A really nothingy day... woken by fighting so went downstairs to see what was happening and got a thank you from Gill as the boys know that I don't stand for any nonsense.
But that was just about the highlight of the day... I did a lot of chatting on the computer, Scrabble, watching TV, and mid afternoon spent a couple of hours piling frozen veg on top of more frozen veg, and then stacking logs. Nothing unusual.
My tea was almost the same as yesterday... parsnips and the last of the bhajis, (hurrah!) but this time I cooked the lot on the woodstove (hurrah again!).
Did a few jobs around the house, washed up, some tidying, bringing wood in, dealing with a wasp which came in on the wood, making toast (the boys supper), in front of the stove, that sort of thing.
I did some networking too, putting my real friend Ali, and new facebook friend Jody McIntyre in touch with another new facebook friend, Dave Lupton, who does 'Crippen' cartoons. I like the way that Dave, who also does Sox cartoons, provides a written description of his cartoon so that visually impaired people can have the cartoon explained by someone reading the text. I like this Green Party cartoon by Sox.. I also shared the link to a really good wildlife film called The Bear (shortened version, long version part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, and finally, part 9,) sent to me by one of my friends. So, much online stuff today.
Showing posts with label facebook friend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook friend. Show all posts
Another late start... I've got into the habit of going to bed in the wee early hours (was after 3am last night) and then getting up late. So I had breakfast when some people would be having an early lunch, and then I got dressed just in time for a mid afternoon appointment with Lucy from Yellow Pages and Yell.com... and I agreed the same package as this year for advertising Professor Fiddlesticks. I've dropped Thomson Directories and I might drop the BT Phone Directory too... I don't know. But Lucy and I didn't just talk business... we covered peak oil and diet, amongst other subjects. I promised to send her a couple of links via facebook, and later in the day she 'friended' me and I sent her a link to the peak oil article and also one to a nutloaf recipe I wrote yonks ago in the Community Care blog I wrote.
I responded to a Freecycle offer of a drill bit which Tara asked me to find so we can do her water butt on Friday. I cycled round to meet John, a chap of mature years who has a lovely engineers workshop in his back garden. He showed me a Sterling engine he'd built... but lamented that it didn't work very well.
Gill went to town and found a second-hand desk in the Banana Warehouse for our youngest to use in his bedroom. It was delivered, and Gill and I took it upstairs and it looks great there. Our son was pleased with it.
After this, I collected a load of windfall fruit from the garden (apples, pears and plums) and spent some of the evening sorting these for drying. I also dealt with a lot of hazelnuts. I am inundated with hazelnuts. A bucket full of them takes a LOT of time to process. I have only just started, perhaps a fifth of them, probably less than this. Maybe this is why I'm not sleeping much, I have too much to do.
I responded to a Freecycle offer of a drill bit which Tara asked me to find so we can do her water butt on Friday. I cycled round to meet John, a chap of mature years who has a lovely engineers workshop in his back garden. He showed me a Sterling engine he'd built... but lamented that it didn't work very well.
Gill went to town and found a second-hand desk in the Banana Warehouse for our youngest to use in his bedroom. It was delivered, and Gill and I took it upstairs and it looks great there. Our son was pleased with it.
After this, I collected a load of windfall fruit from the garden (apples, pears and plums) and spent some of the evening sorting these for drying. I also dealt with a lot of hazelnuts. I am inundated with hazelnuts. A bucket full of them takes a LOT of time to process. I have only just started, perhaps a fifth of them, probably less than this. Maybe this is why I'm not sleeping much, I have too much to do.
A really good day, with more fun than most days. I got up soon after 9 and all was peaceful. A good start.
I wanted to join my friends in town at 11ish who were staging a 'Jam today, Jammed tomorrow?' stall in Parliament St. The York's Jammed campaign is being coordinated by York and Ryedale Friends of the Earth and they had invited people down to join in.. and suggested bringing circus toys down, so I decided to take my devilsticks (two sets). But I also had three sacks of Freshways 'resources' on my bike, so I took them, a garden spade and my composting knife to St Nicks where they have a composting area and copious volumes of sawdust (from a pet shop), and I spent half an hour chopping up aubergines and oranges, and covering them with sawdust and limp herbs. I washed my hands at the Environment Centre which was open, as it was an Eco-Active day.
Then down to Parliament St where the FoE stall was being set up, and boxes of sandwiches and scones all with jam were on offer. I spent a happy hour or so doing my devilstick, and there was a small boy who's mum was collecting for charity, and he had a go with my second set. Jennie did some poi as well. I chatted to a woman called Liz or Betty from Rotherham who was working with a Cliff Richard tribute singer... she was collecting for charity and giving out balloon models. I made her a couple of my favourites, the 'dog's dinner' and the 'weeble' which she was very taken with.
I left at about half past 12 and went to Sainsburys as I'd had an order for their very nice multigrain bread. Got home at 1, and got into the garden as soon as I could as it was a lovely day. Gill was still tidying and sorting... I took some of the stuff (my dumped mess mainly) down the garden for sorting, and the boys happily destroyed several wooden fruit boxes which I'd piled up in case they came in useful. They are now useful... kindling.
I did loads in the garden... more compost heap turning, some weeding, and later on, shredding.
Gill decided that she had been working so hard that she didn't want to cook... so she bought a pizza, some garlic bread, oven chips and frozen peas. This might seem 'normal' but in our house we generally cook from simple ingredients rather than buy ready-made.
So I came in at about 6.30 to have my share of pizza etc, and as usual, put my laptop on (especially as the incomprehensible Dr Who was on!) and was on facebook, and my facebook friend Tracey Smith sent me a message, saying she was doing her 'internet radio show' on Taunton Hospital Radio, and did I want to tune in? It's called Slow Down and Green Up, so I thought I'd give it a go. After a few minutes, during which we'd exchanged a few messages, she suddenly started talking about chatting to someone on facebook, and how she didn't really know how to use facebook so she was going to experiment and find out a bit more about who she was chatting to. So she said hello to me and clicked on my profile info page and started reading out my favourite music and quotations... and found this blog's URL and I thought she was going to start reading out my blog... but she ran out of time as her show finished at 8pm. Most unexpected.
I decided to use the last of the daylight to finish off some tidying... and within the hour both boys came out and we all had a go on the trampoline. We spent so long there that Gill brought the boys' supper out, and we stayed down there for quite a while until it was really dark and we could see the stars.
So a mixture of fun things, enjoyable activities, and warm sunny weather.
I wanted to join my friends in town at 11ish who were staging a 'Jam today, Jammed tomorrow?' stall in Parliament St. The York's Jammed campaign is being coordinated by York and Ryedale Friends of the Earth and they had invited people down to join in.. and suggested bringing circus toys down, so I decided to take my devilsticks (two sets). But I also had three sacks of Freshways 'resources' on my bike, so I took them, a garden spade and my composting knife to St Nicks where they have a composting area and copious volumes of sawdust (from a pet shop), and I spent half an hour chopping up aubergines and oranges, and covering them with sawdust and limp herbs. I washed my hands at the Environment Centre which was open, as it was an Eco-Active day.
Then down to Parliament St where the FoE stall was being set up, and boxes of sandwiches and scones all with jam were on offer. I spent a happy hour or so doing my devilstick, and there was a small boy who's mum was collecting for charity, and he had a go with my second set. Jennie did some poi as well. I chatted to a woman called Liz or Betty from Rotherham who was working with a Cliff Richard tribute singer... she was collecting for charity and giving out balloon models. I made her a couple of my favourites, the 'dog's dinner' and the 'weeble' which she was very taken with.
I left at about half past 12 and went to Sainsburys as I'd had an order for their very nice multigrain bread. Got home at 1, and got into the garden as soon as I could as it was a lovely day. Gill was still tidying and sorting... I took some of the stuff (my dumped mess mainly) down the garden for sorting, and the boys happily destroyed several wooden fruit boxes which I'd piled up in case they came in useful. They are now useful... kindling.
I did loads in the garden... more compost heap turning, some weeding, and later on, shredding.
Gill decided that she had been working so hard that she didn't want to cook... so she bought a pizza, some garlic bread, oven chips and frozen peas. This might seem 'normal' but in our house we generally cook from simple ingredients rather than buy ready-made.
So I came in at about 6.30 to have my share of pizza etc, and as usual, put my laptop on (especially as the incomprehensible Dr Who was on!) and was on facebook, and my facebook friend Tracey Smith sent me a message, saying she was doing her 'internet radio show' on Taunton Hospital Radio, and did I want to tune in? It's called Slow Down and Green Up, so I thought I'd give it a go. After a few minutes, during which we'd exchanged a few messages, she suddenly started talking about chatting to someone on facebook, and how she didn't really know how to use facebook so she was going to experiment and find out a bit more about who she was chatting to. So she said hello to me and clicked on my profile info page and started reading out my favourite music and quotations... and found this blog's URL and I thought she was going to start reading out my blog... but she ran out of time as her show finished at 8pm. Most unexpected.
I decided to use the last of the daylight to finish off some tidying... and within the hour both boys came out and we all had a go on the trampoline. We spent so long there that Gill brought the boys' supper out, and we stayed down there for quite a while until it was really dark and we could see the stars.
So a mixture of fun things, enjoyable activities, and warm sunny weather.
Another work day, so I started with a shave as I was feeling a bit over-fluffy, and wanted to make a good impression. I'd been invited by James to come and do a Fiddlesticks party for his young daughter, who turned 4 this week. However, this wasn't a usual booking, as James had found me at least a year ago via this blog (I think) as he has a keen interest in green issues, and we'd become facebook friends and chat pretty regularly, comment on each other's posts, etc... but never actually met. So I was looking forward to meeting James.
I left the house with all my kit in the trailer just after 11.30 and got to the station in good time, got my ticket and went to wait for the 12.18 on the usual platform. The train looked like it wasn't going anywhere and I hoped the train strike hadn't started early. I checked the board and whoops, the Harrogate train was leaving from Platform 10, in 2 minutes. I got to it with 30 seconds to spare... phew!
I had lunch on the train and was pleased to see James waiting at Pannal station, as agreed, when I left the train. He took me to Follifoot Village Hall where I met his wife and some friends... I got changed and then his 4 year-old daughter showed up with Granny, and soon lots of party-goers too. Virtually all of the 30 or so children were 3 or 4, with perhaps one older one.. but all the parents stayed and that made it a really good audience. I was very pleased that some of the grown-ups were 'game' and were happy to join in, and the show went well, as expected.
Then birthday tea, and after that, there was the balloon workshop... again, the parents did really well and helped their offspring make balloon animals, and I helped a bit too... The competitions at the end were fun too, and we finished on time, and everybody was happy, especially me, as I enjoyed myself, as usual.
James and family were happy and he took me back to the station in time for the 5.20 train. I slept lightly for most of the way back, as I always find gigs really tiring.
I came home via Country Fresh which was closed and they hadn't left anything out for me, so went to Freshways who had got 4 sacks for me, which I somehow managed to balance on my unicycles, pannier rack and handlebars to get them home... i do like my compost heaps to keep hot, so the more the merrier!
Gill fed me... well, gave me a plate-full of pasta and I fed myself, and soon after 7.30, Will popped round as he had asked me to provide him with a bag of seed compost and some tomato seeds, as he wanted to conduct an experiment using two different growing methods... one using hocus pocus, planting in moonlight and chanting, and the other just 'normal' planting. Well I think that was what he was going to do! Anyway, happy to let him have 10 Yorky's worth of compost, tomato seeds and egg boxes for planting in... and I look forward to the results!
A funny old evening, not sure what I got done but I seemed busy most of the time.
I left the house with all my kit in the trailer just after 11.30 and got to the station in good time, got my ticket and went to wait for the 12.18 on the usual platform. The train looked like it wasn't going anywhere and I hoped the train strike hadn't started early. I checked the board and whoops, the Harrogate train was leaving from Platform 10, in 2 minutes. I got to it with 30 seconds to spare... phew!
I had lunch on the train and was pleased to see James waiting at Pannal station, as agreed, when I left the train. He took me to Follifoot Village Hall where I met his wife and some friends... I got changed and then his 4 year-old daughter showed up with Granny, and soon lots of party-goers too. Virtually all of the 30 or so children were 3 or 4, with perhaps one older one.. but all the parents stayed and that made it a really good audience. I was very pleased that some of the grown-ups were 'game' and were happy to join in, and the show went well, as expected.
Then birthday tea, and after that, there was the balloon workshop... again, the parents did really well and helped their offspring make balloon animals, and I helped a bit too... The competitions at the end were fun too, and we finished on time, and everybody was happy, especially me, as I enjoyed myself, as usual.
James and family were happy and he took me back to the station in time for the 5.20 train. I slept lightly for most of the way back, as I always find gigs really tiring.
I came home via Country Fresh which was closed and they hadn't left anything out for me, so went to Freshways who had got 4 sacks for me, which I somehow managed to balance on my unicycles, pannier rack and handlebars to get them home... i do like my compost heaps to keep hot, so the more the merrier!
Gill fed me... well, gave me a plate-full of pasta and I fed myself, and soon after 7.30, Will popped round as he had asked me to provide him with a bag of seed compost and some tomato seeds, as he wanted to conduct an experiment using two different growing methods... one using hocus pocus, planting in moonlight and chanting, and the other just 'normal' planting. Well I think that was what he was going to do! Anyway, happy to let him have 10 Yorky's worth of compost, tomato seeds and egg boxes for planting in... and I look forward to the results!
A funny old evening, not sure what I got done but I seemed busy most of the time.
I got up in time to get to Pauline's for 10am. But whilst I was eating my breakfast I was watching the news, about the 'freak' rain and devastating floods in Keswick and Cockermouth in the North West of the UK, I heard someone say that this was a 'one in a thousand year event'. The floods which affected the same region in 2005 were apparently a 'one in a hundred year event'. So I changed my facebook status to:
2005 'one in a hundred year event'
2009 'one in a thousand year event'
c'mon folks, when are we going to understand that something is going on?
I just hope some good comes from this horrible time, with houses and property trashed, four bridges swept away, at least one life lost. If it takes a tragedy to get people to realise that we have to change our ways, or suffer much much more of this kind of thing, then it is worth it. But we have a long way to go before we can reduce our CO2 levels back down to 350 parts per million, which scientists suggest is a 'safe' level which will only increase our average global temperature by about two degrees Celcius. However, the level of CO2 today is 385 ppm, up a third since pre-industrial revolution levels of about 280 ppm. The current level of CO2 will give us an increase in temperature of possibly 4 degrees, and as the levels of CO2 are still rising, we might expect an increase of 6 degrees, which would probably give us runaway climate change due to amplifying feedback loops. This CO2 count isn't the only greenhouse gas which is increasing. Methane is probably the best known 'other greenhouse gas' but there are quite a few others, see green living tips for a good simple overview, and Micheal Bloch's other website carbonify has lots of information too.
Anyway, I cycled round to Paulines to help her remove her exuberant potato vine tree, as requested. Her delightful 4 year old great grandchild was there, and she helped in a cute way. As per usual with Pauline, I was rewarded for the work by a good 'real' coffee and soya milk plus chat. I regard Pauline as one of the 'wise women' in my life as she often gives me sound and sensible advice.
I came home via Country Fresh and Freshways and had lunch. As it then started to pour with rain here I did a wash up, and went outside once it had cleared up a bit. I split the logs I collected yesterday and then, as I wanted to stack these, I needed to move the bricks that the chimney removers had left where my logpiles normally are. There were about 60 whole bricks, most of them with mortar still attached. If we're going to reuse these bricks, they have to be mortar free, so I found a hammer and did about 45 bricks in an hour and a quarter. Four of them broke but these might still be useful as hardcore in the wall/fence build foundations. But, as my concentration perhaps wandered towards the end, I hit my thumb nailbed with the hammer, and although it broke the skin, it wasn't painful at first. But a couple of hours later, the pressure under my thumbnail was very painful. I think the nail might come off.
But a happy family evening with good food (yummy fruit salad!) and telly watching together.
Started a game of Scrabble with both my lads... both of whom look like they're going to be good players. I was pleased with how well they did. We didn't finish the game though, but left it on the table to finish tomorrow.
Later, had a lovely long phone chat with a friend whom I've met through facebook, not in 'real life', and it was good to do this. We may never meet but that doesn't mean the friendship is any less enjoyable.
2005 'one in a hundred year event'
2009 'one in a thousand year event'
c'mon folks, when are we going to understand that something is going on?
I just hope some good comes from this horrible time, with houses and property trashed, four bridges swept away, at least one life lost. If it takes a tragedy to get people to realise that we have to change our ways, or suffer much much more of this kind of thing, then it is worth it. But we have a long way to go before we can reduce our CO2 levels back down to 350 parts per million, which scientists suggest is a 'safe' level which will only increase our average global temperature by about two degrees Celcius. However, the level of CO2 today is 385 ppm, up a third since pre-industrial revolution levels of about 280 ppm. The current level of CO2 will give us an increase in temperature of possibly 4 degrees, and as the levels of CO2 are still rising, we might expect an increase of 6 degrees, which would probably give us runaway climate change due to amplifying feedback loops. This CO2 count isn't the only greenhouse gas which is increasing. Methane is probably the best known 'other greenhouse gas' but there are quite a few others, see green living tips for a good simple overview, and Micheal Bloch's other website carbonify has lots of information too.
Anyway, I cycled round to Paulines to help her remove her exuberant potato vine tree, as requested. Her delightful 4 year old great grandchild was there, and she helped in a cute way. As per usual with Pauline, I was rewarded for the work by a good 'real' coffee and soya milk plus chat. I regard Pauline as one of the 'wise women' in my life as she often gives me sound and sensible advice.
I came home via Country Fresh and Freshways and had lunch. As it then started to pour with rain here I did a wash up, and went outside once it had cleared up a bit. I split the logs I collected yesterday and then, as I wanted to stack these, I needed to move the bricks that the chimney removers had left where my logpiles normally are. There were about 60 whole bricks, most of them with mortar still attached. If we're going to reuse these bricks, they have to be mortar free, so I found a hammer and did about 45 bricks in an hour and a quarter. Four of them broke but these might still be useful as hardcore in the wall/fence build foundations. But, as my concentration perhaps wandered towards the end, I hit my thumb nailbed with the hammer, and although it broke the skin, it wasn't painful at first. But a couple of hours later, the pressure under my thumbnail was very painful. I think the nail might come off.
But a happy family evening with good food (yummy fruit salad!) and telly watching together.
Started a game of Scrabble with both my lads... both of whom look like they're going to be good players. I was pleased with how well they did. We didn't finish the game though, but left it on the table to finish tomorrow.
Later, had a lovely long phone chat with a friend whom I've met through facebook, not in 'real life', and it was good to do this. We may never meet but that doesn't mean the friendship is any less enjoyable.
