Human Lifestyle

I got up really late... was up til 3 working and then read for some time, so I got up at 11, 7 hours sleep. So, didn't get much done in the morning, apart from a bit of email/facebook... but this was good as my friend in Germany, Sabine, told me she thought that the yellow cherry-plums are what she calls 'Mirabelles' (images here) and yes, they fit the description well. They are delicious, really sweet!

After a late lunch, I had a busy afternoon in the garden; cut a length of hedge, with newly sharpened shears, and then shredded this with the electric shredder. I layered this with a few boxes of greengrocers 'resources' in the current compost bin.

I picked a lot of blackberries, and then did a load of pond-area prep... I've cleared about a quarter of it now, and I want to make it all bare earth before digging it deeper and making it into a pond. All the Ground Elder and bramble roots are welcome additions to my compost, after all! Also, I'm enjoying unearthing various archaeological artifacts....

However, as the light was beginning to fail, I remembered that I had a Green Party meeting, so I rushed up to wash my hands and jumped on my bike and got to the meeting at 7.50, I thought I'd be late but as it started at 8pm I was early. I didn't stay for the whole meeting, just the two agenda items which concerned me.

I came home and got myself some food, and later, after another big wash up, washed the Mirabelle plums and put quite a few of them for drying. Tomorrow I might have a go at making a pie or tart with the remainder of them.

A nice late morning, although was woken by one of my offspring at sometime after 7am, I went back to sleep. So, up after 9 and a harmonious household.

I did a bit of housework and the day sort of disappeared. Richard rang and I cycled down to Country Fresh and brought back 2 big sacks and 2 boxes of resources. I felt comfortable to cycle down without my Aircast plastic ankle support, as it's feeling a lot better.

A bit later I dealt with a patch of garden which I've watched becoming more overgrown, so I weeded that path, pulling up ground elder and then cutting back a long length of hedge with the shears, which will allow the squash plants in the radiator raised bed to crawl along the hedge and have a secure hold. This is where I grew my prize pumpkin last year, with the roots in the radiator bed (which started off as a compost heap) and the vine growing along the hedge. This year, I've got Zucchetta Rampicante Tromboncino squash again and already there are some good fruits hanging down... one is already over 30cm long. I picked Jack Edwards Pea Beans and courgettes and brought them to the house for tea time consumption.

In the evening I spent an hour watching a Gardeners World whilst stripping electrical flex, cutting the plastic insulation with my penknife and removing the wires inside, then pulling the wire with the copper centre over the knife blade so I can separate the insulation from the metal. I bin the plastic but the copper is quite valuable, and I'll take several kilos to the metal merchant in the next few weeks...

I've been getting fed up with my email inbox filling up and sometimes messages bouncing back to their sender, so today I went onto the Tiscali website and bought £13 worth of extra space. Suddenly my inbox which was 99% full was only 8% full... Woo hoo! However, I will continue to try to keep it at a sensible size. But at least if someone sends me a huge file, it will be accepted.

The other thing Gill and I did today was to organise a little camping expedition early next week. I'm working in Pickering on Sunday, and am going up on the bus. I finish at 3, and will take the bus to Thornton Le Dale. Gill will go up to Thornton Le Dale with the boys and the tent, sleeping bags etc and put up the tent at the Prospect Farm Campsite in the village. Gill will take my jugglestuff home on the bus and I'll stay with the boys, for one or two nights here. If the first night is OK, we'll hire bikes and go up into Dalby Forest on the Monday. So, if no blog posts appear around then, that's where I'll be, giving Gill some space and peace and quiet!

Spent the morning reading and writing.... wrote a letter to the Press about a carfree York, in reply to a letter published yesterday.

But in the afternoon I did quite a bit of garden work, including transferring the contents of one dalek into the one next to it for maturation, and harvesting a load of worms to restock a wormery. I shredded the large pile of woody shrubbery which I cut down before my ankle broke to give the redcurrants more light. I despatched another two rodents to rodent heaven (a hot compost pile!)

In the house I did some washing up and hoovering. I had several Fiddlesticks phone calls. Gill has just about finished the accounts and this past year (09/10) is about £2000 down on last year on the gross income. In a recession, people cut out non essentials, and bought-in entertainment is in many cases a non essential. I really do have to find some other way of generating income.

After the children came home I cycled down to Country Fresh and got some veggies plus 4 boxes of 'resources', some of which I was able to load up into a dalek which has space.

After tea I cut some hedge with shears and the sky got dark and thunder rumbled in the distance, then got nearer and there were a few flashes and a bit of rain. I came in and dried off.

I got an email from a neighbour up the road saying there was a branch waiting for me outside their house so I went out again to pick it up in my bike trailer, and found a couple of broken chairs too which had wooden legs and backs which looked suspiciously like kindling to me...

I popped into see my friend who is fighting alcoholism, and they had news of their friend who has had a liver transplant, needed because of the same illness. Later on I chatted with two friends both of whom are fighting difficult internal mental battles.

Later, my laptop developed a problem with the power supply and kept on shutting down. I wonder if the battery needs replacing, and why was the mains power not keeping the machine going? I wonder if the mains power thing has gone wrong. I feel a visit to Ben might be in order!

But, I was able to use Gill's laptop to type this up, but it's not the same as my machine which has all my bits and bobs on it... like a button which sends me straight to a dictionary website.... and a 'favourites' list, etc etc.

A late start to the day, but as soon as I was awake I got busy with the Novaterium website, modifying some of Rory's map pin information and making the pages more usable. I didn't add any more woodland burial sites but I need to, to populate the UK map more completely.

But the rain stopped and I decided to cycle down to Country Fresh to deliver some more compost and to pick up the two boxes of 'resources' that I didn't take yesterday, due to my trailer being full of Fiddlesticks stuff.

Then I spent time down the garden loading up the smaller Compostumbler and a pallet bin, also doing some weeding - docks, before they set seed, and ground elder flowers, and then I decided to cut the Privet hedge at the front, and I put all the cut material through the shredder, making 3 sacks of good compostable stuff.

I had some leek and sweet potato soup, which Gill had let down with some soya milk, with some boiled potatoes and a blob of hommous.

Enjoyed 'The Sky At Night' as it is always just a bit too complicated for me to totally get my head around.

A work day, but didn't have to leave til midday. This allowed me to indulge in a lie-in which was good... just til 10am though, nothing exorbitant!

Gill ironed my costume as I had breakfast, and at 11.30 I got my stuff together, but then got a phone call from a friend who had hit rock bottom, wanting a few minutes of my time, so I said I would be able to come round at 11.55 just for a few minutes. My friend suffered some horrible abuse many years ago and hasn't had any counselling or help overcoming or dealing with the memories and the emotions they stir up. This friend has a serious (legal) drug problem and the information I learned today makes that much more understandable. I offered to support them if they wanted to access counselling or get help from their GP, but I could only spend 10 minutes with them as I had to be at Millers Yard by 12.25.

I set up my stuff in the studio there, and walked round towards the ceramic-painting shop, where many of the party-goers had spent some of the morning. They were just coming out and heading for Millers Yard, so I turned round and led the crocodile of children to the venue.

The show went like clockwork, a really good show which I thoroughly enjoyed, as did the kids and their parents. I did the circus first, then prepared the balloon show and had my sandwiches, then did the balloon animal workshop. There were two girls celebrating their birthdays, so I think that my fee was probably shared by the two families, but I'm not sure. I got paid at the end, and several parents told me very complementary things before I cycled off with my trailer full of circus stuff and burst balloons for putting on the compost heap.

I got home at 4pm, via Country Fresh which is looking very nice with a new shop-front. All the old rotten wood has been replaced, but the original huge windows kept, which halved the cost of the job.

I had half an hour on the computer but when I'd dealt with the emails I got changed and went into the garden as I've had my eye on a length of hedge which has got a bit bushy, and needed a radical haircut.

I had nearly finished this job when our neighbour started chatting to me about the proposed removal of this length of hedge, and replacement with a fence, or a low wall and fence. We agreed that in a couple of weeks I would start taking out the hedge, and I would take care of that. My neighbour would put in some foundations and use the bricks I salvaged from when I took the coal-house out. The fence would probably be the one which I was given by another neighbour a few months back, a lovely oak fence.

Putting a wall/fence there will allow my neighbours to grow vegetables up it, and will mean that our veg patch doesn't have such dry soil where it is now depleted by the hedge roots. Removing the hedge will also allow me to remove the Ground Elder which is in the hedge and growing into the raised beds.

I came in at about 7pm, pretty tired but having cut the hedge (which will make it easier to take out) and riddled some more compost.

Tea had been made by our youngest... a rice and noodle nut loaf, with sprouts, carrots and roast potatoes. Impressive stuff! Delicious stuff too...

During the evening I enjoyed a programme on Coldplay, featuring my musical hero, Brian Eno, who produced their most recent album. I also jarred-up loads of dried apple rings and pear slices, and prepared loads more for drying.

Also today I received a phone call from my wonderful activist friend in Scarborough, Jane Gresham, who invited me to go and speak at the Scarborough 10:10 launch on Friday. 10:10 is a project launched by the good people behind The Age of Stupid, the aim of which is to encourage individuals to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010, AND lobby government to do the same. There is a pledge that people can sign... the movement is supported by a large number of organisations. I'm going through to Scarborough on Friday 26th to the Stephen Joseph Theatre to do a short talk before the film The Age of Stupid (which is having it's global premiere this week), and be on the panel for a Q+A afterwards. It's not a paid-for gig, but my train fare will be covered.

A late start for me; but I was up in the night as I heard noises outside and had to go and check... after which I lay there listening... how annoying! Then the dawn chorus started. Loud.

The broadband internet wasn't working so I made a few phone calls and found that a BT interchange was down and they were attempting to fix it. It was off all day.

So I did a variety of other things including taking some little yam plants down to Country Fresh to let them go to other people... and collected three boxes of compostables.

Cut a hedge, riddled another 9 carrier-bags worth of mature compost. Cut back more brambles. Watered wilting plants. Drank lots of water so I didn't wilt.

However, during the evening the internet started working again so I spent at least an hour dealing with emails.

ahh, a lie-in... not too surprising considering I was up til 3am last night, and saw the beginnings of dawn lighting the sky... I was preparing dried fruit (well, fruit for drying) and cooking potatoes, writing blog, playing Scrabble and chatting...

I did get up at 7.30 to help Gill with something, but went back to bed and didn't get up til 10.

I then got busy with paperwork; my pile of paper (intray!) had got too tall to stay vertical and therefore slumped and spread out. This is the signal I need that I should go through it and find the stuff which needs doing. I found some items which needed filling in, putting in envelopes, sending etc and did this. Went to the Post Office round the corner and sent one thing off with a 'signed-for' ticket.

Gill went to get our youngest and I cut the privet hedge at the front, with the shears, and when our eldest came home, he had a go with the shears and cut a bit of the hedge, which I was pleased with. I shredded this and added several sacks of shredded hedge and fruit/veg 'resources' to the Compostumbler. Riddled some more compost ready to mix into potting medium, to continue filling the pots of tomatoes, which need a few more centimetres of soil/compost mix adding.

Gill made tea, she fried the potatoes I boiled last night and added to the veg stew thing.

A quiet evening, made some fruit leather from apricots and nectarines and three apples. Should be a good-un when it's dried and been cut into strips.

Nice and lazy morning as the boys were in a good frame of mind because their friend slept over and they all play nicely together... most of the time. Also, Gill made them pancakes for breakfast.

Spent quite a bit of the morning writing, and thinking through last night's experiences.

So a good day, I did a load of work in the garden, including cutting some hedge with shears and then spending half an hour shredding, as the cuttings were quite long and woody. I also did some log stacking, compost heap building, and visited Country Fresh. The two sacks I got from there I took around to Lynn's as she has a dalek bin which is a bit on the dry side, and it really needed a load of fruit and cabbage leaves... which it got, a nice thick layer of wet nitrogen-rich stuff!

Later on in the evening I potted up another cucumber plant which really didn't need to spend a night outside, especially as it has two tiny flowers on it with millimetre-long cucumbers behind them... so it's now in the warmer conservatory in a big pot of rich mix...

More telly in the evening, depressing right-wing gains. Concentrated on preparing fruit for drying. That's local activism.... reducing landfill, making yummy dried fruit out of something which had been thrown away!

Thanks to Dave Hampton 'The Carbon Coach' for this:
What did the Climate Change Activist say about the Frequent Flyer?
'The Swine Flew'.

A good lie-in today til 10ish and at about that time Simon came to pick up our eldest to go on a picnic down at the Outgang with Simon's son. Our youngest played on the computer for a bit, and I lit the stove and did a large amount of washing up, but soon the lovely weather drew us all outside.

Gill got the electrical cable out so I could mow the lawns... I did this and also cut a hedge, riddled some compost, emptied a dalek compost bin ready for riddling and refilled it from the one next to it, did some weeding, tidying piles of now-dry hedge sticks which have been sitting in piles for a year or so.. they need to be broken up and chopped up and bagged ready for next winter's stove needs, and also cut back lots of brambles and shredded them. A really hard-working day, got lots done and Gill was very pleased with the change she saw when she came down the garden. I was kept company all afternoon by robins... they have no fear of people and came very close whilst I was moving stuff around and managing the compost heaps. Their favourite food is centipedes, as far as I can tell from watching today. They are also adept at catching several wiggly beasties despite having one or more already in their beak. I love these robins. I love the assorted songbirds too... I've had a very pleasant afternoon.

I had tea at about 7pm and then did another hour until it was too dark to do anymore. Exhausted! Played Scrabble on Facebook, washed up, watched telly.

A much better night's sleep and another relatively peaceful morning. Sophie and Dankie and Linda took all the children to the Norwich Castle Museum and I stayed in to look after Gill who was not well at all.

I cut Linda's front hedge and spent some time on the computer, and read, between seeing that Gill was OK and making sure that Linda's dog was too, as she'd left him with us.

Linda came back with the children at about 4 and they'd had a brilliant day with storytelling, Egyptian mummies, lots of activities and fun and education. I helped Linda make a simple meal, which we all had together, Sophie and Dankie coming back just as it was served.

Gill got a bit better during the evening and came down to watch Secret Millionaire which was very good, as usual.

Awoken by a phone call from a friend who's lonely at the weekend since his family has broken up, so I told him about York Green Festival tomorrow and he'll come down sometime in the afternoon. Then there was another phone call from a Fiddlesticks enquirer... and another phone call after that! It's so busy that it's almost like we have a Freefone number!

However the boys went out to play so Gill and I had a bit of time together after which I cycled round to the bread shop and then cut one of the hedges at the bottom of the garden. Over lunch we watched an old Time Team on More 4, and I did emails.

During the afternoon I did a huge pile of pruning.. holly, laurel, privet hedge, and shredding... almost a cubic metre of the stuff...

At about 5pm, cycled down to Rowntree Park to help put up marquees, with Baz and David, Bob and Richard, and advice from Liz who was tipsy (Baz's friend). The solar cinema was being put up with assistance from Sarah and I left at nearly 7pm.

Back home for a small tea and a cold shower as was extremely hot and sweaty... not suitable material for a party, which is where I was off to next. Will was having a 'wellness party' following too much time unwell, and it was an excellent party, with quite a few folks I knew and some I didn't. Drinks, food, music, then some games, and then I did a little balloon show which was fun for all concerned.

Home at about midnight.

A peaceful morning as our eldest was up early and Gill said yes to him playing on the computer, which meant that our youngest got a lie-in til 9 instead of being interfered with and awoken. So Gill and I had a relaxed hour or so before the youngest woke up and demanded breakfast.

I spent an hour after my breakfast cutting a hedge which was getting unruly, and putting it through the shredder. Then watched Countryfile which was an anniversary edition and very enjoyable, especially Jon Culshaw's impersonation of John Craven.

A busy afternoon and evening. Spent quite a lot of time in the garden dealing with unruly hedge and shredding most of the clippings... and collected a large trailer-full of stuff from Country not-so-fresh and mixed it in with the woody clippings and completely filled a tumbler....

At 2 I had a visit from Jennie whom I met on a train a few weeks ago when she was carrying an armful of mint, and invited her to come and visit. She came with her husband Juan and had a tour and a good chat, what lovely people! Then at 5, whilst I was making tea, my friend Grange came, and we had a really good evening, all enjoyed the nutloaf, spinach, flower/herb salad and potato salad that I made.

A good relaxed chat on Skype carefully avoiding contentious subject areas!

Quite a relaxed day, didn't have to hurry to get up as the first appointment was at midday.

So cycled into town to get to Parliament St for about 11.55 and met up with Tash who's organising the Big Freeze, and quite a few other people arrived too, at least 20 which was good. We had a talk through and a bit of a practice of the 10 second delay after Tash blew her whistle, which is how we all know when to freeze. Then when the cameras were ready, we all wandered over to the fountain and Tash did a really quiet whistle and no-one knew whether it was the real thing or just a practice... so I suggested she blow it really hard so we all knew. I froze pushing my bike... near me was Kenny doing up his shoelace and a couple of other people just walking... well, frozen in mid walk. We counted to 180 (3 minutes) and resumed walking... my counting was pretty accurate because I got up to 175 when the others started. One person had frozen looking at his watch so he was the person who started at moving again at 3 minutes, and we all used him as a cue. The reactions of passers by were interesting but I couldn't see many of them as I was facing in the wrong direction... but I look forward to the film being available on YouTube. I was interviewed afterwards about why I had got involved etc.

I came home via the Mail Box Etc shop where I get photocopies, and got a photocopy of my Equity Card which a client wants to see as proof of my insurance as Professor Fiddlesticks. Then to Country Fresh to pick up 2 sacks and a box, bought a cauliflower and some broccoli too.

Home for lunch, and after I went to the lottie to put the compostable materials on my latest heap. After this went on to my agent's house to deliver the photocopy, and doubled back to Anna's to pick up yet another load of cut vegetation to take to Hazel Court. This time no-one stopped me or accosted me... I was able to dump the compostables in the green waste skip without any hassle, which is how it should be. There was a fellow unloading conifer prunings as well, then he opened his boot and revealed a pile of holly logs, which I asked if I could have... so returned home with these!

Home by 5ish, and did a bit of woodpile building followed by tea followed by cutting the front hedge which has become rather shaggy. Some passer-by had pulled a chunk of it and although I tried to push this back before cutting it, when I did cut it, this area became a hole in the hedge which is annoying. It looks as if I'm an incompetent hedge cutter!

I collected all the cuttings on a sheet and shredded them all and was finished by 9.15.

Spent quite a bit of evening dealing with emails and reading the US Composting Council quarterly newsletter which I found very interesting.

Not too early a start, and after breakfast went for lie down which was a treat. However, too sunny a day to stay in, so I went out to restart the hedge processing, as the pile of chopped hedge has just been sitting in a pile, so I really need to continue that and get it all chopped and into potato sacks for drying.

My neighbour is putting up fenceposts where the hedge was, so we chatted a little bit. But I also did some weeding, finished digging out/turning a 'sit and wait' compost heap and started refilling the same set of pallets with shredded twigs and the last of the contents of a large feather mattress that someone gave me for recycling, plus a layer of fruit and veg.

Also cut some hedge and pruned a couple of small pear trees to make them into more of an open shape, removing some crossing branches and cutting off the ends of long straggly branches, so they don't bend down quite so far when they bear fruit.

So a good day. Inside, after lunch, I washed and prepared a large pile of leek tops, cut off the white stems by the wholesaler, and then I chopped them into the big Le Cruset saucepan on the woodstove, with some olive oil, potatoes, onion, yellow pepper and tomatoes... ready to make a stew/soup for tea.