Human Lifestyle

A fairly quiet day although I did quite a bit of chainsawing and chopping in the front.  I'd brought home a load of fairly thin branches with lots of twigs, so these needed some processing with secateurs.  The twigs will be fed through the shredder and will make a woody layer in one or more of my compost heaps, to enable the greengrocer's 'resources' to rot down successfully.  I chopped up the sticks thicker than my finger to make a sack full of kindling, once it is dry.

As for the rest of the day... where did it go?

I really don't know.  I did some paperwork and various other inside activities, dealt with phone calls and emails and facebook messages, children and washing up, stoves and compostables.  Just an average day.

Another nothingy day... I slept in late, not surprising as I went to bed at about 3am.

Gill took the boys into town on the bus mid afternoon to go and buy books with the book tokens they got for Christmas, and I did a short bit of chainsawing and splitting.  I now have no more logs which need cutting and very few rounds which need splitting.  But now there's a big pile of stackable stuff which I need to attend to...

Before the family got back I hopped onto my bike to go down to Country Fresh, but they'd closed at 4pm and I'd arrived at 4,20.  I popped in to my friend Debbie as her daughter in law is due to have a baby, which will make her a grandma. So, the news was that she'd been induced, so baby will arrive... well, sometime in the next 24 hours...  I'm looking forward to the excited text message, although Debbie says I'll hear her shout from here when she hears the news!

So, tea was a pastie which Gill got from town, plus a mix of parsnip (phew, now finished!) pasta and tomato sauce.  I had a nice Skype chat with Laura after tea, to catch up with what she'd been doing over Christmas.

So, a fairly nondescript day, nothing particularly exciting.

I had intended to go to St Nicks today and help with some coppicing, but Gill wasn't feeling too brilliant so I decided to stay closer to home and do some work in the garden, chainsawing and compost bin filling, harvesting artichokes, tidying.

I popped round to the bread shop, and after lunch went into town to put in a cheque and find a 'seasonal gift' for the family.

I came back via Richard at Country Fresh, and made a really good nutloaf, with equal amounts of breadcrumbs and grated parsnip.  I also put all the dried red and yellow pepper in the liquidiser goblet and reduced it all to dust, sieved it so that I had a bowl full of sweet pepper paprika.  Melody came to pick up her Suma order, so I gave her a jar of the paprika as a seasonal present.  She gave us a bag of foraged nuts, some jam and chocolates.

The nutloaf was delicious.  I zoomed into town after tea as I wanted to attend the York Green Party AGM at the Guildhall.  I enjoyed this.  Then I visited Anna as she hires out TENS machines and I borrowed one for Gill.  However, I'd asked on Freecycle about one and I had an offer there too.

I enjoyed a science programme quite late into the night, and a nice facebook chat with my friend Lisa.  She is fun.

I got up at 10ish and by the time I'd had breakfast and woken up properly, it was too late to go into St Nicks and help with their coppicing task.  I ought to have been there when things were starting.  I'll try to get to another EcoActive day task.

So I had a quiet day, with an hour or so working outside, chainsawing and stacking. I cycled round to the bakers in the morning and bought cereals at the Co-op.

Once again I had quite a lot of time on the laptop, keeping the stoves going, making sure my boys were OK, doing kitchen stuff, jarring up dried fruit.

I spent quite a long time filling in a questionnaire to help a student with research.

Well a traumatic start to the morning but both children did go to school and this allowed us to get on with a variety of paperwork-type things, despite feeling stressed, tiredness and having a headache. I wrote and sent an invoice,  received a cheque for the Pickering Transition event, and got the paperwork through for a series of 5 gigs as Father Christmas in Dewsbury and Huddersfield.  I don't really enjoy being Santa Claus, although the excited kiddies wouldn't know that as I remain professional and do my very best.  For me, being Professor Fiddlesticks doesn't actually seem like work most of the time, as I genuinely enjoy myself, and Fiddlesticks is more the real me than John Cossham is.  But acting as Saint Nicholas is tough, it is definitely work, not play.  I'd rather not get offered more Father Christmas gigs, unless the money is very good, which in these cases, it isn't.  But I'm in a situation where I cannot afford to turn down any paid work, so I look forward to the eventual cheque and will ensure that I work hard and do a good job.

So, once I'd done some of this paperwork, and dealt with a sales phone call as politely as possible, I did some outside work... a load of chainsawing, collecting the final load of logs from the Millfield Lane house and processing them, and at 4, I cycled round to Beryl the Freecycler in Heworth, who had offered a pair of size 9 steel toe cap wellington boots, and I went to try them on.  They fitted me perfectly and she was happy to give them to me.  On the way back I got a heavy wooden pallet.  I also collected one sack of fallen beech leaves from a nearby tree, and added these to the leafmould pile.

The boys came back having had a good day at school which was a relief.

In the evening I did a big pan of stewed apple, using the tasty cooking apples from our garden, and Gill made a celery soup which was really nice.  Later on in the evening my headache went away, probably due to a second dose of paracetamol.  I enjoyed the last of the 3 programmes on the National Grid... a fascinating subject.

Quite a low mood day today.  However I did get a lovely phone call from someone wanting to book me for a Christmas party in a nursery, and I explained how I could alter my usual show to fit the youthful audience.  We chatted and it turned out she is on the Committee for the village Mayday celebrations, AND she's involved with a school.... so that conversation could lead to a number of gigs.  Let's hope so!

As the weather was nice I did a good hour or so of chainsawing, chopping up all the chunky hazel and some of the recently rescued skipped logs.  I enjoyed doing the chainsawing and splitting... I might do some stacking tomorrow, depending on how bad the weather is.

I made a nutloaf from bread, peanut butter, cooked quinoa, nuts, onions and some finely chopped pumpkin.

In the evening I cycled over to the station to buy my tickets for Cambridge on Friday, but there were no advance tickets left, so it will be a buy-it-on-the-day situation, at a cost of £66.  But that's an off-peak return, so I don't have to get a certain train back... but I may not get a seat.  I called in to see Dylan and did his recycling collection, and then on to Green Drinks at the Three Legged Mare.  It was a fairly quiet meeting, but good to see my friend Tracy and one of her friends, Jenny and her partner, Katie and her partner, June Tranmer, both Green Councillors, a nice chap called Julian, Peter and Edward from Transition, JZ and others.  Andy Chase showed up and asked me to sign the Election Expenses forms.

Towards the end of this jolly social, I noticed that there were four pumpkins/squashes, on a shelf, as decoration.  One of them, the big pumpkin, was going soft and just beginning to leak.  The other 3, winter squash, were sound and wholesome.  I spoke to the bar staff and told the boss-lady that her pumpkin was about to leak all over the place, and would she like me to take it away for composting? She was happy with this offer... and gave me the 3 squashes too.  Excellent!  Apparently they had been props at the Theatre Royal and had been brought in a while ago.  She'd intended to take the squashes home and cook with them, but hadn't had time to do that.  I was surprised that she gave them to me.

So I cycled slowly home with a heavy load, and when inside, started to deal with the pineapples which I've had sitting outside the front door for a few days.  Still feeling a bit grumpy.

Not a brilliant start to the day.  Something is whirring round my mind, a situation I want to resolve and make better and I'm feeling quite annoyed and angry about it.  But I got on with the day, did some wooding; a neighbour came round and asked if I'd like their shed which they'd taken down... I went to look but most was painted, and I don't burn painted wood.  But there were a load of floorboards and structural timber from inside, so I came away with a trailerfull. I chainsawed this up and quite a bit more. 

Mid afternoon I set off for Pauline's house, as she too is preparing for winter with her Clearview Stove. She's getting a bit old to chop logs and relies on a few willing volunteers to help.  In return for doing a bit of sawing, I get what can only be described as 'good counsel' and the benefit of her wisdom, although I'm sure she would deny that she has much of that.  I would argue strongly that she is someone who I trust with all sorts of difficulties and issues, and she always has something worthwhile to say.  I really value her opinions and observations.  Today was no different, as I shared my dilemma, and she picked out the crux of the problem, looking at it from the point of view of a mother and woman of mature years... just the perspective I needed.  She helped me see that anger and frustration were not going to get me anywhere positive with this, and to be gentle, measured and apologetic would probably have the better result in the long run. 

Our coffee and stollen and conversation finished at about 5pm and I cycled down to the Millennium Bridge, through the allotments (I had a quick peek at the YUMI plot) and along to Simon and Melody's house, as they had invited us to a party.  I arrived about 3 minutes before Gill and the boys rolled up in a taxi; Gill had made a cake with a spider's web design on and a pumpkin pie made with bought flaky pastry.  She'd spent most of the afternoon trying to find a costume for our youngest to wear, no time for making pastry therefore.

I was pleased to see Natalie, their daughter, who has come back from her first term of Fine Art at Oxford.  She'd made a very good pumpkin soup which was delicious.  Gill's pie was nice too.  There were fewer visitors than usual, Lee and Christine came and I had a nice chat with Christine who works for English Nature and knows our friend Sarah Woolven.  The children seemed to be happy and occupied, and near 8pm started to get excited about Merlin on TV.  I came home via a woodpile. I do not get excited by Merlin on TV, and was glad of a TV-free evening when I got in.

I enjoyed a facebook chat with my friend Loony who is staying with my sister in Sheffield.  Loony and I have a similar sense of humour and outlook on life, but of course, I'm not as loony as she is!  I'm glad my sis is having a good time with Loony, and will be doing Halloweeny things tomorrow with our niece and nephews.

The partygoing family members came in well after 9pm, closer to 10; they'd walked back.

Did fruit and washing up, and was awake when my laptop clock went from 1.59 to 1.00. 

Well, not too bad a day, as I had a relatively late start and got busy with assorted household things, and also some stacking, splitting and chainsawing.  I got a fantastic booking for next April, a big event where I'll be performing to over 100 people - and a good fee promised, too.

During the afternoon I made a pumpkin loaf for the York Rotters Pumpkin Evening.  I used a wholemeal loaf which I made into breadcrumbs in the blender, and also a big spoonful of very dry Meridian peanut butter from the base of the pot, which all blended in very nicely.  I then added a whole onion, chopped, and a red pepper, chopped, and about a third of a pumpkin, grated, and a handful of chopped mixed nuts.  For flavouring I used some red wine, Balsamic vinegar, bouillon and mixed herbs... and a dash of cumin.  Then to bind it, an egg.  I mixed it really really well, and turned it into a greased dish which I'd lined with mixed seeds.  I microwaved it for 10 minutes, and then turned it out onto a baking tray and bunged it in the oven on Mark 6 for 20 minutes... and left it in the oven with the gas off for 20 minutes before taking it to St Nicks in a cake tin.

I also took one of my boys and a friend who lives up the road, both of whom enjoy carving pumpkins and had a good evening.  I took my biggest pumpkin for the competition... mine weighed no more than 2kg, the winning one was over 40kg.   I spent most of the evening peeling dried pumpkin seeds, and then sorting out fresh ones from the pulp.  Two people requested my nutloaf recipe, so I'll send them this link.

The three of us got home at about 8pm and our visitor stayed for another 45 minutes or so.  I had a fairly relaxing evening... washing up, sorting out pumpkin seeds (I have a bucketful to deal with!) and keeping the stove going.

A mixed day, woken by yelling so came downstairs to just be around and I didn't have to do anything but be there.  Both boys went to school. 

Gill went to Physio and I spent some time dealing with emails and then got the chainsaw and chopped up 3 large pallets, and a few branches and logs.  I had lunch at the usual time, on the dot of 1pm, and then I got a phone call which changed the mood of the day.

I'm well known for collecting waste wood to replace fossil fuel use, and find untreated timber in skips, and sticks and logs in nearby woodland, and people with gardens sometimes let me have fuel, and tree surgeons sometimes drop stuff off.  When I arrived in Hull Road in 2001, I saw that there was a small patch of woodland in the front of the Woodlands MS Respite Care Centre, and I spoke to the grounds managers who said that they put chopped branches and shrubs there, and I could have them if I wanted them.  So since then, I've been collecting bits and bobs of sticks and branches from there several times a year.  I'd not seen the need to ask every time, taking the gardener's words as good enough.  When the Centre was going to fell a tree, I offered to pick up the logs and they were more than happy to save money and let me do the clearing up.  This has happened twice.

So, last Thursday, I went into the wood in the afternoon and tidied up some tipped branches, and in the evening, at dusk, went back to pick up a wheelbarrow full of sticks.  As I was doing this, one of the volunteer managers, Mel, spotted me in the woodland and asked what I was doing there. I answered truthfully and she went and left me to finish what I was doing.

This afternoon, Rachel, the Volunteering and Fundraising Co-ordinator, phoned me and told me that I hadn't had permission to go in the woodland and that I was trespassing, and what was I doing there in the dark anyway?  The upshot of the conversation was that she is no longer wanting me to be a volunteer there, and help the grounds management staff with their clearing up behind the Centre. I feel this is unfair, as I didn't think I was doing anything wrong, and I didn't hear any message from her when we arranged the induction, which was to be on Thursday, about ceasing to use that space... in fact, I didn't mention that arrangement and she claims that she didn't know.  So it's a sad situation, as they have lost a potential keen volunteer worker, and I've lost a source of logs which I was looking forward to.  All the logs at the back will now be burned on a bonfire, instead of me sorting through them and making a wildlife pile with the smaller bits, and taking bigger bits off site in my own time.  Shame, left me feeling sad.

But then Clive my Green Party friend arrived.  He'd asked if I wanted help delivering some of the election leaflets, so we walked for nearly 2 hours around the local area and delivered several hundred of them.  We got a bit of a chance to chat, and it turns out he worked in the same place as Gill's father, and remembers him.  This was nice to come back to Gill with.

I had a quick tea and at 6.15 went to Tang Hall Library for the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel.  We had quite a jolly time, and dealt with just 3 applications.

I came home via a skip; I'd spoken to the builders earlier and they were more than happy for me to take some wood out. I got two trailer loads of big roof beams.

Later on, I lit the stove, washed up, chopped apples, watched Ideal and played Scrabble on facebook, which is pretty well back to normal.  So, a mixed day. 

A good day for me...  up early and then at 10.30 I headed off to St Nicks to meet Peter, whom I met yesterday.  He was very interested in our local eco centre, as he believes that to spread the message of how to keep our Planet habitable, we need a network of similar places for people to be educated and be inspired, find information and hold meetings.

So I showed him the various 'bits' of the Environment Centre, the passive solar design, Sedum roof, rainwater harvesting, compost toilets/waterless urinal/strawbale urinal, photovoltaic and hot water solar panels, the energy balance display, woodstove and the York Rotters stuff.

Then we went out onto the nature reserve and looked at the John Lally Wood, the original mature trees in their dips, where the clay cap on the landfill wasn't put.  And to the stone circle, the kids playground where a very friendly little boy was playing on a swing with two women with him, and then back to the Environment Centre.  Here I had a brief chat with Catherine and left Peter chatting with Ivana.

I came home via Freshways and picked up a sack of wilting greenery and sad foreign vegetables.  I had the usual sandwiches for lunch.  Whilst eating lunch Gill and I spotted the very persistent squirrel leaping over to the walnut tree and leaving with another nut.  It (or they?) has had about half of the crop so far, and I'm getting increasingly annoyed as I really want a crop of walnuts.  The live trap is being ignored... fresh walnuts are obviously too much of a pull.  A few days ago, last week, I rang the RSPCA about their advice about squirrels and how to deal with them.  Drowning them is illegal, as is releasing them elsewhere, as they are officially vermin.  We're talking about the American Grey here, introduced as a novelty by the Victorians, and they've pushed our native Red Squirrel to the brink of extinction due to competition for habitat and because of the Squirrel Pox virus that they carry, which kills the Reds. The RSPCA told me that I ought to get a pest control person out to kill the squirrel in the trap.  They'd either do this with a gun, or release it into a hessian sack and hit it on the head when it was in the corner of the sack.  So it's a bit of a problem, as I don't fancy the clobbering method and I understand why drowning them is inhumane, and I haven't got a gun.  Still trying to work out solutions, and a second phone call to the nearest vet didn't get any results either.

But I'd heard that squirrels don't like chilli so Gill mixed up some curry powder with Vaseline, and we spent half an hour wiping as many nuts as we could with this, just a thin smear, to get the taste onto the nut.  I have no idea if this will prevent them getting taken.

At about 2pm, a Freecycler called Chris called, and delivered a stainless steel sink which he's taken out of a kitchen he's doing up.  Our white enamel sink is horrible and stained and Gill's been asking for a while about replacing it.  This one seems to be the right size, although it needs the tap moving so the drainer is on the right. 

I did some chainsawing, to keep on top of the bits and bobs I regularly bring home.  I also did a bit of compost management, and some weeding, and picked the three remaining Winter Squash.

For tea I had a stir-fry of courgette, home grown sweetcorn and green beans, the pakora from the Sheffield Freegle Ceilidh and a couple of felafel, which Gill bought.  Gill had made a delicious chocolate and banana cake so I had a small square of that... yummy!

In the evening I made up my muesli, made some carrot and tromboncino squash soup, and did another large batch of fruit for drying...

I had a slow start to the day as I'd worked hard yesterday but after lunch I decided to get my trailer mended, and as I got it ready to put on my rack to cycle it down to James St, a wiry old chap walked past and stopped and came down the drive asking where I got it made, or if I'd made it myself. I told him a friend had made it (Rob Kay) but I was getting it mended and was just off down to The Raylor Centre where there is a welder and car bodywork repairer. Tom, his name was, suggested that I should go to 'Blackers' in Osbaldwick, and then proceeded to tell me how to get there three times in a row! He said they'd do it for a couple of quid and on the spot, there and then.

So, I decided to give his suggestion a go, as the place at the Raylor Centre always needs me to leave it overnight and charges £10 cash or £20 with a receipt. I easily found Blacker Steel and a gent said he'd do it there and then... and indeed, only wanted a couple of quid for it. I gave him a fiver. I'll use that company in future!

On the way back I noticed an apple tree in the hedge which I went to look at, and then a greengage. I picked a couple of greengages but most weren't ripe, and a very little old lady came past and pointed down the Osbaldwick Link Road and said there were sweeter ones down there. So I went to look... and found two yellow cherry plum trees, one still with lots on the tree but lots on the ground, so I picked up quite a few there. Then I continued towards Hull Road and found another similar tree, with almost the whole crop on the pavement; it was thick with yellow cherry plums, and I almost filled the carrier bag I had. Opposite here were some damson trees absolutely laden. I have put these trees on the York Wild Fruit map which is part of the Edible York project.

I came home and my youngest son was enjoying his birthday party... although he had his big day earlier in the month, his party was today and he had 3 friends round, and they were all playing computer games together. I did a big load of chainsawing.

A Freecycler came round and picked up our unwanted armchair, at last! We advertised it yonks ago but it wasn't picked up... but Mairi posted a wanted and she came to see it and loved it... and put it in her car. Great!

A bit later, Melanie came briefly to pick up a carrier bag of compost.

I stacked logs and prepared a few plums from our Victoria Plum tree, then worked til 3am doing various things including a VAST pile of washing up. Enjoyed Ideal on BBC3 and Glasto revisited on BBC4.

Quite a good day... up at 9ish and Gill had already gone to her physio appointment, to see if her leg pain can be cured.

I had the usual muesli and emails... I'm pleased that since paying for extra Tiscali email space, the number of spam emails has dropped hugely. Now I need to contact them about the occasional bounces possibly caused by my sending emails out using the Phone Co-op but with a Tiscali address... Ben has tried to explain this to me but so far the problem persists.

I also got a letter from a friend who I thought I'd lost contact with, but she's a poet and her publisher contacted me inviting me to buy her latest book. I did so, but put in a note to pass onto my friend. I'm glad she's well and is now more easily contactable as the violent man she was hiding from has died. Previously I had to write to her mother who passed on the letter... or not! My last letter (4 or 5 years ago) was not answered.

I got busy outside and continued shredding the holly that Gill took out, and then did some quite radical pruning myself, taking out a lot of dead clematis and honeysuckle from a pergola, and then cutting back a hedge with privet, beech, a shrub with pink blobby flowers and quite a bit of bramble... all shredded! Some of this I used immediately but I also bagged some up for future use.

Then I took the electric 50m extension flex up the garden to the front and did a good load of chainsawing. I heard another chainsaw somewhere near and cycled round trying to find it, n case of some more logs becoming available, but I didn't find it as it kept on stopping. So I visited Debbie to see how she was and then picked up a couple of logs from the nearby woodlands where logs are often dumped.

I dealt with Melody and Simon's redcurrants and later, Gill and I made jelly out of the juice.

A good day... spent from about 9am til lunchtime finalising some paperwork with Gill, and then I phoned in the information to the relevant authorities. This was a big relief.

During the afternoon I sorted out the front garden, tidying, chainsawing up some logs, splitting them. Tara popped in briefly to pick up some muesli base; we got 20kg from Suma last time and usually I only get 10, so I've spare, and when she asked last week about the next Suma order, I said we'd just had one, but her request of a bit of muesli base could be granted.

Once she had been and gone, I went down the garden to continue with the pond area, which I'm really enjoying doing. I put a load of ground elder roots in the centre of the newly vacated 'New Zealand bin' made of pallets raised up off the ground, with a load of vegetation and twigs under them (and some fruit and veg 'resources') and will put a load more on top... the roots will cook!

I came in at 6ish to have tea, a pile of pasta with the rems of tomato soup on, with home grown courgette and our first tomatoes too! Then it was off out to go to the St Nicks AGM.

This slowly got started, after a glass of elderflower wine and some cakes, with a presentation from Lizzie Freeman about Edible York. Lizzie explained how this group had formed following the York in Transition 'Food Open Space' meeting and a visit to the Incredible Edible Todmorden conference. She told us that this local group was part of a much wider move to grow food locally, including Grow Sheffield, Edible Middlesborough and Shoreditch Vacant Lots. We were told about the two current EY projects, Abundance and GardenAble.

For me, Edible York is a very exciting project... and I'm delighted to have donated 30 sacks of compost to the Paragon St raised beds. There are quite a few future sites, including perhaps a big area in the Museum Gardens and, if lucky, a raised bed near the Theatre Royal.

After a break, the AGM proper started. Gail chaired and after her intro, introduced Catherine from York Rotters, Jonathan the new Volunteer Co-ordinator, Rachel the Schools Education Co-ordinator, Tom who's in charge of the recycling collections, and finally Ivana the Centre Manager. There were presentations from all of these people. Ivana told us about the most recent award, given yesterday, the 'Green Pennant', which St Nicks has earned for it's high quality green space.

Then there were the simple elections of the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer (Tina Funnell is the new Chair, the Treasurer post is now vacant.... anybody want to volunteer? If so, contact St Nicks!) and the Management Group were all voted in too. Several people were leaving their voluntary positions and got thanked.

I didn't hang around to chat once it had finished; I put a small donation in the perspex-fronted compost bin and cycled off towards the University, where a tree has been taken down and the logs left for people to pick them up. Goody!

Home after 10.30pm, and later, I lit the stove to get rid of some of the assorted paper and card etc, and to get some hot water for a late night wash up.