Human Lifestyle

Still feeling quite 'blue' today... not a change of political colour, just my mood is down on usual. But I'm lucky, as I never get down enough to stop me doing things, and today was no exception.

I was woken by shouting and came down to see if I was needed... wasn't really, and I had breakfast and did my emails, and watched a bit of The Big Questions which is often though-provoking. Around this time, Robin arrived with his home-made compost tumbler which he has had to get rid of, as he's reorganising his garden. He's lent it to me on permanent loan. It is a standard wheelie bin, riddled with holes for ventilation, and a centrally-placed pair of holes surrounded by a metal ferrule to strengthen them, through which goes a rod, acting as a pivot. This sits on a wooden stand, allowing it to rotate. The lid is kept shut with some kind of strap and tightener, which took me ages to work our how to use... but I did, eventually. I left this in the front garden for now.

At 11 I cycled off to the allotment, despite my not having one anymore, I've decided to rejoin the Association as firstly I really believe in allotments (despite it not being a religion!) and secondly it allows me to purchase reduced price gardening supplies... so today I spent just £11 on four types of seed potato (£1 a kilo), 'Masterpiece' broad beans, 'Sutton' broad beans, two packets of F1 'Earligold' sweetcorn, two packets of 'Incredible' sweetcorn, mixed broccoli, calabrese 'green sprouting', calabrese 'Chevalier', cauliflower 'Autumn Giant', cauliflower 'Rafael F1', leek 'Musselburgh', courgette 'Bambino', courgette 'Zucchini' ad a packet of 'Early' butternut squash. I also rescued a few bits and bobs from my ex allotment which as yet doesn't have anybody tending it. I might go and rescue my expensive asparagus before they start growing, if I can find them!

As I was coming home, my bike chain, which has been giving me some trouble, broke, so I had to scoot home. As soon as I got in I rang Cycle Heaven and hooray, they were willing to drop everything to have my bike in, as soon as I wanted, and make it better. So I had lunch and scooted/walked back into town and delivered my bike. I was told that I needed a new derailleur mechanism, as mine has been knocked and that's why it has been jumping and causing me problems. So I said yes, and walked into town again to get some money out of the hole in the wall, and then walked on to see if Pauline was in... which she was, and she was happy to see me. She always talks sense and an hour with her made me temporarily forget my woes. We had an interesting conversation about an ethical dilemma. We both have one... hers is sorted, mine hasn't yet happened but I might need to act on some information some time and Pauline had an answer about how best to do that. She is a great friend and in my opinion, a wise woman.

I then picked up my bike and it felt wonderful again! Called in on Country Fresh and Freshways, arrived home very laden. I got home just in time to be useful with the boys, but soon escaped down the garden to install the new tumbler, and filled it completely with assorted garden stuff and greengrocer stuff. I think it'll be a good bit of kit.

A few weeks ago I'd found a bike on the side of the road so I'd rescued it and after a few days, reported it to the Police as lost property. Amazingly, someone had apparently reported it missing and today the Police rang to say they wanted to collect it, so I brought it to the front of the house in anticipation. This is the first time any bike I've found has been claimed. I am very pleased.

Tea was nice.. a rescued avocado, and an experimental pate made by our youngest, who loves cooking (watercress and cashew nut... interesting!), plus a macaroni cheese with cauliflower and broccoli. Good stuff!

However, I still had the blusey feeling hanging over me and I felt quite lethargic during the evening, just no energy or enthusiasm at all. I'm hoping it will blow over.

A lovely day, back to my usual bouncy self. A late start... due to my going to bed after 3am.

Boys and Gill also up late and we all had a lazy morning.

Gill popped into town and I got a message from my friend Caroline inviting me to let her have some of my compost... I was only too happy to oblige! I loaded my trailer up and went to the allotments where she was planting an apple tree. I'm giving up my allotment as I just haven't had a chance to keep it properly, and it needs to go to someone who has more time and more of a need for it. But our garden should be a bit more usable next year as the raised bed area has now got the big nearby hedge removed and this will mean more stuff can be grown in the raised beds... hopefully!

I then visited Country Fresh and chatted with Richard and came home with 2 sacks of compostables, including a whole load of sad Primula plants in pots which might be rescuable.

Had a use it all up evening meal and a reasonably peaceful evening. I watched the Channel 4 programme with stories and videos from the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, which was both fascinating and disturbing.

Later, I jarred up a load of dried pears and put yet more bananas to dry.

A lovely late start to the day, and after breakfast, the others went out and I spent some time in the garden, putting a load of stuff in the old Compostumbler (I love having two!) and then I did my emails and Rich told the YGF Crew that the posters and flyers were ready. I rang him and said I could come and collect at 2pm, but I went outside after the call and noticed that somehow there were loads of wasps outside the glass dome. I decided some more compost and water was a good idea to try to stop them, and I also used a long bamboo to prod under the soil into the cave they had excavated, letting it flood with compost and water, which hopefully will make it more difficult for them to keep going.

I got a bit engrossed in this and left the house to go and get the posters at 2.15... but it only takes me 5 minutes to get to the office where the risograph is, and I got a single two-colour A3 poster, a few A4 two-tone posters and a pile of two-tone flyers. The big poster went up in Country Fresh where I left some flyers (and picked up three sacks of compostables!)... and back home via Freshways who had one bag of resources for me.

I then got secateurs and fork and cycled off to the allotment... the first time in yonks I've been there. I knew the potatoes would be done and ready to dig... so I did a bit of bramble pruning, weeding and dug up three rows of spuds. There weren't many but I dug them all up... the best crop was the Pink Fir Apple.

I got back at about 7pm and Gill had made a kind of Shepherd's Pie with the tomato base I made a day or two ago, some green beans I picked today, and mashed potato (using the potatoes I swapped for apple logs) which was nice and filling.

I lit the stove as I'm working tomorrow and need to wash my hair and trim my beard... and of course, the washing up is a constant chore, one I prefer to do with water heated on the woodstove not gas.

A quite relaxing day, in many ways. Gill went to Art and I eventually went to the allotment with some chitted potatoes and got two rows in! Hurrah! I also pulled out more nettles, by hand (there really isn't any point wearing gloves as part of the love of gardening is being in contact with the soil and plants) and deconstructed a compost heap which fertilised the potato rows.

Home for lunch and then spent the afternoon with Gill, before she went out to have a stitch removed, left from her gall-bladder removal, this one got left behind! I went to school to get our youngest, and took a large plastic sack to collect a dose of school fruit waste. Came back with over 30Kg... would have been thrown away if I didn't rescue it. I wonder when they are going to address the composting situation? I've heard nothing since a 'Health and Safety' **** said 'composting isn't allowed in schools' and my working compost bin was removed.

Gill came home, minus a 1cm long piece of thread in a jar. Greatly relieved! She skimmed the small ads in the Press and saw someone was selling a unicycle for £15, so I rang up and it sounded fine... except it was up in Wigginton, about 5 miles North of here. I decided to go and get it, so cycled up through Haxby, popped into the Cemetery to see a tree I planted in memory of a friend Lin. The tree and plaque I bought were not there. I was a bit upset, but wrote down the details of the people to contact, and will write to them both, just to see if it has been moved...

I then cycled on to where the young man was selling the unicycle. He'd bought a bigger one, with handles on the saddle, to catch when falling or jumping off. I chatted with the whole family, and demonstrated unicycling backwards, paid the asking price (a bargain!) and cycled away with it in my trailer, down the Wigginton Road this time. Near Clifton Moor I found a pallet in the hedge (a rather larger piece of litter than most I pick up!) so brought that back too, coming along the cycle track from near the Hospital all the way to Hull Road, where I picked up a sack of biodegradables from Freshways, and as usual, some friendly banter with the gentlemen who work there.

Home for some squash soup, which was delicious! Had a couple of bread rolls with it... and that was a perfect tea. A relaxing evening, but starting to get ready for going away tomorrow.

Nice bath with woodstove water.... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Did some paperwork this morning... emailing and various Fiddlesticks and Green Festival stuff, including getting a phone call from Ed at the Co-op North Yorkshire Area Committee telling me that they had decided to sponsor York Green Festival again. This is such fantastic news!

After lunch I went to the allotment and dug loads of clumps of grass out, dandelions, thistles, nettles, weeded around the asparagus, and got perhaps enough space to put in my spuds, late but not too late! They'll romp away once in. Someone has stolen some pallets from around one of my compost heaps but pallets are easy to get hold of so I'll just get some more and rebuild.

I love being there, but my hands are now fizzy from all the nettles!

Gill and I made the tea together... I did some potatoes and some fruit for fruit salad afterwards. I doctored the soup with some soya milk and used up some dead spaghetti from a couple of days ago... a right big mix of stuff.

At about 7, went to Lynn's with the bags of clothes she let us look through... Gill only wanted a few bits, and wanted to get shot of the bags of spare stuff. Lynn had also got two squash plants for me, grown from seed from a commercial squash. So, no knowing what might grow from them!

Then onto St Nicks for the York in Transition meeting. Lizzie our facilitator today had gone to the wrong place... The Stables, and cycled fast across town to get to us. It was worth it, a very good meeting.

Spent time on the laptop doing the YiT facebook page, doing an event page for the Transition picnic and multi-sports day on the 31st May. And chatting to Lynn and Ali.

Woke late and wasn't feeling too brilliant, drippy nose, headache and blocked sinuses. However, this was the first free day to sit and write, so wrote my Easter blog!
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/2009/04/green-man-on-dirty-coal.html

Melody came round whilst I was doing this and her son played with ours. So writing was a slow affair as there was chatting and coffee drinking... but by 1pm I was finished. I got dressed and had a late lunch. Lit the stove and did a big wash up and at about 5pm went to the allotment and dug out lots of dandelions and cut back brambles, ready for spuds going in. Rebuilt a pallet compost bin and pulled out loads of sticks from the stuff which came out of it, putting these back into the new pile.

Came back at nearly 9 and reheated the food which Gill had left for me... potatoes, peas, squash and a slice of quiche followed by lemon cake. Yummy.

A very quiet evening.

A bit of a lie-in but not a long one... and popped in to Deb's to see if she wanted any veggies at Country Fresh... got those for her and went to the allotment for an hour to do some digging up weeds and filling the compost heap! Then home via Debbie, quick lunch, and then to the bakers and the Co-op for provisions.

Our youngest went to a birthday party and eldest had a friend around. I got a phone call from Johan asking if I'd like 3 'Brazilian Pine' doors, which have been sitting on his driveway for a couple of years, their plastic wrappers trapping the rain and causing them to rot. Very nice looking pale wood, completely untreated, but unusable as lots of discolouration and at the base, rot. What a waste! However, I said yes to it and fairly quickly turned it into firewood. He came round with a second load of assorted offcuts from his woodworking. He brought Maria and their son, and so we had a cuppa with the adults whilst their son joined the other two lads for an hour.

I then carried on sorting the overflowing logging area, and did some stacking before coming in for tea... Gill had made pastry and a pie with it, containing a mushroom and pepper mix in a sauce. Very nice!

Our youngest's party was due to finish at 8pm so Gill and our other boyo walked up to collect him.. and I got a call to say that Gill had been given a glass of wine and all the boys were playing happily. They eventually came in at about 10pm!

Another poor start to the morning... Gill woke me gently getting back into bed, having got one boyo happily ensconced on his prefered computer game, and the other seemingly happily playing on the Wii, which he likes. We do not wan t them to sit together on the big computer because of yesterdays difficulties. Gill had come back to bed for a lie-in.

However, the child on the Wii wasn't doing as well as he had done previously and started wailing. Gill went downstairs to see what was wrongd told him that today he wasn't allowed to go and watch his brother, but WAS allowed to continue with the Wii. A severe case of 'grass being greener on the other side' then ensued, with maximum volume. Gill tried to ignore it and came back to bed, and explained the situation to me.

However, the 'mortally wounded' child came upstairs and proceeded to wail outside our door, which rather put paid to any lie-in or anything!

Is childhood always this difficult? Is parenting always this difficult? Well, no, sometimes it is much easier for both chld and parent, but this morning was a low pont for two parents and one child. The child in the other room with the more desirable computer game didn't even register there'd been a problem!

So, I came downstairs and put some hot water on the washing up (Gill had lit the stove on the embers from last night) and watched Countryfile, which was mainly a re-run of several previous clips.

Lots of housework today, and mid afternoon, a cycle down to Country Fresh to pick up just one sack of compostables and took it to the allotment, where I spent an hour or just more chopping back the ever vigorous brambles and piling yet another series of layers on the compost heap. Also cut back a large woody shrub just behind the noticeboard which is on the edge of my plot, dug some grassy lumps and turned them over, and chatted to a nice lady called Sue who's partner Jerry or Gerry went to the Solar buyers club last month. I really love being on the allotment.. it's not hugely productive and I'm not mega-organised, but it's a lovely place to be and, well, just mess around. I'll plant some broad bean in soon. I got six packets from Barnitts last month.

Arrived back as it grew dark, at about half four and had some chats with the child who has homework to finish, constructing a questionnaire about 'The News' and how different people receive it, what they think about it, etc. He finished writing it out in neat, and asked all the family members the questions. With help, he rang up various other people (mainly his own age) and got their responses.

We all watched 'You've Been Framed' whilst eating tea... the boys had baked potatoes with stir fry veg/nuts and we had the stir fry with rice. Very tasty.

Later, I half-watched Swarm and tried to get into the mood to do some writing... but I'm just not really feeling like it. This daily diary-account is just about the most I can get myself to do at the moment... and I've a paid blog post to do, my book to keep on with and a column due in at the end of the month...

A little bit of a lie-in as the children were busy and quiet so I actually stayed in bed til 10am.

The children were given the opportunity to come to town with me, to get something for Gill for Christmas, despite her saying she doesn't want anything except a happy peaceful family

I went to get bread and hummus just before lunch, and afterwards went to the allotment. I chopped back loads of brambles and chopped them int shorter bits for composting, and dug up quite a few artichokes which I planted several years ago (3 types) and have been spreading freely ever since... Lovely and peaceful, stayed til about 4pm, when it was getting dark.

I came back via Freshways who had quite a lot of stuff for me to recycle, and when there, was met by my friend Sue who had agreed to meet me, at home, at 4ish, to help her with her studies.
So I went back home and she followed, and she explained her mission. She's already trained as a masseur, and can do several different types, and is now training as an 'iridologist' which is someone who looks into peoples' eyes in order to diagnose illnesses or problems. So Sue first looked into each eye using a magnifying glass with bright LED lights, and then took a series of photographs of each eye, which she'll use to practise diagnosing stuff... I like Sue and have known her for years, but think this is definitely 'yoghurt weaving', and I'll contact my buddy Stu who's writing about this subject. He has the blog (above) and a Facebook page (for those with a Facebook profile) which has even spawned an application where people can give virtual yoghurty gifts to each other.

During the evening I peeled a load of pears and put them to dry... one of my favourites!

A relatively peaceful morning but boys full of energy and aggression. I wasn't feeling up to much, tired and a bit headachey, so just sat and watched Countryfile and after lunch did a bit in the garden and then at about 2.30, to the allotment to dig up the last row of potatoes and remove some more brambles and lay a bit of mulch material... cardboard and a split bamboo window blind.

Came back to find Simon and his son visiting, after going to the York in Transition Eco-Freecycle-Swap event at the Friends' Meeting House, organised by Anna Semlyen. Apparently it was very successful and Simon was able to offload some spare keyboard stuff and a huge pile of butterknives found in a skip, and come back with a Christmas present for our friend Dexter plus a few other bits and bobs.

I wasn't my usual chatty self and as soon as they'd gone I went to bed and slept, coming down sometine about 8, and had a bowl of soup and the pastie Gill got yesterday. A quiet evening, although frustrating as something is going intermittently wrong with my email and internet... it keeps going off. Perhaps it's caught my bug and needs more sleep!

Later though, I was able to access the net and get emails and do this blog (but not my paid blog!) and I found a bug in my fairly new 'Feedjit' live stats tool. Previously, when I've accessed my blog and then left to see the live stats, the tool tells me that I've come onto Feedjit from my blog and has correctly identified that I'm in York. However, now it thinks I'm from Leighton Buzzard! I can tell this as when I hit the button 'remove my details' the Leighton Buzzard stuff goes. I emailed Feedjit to ask why they thought this was happening.

Gill woke me up as the wonderful Caroline Lucas was on an early-morning politics show being interviewed. I am a fan of hers, and am glad that she has been elected to the position of 'Leader' of the Green Party. Now I didn't really want the Green Party to change and have a leader, although I think that the reasons to have a symbolic leader are pretty convincing. So, despite my reservations about my party having a leader, I think we've got exactly the right person. She is extremely articulate and seemingly an accomplished politician, being able to slag off the 'grey' parties extremely well (ie firmly but politely!) and remind the interviewer that being green is fun, gives a better quality of life than the materialistic capitalist nightmare which is ruining this planet. So I say 'Good Luck Caroline' and I hope you become the first of many Green Party MPs.
The rest of the day was marred by homework... well, not homework in itself, but the children's attitude to it, and their behaviour towards Gill and myself. They are incredibly resistant to actually getting on with it. They need constant cajoling, encouragement and help. And even then, there are many bouts of CENSORED...

I went to the allotment for over 3 hours, dug up loads of potatoes and onions.

Most of the day was with activities connected to our German friends... including delivering leaflets for the Green Party with their teenage boy, whom I get on very well with.

I did however have a good hour and a half on the lottie, weeding and digging up spuds... the ground was soft with all the rain we've had, so I was able to pull out big dandelions by hand, the long tap-root coming out easily. All the potatoes have succumbed to the rain but there's a good crop under the soil. The brambles in the boundary areas are burgeoning and many needed chopping back and cutting into short lengths for the compost heap.

A really good day... The boys were on good form as they had their visitor and behaviour is always better when they have visitors!

I took the paperwork from the Planning Panel down to town via Millers Yard, came back via Country Fresh, had lunch went to the allotment and did a lot of clearing up, pulling out nettles, digging potatoes etc.

Came back to make tea for Gill... fried onions on the stove and added some large waste tomatoes and thrown-away basil, and home-made sweet-pepper paprika to make a stewy thing. Also chopped down some flowering perpetual spinach spires, and cut off some leaves and small buds, chopped them up and stewed them on the stove. Then added some pasta to the tomato stew and served it up with the spinach and a little bit of cheese on top... Gill said it was the best meal she'd had for ages.

Later on, I wrote my paid blog on cycling... on panniers and trailers. Then had a quick bath and a chat on Skype with K who has had a good holiday, and was in a happy mood thankfully!

Had a lie-in til 9!!!

Then after breakfast went shopping for Gill at Country Fresh and the Co-op.

Did paperwork, 3 invoices, and collected a booking letter from Woodlands and wrote a reply.

As our eldest son was having a fun day at school (he's in his last few days there) I delivered two cakes Gill had made for their 'banquet' and collected our youngest. Then at 5ish, went to the allotment and spent a good three hours weeding, managing compost heaps and testing potato plants... dug up two white spuds and found a few egg-size and smaller, and two reds and there were lots more. So that was satisfying.

At 8 went to collect my eldest son who's had a picnic, trip to the York Dungeon, water fight and banquet, and couldn't help giggling when he came to the door as he had obviously been having close contact with a chocolate fountain, and he had lots round his mouth and on hs shirt... but a big smile. They'd all had a good time.

Had a reasonable evening, spent some time on the computer in the loft, my laptop plugged into the stand-alone screen, as my screen is completely unusable.

Gill gave me a lie-in and I got up at 9 and had breakfast whilst chatting with Gilly. I rang Ali who is going through some difficult times with her daughter, who is in hospital, very worrying.

I did some paperwork, a cheque in the post, and various computery things whilst Gill went to town and got a futon for our front room, so her sister can have somewhere to sleep.

During the afternoon I went to the allotment to turn the compost heaps and do some weeding.

Gill went to school to get the boys, picked up the eldest and waited to pick up Yoga boy an hour later. I got in soon after she did.

At soon after 7 I went to the York in Transition meeting at St Nicks.

Gill wasn't feeling brilliant so I took the boys into school, told one of the teaching assistants whom I'm friendly with and trust about last night's incident and she couldn't believe it, with a 'what is the world coming to' and gave me a hug. It was good to offload it, and I immediately felt a whole lot better.

I went to the allotment to plant the remaining potatoes... and defoliated an area of ground by hand, then dug it over, removing buttercup and dandelion roots... but didn't get the potatoes planted and I sensed it was getting towards lunch, so I cycled round to Anna's to pick up another load of her vegetation she's cropped to make space for a trampoline, and took it to the Hazel Court/James St civic amenety site for recycling. On the way in I was shouted at by an operative who told me I wasn't allowed in on my bicycle, so I told her I was ignoring the sign saying no pedestrians/cyclists as I had no option wanting to put my recycling in the skips up at the top. I was told this many weeks ago and wrote to the paper about the nonsense of 'no pedestrians' as when the car drivers go to the skips, they get out of their cars and become.... pedestrians..... walking around from one recepticle to another... and I don't have a car to bring my drinks cartons to the site for collection, but use my bike and trailer for this. And as I pay my Council Tax and wish to recycle my wastes, I will continue doing this. But being shouted at doesn't make me feel good, so I am going to write to Yorwaste and the Council and complain. The sign should read 'Cyclists and pedestrians enter at your own risk, please be aware of vehicle movements' or somesuch. The civic amenety site is less dangerous than many of the roads I cycle on, so it makes no sense to ban cyclists on safety grounds.

I came home via St Nicks and arrived home just before 1pm. After lunch did some computery stuff and at 3, went to pick up the boys. Gave in a couple of 'Big Recycle Day' posters to display at school. When we got home I went to the lottie and put in the potatoes.... finished, hooray!

Home before 6pm, last of the soup for tea and then went down to the Priory St Centre for a Greenspeak meeting, on congestion charging. This was very interesting, might make a good paid blog topic. Caroline was there and she gave me some broccoli seedlings, a pepper plant in a bucket and a stunted tomato.... I'll give her some compost next week, in part-exchange. I'm very pleased with the broccoli.

Home via Country Fresh... two sacks and a box.

Had a bath to remove allotment from my legs.

Up late, watched an entertaining but daft TV prog called Kyle XY... Gill enjoyed it too.

A busy day, up before 8, asked by Gill to get one of the children downstairs and get him dressed. I managed to do this and then distracted both of them (whilst they ate breakfast) by reading them a book which arrived in the post yesterday, sent to me by CRAGger Anna in Peckham, who knows my enthusiasm for composting. It's an American book called 'The Magic School Bus Meets the Rot Squad, A Book About Decomposition' (published by Scholastic Inc, ISBN 0-590-40023-1, 1995) It is a childrens' book, aimed perhaps at 4-7 year olds, so a bit young for my 8 and 10 year olds, but it was funny and appreciated. More than this, it helped them forget that they weren't wanting to go to school and they went on autopilot, I took them in without any problems whatsoever.

Home and to work.... got three carrier bags of potting material together, one of loam, one leafmold and one compost, and put these with the rotaseive ready for Green Thumbs this afternoon, where we are potting on seedlings from their seed compost in tiny pots into richer compost in bigger pots. Then I got six carrier bags of riddled compost to take to the veg shop and then on to the lottie to prepare three trenches to plant more potatoes, which went in soon after. Got home at 1.45, more than ready for lunch.

Did a bit of computery stuff after lunch and so soon it was 3 o clock and time to go to school to help out with the Green Thumbs Gang... my job was to show the children how to riddle the various materials and then use the resultant mix to pot up the seedlings.

As the children were getting ready to leave, I had a brief word with the mother of L----- who attends the gardening club and is wildly enthusiastic and talkative. A couple of days ago L had picked several horse chestnut leaves off a tree and was using them in various poses as costume/playthings and she came to show off to me. I asked her whether she should have picked them... in retrospect this was a little bit too much of a 'killjoy' and perhaps a bit strict and authoritarian. However, I was brought up to not pick stuff off plants as some are toxic (ivy, laburnum), others irritate skin (hogweed) and others cause photosensitisation. Also, picking wild flowers is illegal and picking something from someone elses property could get someone into trouble. Also, leaves are there to help the plant grow... all these things are reasonable rerasons not to pick plants willy nilly. But I accept that it was inappropriate to ask L the question. Her mother, however, told me not to speak to her child as I wasn't her teacher and I had no right to speak to her 'like that'. I apologised immediately but wanted to say why I'd asked her if she should have picked the leaves, so I'd written a note to L's mther and tried to give it to her after the gardening club.

Her reaction was quite extreme... she said if I didn't leave her alone she'd call the police, and then said "I'm sure they have your details already" which was most unkind and it made me think that she thinks I'm some sort of criminal! It upset me but I remained polite. Her words went round my mind all evening. I did speak to Julia, the Green Thumbs chair, and she was shocked and suggested I let the school know about the situation. There's nothing that can be 'done' about this, but incase she makes any allegations in the future or kicks off with someone else, I decided to tell someone at school.

An evening worth forgetting after this. Didn't feel very happy.

A relaxing day, woke before the children went to school. one wasn't wanting to go but he begrudgingly allowed me to help him get dressed, and Gill took them in. Once in school, he was happy and told his mum that he was glad to be there... fickle or what?

I needed to go to the Civic Amenity site to get rid of several bags of drinks cartons which can be collected for recycling there, and I took the old wheelbarrow which has been rusting in the garden since we moved here in 2001, and put it in the metal skip for recycling... really glad that cyclists are now allowed into the site without any hassle. Then on to Country Fresh but Jamie's promised load wasn't in yet, so came home via the lottie where I prepared the compost heaps for the coming onslaught, ie layered them with cow-parsley stems and docks and nettles. Had a friendly chat with my neighbour Jackie, who's nearly been thrown off her plot due to it being left to get too weedy. My plot is looking untidy but it is being used... onions, leeks, potatoes, asparagus, artechokes, 4 compost heaps....

Home on the dot of 1pm, lunch and chats with Gill who had been to town, and got money back on some trousers she'd got for me and didn't fit.... I'm a bit fatter than she thinks I am!

I then had a VERY satisfying time planting up a lot of seeds... better late than not at all! So loads of curcubits, sweetcorn and beans. Hooray!

I went to school but came home with no-one as my eldest went to a friend's house and my youngest was doing yoga. Home to go to the veg shop to collect a large pile of stuff from the wholesaler... and was only just strong enough to get this to the lottie, and it took quite a time to get it piled up and layered on the three heaps that are currently being used. Home in time for a quick shower before bombing down to the Bishopthorpe Road to 'Lal Quila' where the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel were having an unusual meeting. We were ushered upstairs, but then we got a message that Carolyn had arrived and she couldn't get up the stairs, so we came down and had our beers, poppadoms and onion bhajis plus the one planning application we needed to look at. It was a very enjoyable meeting, so thank you to Abul, one of our members, who suggested the change of venue and was our host for the evening.

I cycled down to the council offices to put the reply to the planning application in their letterbox, and came back via Jamie's van where I picked up another load and took it to the allotment.

Home by 9.30 pm, lit the stove so I could wash up and dry some apples not saleable but washable, peelable, core-able, slice-able and dryable.... and also ditto to a melon.