I overslept... oh dear. I'd told Debbie that I'd be with her at 9am to go and deliver some Green Party leaflets. She had a meeting at 11 so needed to be back before then, but I woke at 10am and didn't remember about the leaflets til about 11. I popped a note through her door apologising and later she rang and we sorted out another time to deliver them.
Gill got really busy cleaning the downstairs loo, inspiring me to do a job lot of washing up with solar heated water, and some hoovering.
After lunch I was expecting Katalin to come and visit but she rang and said transport was difficult so could she come tomorrow. I had no problem with that and got busy in the garden, riddling yet more material for the large raised bed, and taking worms from this compost to one of the wormeries which I think needs some help... I've found some dead worms in it and some maggots. I wonder what that is about?
At about 5 I walked round to Debbie's and we walked down to Heslington Road to deliver 200 'Vote for Andy Chase' leaflets.
In the evening I met with Tony at the Black Swan to do some more work on the York World Naked Cycle Ride. We finalised the route, decided who was doing what with regards to contacting various people, and it's all coming together pretty well I think.
After this meeting, which took 2 hours, we spent another hour chatting and getting to know each other which was really nice, as although I've known Tony for a while, I've never socialised with him.
I got home just after 11.15 and lit the stove so I could do the washing up from tea time.
Showing posts with label composting worms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label composting worms. Show all posts
Up at 8.50am when Gilly came upstairs saying she had to get washed and dressed, so she could take something into school which had been left behind. I told her that I would do it, and quickly got washed and dressed, got my bike out and delivered the thing to school by about 9.10.
Then Gill and I sat on the sofa, chatting whilst I was doing email stuff, until about 11, when I needed to get ready to deliver my compost to Rich and Moz... and have lunch with them. I also needed to get a shopping list together as I was planning to come back via Sainsburys. I set off with 4 sacks of very well matured compost at about 11.40, slowly as this was perhaps 70 or 80 kg, and I used the cycle track to get over to Burton Stone Lane where my buddies were waiting for me, and happy to show me their new house. They have a small yard with some pots of old soil in, and mainly dead plants, and the compost is to pep up the existing soil to enable them to grow a few crops and flowers to brighten up the yard.
I met Alex, who's the new singer with The Falling Spikes, who was visiting and writing songs with the more long-standing members. We chatted and listened to assorted tracks, on Spotify and YouTube... and then at 1.30 pizza materialised and that went down a treat.
Moz and I walked up to his ladyfriend's house, and Jenny was expecting us... she'd invited me to give her some advice on ground-elder removal. I was unable to give her good news on ground elder, apart from it being edible... which she knew anyway.
I left at about 2.45 and bombed into town, through to Sainsburys to get margarine and bread, and I was tempted by a bottle of cheap Baileys.
When I got home at 3.20, another visitor was waiting... Sue, whom I'd met at St Nicks a few days ago, had said she'd be coming sometime between 3 and 4, to collect some 'tiger worms' to start off her wormery. So we chatted a bit and when the restof the famly came in, we went down the garden to pick up some worms. Many of my compost bins have quite tight fitting lids, and worms seem to like sitting in the lids, which makes collection or harvesting very easy. So we collected quite a few... certainly enough to start one or two small wormeries. Sue also wanted a carrier bag of riddled compost, so altogether I'd had a good day of sales and info-sharing.
I had meant to get into the garden to sort out some compostables, but I got a email from some people in Bradford who wanted info on community composting, and this reply took some while.
And then tea was ready... a really thick tomato soup, and a slice of tasty nutloaf with fried mushrooms. Yummy!
And then it was soon time to go to the Black Swan for a World Naked Bike Ride planning meeting. Good to see Tony and Hugh... we more or less finalised the route, and discussed various other issues.
I got back soon after 9 and watched some of the 'Canoe Man' drama, washed up, played Scrabble on facebook, and did more washing up.
Then Gill and I sat on the sofa, chatting whilst I was doing email stuff, until about 11, when I needed to get ready to deliver my compost to Rich and Moz... and have lunch with them. I also needed to get a shopping list together as I was planning to come back via Sainsburys. I set off with 4 sacks of very well matured compost at about 11.40, slowly as this was perhaps 70 or 80 kg, and I used the cycle track to get over to Burton Stone Lane where my buddies were waiting for me, and happy to show me their new house. They have a small yard with some pots of old soil in, and mainly dead plants, and the compost is to pep up the existing soil to enable them to grow a few crops and flowers to brighten up the yard.
I met Alex, who's the new singer with The Falling Spikes, who was visiting and writing songs with the more long-standing members. We chatted and listened to assorted tracks, on Spotify and YouTube... and then at 1.30 pizza materialised and that went down a treat.
Moz and I walked up to his ladyfriend's house, and Jenny was expecting us... she'd invited me to give her some advice on ground-elder removal. I was unable to give her good news on ground elder, apart from it being edible... which she knew anyway.
I left at about 2.45 and bombed into town, through to Sainsburys to get margarine and bread, and I was tempted by a bottle of cheap Baileys.
When I got home at 3.20, another visitor was waiting... Sue, whom I'd met at St Nicks a few days ago, had said she'd be coming sometime between 3 and 4, to collect some 'tiger worms' to start off her wormery. So we chatted a bit and when the restof the famly came in, we went down the garden to pick up some worms. Many of my compost bins have quite tight fitting lids, and worms seem to like sitting in the lids, which makes collection or harvesting very easy. So we collected quite a few... certainly enough to start one or two small wormeries. Sue also wanted a carrier bag of riddled compost, so altogether I'd had a good day of sales and info-sharing.
I had meant to get into the garden to sort out some compostables, but I got a email from some people in Bradford who wanted info on community composting, and this reply took some while.
And then tea was ready... a really thick tomato soup, and a slice of tasty nutloaf with fried mushrooms. Yummy!
And then it was soon time to go to the Black Swan for a World Naked Bike Ride planning meeting. Good to see Tony and Hugh... we more or less finalised the route, and discussed various other issues.
I got back soon after 9 and watched some of the 'Canoe Man' drama, washed up, played Scrabble on facebook, and did more washing up.
An earlyish start as the builders came at 8.30am and started putting up the noisy scaffold tower. I got up and made them tea and coffee, and asked about the TV aerial which is attached to the chimney which is coming down. I was prepared to go and buy a new bracket/fixing, but realised that I'd need a new pole or pole extension... and might also need a cable extension, so I decided to ring round various areal people and see if a professional can do it.
After several phone calls, I found someone who can sort it tomorrow.
Then I had to get rid of a pile of compostables from the kitchen, and whilst I was doing this, collected a load of composting worms which conveniently put themselves in the bin lids... perfect fro harvesting and relocating into my new 'worm cafe' which is already filling up.
Then I cleaned myself up, had a wash and found a clean York Rotters tee shirt. I was due in town for midday for 5 hours of volunteering at the Parliament St and St Sampson's Square 'Big Green Market', where York Rotters and the Council's Waste Minimisation Team have a stall.
As I walked through the market stalls, I wondered why it was called a Big Green Market as the majority of the stalls were not what I'd call green.. Venison burgers and dead duck pate, trinkets from the other side of the world, lots of stuff to buy which had a huge embodied carbon footprint.
But then again, I'm a purist. I found the Rotters stall and locked up my bike nearby and got myself launched into the unsuspecting public, using the usual ruse 'Would you like to tell me about your compost heap?' when someone looks at our cut-out dalek with the perspex sheet in, behind which are examples of assorted compostables. These include a rubber glove and a cardboard box with coloured printing, plus some plastic fruit and veg, flowers, scrunched and shredded paper, some fabric, wool and other bits and bobs. This format is immensely successful... because punters expect you to try to offer them something ('do you want one of these?') but my question is the other way round. But it's a hook. They bite, mainly saying 'yes, my heap is '... and occasionally 'I haven't got one'. This then has a response 'What do you do with your banana skins and apple cores?' Those with compost bins are about half 'working well' and a quarter 'too dry' and a quarter 'too wet', each answer can elicit a question about what do they put in the bin. Anyway, I'm in my element during these kind of events, I really love them, my enthusiasm knowing no bounds.
After each meeting I logged the information about whether they were a 'non composter' or 'existing composter' and whether they were from York or out of York. It's important to record how many people we are engaging.
I went for a wander around for my lunch break at half past one, and got a pastie and a sandwich, and bought a 'turks turban' squash for a pound which will be delicious roasted in the next few days.
During the afternoon I met a young lady I met before on the train coming back from Sheffield Green Fair (she recognised me) and I chatted with her and her partner, who have moved to York... and I think I'll be meeting them again. Also floating around were Kate Lock, on the Oxfam stall, my old friend Mary Brandon, older friends Sue Lister and John Whitworth, Rakesh and quite a few others. Jo turned up, to be the next most enthusiastic Rotter, Candy came too. It was a good session.
I finished just before 5pm and went to the Oxfam shop on Goodramgate for coffee, and popped into Kyi-Po for a vegan mayonnaise but they didn't have the one I wanted. Then onto Sainsburys for a general groceries shop, including goats milk as the nearest Co-op is having problems with keeping enough stock, and have been running out of it. Somerfield never used to! I treated myself to a treat(!)... a few months ago my cafetiere glass got broken, and as I do now and again like 'real' ground coffee, I bought myself another one, for £9. But Gill had also asked me to try to get some sparklers for the boys. Sainsburys had run out. So I popped into the Co-op on the way home but they didn't have any. Quite by chance, Lynn was in there and overheard my request, and she said that she had some spare!
When I got home, Gill reported that some lads had come asking for some logs and she said to come back later when I was at home after the Rotters stall. So I bombed round to Lynns with a bag of dried fruit in swap for 20 sparklers, and cycled back just in time to catch the lads again (students?) who wanted a small bonfire in their back garden. I let them have two half sacks of kindling and about 15 or 20 split logs. They offered me £3.90 in loose change. Seemed reasonable!
Then as I was finishing that transaction, a lady cycled up and introduced herself as the person who had left a couple of messages on the answerphone as she has some apple logs she wants to get rid of and an apple trunk still standing which she wants cutting down. I agreed to go and do this for her next week.
By this time I needed to go in and warm up. I made my own tea... some finely chopped chicken of the woods which Simon found growing on a pile of woodchips near where he works, which he'd shared with me, with 'trombone' courgette/squash, green pepper and the last of our own tomatoes, with rems of nutloaf, with a baked bean and cheese sauce. Terrific! Delicious! The best meal since... well I don't know, but it was very very tasty. Cheers Simon. And I only had half of the mushroom he gave me!
Some nice chats with family before the boys went to bed and I settled down to some email deletion as my inbox is again full. Whoops.
An enjoyable day. Tiring, but I was still up til 2am doing assorted things round the kitchen and on the laptop...
After several phone calls, I found someone who can sort it tomorrow.
Then I had to get rid of a pile of compostables from the kitchen, and whilst I was doing this, collected a load of composting worms which conveniently put themselves in the bin lids... perfect fro harvesting and relocating into my new 'worm cafe' which is already filling up.
Then I cleaned myself up, had a wash and found a clean York Rotters tee shirt. I was due in town for midday for 5 hours of volunteering at the Parliament St and St Sampson's Square 'Big Green Market', where York Rotters and the Council's Waste Minimisation Team have a stall.
As I walked through the market stalls, I wondered why it was called a Big Green Market as the majority of the stalls were not what I'd call green.. Venison burgers and dead duck pate, trinkets from the other side of the world, lots of stuff to buy which had a huge embodied carbon footprint.
But then again, I'm a purist. I found the Rotters stall and locked up my bike nearby and got myself launched into the unsuspecting public, using the usual ruse 'Would you like to tell me about your compost heap?' when someone looks at our cut-out dalek with the perspex sheet in, behind which are examples of assorted compostables. These include a rubber glove and a cardboard box with coloured printing, plus some plastic fruit and veg, flowers, scrunched and shredded paper, some fabric, wool and other bits and bobs. This format is immensely successful... because punters expect you to try to offer them something ('do you want one of these?') but my question is the other way round. But it's a hook. They bite, mainly saying 'yes, my heap is '... and occasionally 'I haven't got one'. This then has a response 'What do you do with your banana skins and apple cores?' Those with compost bins are about half 'working well' and a quarter 'too dry' and a quarter 'too wet', each answer can elicit a question about what do they put in the bin. Anyway, I'm in my element during these kind of events, I really love them, my enthusiasm knowing no bounds.
After each meeting I logged the information about whether they were a 'non composter' or 'existing composter' and whether they were from York or out of York. It's important to record how many people we are engaging.
I went for a wander around for my lunch break at half past one, and got a pastie and a sandwich, and bought a 'turks turban' squash for a pound which will be delicious roasted in the next few days.
During the afternoon I met a young lady I met before on the train coming back from Sheffield Green Fair (she recognised me) and I chatted with her and her partner, who have moved to York... and I think I'll be meeting them again. Also floating around were Kate Lock, on the Oxfam stall, my old friend Mary Brandon, older friends Sue Lister and John Whitworth, Rakesh and quite a few others. Jo turned up, to be the next most enthusiastic Rotter, Candy came too. It was a good session.
I finished just before 5pm and went to the Oxfam shop on Goodramgate for coffee, and popped into Kyi-Po for a vegan mayonnaise but they didn't have the one I wanted. Then onto Sainsburys for a general groceries shop, including goats milk as the nearest Co-op is having problems with keeping enough stock, and have been running out of it. Somerfield never used to! I treated myself to a treat(!)... a few months ago my cafetiere glass got broken, and as I do now and again like 'real' ground coffee, I bought myself another one, for £9. But Gill had also asked me to try to get some sparklers for the boys. Sainsburys had run out. So I popped into the Co-op on the way home but they didn't have any. Quite by chance, Lynn was in there and overheard my request, and she said that she had some spare!
When I got home, Gill reported that some lads had come asking for some logs and she said to come back later when I was at home after the Rotters stall. So I bombed round to Lynns with a bag of dried fruit in swap for 20 sparklers, and cycled back just in time to catch the lads again (students?) who wanted a small bonfire in their back garden. I let them have two half sacks of kindling and about 15 or 20 split logs. They offered me £3.90 in loose change. Seemed reasonable!
Then as I was finishing that transaction, a lady cycled up and introduced herself as the person who had left a couple of messages on the answerphone as she has some apple logs she wants to get rid of and an apple trunk still standing which she wants cutting down. I agreed to go and do this for her next week.
By this time I needed to go in and warm up. I made my own tea... some finely chopped chicken of the woods which Simon found growing on a pile of woodchips near where he works, which he'd shared with me, with 'trombone' courgette/squash, green pepper and the last of our own tomatoes, with rems of nutloaf, with a baked bean and cheese sauce. Terrific! Delicious! The best meal since... well I don't know, but it was very very tasty. Cheers Simon. And I only had half of the mushroom he gave me!
Some nice chats with family before the boys went to bed and I settled down to some email deletion as my inbox is again full. Whoops.
An enjoyable day. Tiring, but I was still up til 2am doing assorted things round the kitchen and on the laptop...
Wrote my Community Care blog
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/2009/04/green-man-switches-off.html
After lunch I put my trailer onto my back rack and carefully cycled it down to Cycle Heaven where I'd checked that they'd be able to fit the new inner tube it needs. I had to be very careful cycling down as part of the trailer was sticking out, but got to the shop without incident. They sorted the problem within 10 or 15 minutes, replacing the shredded inner tube and putting a new tyre on, as the old one had torn. It was good to get back on my bike and have the trailer bouncing along behind again!
I went through town and to my GPs and then to inSainsburys and then via the cycle track where there were still logs and branches to harvest, so came back with a trailer load plus Freshways stuff on top of this too!
I planted some more seeds... courgette and zucchini tromba, a weird-looking curved courgette, I grew one last year so this year am planting quite a few more.
Gill made some cheesy scone pastry and made a pie with it, using yesterdays spaghetti and tomato/bean mixture, with new potatoes and some salad from the garden. Lynn had emailed me inviting me to provide her with some composting worms, so I went to delve in a wormy heap for pets for her new wormery (actually one that Ben had made out of stacking plastic boxes, and sold on the LETS).
I came in for tea and enjoyed the whole plateful, and asked Gill what one of the salad leaves was. She said 'Good King Henry' and I said I hadn't noticed her picking that, as I'd put that right down the bottom of the garden, near where I was harvesting worms. I asked where she'd got it, and she described the place where I thought I'd put some 'black salsify' or Scorzonera, so I looked that up to see if the leaves were edible. I found that Scorzonera leaves were totally different to the leaves Gill had harvested... so what had I eaten? I knew I'd harvested some tasty roots from that plant, so I looked through various books and on the web to see if I could find it. Eventually, with family panicking around me, wondering if I'd been poisoned, I found it was Skirret, Sium sisarum var sisarum. I cannot find anywhere about the leaves being good to eat... just indications that it might be like some other Umbelifers, ie not good to eat...!
Anyway, I stayed conscious during the meeting at Lynn's house, which was a LETS working group discussion about the constitution and managing the membership, and I was able to contribute quite sensibly. I also remembered to take the worms with me, and enjoyed seeing Lynn's garden.
Got back home after 10 and did a load of washing up as Gill had fallen asleep as soon as the children were in bed. Then onto the computer...
Nice photo of me in the Press:
http://www.thepress.co.uk/search/4304325.Green_issues_on_the_big_screen_in_York/
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/2009/04/green-man-switches-off.html
After lunch I put my trailer onto my back rack and carefully cycled it down to Cycle Heaven where I'd checked that they'd be able to fit the new inner tube it needs. I had to be very careful cycling down as part of the trailer was sticking out, but got to the shop without incident. They sorted the problem within 10 or 15 minutes, replacing the shredded inner tube and putting a new tyre on, as the old one had torn. It was good to get back on my bike and have the trailer bouncing along behind again!
I went through town and to my GPs and then to inSainsburys and then via the cycle track where there were still logs and branches to harvest, so came back with a trailer load plus Freshways stuff on top of this too!
I planted some more seeds... courgette and zucchini tromba, a weird-looking curved courgette, I grew one last year so this year am planting quite a few more.
Gill made some cheesy scone pastry and made a pie with it, using yesterdays spaghetti and tomato/bean mixture, with new potatoes and some salad from the garden. Lynn had emailed me inviting me to provide her with some composting worms, so I went to delve in a wormy heap for pets for her new wormery (actually one that Ben had made out of stacking plastic boxes, and sold on the LETS).
I came in for tea and enjoyed the whole plateful, and asked Gill what one of the salad leaves was. She said 'Good King Henry' and I said I hadn't noticed her picking that, as I'd put that right down the bottom of the garden, near where I was harvesting worms. I asked where she'd got it, and she described the place where I thought I'd put some 'black salsify' or Scorzonera, so I looked that up to see if the leaves were edible. I found that Scorzonera leaves were totally different to the leaves Gill had harvested... so what had I eaten? I knew I'd harvested some tasty roots from that plant, so I looked through various books and on the web to see if I could find it. Eventually, with family panicking around me, wondering if I'd been poisoned, I found it was Skirret, Sium sisarum var sisarum. I cannot find anywhere about the leaves being good to eat... just indications that it might be like some other Umbelifers, ie not good to eat...!
Anyway, I stayed conscious during the meeting at Lynn's house, which was a LETS working group discussion about the constitution and managing the membership, and I was able to contribute quite sensibly. I also remembered to take the worms with me, and enjoyed seeing Lynn's garden.
Got back home after 10 and did a load of washing up as Gill had fallen asleep as soon as the children were in bed. Then onto the computer...
Nice photo of me in the Press:
http://www.thepress.co.uk/search/4304325.Green_issues_on_the_big_screen_in_York/
