Human Lifestyle

I got up early as I wanted to attend the York in Transition Christmas Presents Swap at St Nicks, which started at 10am.  On the way I found a bunch of bright yellow 'Winter Mushroom' or Enokitake, Flammulina velupites.  I picked about a dozen, all quite small.

I was pleased to go as I met some good people and did two 'mini-tours' for people new to St Nicks, and I explained about the old landfill site, the beginnings of the nature reserve, the John Lally Wood, passive solar design, the two types of solar panel, green roof, rainwater harvesting, compost toilets and more.  I really love showing people round! 

I took a bottle of red wine with mulling spices, a Christmas present which we won't use as we don't drink red wine, and my usual bag of dried pea beans which I'm always happy to give out.  I met my friend Linda, who really likes red wine, and gave her the bottle.  She didn't want mulling spices, so those went on the swap table and were snapped up!  I came away with a jigsaw, a wok stand for the stove and a pair of gloves.  I gave two people some pea beans.

I came home at 12.30, Gill had gone to Scarborough on the train with our eldest and a friend, leaving the youngest at home in York.  I had lunch and spent a bit of time on the computer but then suggested to our lad that he come off his Roblox thingy and do something active.  Amazingly, he agreed and came outside and helped me move a lot of recently split logs from the front to a safe store at the rear of the house.  He kept going whilst I did some chainsawing and splitting.

Later, he asked if he could have the stove lit in the front room... and I talked him through how to do it, provided the raw materials and he did an excellent job, got it laid and lit really well.

I cooked tea... a 100% freegan tea, apart from a tablespoon full of EV olive oil.  I fried 2 onions (ones which had manky outside bits but the majority of the bulb was firm and lovely) and chopped up a small butternut squash which had a bit of damage at the stalk end, easy to chop out, a courgette which had one end going soft, a red pepper and most of 5 tomatoes.  All this got fried up on the front room stove.  I marinaded some out of date tofu (but hermetically sealed and absolutely fine) with garlic, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, and then slow fried them in some free pumpkin oil which dates back to Out Of This World years ago, I think!  I put the mushrooms in with the tofu right at the end, and they just about disappeared.  Enokitake is a very small mushroom!  Then Gill came in and there was a request for pasta, so I boiled that on the stove.  Actually, this pasta was bought too, so not a 100% freegan meal... shame!   But a nice tea, much enjoyed.

I also really enjoyed... to the point of tears, the lovely BBC2 tribute to my favourite and now deceased actor, Pete Postlethwaite. Click here to see this on iPlayer, for the next few days only!

More fruit wrangling this evening, putting pineapple and apple into jars. And washing up, as per bally usual!

I had a fairly chilled Sunday morning, including half-watching Country Tracks, but I had the York in Transition Alternative Energy Event on my mind, and how I could best contribute to this.  I had a phone conversation with Anna Semlyen, who has organised this event, and decided to find or create a placard to stand outside the Mansion House.

I got some cardboard and wallpaper lining paper, and secured a stick handle into the card, and after lunch took that on my trailer, plus marker pens, down to The Mansion House on St Helen's Square, arriving at 2.30pm.  Anna supplied two posters which I stuck on each side, and I wrote FREE TODAY above the poster and RENEWABLE ENERGY below it.

My self-appointed task was to stand outside the venue and announce: "FREE ENTRY TODAY TO THE MANSION HOUSE, USUALLY £5 ENTRY, TODAY FREE.  ALSO FIND OUT HOW TO GET FREE ELECTRICITY" and similar messages.  There was plenty of interest, not just from people wanting to find out more about renewable energy, but a few (tourists) wanting to see the Lord Mayor's residence.  At about 3.30 Ivana came down and said that Anna had just finished her short talk so it was my turn to do a talk on woodstoves.  I had about 6 people listening intently and asking questions afterwards.  I went straight back out and continued pulling them in.  At about 4.45 I did another talk to just 5 people this time, but all were potential woodstove buyers.    The venue closed it's doors at 5pm, and the chap on the door told us we'd had 241 people through... we were delighted!  So were the three solar installers who had their info for people to see.  I'd been asking people on the way out if it had been worth going in, and most said it had been really useful.

So, in anybody's terms, a highly successful event.  About two thirds of the people who came in did look around the stalls and took leaflets from the Energy Saving Trust, who didn't attend but did let us have leaflets. So between 150 and 200 people got information about putting solar photovoltaic panels on their roof, or solar water heating, insulation, heat pumps, woodburning stoves and more.  York in Transition got a load more email sign ups to add to the 500+ we have already.

I came home pretty quickly, picking up two bags and a box from Countyr Fresh which had just closed, and some scrap metal out of their bin. 

Carrot soup for tea, and a bit of rice the kids didn't eat, and then I sorted out some beans which I'm drying, and some nectarines, and I sliced the membrillo into thick slices as it has dried off and set sufficiently, although the centre of each slice is soft, so I put each slice on it's side to dry further.  I tasted it again and it's wonderful.  Despite being time consuming to make, I'm sure it is worth it.

An early start as I had to be at St Lawrence's before 10 to help set up... I thought my fruit press would be there but it wasn't; it was delivered at about 10.30.  But the Transition stall was there, as were lots of other campaign and community groups, the Council's 'Nappacino' stall with reusable nappy information (it costs the Council thousands of pounds to landfill disposable nappies), some people doing fruit smoothies, a bike and trike try-out demonstration outside in the playground, and more.  Anna had done well to co-ordinate this event. 

A fair few people came through the doors and the York in Transition stall got another half-dozen signatures for the mailing list.  I chatted with a nice lady called Karen who runs or works for 'Grace' preserves.  I met my old friend Kate who was with the cycling try out.  Chloe and Dave from Edible York and Abundance brought loads of apples and washed them, halved them and they got put through the grinder and into the press, and we made loads of very sweet and tasty juice.  This was popular!

Cleaning up was not too easy. The press and grinder are easiest to clean with a hose, but we only had a jug and a sink.  We left the press at the school, to be picked up on Monday and taken to St Nicks ready for Apple Day next weekend.  I took home a large amount of apple press solids and the bits of fruit skins etc from the smoothie maker.  Oh, and a large pile of compostable paper cups from her too. 

Andy D'Agorne took the remaining leaflets and a map of the roads in Hull Road Ward which haven't yet been leafleted, and a few hours later he popped in to give the remaining undelivered ones back and the map. 

I loaded up one of the heaps with shredded apple and shredded twigs.  I want it to be hot for tomorrow when I'm holding a 10:10:10 'Work Party' to show people composting and invite then to help dig out a large heap.

I was tired and didn't want to be subjected to the Come Dancing nonsense so I had a couple of hours upstairs and found a nice dance music website called Limbic Frequencies.

Later, had a real game of Scrabble with Gill, not on facebook. 

Woke at 8 and was told that I'd gone to bed at 9 last night and although I said I'd like to be woken at 10.30 to come and watch Newsnight and get on with housework, I'd grunted at 10.30 and turned over and slept right the way through.  11 hours sleep is rare for me, I usually get 6 or 7.  But I woke feeling refreshed and much bouncier.

It was a good day, the boys went to school and Gill went to physio, and I used the sunny dry day to do some chainsawing and work in the garden.  I also did some fruit drying... pineapple, banana, pear.  I did some paperworky/admin stuff, preparing for the weekend's work. I got a phone call from BBC Radio York who wanted to interview me in Pickering on Saturday, for their Transition event, and they wanted to do a sort of 'my top year and three songs', and we had quite a good conversation.  Right at the end I asked him whether he knew I was standing in an election.  He didn't know there was an election.  I told him about it and he said he'd get back to me about whether it would have any bearing on the interview.  Much later in the day, he rang back and said that it was borderline whether my being interviewed about green issues and standing as a Green Party candidate in an election was a problem, but to be on the safe side, they'd decided not to use me this time.  I think they've got to be careful not to be accused of bias.

At about 7pm I set out to go to the York in Transition meeting, via my agent's house as I've not been able to contact him.  I left a message through his letterbox.  Then over to Andreas's house, and I was pleased to see his wife Catherine before she went out to work.  Edward and Peter were at the meeting too, and we had a productive meeting and all of us have things to do to take York in Transition forward.  I cycled back via an almond tree I'd discovered and picked a bag of almonds.

Back at 11pm and settled down to the usual mix of computer and washing up... and then there were screams upstairs.  One of our boys was being sick.... poor him.  It took ages to clear up.

I woke at about 9.50 and realised I was supposed to be at St Nicks at 10.  Whoops!  So I quickly got washed and dressed, shovelled down a pile of bran flakes and muesli, and got to St Nicks at about 10.25.

Fortunately, people were still gathering and Edwards York in Transition workshop about Eco Renovation hadn't started. So I chatted with Peter and JayZee, and within a few minutes there were 10 people sitting down to listen to Edward's presentation.  He explained how he came to write his book, and then briefly went through each section, covering a few areas in more detail.  There were some good discussions.

Afterwards I chatted with someone I knew from years ago, Anne Leggett, who's getting involved in a project to make the local pond more 'community friendly'.  We had quite a long conversation.

I came home via a log pile and Freshways, the chemist to get a tidy-looking covering for my forehead and the Co-op for cereals.  After a late lunch I had a busy afternoon in the garden, and just before 5pm cycled down to Country Fresh where Rich had several boxes for me, just before he closed.

I came back and had a bath, Gill carefully washed my hair as it had iodine in it, from the operation.  I'd been told not to get the wound wet.  Then at 6.30 I zoomed off to Clements Hall where Isobel had organised a surprise 60th birthday party for Hugh Bernays, her husband.  I've known Hugh and Isobel for 20 years or so, and I'm very fond of them both.  Their children knew me as Professor Fiddlesticks from when they were very young... but Emily, the eldest, is now a beautiful young woman and working as a hotel receptionist.

I took Hugh a jar of my best dried apple rings and one of Gill's home-made cards.  As the time came for Hugh to arrive I got a bottle of bubbly (all with Isobel's blessing, of course) and a couple of minutes after the shout of 'SURPRISE' and the singing of Happy Birthday, I poured him and Isobel a glass.  Then I headed for the food!  Yummy party food!  I chatted with loads of people I knew, and met a few people I didn't.  I was very pleased to see Andy Chase, Simon Brerton and Pauline, all of whom have been involved with the Clements Hall project.  I met the architect.  Andy gave me a short tour.  I got on well with Hugh's brother Peter, and he's coming to visit on Monday afternoon.  I specially enjoyed listening to David Ward Maclean singing.  Then Don Walls with some poetry.  When the birthday cake came in, instead of a speech, Hugh played a tune on his Jews Harps, and David joined in with singing, and Milladio with the tomtoms.  It was lovely!

But I left at about 9.40 and got home, had washing up to do and fruit to dry. And work tomorrow.

However, last thing I made a big pan of carrot soup with waste carrots, and left it on the woodstove overnight.

A very productive day.  I got up fairly late but was busy soon, did some housework and after lunch, did a load of fruit picking.  I started with the plums as they are very ripe, many have fallen and others gone mouldy on the tree.  I took the ladders down and picked quite a few, about three quarters of a bucket full, and then asked my neighbour if I could take my ladders down his garden to reach the rest of the plums in our tree from his side of the hedge.  He had no problem with that... they have two similar plum trees which were equally loaded.

So I ended up with a whole bucket full of plums... what will I do with them?  My neighbour also told me that I should be taking the opportunity to pick the apples from our tree which are accessible from his side, so I moved the ladder and picked a large box full of James Grieve, a delicious and fairly early eating apple. We have a Cox apple tree too, this ripens later in the year.

So, lots of fruit to process.  I had some quiet time and sat and cracked shells off hazelnuts.  We have a really good nutcracker, with a spring which opens it up after squeezing it, and the nut goes into a conical chamber which copes with all sized nuts (well, not coconuts!) (looks a bit like this).

I also did an hour or so chainsawing and log stacking, on the right of the front door as you look out.  This means we are now using the stuff on the left which has been there all summer.

I had a quick tea at 6.30, reheat rice and some tomato sauce Gill made, and microwaved green beans, perhaps some of the last from the garden.

Then at 7 I went down the garden and found 4 sacks of compost for Suki, Ann's housemate, and took that round on the way to the York in Transition meeting.  It was Peter's birthday and he, Edward and Andreas were drinking coffee and eating doughnuts... they'd had a Directors meeting which I'd missed, but the Steering Group was from 7.30.  I took minutes.  We finished just before 10pm.

Then I came home via Freshways, picked up a couple of sacks of limp vegetation, and lit the stove to keep the plums drying.  I cracked more nuts whilst watching Lorenzo's Oil, a moving film.  I chatted with an American friend on facebook called Sheila, who sent me a recipe to use some of the plums.

Bed ridiculously late again!

Another good day, very busy though, despite getting up at 10am!

After my usual bowl of cereal and soya milk, I got going with stacking about 5 wheelbarrows worth of split 'green' logs, taking then down into the back garden and onto pallets where they will spend a year or more drying, ready for the stoves. Whilst I was down the garden, someone rang up wanting to talk about green funerals; she'd seen the Novaterium.com advert in The Book of Green.

But she didn't leave her number and when Gill did a 1471 call, it was withheld. She said she'd ring back in half an hour. So I worked out at the front, chopping sticks up with loppers and putting them into wooden fruit boxes for stacking and drying for kindling. Then it was lunchtime so I came in and had my usual pile of sandwiches. At 1.45 the phone rang and it was the Novaterium enquirer, Lynne from Morecambe, who was wanting to know more about green funerals but doesn't have internet access. She wanted to know if I could provide the information on paper. I spent 40 minutes talking her through the various options, explaining what the problems are with 'traditional' disposal and the new developments which should be available soon. She was enquiring as someone she knows has a terminal illness and she was hoping to help organise a greener funeral. She might send me an SAE and I'll send her some information which will help her sort something out.

Then it was 2.30, when I'd got an appointment with the volunteer co-ordinator for Woodlands MS Respite Care Centre, where I'm hoping to volunteer in the grounds, as they have lots of logs and branches which need clearing; the groundsman usually just has a bonfire, but I'd like to use some of them, by cutting the branches off the logs and taking the useful stuff away, replacing fossil fuel use with renewable waste wood. So I want to help, but with a good dose of self interest and environmental issues there too. I took my documents... birth certificate, wedding certificate, bank stuff, tax stuff and a couple of others, so I could get CRB checked. Although I'm not going to have any close contact with the guests, all volunteers need CRB checks.

On the way back from Woodlands, I popped in on Debbie, to tell her that I had a sack of dry wood for her, for Debbie Fricker's memorial, and would she like to come and choose a branch for the memory tree thing she wants to do? I had several Lilac branches which might be good for this, so she came over and chose one, and I took the sack of sticks and logs back over to her. She was very pleased.

Then I loaded my trailer up with 2 sacks of soya milk cartons and others, and Gill gave me a sack of clothing and material only suitable for shoddy, and I cycled them down to Hazel Court, where the notice forbidding cycles up on the top level has now definitely gone. I reckon the 'civil disobedience' and letters to the paper must have worked. I'm very pleased with this.

I went on to a pet shop to get fish food, then off to my building society to get out a cheque for British Telecommunications plc for advertising, and to pay a water bill at the bank. Then I popped in to see Dylan as I knew he'd have some oranges for me, and David, Debbie's brother was there so I chatted with him as Dylan was busy. I took 4 sacks of orange skins and coffee grounds, 2 boxes of mostly mouldy oranges and two sacks of plastic bottles. Then I came home, calling in on Freshways where they had a sack for me, which I had to put on the handlebars and tri-bar to get home.

Then I did some composting, fully loading up the Compostumbler and adding to the SunMar Compostflow.

I had carrot soup for tea, then set out to go to Edward's house for a York in Transition Directors Meeting. This was mainly taken up with Anna's funding stuff again, which is causing us significant problems, as she has not consulted the Directors and we hadn't got any documentation. Edward is going to have to go and chat to the Council people, and I have to write a letter to the Neighbourhood Unit about another issue connected with a different set of Anna's Ward funding approaches. However, we may be able to work with the YiT funding applications she's put in, but we'd have to see if we can find volunteers in all 18 wards she's applied to, or find a volunteer or paid co-ordinator to run the scheme citywide.

We worked on these from 7.30 til well after 9.30pm. I visited two skips on the way home for some scrap wood. Later, at midnight, I mashed all the stewed cherry plums to remove the stones, which I took out one by one with a fork. Gill made a cake for our youngest son's birthday tomorrow. Finished this at about 2am.

Woke at 9.30 and got up feeling refreshed and happy.

However in the back of my mind was the fact that today was the deadline for getting the Hull Road Ward Funding bids in... and I didn't want to miss it, nor face Anna's despair for not doing it, so I rang the Council and someone from the Neighbourhood Unit said yes, the forms would be in reception waiting for me.

So I got there just before midday and filled in all three forms. The first was easy... a suggestion that the Ward needs a public notice board. The second was an 'under £500' suggestion, and I put that York in Transition would like fruit and nut trees planted in the ward... the places decided by local people, and the number of trees dependent on the cost of digging the holes and installing tree guards and stakes, etc. I did suggest that the holes could be dug by volunteers but I somehow doubt that will be realistic. We'll see! The final application, to the 'over £500' pot, was something I made up on the spot... I hadn't thought about it in advance. I suggested a one-day home energy event, in the ward, with stalls from renewable energy providers, insulation companies, the Energy Efficiency Advice Centre, groups promoting public transport, cycling and walking, and community groups offering related things... I estimated the cost of the venue to be £300, publicity £300 and refreshments £50... and I asked for £590 grant, the rest to be found from stall holders fees and donations for refreshments. Again, this would be a Transition event.

All this took an hour and a half. The applications will be considered and then the best ones which fit certain criteria will go forward to the Ward Committee and local people will allocate the budget to the schemes they like... and not to the ones they don't!!! So I won't know the outcome of this process until February 2011. The money won't be available until April and will need to be spent between April 2011 and March 2012. This is the first time I've put in suggestions.

I came away from the Council reception quite frazzled but glad I'd done it. I put a cheque into my Fiddlesticks account and came home via Country Fresh and picked up a box, a bag, another box, and then from Freshways, another bag. Lots of lovely composting to do!

When I got back, at 3pm, I had lunch, and then later, went into the garden to deal with the medium-sized Compostumbler... I emptied it into a dalek and immediately refilled it with shredded hedge, lilac and holly plus a large load of chopped veg and fruit, mouldy sliced bread and cardboard takeaway food cartons with biodegradable plastic windows...

I came in to help Gill do tea, peeling some thrown away but perfectly usable sweet potatoes, and a large handful of freshly picked pea beans. So we had pasta salad, rice salad, sweet potato chips... but the pea beans got left in their pan of cold water, uncooked, so they'll be for tomorrow's tea.

Later I helped Gill with some washing (I went to get it off the washing line and helped hang it up next to the stove) and did some washing up. I really enjoyed a programme on BBC4 on Blondie, which was one of my favourite bands as I was growing up. I was one of millions of teenage boys with a Debbie Harry poster on my bedroom wall..... I still think she's hot!

I had a lot of tidying to do and spent the whole day sorting through a very large mountain of paperwork and creating a number of paperwork molehills..... some went for recycling, some got replied to by letter, some by email, some went to the compost heap, some for the stove, and others put in a 'to do' list and I started to do them too! Awesome! (but deadly boring...)

Linda, one of Gill's sisters, arrived at about 3pm, whilst Gill was at school picking up our youngest. It was lovely to see Linda and we had a good chat before Gill got home, followed by our eldest and eventually our youngest. They are both looking forward to the end of term.

I had a bit of time in the garden as I needed to do something active. I came in after 6pm to have tea, and at 7.15 I headed into town on my bike to attend a York in Transition meeting at the Hansom Cab. I ended up sort of chairing AND taking notes (how did I allow that to happen?) but it did allow me to get it sorted relatively quickly. The main thing that happened at this meeting was that I asked at the bar for a pear cider. They had no pear cider, but the barman offered me a cherry cider, which I said I'd try. It was DISGUSTING and I tried valiantly to drink it.... but then gave up and took it back to the bar and asked them if they thought it was 'off'. The barman said he'd talk to the landlord.... and 10 minutes later she came over and told me that the barman had sold me a bottle of cherry beer not cherry cider, which is why I found it undrinkable. I was offered a draught cider instead, which was quite nice.

The other good thing which happened was we discussed possible formats for the Carfree York meeting. I have a much better idea of how this might work.

Home just in time to say goodnight to Linda and see my friend Justin Rowlatt on Newsnight talking about there now being 500 million people on facebook.

A work day that I was not entirely looking forward to... I was wondering how my ankle would cope and what I'd be able to do. I was happy that my travel arrangements were taken care of by Chris offering to pick me up at 10.15.

So I got ready and packed in good time and was picked up by Chris, who leads meditations, and his wife Collina, who is a very keen gardener, in a hire car.

The journey was quick and easy, with a quick stop in Pocklington for Chris to get some cash out, and on to the Madhyamaka Buddhist Centre, at Kilnwick Percy Hall. I got my gear out of the car quite near the main lawn and found a good place which would accommodate my four-wheel and two-wheel unicycles, and got myself settled to do some workshops and balloons. I was kept busy all day, but was able to sit for much of it. I was offered a vegeburger and salad for lunch, and Collina got me a coffee. It was a very successful day, and the people in charge paid me my agreed fee, despite my not being able to unicycle round. I was very grateful and pleased. The trip home was just as easy and quick, and I was back home at about 5.30.

I had sandwiches for tea, and then at 7.15 cycled off to Anna's to participate in a York in Transition Events Team meeting with Ivana and Andy D'Agorne. I took a few notes and offered to write them up. I'll do that tomorrow, I hope!

First thing I popped round to my alcoholic friend who is undergoing a detox today, in an attempt to kick the habit. Gill and I gave a card wishing good luck.

Then a meeting in town then a trip to Sainsbury's to get nice bread, and I met my good friend Jonathan in there and we chatted for at least half an hour. I again visited my friend, and will do so several times over the next few days. Lots of support needed.

Home for lunch. And then a good afternoon preparing compost for sale... three sacks to go down the road to Julie the Freecycler, and a request for two to go to the Chemistry Department to enrich some existing potting media, so a few veggies can be grown in the courtyard. I'm really enjoying my composting... I'm also making a container mix for this year's tomatoes and cucumbers: I have 5 sackfuls already but I need quite a bit more.

I came in just after 6 for tea... bought pizza, sweetcorn and peas, new potatoes.

Then at 7 I left to attend a York In Transition Directors meeting at Barry's house which was a nice ride over the Millennium Bridge and Racecourse. The key thing at this meeting was meeting Mike, who may become our Treasurer. Mike is fairly new to York, but is an experienced Director and Charity Trustee, so we may have a lot to learn from him.

It was a good meeting... I took my laptop and took minutes during it, so when I got back I could just send them out to the participants. I called in on Anna on the way back as I had a donations tub... but it wasn't hers and probably lives at St Nicks, on Ivana's desk. She was pleased to hear of our meeting.

I picked up two pallets on the way home, ripe for conversion into firewood. As I did my emails and blog, I enjoyed a history of the railways on 'Quest'.

Woke at 10. I got myself ready to go to the Low Moor Allotment Association AGM, which was at midday. I left home at about 11.25 and went to see Richard at Country Fresh, got some veggies and a big bag of cabbage leaves and sprouting onions.

Then I went round to the allotments, and as I was still too early for the meeting, I popped in on the People and Planet allotment where Dora greeted me loudly and warmly as 'Compost John', and yes, I was bearing a gift for their heap... all the cabbage leaves, etc.

I told them about the AGM and she and Zak came with me to the meeting which was outside as it was a lovely day.

A good meeting, left me feeling positive and buoyed up. I cycled past my old plot on the way back and it has been rotavated! The new allotmenteers look like they mean business!

I visited Debbie on the way back and chatted for 10 minutes, and got in for 2pm, for lunch and Gardener's Question Time on Radio 4.

Then I got busy in the conservatory... I planted LOADS of seeds... courgette, pumpkin, squash, yams (in the cups rescued from the Ceilidh, punctured at the base with a hot wire) and sweetcorn plus one or two other things. Lots more to do though...

Then it was tea time, I had the last pastie and the cauliflower/pasta bake which Gill threw together, followed by a slice of cake.

Then it was yet another meeting... down at Anna's, the York in Transition 'events' meeting, which was quite well attended and very upbeat.

I got in just after 10pm and wasn't sleepy til 3am.

Woke feeling a small amount of joy and slightly more anticipation... I'm helping with some research to see if there's any correlation between waking and dream emotions, in fact I'm not sure what it's about, but it's a student from University of York and I have to fill in an emotions thing when I wake up and just before I go to sleep. I found out about it through a facebook friend and I messaged the person and she sent me the forms in yesterday's post.

So my anticipation levels are quite high.

I got a phone call in the morning from Rich at Country Fresh, as all but one of the bags of compost have gone, so he requested some more.

I went down to town after an early lunch (via Country Fresh, to deliver compost and met 2 delightful young ladies, called Chloe and Gita) to try to find the beer that Pugwash Convention have requested for this evening, but couldn't find it. I did get coffee from Oxfam and some nice bread at Sainsbury's, and the wine the band wanted.


A lovely day, warm and sunny. Wish I wasn't rushing around!

I went on the net to find the York Beer Shop's contact details, as they might have had Cropton Real Ale. They didn't. I went on the Cropton Brewery website and rang them to ask where the nearest place was that I could buy some of their bottled goodies. Apparently it is on sale in Tesco. My heart sank... Tesco is a place I don't really want to go to (here's why) and it's the other side of town. But I really wanted to get the beer the band wanted, so I found the Tesco website and rang them... they said yes, Tesco at Askham Bar had it in. I then rang Tesco at Askham Bar to check that they did have it in and I asked them if I'd be able to collect 8 bottles from somewhere easy to get in the store... and they helpfully said yes, come to Customer Services and it's £2.08 a bottle.

The time soon arrived when I had to pack everything up and zoom off to the other side of town to pick up this expensive beer. I got to Tesco at 5.35 and back to Priory St at 5.55... and I didn't have to open up as John the Caretaker, who's quite a character, was already there and sorting the place out.

The next hour was quite hectic... moving tables, setting out chairs, welcoming the band, welcoming stallholders... and quite soon, people started arriving so I was on the door, checking names against a long list who pre booked (£3) and those who just turned up (£4, £3 concessions), and telling people about where the film was and inviting them to buy a raffle ticket or a strip of tickets, or to leave their contact details if they wanted to get our newsletter online....

I was surprised by the numbers of people who came, and not 'the usual suspects' but ordinary people here for a dance. The band got started and yet more people came to get in. If anything, we had too many people... a far better problem than too few! I took a break and had some of the food that the Steiner School had brought.. a nice couscous salad with a bread roll and a veggie sausage, for £2.50. Reasonable, and what I needed. I had a piece of cake afterwards and then went back to my 'organiser' duties.

At one stage, when the band were taking a break, I did a little bit of balloon modelling as there were a handful of children there, and some older folks had one too, including a nice lass called Rachel who I keep bumping into and she is very friendly with me... well she seems to laugh at me a lot. That's OK... far better to laugh at me than to growl and frown....

Towards the end of the break we did the raffle and that seemed to go down well... there were loads of prizes so lots of people happy.

I kept busy during the second half, clearing up bottles and cans and cups and paper plates... everything recyclable I collected to take home. This ended up as two sacks of cans and bottles, a large box of the same, a bag of paper plates, serviettes and food, and a few other things too.

Id taken some compost down for sale on the LETS stall but it didn't sell so i gave it away at the end as I didn't have space in the trailer to bring it back.

Right at the end, when we had cleared up, and after we'd left the building, I had a discussion with a woman called Vicky who seemed to not like 'labels', and I got a bit annoyed trying to explain that I was comfortable with the sciency way of describing things, but I just think she was trying to antagonise me. She succeeded. I cycled home hoping that my bedtime filling-in of my mood forms wouldn't include the negative emotions I was having about the conversation I'd just had... and seeing Gill again did put that all behind me. She'd had a quiet and peaceful evening thank goodness, and was happy to see me.

I was happy that we'd had such a successful event and that everybody had enjoyed themselves so much, and that we raised awareness about Transition and quite a bit of money. I think we ought to do that sort of thing more often.

A busy morning... got up soon after 9am to be ready to take the spare seeds from the York in Transition seed swap along to the YUMI Community Garden.

So, after breakfast and a shower I cycled along to the Danesgate Skills Centre on Fulford Cross and arrived on the dot of 10.30. Sasiki and her colleague Helen Hays, a garden designer, were there waiting, and Nick Haines, the organiser of the seed swap, had just arrived. The idea was to hand over the seeds and get some photos of the handover. A handful of users of the garden arrived; a Mexican woman who's been in York for just one week, to learn English and do her MSc, and two Chinese women and a small boy.

The Press didn't turn up, so we took our own photos and will submit these with some extra copy and hope the Press will run a story next week about our two organisations working together.

I came back via Country Fresh, St Nicks and Freshways, getting home at about 12.30, to find a peaceful household.

I spent the afternoon in the garden, taking stuff down from the conservatory which Gill is tidying, and then I got stuck down there, digging out a compost heap. But halfway through the afternoon, our youngest came down and said we had a visitor... it was Alan Leach, who used to live next door to us in Emerald St, with his three children. I spoke to him on facebook yesterday... he asked if he could drop off a bag of kitchen biodegradables. So it was really good to see him, as haven't seen him for a while.

So they all had a wander down the garden, but didn't stay long. I got on with my rearranging my heaps... I dug out one pallet heap and turned it into a 1 cubic metre builders bag which fits into a wooden holder, and dug out both my Compostumbler bins. All the tumbled material needs to sit in a 'New Zealand Bin' (pallets lined with cardboard) for quite a while before it's ready to use as compost. The adverts saying 'makes compost in 14 days' are complete nonsense. Also, I'm going to have to retire the largest Compostumbler as the metal sheet sides have corroded and now flex so much that the door catches bulge out and prevent the cylinder revolving all the way round. I might be able to purchase new metal bits... the plastic end pieces are fine, it's the sheet metal which is rusting. This is a disappointment as it cost a lot and I'd have hoped it would last a decade or so, but it's only lasted about 6 years I think.

Gill had made a nutloaf mix for tea, and using a plastic tub, formed it into rounds and fried them, making home-made burgers, which we had in bread rolls, with baked beans and mushrooms.

Later in the evening I blanched some grapes to make raisins, and chopped up more pears to dry them.

I got a message from the journalist at The Press saying that the story about YiT and YUMI would probably be in the paper early next week.

A very late start.... didn't get up til 10 and then spent some time making up my muesli. Lots of dried fruit. A lazy morning, the whole family nice and relaxed.

Not very much happened (apart from a bit of chainsawing and splitting) until about 4pm when Nick came round to pick up some compost... he had a cuppa and we worked on a Press Release for the hand over of the spare seeds from the York in Transition seed swap, which are going to YUMI, who are developing a garden to grow food in, for their cooks to use... and York in Transition likes their ethos, so we're happy for them to have the seeds.

Then we went down the garden and I got him a big sack of very well rotted but unriddled compost, two small bags of riddled, a bag of leafmould and a bag of loam, plus some worms for his new wormery. I really like helping people like this!

During the evening I did some dried fruit wrangling, sorting stuff which has dried, and preparing more fresh(ish!) fruit for the racks. But that was probably the most exciting thing to happen this evening, and Nick's visit was the highlight of the day....

A good day! I had a bit of a lie in and was getting up when Thomson rang with details of their web-based service. I could try it out for 3 months, it's a 'pay per click' Google advert.

I spent the rest of the morning on the computer, dealing with the new website, and the business cards arrived, from Rory, my Canadian friend and business partner. I had a bit of Fiddlesticks paperwork to attend to and an invoice to prepare for 'John the Composter'.

After lunch I sorted out the Yam tubercles I promised a blog reader called Duncan, and one of my facebook friends Zion, and popped those in the post first class. I also put the potatoes in egg boxes for chitting, and later, prepared another large load of seed compost (3 half sacks and 6 carrier bags full) which will mean that over the weekend I can plant seeds.

During the afternoon, I went to the front garden to get a sack of kindling sticks which had been drying in the garage for ages, and I'd brought to the front ready for bringing in. I swiftly grabbed it and brought it in, and tipped it into the kindling basket. There was a bit of rustling which didn't sound like the sticks settling, and I looked in and saw something move... perhaps a mouse? Help! I put another basket on top of this one to hopefully prevent it getting out, and took the whole lot to outside the front door, pulling it to behind me. I took the basket off the top and a young rat jumped out and headed down the garden! Oh wow, I am SO glad, so very glad it didn't jump out in the house! That would have been awful, absolutely awful. Next time I bring a sack of sticks in, I'll give it a good rattle outside. This experience left me quite shaken up, heart beating fast. When Gill came back from town and I told her, she was freaked out too.

At 7pm I decided that I was going to go to the Transition meeting, and was glad that I did. I chaired the meeting and it was quite a toughie, with a lot to get through and some potentially difficult negotiations between key players. But it was a good meeting. Home soon after 10pm.