Human Lifestyle

Gill woke me at about 8.30 saying that she was going to get the 9.10 bus down to the station with our eldest, to go to Sheffield to pick up our youngest. However, our lad's glasses had broken... the lens had fallen out due to the tiny screw coming out. So I said that I'd get up and cycle the glasses down to town, to the shop where they were issued, hopefully get then fixed, and take then to the station to give them to my boyo.

So this is what I did, arrived at the shop at 9am, the screw had actually broken but the dispensing optician was able to extract the bit which was left in, and replace it... and I was at the station by 9.10. The train they meant to get was at 9.44 but they didn't arrive at the station til about then... someone had collapsed on the bus and it had stopped to wait for the paramedic, and no-one could get off as the collapsed person was in the aisle, so everyone had to stay put...

So they got the next train. I went to my building society to put two cheques in, and then onto Country Fresh to pick up 3 sacks of compostables, but I didn't get any shopping as I didn't know what we needed. However, I did get a tray of cauliflower seedlings and leek seedlings. I came home via Freshways but there wasn't much to pick up there, so came home and got busy with some stacking in the back garden. These were the very fresh sticks delivered to me by my gardener/permaculture friend a week or two back, mainly quite thin ones 5 to 10 cm diameter, and lots of them. So they are going onto a pair of pallets in the back garden for a year or two, carefully stacked so they don't roll off...

This, and a little bit of stacking outside the front door, was the only outside work I did whilst Gill was in Sheffield. But when the family came back, I cycled back down to Country Fresh, with three carrier-bags of riddled compost and 3 sacks of mainly plastic waste harvested from the compostables, which I prefer to put back in the shop bin. I bought eggs, onions, mushrooms, broccoli and a butternut squash.

When I came back, Melody and her son were visiting... and her son and mine were down the garden so I went down too, as last time they were down there together, a lot of stuff got wrecked, so I didn't want that to happen again. Instead, I suggested that we do some positive destruction... and break up a load of hedge-sticks which will end up in paper potato sacks and be kindling. Melody's lad was very happy to do this and we talked about pH, acids and alkalis. Good stuff.

Tea was pasta with the sauce which Sarah, yesterday's visitor, had made out of the 'freegan' stuff I said she was welcome to take. I don't know what was in the sauce... peppers and aubergines I think, but it wasn't seasoned and I added a bit of grated cheese and some soy sauce to the pile of pasta.

During the evening I was alerted to a news item on the BBC website through the Scrabble application on facebook, that Mattel, the owners of Scrabble, are changing the rules to allow 'proper nouns', ie words with a capital letter such as people's names, place names, etc. I am very against this, as are the vast majority of the comments on the facebook 'wall' about this rule change. Scrabble is an excellent game and the rules don't need to be changed; I really don't think that allowing proper nouns will make the game any better. I will continue to play with the normal rules. I've just found Ariane Sherine's take on this too... a very funny article!

I also watched the video on wikileaks which shows American soldiers killing civilians. Just reinforces my view that war is the least sustainable activity that we humans can engage in.

I wrote a review of "In Transition 1.0 - From oil dependence to local resilience" so it can be put on the York in Transition website and the Ceilidh information. I tried to write a press release about Friday's seed-donation.

My film review is here:

"IN TRANSITION 1.0 - From oil dependence to local resilience"

'In Transition' is a compilation from over 100 stories from all over the world, sent to Emma Goude from the Transition Network. She knew that one option was to go to Transition initiatives and film key players from different projects, and then edit this into a coherent story... but this would involve her flying around the world. So, instead, Transitioneers were asked to submit their own films... which proceeded to arrive in many different formats, and each film needed watching, describing, and then the best bits massaged into what is a very inspiring 50 minute romp through forward looking and optimistic practical projects.

So, this is a kind of 'wiki-film' which is very enjoyable and inspiring. Although it is short, it can be dipped into. Nothing is covered in much depth, but all the key areas are covered, peak oil, food, education, economy, transport, local government.

The DVD has many extras which show some of the clips which couldn't fit into the film proper, and a 'bonus disc' with even more Transition-related material, including Richard Heinberg talking about 'peak everything' and some interesting observations on volunteer burn out and the psychology of change.

(and you can buy the DVD or see the film here, as well as at our event on 17th April)

Well yet another day of the plumbers trying to get the Solartwin panel and other connected equipment to work. The two plumbers had quite a bit of difficulty... including finding a small leak from the cylinder which they had to sort out, and then when it came to testing the system, 'commissioning' it, they needed a tank temperature of 60 Celsius... and the sunshine today got it up to just over 30. So, in the spring or early summer, they'll come back and set the valves to the right temperature, and it'll be commissioned (done... finished... ready to use). Finally, they decided to test the boiler... and guess what, a valve didn't work and so just cold water went through the boiler (which wouldn't fire up either!) and the warm water from the tank and panel didn't go through.

SO tomorrow morning, the (faulty?) valve is going to be taken off, sent back to Solartwin, and replaced or repaired or something. In the meantime, we have no instant hot water for smelly boys to shower in. Just hot water off the top of the stove.

Despite this, I had a fairly quiet day, spent some of it in the garden, some in the kitchen, some dealing with forthcoming Fiddlesticks bookings, and later on, cycled down to the station to buy my train tickets for tomorrow (early start... train leaves at 6.30am)

But I am looking forward to tomorrow, as I'm attending an event organised by the Community Composting Network called Growing for Well Being, which is about 'Community Supported Agriculture', a hot topic in sustainability and Transition circles right now, and links with health. There are a couple of visits to a market garden and an accessible garden too. Then on Saturday, there's the Community Composting Network Annual General Meeting... with the all important 'compost competition'. The categories are Leaf Mould, Soil Conditioner (that's garden compost to you and me!) Worm Compost, Mulch, and a new category for innovation... any other product which is environmentally friendly and socially beneficial. I've got to be careful to not take the competition too seriously or I risk disqualification. But I do want to win the 'innovation' category with my partly-composted-sawdust compost-toilet cover material. We'll see.

But due to my being away tomorrow, I don't expect to post a blog.