter with Lee the scaffolder, who has a stove for sale. Contact TB scaffolding for this!
During the middle of the day Ken our neighbour popped round to tell us we had a swarm of bees in our garden... infact it is 8m up a conifer in the other next door's garden, overhanging our garden. Barry, friend of Ken, suggested putting a box with honey smeared inside, and a hole or two in, which might attract the bees so they could be taken away and rehoused, but by nightfall they had not found this and were a tight ball in the tree.
At 2, a lady who advertised in the back of the Press came and had brought round her son's 2 yr old bike, suitable for a 10 yr old. Our eldest who has wrecked his bike needs a new one so we bought this for £30.
I took it down to the school (pushing it whilst riding mine) and he was delighted and promised to look after it. Came home with D and J, friends of our boys, as their mum is unable to pick them up until 5pm, which she did.
I left shortly after this and took my unicycle on my trailer, plus costume and placard, and parked in the Out Of This World car park, and unicycled to the Memorial Gardens to get dressed up as Santa Claus. Lots of seminaked and bodypainted folks, and minutes from leaving lots of people went totally naked for this local expression of a global protest/celebration. The route was fairly gruelling for a unicyclist in a Santa outfit, quite a sauna.
Afterwards went for a pint at the King's Arms, which was lovely and refreshing.
Home and I created a quick tea of onions, vegetarian black pudding and goat's cheese, with rems of quiche from yesterday. Ate this at 10pm, collapsed after and watched a bit of TV, then did a quick email and blog, and watched Joolz Holland with Paul McCartney and Bjork.
The morning was mainly concerned with creating a placard for Santa to carry whilst unicycling on the World Naked Cycle Ride. Gill and I finished the poem, which was started with help from our eldest son:
OH, OH, OH,
How will I cope
With not enough snow?
It won't be as nice
With much less ice.
Ho, HO, HO,
A solution I like
Abandon your car
And get on your bike
Take the train or bus
Or travel my way...
Unicycle or reindeer sleigh!
This was carefully written on a large piece of cardboard and the backs of posters found outside the Lloyds TSB, put for landfill!
Also did various bits of housework and garden jobs. Early on our Polish roofer Artur arrived to repair the tarry sheets on the studio roof, which had perished. Some of the wooden batons underneath have perished and will need replacing, but he reckons that it will be ok for another 10 years.
Next door are having scaffolding erected to replace soffit boards, finish their loft conversion and do some repointing. Good banter with Lee the scaffolder, who has a stove for sale. Contact TB scaffolding for this!
During the middle of the day Ken our neighbour popped round to tell us we had a swarm of bees in our garden... infact it is 8m up a conifer in the other next door's garden, overhanging our garden. Barry, friend of Ken, suggested putting a box with honey smeared inside, and a hole or two in, which might attract the bees so they could be taken away and rehoused, but by nightfall they had not found this and were a tight ball in the tree.
At 2, a lady who advertised in the back of the Press came and had brought round her son's 2 yr old bike, suitable for a 10 yr old. Our eldest who has wrecked his bike needs a new one so we bought this for £30.
I took it down to the school (pushing it whilst riding mine) and he was delighted and promised to look after it. Came home with D and J, friends of our boys, as their mum is unable to pick them up until 5pm, which she did.
I left shortly after this and took my unicycle on my trailer, plus costume and placard, and parked in the Out Of This World car park, and unicycled to the Memorial Gardens to get dressed up as Santa Claus. Lots of seminaked and bodypainted folks, and minutes from leaving lots of people went totally naked for this local expression of a global protest/celebration. The route was fairly gruelling for a unicyclist in a Santa outfit, quite a sauna.
Afterwards went for a pint at the King's Arms, which was lovely and refreshing.
Home and I created a quick tea of onions, vegetarian black pudding and goat's cheese, with rems of quiche from yesterday. Ate this at 10pm, collapsed after and watched a bit of TV, then did a quick email and blog, and watched Joolz Holland with Paul McCartney and Bjork.
Well a day, and an interesting one with a York Rotters meeting in the morning and a 'World Naked Bike Ride' meeting in the evening.
The Rotters meeting was to welcome Catherine our new Project Manager and to discuss what we need to do in the coming weeks and months. The management group is two of the Council Waste Reduction folks, John and Pat from St Nicks and myself. We had a good meeting and sorted out quite a lot of issues including a written agreement between the Council and St Nicks about how we manage the Rotters project plus our plans for schools.
The evening meeting was at CVS at Priory St and there were just 7 or 8 of us there, a meeting organised by Kay, who took responsibility for the first York Naked Bike Ride last year, but isn't this year, just this meeting. We saw the short film about the World Naked Bike Ride, with Jesse the UK organiser wobbling around on his in-line skates at first, then more steadily on his bike. Good film, apparently available on YouTube. We discussed the route which has been agreed with the Police, we're having a Cycling Police escort, they won't be naked apparently. The idea is to protest at the oil/car/internal combustion engine culture and to show how vulnerable we are as cyclists on today's roads, as well as being happy with our bodies as they are. I have to decide whether to go naked but hide my face or to go as Father Xmas on the Unicycle. I feel I cannot just go naked as I get bookings from assorted religious groups who might not want to book me if I was seen naked in the streets publicly. Will mull on this quandry.
The Rotters meeting was to welcome Catherine our new Project Manager and to discuss what we need to do in the coming weeks and months. The management group is two of the Council Waste Reduction folks, John and Pat from St Nicks and myself. We had a good meeting and sorted out quite a lot of issues including a written agreement between the Council and St Nicks about how we manage the Rotters project plus our plans for schools.
The evening meeting was at CVS at Priory St and there were just 7 or 8 of us there, a meeting organised by Kay, who took responsibility for the first York Naked Bike Ride last year, but isn't this year, just this meeting. We saw the short film about the World Naked Bike Ride, with Jesse the UK organiser wobbling around on his in-line skates at first, then more steadily on his bike. Good film, apparently available on YouTube. We discussed the route which has been agreed with the Police, we're having a Cycling Police escort, they won't be naked apparently. The idea is to protest at the oil/car/internal combustion engine culture and to show how vulnerable we are as cyclists on today's roads, as well as being happy with our bodies as they are. I have to decide whether to go naked but hide my face or to go as Father Xmas on the Unicycle. I feel I cannot just go naked as I get bookings from assorted religious groups who might not want to book me if I was seen naked in the streets publicly. Will mull on this quandry.
