Human Lifestyle

Oh a late start... not surprising due to the late finish yesterday.  I should try to get out of this nocturnal habit!

However, once I was up I had a reasonable day, although I missed meeting Oddny who was (maybe) visiting York to see the Quilting Museum, and I'd forgotten that she was visiting until lunchtime today so I bombed down to the Museum, arriving about 15 minutes before the time she said she'd be leaving... but she wasn't there.  Ho hum.  I picked up some sticks on the way home and when I got in, my eldest took a break from school work and helped me chop them up and stack them in fruit boxes, and then carry some bigger logs round the back to stack them.  I do enjoy it when he helps!

I did quite a bit inside today, various email-based things, sorting out some future meetings, putting things in the diary, and had a phone call about the Waste Food Feast which might be gaining momentum.

At about 5 I cycled off in the lovely pink sunset to Country Fresh and got some fruit and veg for us, some bits and bobs for Debbie, and had a laugh with Shirley who was itching to get off work as her football team had a big match this evening.  I picked up a good load of recyclables too.

I tried not to have a late night.  Not sure I succeeded...

Another late lie in... I'm going nocturnal, as is usual when I'm not forced to get up at a sensible time.  However, I had a busy day.  I went to the Co-op to get cereal and marmalade... Gill cannot live without Seville marmalade, apparently!  But the Tang Hall Lane Co-op didn't have the crunchy cereal that I like, so I went to the Hull Road Co-op, which did.  I popped in on Debbie, who was not yet a Grandma.

A bit later Gill said she was going to go to Marks and Spencer in town to spend her £40 voucher given to her by her sister Linda; yesterday she'd spotted that they had a DAB radio which would enable her to get Radio 7 which has various things on which she'd like to listen to. I said that instead of her buying yet another bus ticket, I'd cycle down and get it.   BUT I wanted to see if there was an energy efficient digital radio, as I'm aware they use quite a bit more power than analogue radios.  So I found this page about DAB radios, and this list of energy efficient DAB radios. Fortunately it had one of the models Gill had seen yesterday in M+S, a PURE ONE Mini, for £45. This only uses 2w when in use, and 0.8w when just left plugged in.  Obviously when unplugged or switched off at the wall, it uses no power!

So I cycled down to Country Fresh and bought a bit of fruit and veg, and picked up a small box of compostables. From here I went on to town, handed over Gill's voucher card and a fiver and within 30 minutes was back home.  Gill was delighted.  Now all she needs to do is to learn how to use it!

At about tea time we got a text message from Debbie; her son had become a father to a little boy, so Debbie's a Granny!  She'll be over the moon!

Gill was putting a load of washing on in the washing machine in the conservatory, and said she could hear running water in there.  But nothing was obvious.  Later, she heard it again and suggested I go and check the studio, which has a flush toilet and my compost toilet.  I found that a pipe had burst in the freeze and was now flowing freely into the little room which has both the (unused) flush loo and my commode which is the 'business end' of my compost toilet set-up.  I switched off the stop tap which is in there and spent an hour clearing up, pulling up the carpet, moving stuff, and by 11pm had put the dehumidifyer in there to start it drying out.  What a bummer.  However, this will force us to declutter in there, which it desperately needs. I know we're not the only people with burst pipes, and we're lucky it's in an outbuilding.

Another nothingy day... I slept in late, not surprising as I went to bed at about 3am.

Gill took the boys into town on the bus mid afternoon to go and buy books with the book tokens they got for Christmas, and I did a short bit of chainsawing and splitting.  I now have no more logs which need cutting and very few rounds which need splitting.  But now there's a big pile of stackable stuff which I need to attend to...

Before the family got back I hopped onto my bike to go down to Country Fresh, but they'd closed at 4pm and I'd arrived at 4,20.  I popped in to my friend Debbie as her daughter in law is due to have a baby, which will make her a grandma. So, the news was that she'd been induced, so baby will arrive... well, sometime in the next 24 hours...  I'm looking forward to the excited text message, although Debbie says I'll hear her shout from here when she hears the news!

So, tea was a pastie which Gill got from town, plus a mix of parsnip (phew, now finished!) pasta and tomato sauce.  I had a nice Skype chat with Laura after tea, to catch up with what she'd been doing over Christmas.

So, a fairly nondescript day, nothing particularly exciting.

I got up at 10ish and by the time I'd had breakfast and woken up properly, it was too late to go into St Nicks and help with their coppicing task.  I ought to have been there when things were starting.  I'll try to get to another EcoActive day task.

So I had a quiet day, with an hour or so working outside, chainsawing and stacking. I cycled round to the bakers in the morning and bought cereals at the Co-op.

Once again I had quite a lot of time on the laptop, keeping the stoves going, making sure my boys were OK, doing kitchen stuff, jarring up dried fruit.

I spent quite a long time filling in a questionnaire to help a student with research.

I was happy to get a lie in, and Gill and I listened to The Archers in bed.  Lovely.

I watched Country Tracks after this whilst having breakfast, and got a phone call from Barry Potter who told me he'd be passing my house within the hour.  He wanted to come and check out the brewing stuff delivered a week or so ago, as he does a lot of brewing.  I got dressed and he arrived, bearing gifts of cyder, metheglin, mead and some honey, as he has some bees.

He went home with six plastic buckets, three 1 gallon demijohns, two half-gallon demijohns, some airlocks, crown corks and straining bags, net curtains etc.  Also, very pleased that he took two plastic crates for holding bottles.  So I've managed to give away all the unwanted brewing stuff.  Excellent!

So, a late lunch, listened to Gardener's Question Time and then went down to Country Fresh in a complete blizzard, and it was really nice to see Richard and we had a laugh, I did a bit of shopping and took away a sack of recyclables, although I won't be able to process them today as it's far too cold and snowy.  I might chop them up in the garage tomorrow and take them down the garden ready to put on the most accessible heap. I called into the Co-op on the way back and was glad to get home with the assorted goodies.

I spent the rest of the day inside, not doing a lot, bar kitchen stuff.  Hoping for an early night.

I slept in and when I got up, my top dressing had come off revealing a neat pair of 'butterfly sutures'.  It isn't clear whether I have normal stitches as well.  Gill replaced the gauze and attached it with tape.

So I had a sedentary day, mostly.  Wrote my piece for the Ward Election newsletter, and dealt with more fruit.

Later, I installed a dalek compost bin which came home from Lord Deramore's minus it's lid and basal door.  I used a load of bits of rock and concrete to block the door hole and I'll use something to put on the top.  I half-filled it with the contents of the medium Compostumbler, and started refilling the tumbler with shredded shrubs, shredded rotten wood and a couple of sacks of greengrocers stuff. 

I picked some beans for tea. I picked a lovely looking bright orange winter squash, which should keep for quite a few months.

In fact, tea was excellent.  Someone (err, was it Loony?) had suggested making a bread and butter pudding but make it savoury with layers of veg instead of fruit.  I had a thrown away wholemeal loaf, so Gill and I made an experimental meal.  The beans were chopped up and put in a dish with onion, mushroom, tomato and courgette, with herbs and a bit of bouillon, and microwaved for a few minutes to soften them.  The bread was dipped in a mix of goats milk and egg, and some put in the bottom of a greased pyrex dish.  Then a layer of veg mix, and another layer of bread, and so on, finishing with a layer of eggy bread, and some goats cheese grated on top.  This was microwaved to heat it through, and then put in the oven to crisp the top and make sure it was really well cooked.

It was delicious, a really nice meal.  We'll be doing a version of this again!

A quiet evening, wrote the minutes out for the YiT meeting last week as I had a gentle prompt from Peter that I hadn't done it yet.

A late start to the day, not surprising since I was up til 3am. It is a constant question as to why I am nocturnal if left to my own devices.

But once I was up, I had a busy day... a teeny bit of woodchopping, planting out beans and squash, preparing a bit more growing medium, compost heap adding, also several phone calls, a pile of emails, letters to answer.

I went down to the Cemetery at about 2.30, to get some photos, and as I'm essentially a polite and law-abiding person, I asked in the office, where one of the team was working. She explained that taking photos in such a sensitive place as a cemetery wasn't really allowed without permission, and the Warden was back on Monday. This meant I couldn't take any today as I need to discuss it with the Warden, and explain why I want the images.

So, onto Alligator, to pick up a week's worth of compostables, and then to Richard to buy groceries and then his compostables. Unfortunately I put the bag with fruit, veg and eggs in my pannier and then as I was loading the 'resources' into the trailer the bike fell over. When I got home, I found two eggs were broken. It's not often I waste food.

Then home, in time to be there for our eldest to get let in before Gill came in with our youngest, who's school is further away.

I went to an appointment with my GP at 5pm, calling in on Oxfam for a big tub of Cafe Direct fair trade coffee. When I had my bike crash a few days ago, I continued moving forward as my bike stopped, and I banged my groin onto the handlebar stem. Then a day or two later I found a lump in the same place, which Gill thought might be a hernia or a burst blood vessel, so I went to wave it at my Doctor. Also, my lipoma on my forehead is getting bigger and about two people a week ask me "Have you bumped your head?", and at a meeting recently, I noticed one of the other participants looking at it quite a lot. That was a bit offputting and annoying. I think I know how it feels when men talk to a woman's cleavage (well, a bit). The lump wasn't a hernia and I've got to go back if it's not gone in a month. The lipoma could be removed but as it would be considered cosmetic surgery, it won't be done on the NHS and I'd have to go privately. Not sure what to do. I'll get a referral to a plastic surgeon who will tell me what could be done and how.

A bit later when at home again, I picked a lovely little bunch of Oyster mushrooms from a log which I had nearly given up on... it has some other fungi in it, but the Oyster mycelium has grown through the soil from one of the first logs I inoculated, which has (I think!) finished fruiting, but the same strain is now growing from this other log. It had 3 clumps on it, so I picked the biggest and I'll take some photos of the other clumps when they are a bit more mature.

Here's the clump I picked today:

And here's me looking happy with the crop:

I know what's for tea tomorrow!

Woke late, and got up to watch Country Tracks which was good.

I eventually got dressed. A bit later I cycled down to St Nicks via Country Fresh, picking up a couple of sacks of bits and bobs, plus the fruit and veg we need over the next few days. And so to St Nicks to get busy again with the compost bays. I worked really hard and have now turned about half of the material. I picked up a couple of logs on the way home, and said hello to my friends at Freshways. They were dealing with some drunk youths. One of them fell over my trailer. He was initially abusive, but soon apologised to me for being abusive... walking towards me, I thought he was going to hit me... but he shook my hand and then wobbled off.

Later, after dark, Gill asked me to return the DVD which she'd got out yesterday, so I cycled down there and came back with another load of logs from the dump the tree surgeon uses.

Another quiet evening, although I tried to re-write an email I once sent about a complicated subject to make it part of a web page. All will be revealed soon enough!

A really lovely lazy morning. Which extended into the afternoon and I didn't get out of the house until 3pm. Richard from Country Fresh rang and said that someone had just bought the last 3 bags of compost which were left over from last season, and could he have some more. So I got 4 carriers full from down the garden and cycled them down to Richard. I got eggs and butternut squash, plus several boxes and bags of compostables. Called in on Freshways on the way back for another two sacks full.

These were taken down the garden and then I built a bit of logpile outside the front door, before it got too dark to continue.

Gill had used the tomato soup as a base to cook some other vegetables in, and on top had placed a slab of scone mix to make a 'Cobbler' which was very tasty and delicious.

I had a lot to do on the computer during the evening, a campaign wanted to use a story I had about a friend, but I had to contact the friend's relatives to check if it was OK to use the story... and it wasn't. So quite a bit of email traffic to and fro.

A late start... it is still the holidays!

And a peaceful day... the boys had been invited to a birthday party at 2pm, so I got the sledge out of the garage after lunch and Gill walked down to Heslington with them, and she stayed there til the party finished at 6.30. Simon and Melody took their son and the three invited partygoers sledging on the hill on Low Moor near the allotments whilst Gill chatted to Natalie.

I prepared a meal for myself and Gill (couscous, onion and leek, stove-fried chunks of sweet potato, broccoli, and cranberry sauce for Gill, pesto for me) and took a Fiddlesticks booking, did some emailing and Scrabble on facebook, phoned a couple of friends and did a small amount of work outside. It was very cold outside, and lovely and warm inside, so I soon came back in!

The family came back at 7, children exhausted, Gill hungry, and all was well in the Cossham household.

Got up at 11.30 after another late night, woken by my sister in law ringing.

I really didn't do very much today at all, besides a bit of washing up, reading, playing Scrabble and replying to assorted posts on the web...

When I was toying with the idea of doing something outside, it snowed heavily so I didn't.

And then it was time to avoid Dr Who, which my family enjoy but I don't.

So I removed myself and watched YouTube videos and then read NewScientist upstairs. I came downstairs thinking it was over and there was continued Dr Who stuff on for a further several hours. I did stuff in the other room and did the washing up.

Gill and I had a game of Scrabble and she won. I'm not surprised at the moment, nothing seems to be quite right. I'm looking forward to visiting a friend tomorrow. That will cheer me up.

Had a bit of a lie-in and then spent over an hour finishing off my blog from the FERA conference.

Then lunch!

Did some chainsawing and a bit more tidying up the bricks from the chimney... I now have a stack of 60 or so cleaned-up 'clamp bricks' which I'll re-use to plug a gap between the back of the house and a wall which is now part of the conservatory. Currently it is filled with some wooden battens with horizontal fence-type wooden planks (just one brick long) and this needs to be replaced. These bricks will do the job. But I won't. I need to find a brickie, and maybe one who has a brick-saw to cut the bricks down, as they fill the gap quite tightly, leaving no space for mortar.

Gill went out and the boys played in the garden, then read quietly. A very peaceful and low-key day. Gill and I had a game of Scrabble after tea, and I played lots of Scrabble on Facebook. Interspersed with peeling and slicing fruit for the drying racks...

I got up at the normal time and helped get the children ready for school, but went back to bed soon after. Gill went down to Lord Deramore's with our youngest and went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park on a school trip.

I was woken at lunchtime by one of Gill's friends ringing and wanting to catch up with her, I had a nice chat, then had a late lunch and did some housework. At 3ish I went to Freshways and picked up 3 sacks of greens and exotic fruit... all too far gone for doing anything edible with, so destined for the compost heaps...

People came home happy, which was good. I went out to the Co-op and bought pasta parcels, boiled some parsnip and sprouts to have with them, all cooked on our trusty woodstove. The boys had a friend round who had tea with us. Gill did a banana and chocolate cake in the microwave and that went down well too.

I had a quiet evening... still tired.

A very late morning... Gill got me up at 8 to see if I could sort out a child's bike brakes (which I did) and I then went back to bed, til 11. Lovely. Partly as I was up til 3am last night... or this morning, if you want.

So, after lunch I did a big load of shredding, the stuff I cut yesterday. Then I attacked the hedge again and yanked out a load more, cutting the roots and bottom of the plant off and removing all the spare soil, and pulling congested roots apart. This realised another 60 plants, which I bunged in a sack and invited another Freecycler to come and get.

I worked up until teatime and had a quick tea and then went to the Hull Road Ward Committee meeting which was just round the corner. This was the meeting where this year's funding applications are presented. John from St Nicks presented his request... something towards a new CCTV system and another requested grant towards some new play equipment. Then people in the ward vote for which ones they like and don't like... and the Council decisdes who gets the money.

This finished at about 8.30 and I popped in back home to check all was well, and then cycled down to Green Drinks for a single pint, just one hour. Had some chats with Ivana and Graham, Dave and Jennie, and a couple of others, but I was tired and came away at 10. Glad I did as when I got home I watched Newsnight which had a piece on the Green Movement with Justin Rowlatt and Caroline Lucas. 'Twas good.

So, a quiet evening followed, ploughing through emails, following up various things I'm obligated to do.

Not a bad day really, certainly started out right with a lie in with Gill who then slept all morning.

I had heard what I thought was a chainsaw so I hopped on my bike to go and find it, but it turned out to be a petrol hedgetrimmer, so I came back home.

I sorted out some fruit to dry on the woodstove, cooked some slices of homegrown squash and then had lunch. At 1.30 the Yellow Pages/Yell dot Com lady arrived and we had some interesting chats before I signed the paperwork agreeing another year's advertising.

Gill went for our youngest and I spent quite a long time preparing potatoes, some knobbly Pink Fir Apple to add to tonight's tea. I did a bit of work in the garden and came in for tea, which for me was a pastie, four slices of fried squash from earlier and a handful of cold cooked potatoes.

I had a meeting at 7 up at Rand's house so I zoomed up to Acomb to meet with other Green Festival core group people to have the post-festival roundup. This was an interesting meeting as we had to analyse not just how it went, but our own role within that. I chaired AND made notes... and have now got these to type up and send out.. aargh! However, it was a good meeting, and there was wine and assorted food.

Quick cycle back, it's all downhill from Acomb! Then a long phone call with my dear old Auntie after which I tried to catch up with some more e-paperwork.

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.

Both boys off to school today... I came down and sat bleary-eyed on the sofa until the house was empty, and then had breakfast, did my e-paperwork and then when Gill came back she persuaded me to come back to bed. We are very lucky to have this time... the low income and only working part-time does have it's upside.... plenty of time to do what we want to do...

But I couldn't stay in bed all day, much though that has some attraction, as I was expecting a visit from either Rowena or Adrian who have done a clear-out and found a stash of wood, much of it only fit to burn. So I did a load more work out the front, slicing the pear, apple and lilac logs from John Bibby, and splitting them and stacking round the back. It's a huge job... I'm only half-way through and I've already got a really good stack of split logs, perhaps 2m x 2m and nearly as high as me.

Adrian came after lunch, with a load of planks and other structural timber, and a whole lot of very dry and mostly all logged to the right size Leylandii chunks. I split these with the maul... they are easier when wet.

At 3 I went to school to pick up our youngest, and cycled with him on to the Millennium Bridge and up to BikeRescue where the 'Specialised Rockhopper' reconditioned bike was waiting. Our little boy was delighted with this... it was £65, but well worth it as it is a good make, 18 gears and will last for years. I put his old bike on my trailer and zoomed off after him, as he is now twice as fast as he was!

Got home well before what time I told Gill I expected us to be back, and I continued outside for a bit, cutting the front hedge and putting some of it through the shredder. Then tea which was cauliflower and macaroni with the tomato and leek soup on top as a sauce..

I then had an appointment at the allotment with a bunch of University students who have an allotment but don't know about composting, and I had offered to do a talk going through the basics. There were about 8 of them, on a rather weedy allotment but with plenty of lettuce, strawberries, onions, potatoes and a fire area in the centre with pallets around it to sit on. I did a basic run through of what composting was, what kind of materials biodegrade, the conditions needed, some stuff about landfill and my composting ops here. I answered a few questions. Then we went to look at the existing composting areas, showing them evidence of a rat in one pile. They gave me some lettuce as a thank you for the time.

I went up to my half plot and did some clearance, opening up a path up one side using the hedge shears, and worked til 10.15 when it got too dark to continue...

A lovely chatty evening with Gilly, and feeling positive as we looked at photos of Randall and Annie's baby on Facebook. Ahhhh...

Lovely morning, lie in with Gill, then a bath... in gas-heated water... the first time this year I've needed to use gas for a bath.

But I cannot go to work dirty!

I left for work clean, hair washed and shiny, plaited by Gill. Left at midday, bike trailer loaded up with bag-o-tricks and unicycles, with my back pack of costume, feathers and balloons on my back. My reading matter, party contact details and sandwiches were in a pannier.

I got my ticket and waited 10 minutes for the train to Huddersfield, chatting to a nice older woman called Jo who was visiting her very old parents in Liverpool. She and I chatted on the platform and then she chose to sit next to me on the train and we had a good chat... no time for me to eat my sandwiches or read, but she was good company.

Nigel, the birthday boy's Dad, met me at Huddersfield, and drove me to the party place, a little village hall in very scenic hill country near Holmfirth. I entertained at their wedding 5 years ago, when their child was nearly 2. So this was his 7th birthday... and he'd invited the whole class.

The party went completely as expected, and I got the 5.30 train back to York. I dozed.

Gill had taken the boys to see a film at City Screen, so I had pasta for tea and went into the garden to muck around there for a bit. The family came in and Gill was exhausted after a trying and difficult day. I got my stuff ready for tomorrow, a playscheme where I'm doing composting etc, so I have to take assorted samples!

I had a peaceful evening, watched a bit of telly and played Scrabble on Facebook.

Gill did all the early stuff, I got up, breakfasted, Gill came back from delivering our youngest to school, and we went back to bed as this is the last chance we have for a lie in for a fortnight... both boys are early risers, like Gill. Got up again at 11, I went to Thomas the Baker for Yesterbake bread and some pasties for tea, and the Co-op for some other bits. Met Stephen and as usual, 'chewed the fat' with him, putting the world to rights.

Came back to find Ai's wormery has been delivered. WRAP has a deal with assorted local authorities, through the Recycle Now website, they offer reduced price composting equipment. You put in your postcode and a range of different compost bins and wormeries comes up, with different prices in different areas. In Ali's area, there wasn't a Can O Worms available, but there was in York and North Yorkshire, so she ordered one to be delivered here. Se did this just in time, as now I cannot find any wormeries available on this website! The best price deal that I've found today is in Lancashire, where a 'dalek' compost bin can be had for £3 or £5, with a delivery charge of £5. But I put in postcodes of people I know in Shropshire, Cambridge, Norwich, Hebden Bridge and Leeds, and there are good deals to be had in all of these. My 'top buy' is the 330 litre Compost Converter 'dalek' bin.

I had lunch with Gill and then got on with processing the large logs out the front. I just managed to saw through the really thick cherry trunk and split the chunks, stacking them by the side of the house to dry. One of my neighbours told me that he thought my logpiles were untidy, and that he sometimes smelt smoke from the stove. I apologised for the occasionally poor management of the stove, which only burns smoke free when burning hot and with the air coming through the turbobaffle. Sometimes Gill opens up the air under the grate to get it burning well, and then forgets to close it. Sometimes a log goes on which doesn't catch properly, and it smoulders rather than burn cleanly and heat up well. So these stoves are only smoke free if they are well managed. I didn't tell my neighbour that I found his cars ugly, but I did, in passing, mention the invisible and smell-free carbon dioxide pollution that cars emit in very large amounts, but this was dismissed. Depressing. We ought to live in a smallholding really, where having a few tonnes of logs stacked around the place wouldn't upset the neighbours.

Gill did the school run and the boys had some visitors to play with. Melody and Ros came to drink coffee and chat. I visited Country Fresh and Freshways, to collect my not very fresh stuff.

Melody left soon after I got back, and had been given some garlic bulbs by Gill as I've got dozens and she pickles them. Next to the front door were another 50? or so garlics, thrown out by the veg shops, and I'd been intending to pickle these. I gave them all to Melody, as she's far better at doing pickles than me, she was ecstatic. In return, she'll give me a jar or two of the finished product, yippee!

Tea was delicious... I cropped some of the Shiitake mushrooms and gently fried them in olive oil on the stove, appreciated by all the males in the house (don't think Gill's too keen) and some of yesterday's lasagna and pastie and potatoes.

A warm and cosy evening. Did more dried pears.