Well, a super day; my first job was to go and find somewhere to do some 'guerrilla composting'. We'd generated a small bag full of compostables and I wanted to dispose of this in as appropriate way as possible. So I took it just a few minutes walk from the back door and found a place in the woods where I could make a little heap and place a few rotten sticks over them as camouflage. This will just add a little bit extra to the leaf litter and fertility of the woodland, and avoids the only other disposal route open to us, landfill.
Then I went down to Mumbles to get cherry tomatoes, a cucumber, soya and goats milk. I came back in good time to get myself some lunch and get that eaten before Gill's Uncle George came to pick us up. But I was in the middle of making my sandwiches when there was a knock at the door and it was Karl. He wanted to find out from me how I earned a living as a self-employed entertainer/educator. I finished making my sandwiches and as I ate them, answered his questions and suggested how he might be able to do his creative 'thing' and make some money. I hope we keep in touch, he seemed like an interesting and nice guy.
Then George came, and Karl left. George is Gill's Father's younger brother. He is very much like what Gill remembers her father Brinley to be like, so this was a lovely meeting. He drove us via Langlands Bay, where we got out and had a quick look at the beach, and then on to Caswell Bay, Bishopton, Kittle and then onto the main road across the Common past the airport and into Killay, where he and Auntie Rhona live. We last saw them at our wedding in 1999, and it was really lovely to see them again.
We were shown a load of photos, including some of when Gill was pregnant with our first child. We had a laugh at this... the boys were amused at her hair colour, which was brown, whereas it's now white, and Gill was amused to see that in the photo she was wearing a blue denim dress and red woolen cardigan. She still has both items of clothing, and has them with her now here on holiday!
Then we went into the garden where George grows leeks, runner beans, more leeks, a few potatoes and courgettes, and more leeks. I offered to do a bit of weeding for him, as his compost bin needed some more materials. I said I'd swap the weeding for half an hour on his computer so I could catch up with my emails. So I pulled out lots of spindly brambles, lots of small rose bay willow herb and some bindweed. I joined in with a game of boules and did some more weeding/Rotol Bin filling.
Then it was tea time; we'd brought a few bits with us, a plum and apple crumble, some pasta salad and a kind of nutloaf made with the excess Bulgar wheat from yesterday's stuffed courgettes. Rhona had provided potato salad, lettuce and coleslaw. After this George showed me his computer and I signed into Tiscali webmail, where there were some messages I was really glad to get and to reply to, and I went on facebook too and got up to date with a few messages there. I finished just as George and Rhona's daughter in law Diane arrived, and soon after, their son and her husband Jonathan. Gill hasn't seen these cousins for decades, so this was really nice too.
As it was getting dark Jonathan took us back to Mumbles. Although it hadn't rained much today, it was fairly cool this evening so Gill said yes to me lighting the stove, which is a Nestor Martin approx 4kw jobbie, with a top-loading facility. The glass in the door was quite well sooted up so I used the old method of cleaning it... screw up a sheet of newspaper, spit on it and dip the wet area in the ashes in the grate. This has the right amount of abrasion to easily remove the soot, and the window came up clean very nicely. The stove worked reasonably well and was fun to have a go with. I'm glad I collected some fuel.
I was really pleased to see the first episode of the latest series of my favourite comedy 'Ideal' which is completely surreal and very funny. Gill loves it too.
Showing posts with label emailing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emailing. Show all posts
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.
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.
One of the most sedentary days I've had for ages.
I spent nearly all of the morning doing some e-paperwork... basically trying to compose an email to try to sort out something... and then, after lunch, I finally got down to editing the new website that my Canadian friend and I are developing. Jim and colleagues had provided a user guide, how to edit Wordpress, and I understood enough and remembered enough from my short workshop to be able to add some Googlemap web links to the site, but the first one took over an hour, and needed adding to two places in the site, and the second one was a lot easier, and also needed adding to two places. It was very frustrating and difficult, but I was pleased with the outcome. However, when I reported my 'success' to Jim, he replied saying he'd thought that it ought to be done differently and he'd invite me back into the office to show me how to do it properly!!! Well, learning anything completely new at my age is bound to be a bit slow...
I was due to go and see the Premiere of Dirty Oil at 6.30, and had got two free tickets as I'm a Co-op member. So I cycled down to City Screen and met up with Lynn, who is also a Co-op member and is just as concerned as I am about climate change, health and democracy.
I met several people I know and had a good chat with Chris, fellow Rotter, and an old friend Ginny whom I haven't seen for ages. Lynn arrived and we went to Screen 1. Before the film there was a live link to The Barbican, London, with a chap from the Co-op with a good presenting style and sense of humour introducing the film, the film-maker Leslie Iwerks, and the narrator, Neve Campbell.
The film is a documentary about the extraction of oil from the deep soils in large parts of Canada. These sediments are sand, clay and water mixed with oil. The first oil humans found and extracted in any quantity was under high pressure and when the rock above was punctured, it just squirted out. These wells were capped and the oil piped away. Then came the oil which had to be pumped out. Now the price of oil is high enough for it to be economic to extract the 'difficult' oil, such as that in the tar sands and oil shales. With the tar sands, the sandy oily stuff needs to be mixed with hot water, the sand and clay separates from the oil and water, and then the oil has to be separated from the water. So, this oil takes a lot more energy to extract than 'normal' oil. And obviously, this input of energy creates a lot more carbon dioxide.
Secondly, these tar sands are extracted by open-cast mining... so all the vegetation is removed (trees, forests) and the layers of oily sand dug out and transported to the plant which uses natural gas to heat water to extract the oil. The waste sand and clays, mixed with water and some oil which wasn't removed, is pumped out to vast 'tailing ponds' where the solids slowly settle out and the dirty water seeps into local rivers. There is the obvious impact on wildlife, and the indigenous people,and as their drinking water is polluted, and they are breathing particulates and chemicals from the refineries. So in one community, levels of rare cancers have increased enormously. These Canadian tar sand deposits are providing most of the oil that the USA uses, for cars, planes and chemical feedstocks, for pesticides, fertiliser, lipstick, plastic and fireworks. An area the size of Florida has been destroyed to provide this oil, and the Canadian government has given permits to increase production hugely.
The effects aren't just local. If the allowed extraction is allowed to take place, and the oil is extracted and burned for its energy, this will release enough carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to increase the global temperature by over 2 degrees Celsius, which will push our little planet into runaway climate chaos and make the future of human life more than difficult, as well as increasing the rates of extinction of other life forms.
This is an excellent film. The aim is to inform, and to persuade viewers to take action on the companies responsible for the planned expansion. Information about this campaign can be found at Toxic Fuels, and more info about the film found at Dirty Oil and Babelgum. If you have a pension, you should ask your pension provider to back the tar sands resolutions, as you will probably be a shareholder of BP and Royal Dutch Shell plc, through your pension.
One of the main backers of this film is The Cooperative, who do not invest in fossil fuel extraction companies. So if you don't want your money to be used to fund the tar sands development, switch your bank account to the Co-op.
I had a coffee with Lynn after the film, and had a brief chat with Graham Martin, then cycled home via a place where a load of huge willow trunks have been felled and left in a ditch. This is my renewable fuel for next winter. I cycled home with two large logs in my trailer.
I spent nearly all of the morning doing some e-paperwork... basically trying to compose an email to try to sort out something... and then, after lunch, I finally got down to editing the new website that my Canadian friend and I are developing. Jim and colleagues had provided a user guide, how to edit Wordpress, and I understood enough and remembered enough from my short workshop to be able to add some Googlemap web links to the site, but the first one took over an hour, and needed adding to two places in the site, and the second one was a lot easier, and also needed adding to two places. It was very frustrating and difficult, but I was pleased with the outcome. However, when I reported my 'success' to Jim, he replied saying he'd thought that it ought to be done differently and he'd invite me back into the office to show me how to do it properly!!! Well, learning anything completely new at my age is bound to be a bit slow...
I was due to go and see the Premiere of Dirty Oil at 6.30, and had got two free tickets as I'm a Co-op member. So I cycled down to City Screen and met up with Lynn, who is also a Co-op member and is just as concerned as I am about climate change, health and democracy.
I met several people I know and had a good chat with Chris, fellow Rotter, and an old friend Ginny whom I haven't seen for ages. Lynn arrived and we went to Screen 1. Before the film there was a live link to The Barbican, London, with a chap from the Co-op with a good presenting style and sense of humour introducing the film, the film-maker Leslie Iwerks, and the narrator, Neve Campbell.
The film is a documentary about the extraction of oil from the deep soils in large parts of Canada. These sediments are sand, clay and water mixed with oil. The first oil humans found and extracted in any quantity was under high pressure and when the rock above was punctured, it just squirted out. These wells were capped and the oil piped away. Then came the oil which had to be pumped out. Now the price of oil is high enough for it to be economic to extract the 'difficult' oil, such as that in the tar sands and oil shales. With the tar sands, the sandy oily stuff needs to be mixed with hot water, the sand and clay separates from the oil and water, and then the oil has to be separated from the water. So, this oil takes a lot more energy to extract than 'normal' oil. And obviously, this input of energy creates a lot more carbon dioxide.
Secondly, these tar sands are extracted by open-cast mining... so all the vegetation is removed (trees, forests) and the layers of oily sand dug out and transported to the plant which uses natural gas to heat water to extract the oil. The waste sand and clays, mixed with water and some oil which wasn't removed, is pumped out to vast 'tailing ponds' where the solids slowly settle out and the dirty water seeps into local rivers. There is the obvious impact on wildlife, and the indigenous people,and as their drinking water is polluted, and they are breathing particulates and chemicals from the refineries. So in one community, levels of rare cancers have increased enormously. These Canadian tar sand deposits are providing most of the oil that the USA uses, for cars, planes and chemical feedstocks, for pesticides, fertiliser, lipstick, plastic and fireworks. An area the size of Florida has been destroyed to provide this oil, and the Canadian government has given permits to increase production hugely.
The effects aren't just local. If the allowed extraction is allowed to take place, and the oil is extracted and burned for its energy, this will release enough carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to increase the global temperature by over 2 degrees Celsius, which will push our little planet into runaway climate chaos and make the future of human life more than difficult, as well as increasing the rates of extinction of other life forms.
This is an excellent film. The aim is to inform, and to persuade viewers to take action on the companies responsible for the planned expansion. Information about this campaign can be found at Toxic Fuels, and more info about the film found at Dirty Oil and Babelgum. If you have a pension, you should ask your pension provider to back the tar sands resolutions, as you will probably be a shareholder of BP and Royal Dutch Shell plc, through your pension.
One of the main backers of this film is The Cooperative, who do not invest in fossil fuel extraction companies. So if you don't want your money to be used to fund the tar sands development, switch your bank account to the Co-op.
I had a coffee with Lynn after the film, and had a brief chat with Graham Martin, then cycled home via a place where a load of huge willow trunks have been felled and left in a ditch. This is my renewable fuel for next winter. I cycled home with two large logs in my trailer.
Up at a civilised time in order to get to the Dentist's for just after 11am. My dentist was pleased with me that I've cleaner teeth than some previous times, and the scale and polish took just a few minutes.
I then bought my next year's one-week-per-page 'Trees For Life' Diary which I've been using for at least 10 years... I love the photos, and the size of the space for each day is just big enough for my busy life. Just!
Then to the Building Society to get a couple of cheques out to pay for advertising, my biggest expense as Professor Fiddlesticks.
During the afternoon I did quite a lot of paperwork... well, composing an email to my friends and colleagues at York Rotters. I did get some time outside which was lovely and reminded me of what I find important and fun.
During the evening, David my photographer friend rang me to invite me to go and watch Leonids from somewhere darker than York. I accepted.
David was already going out, whether or not he had friends with him, so I said yes, I'd go to the Hole of Horcum, between Pickering and Whitby, to find really dark skies to watch the predicted meteor shower. But as we got near Pickering, it started to rain and when we were at the parking place at the Hole of Horcum,it rained quite heavily and the clouds were continuous. We chatted in the car in the dark. But at about 10.20pm the clouds parted somewhat and we could see some stars... but thin cloud meant that we didn't see any meteors. So we came back at about 11pm. David was disappointed to not be able to photograph any shooting stars but we had some good conversations, so nice 'male bonding'.
When I got back at close to midnight, Gill had had a nice evening and was busy painting lovely abstract pictures and singing along to some obscure stuff on the telly from before my time. A happy house!
I made a large load of sweet red pepper paprika from several hundred red peppers which have come my way over the past few weeks, and I've dried and stored, and tonight put in the blender, reduced to dust, seived and jarred up... wonderful to add to lots of recipes!
I then bought my next year's one-week-per-page 'Trees For Life' Diary which I've been using for at least 10 years... I love the photos, and the size of the space for each day is just big enough for my busy life. Just!
Then to the Building Society to get a couple of cheques out to pay for advertising, my biggest expense as Professor Fiddlesticks.
During the afternoon I did quite a lot of paperwork... well, composing an email to my friends and colleagues at York Rotters. I did get some time outside which was lovely and reminded me of what I find important and fun.
During the evening, David my photographer friend rang me to invite me to go and watch Leonids from somewhere darker than York. I accepted.
David was already going out, whether or not he had friends with him, so I said yes, I'd go to the Hole of Horcum, between Pickering and Whitby, to find really dark skies to watch the predicted meteor shower. But as we got near Pickering, it started to rain and when we were at the parking place at the Hole of Horcum,it rained quite heavily and the clouds were continuous. We chatted in the car in the dark. But at about 10.20pm the clouds parted somewhat and we could see some stars... but thin cloud meant that we didn't see any meteors. So we came back at about 11pm. David was disappointed to not be able to photograph any shooting stars but we had some good conversations, so nice 'male bonding'.
When I got back at close to midnight, Gill had had a nice evening and was busy painting lovely abstract pictures and singing along to some obscure stuff on the telly from before my time. A happy house!
I made a large load of sweet red pepper paprika from several hundred red peppers which have come my way over the past few weeks, and I've dried and stored, and tonight put in the blender, reduced to dust, seived and jarred up... wonderful to add to lots of recipes!
