Human Lifestyle

A quiet day; highlights were cycling down to Country Fresh, visiting Maria on the way back. Returning from Maria's, I spotted a pile of logs in a friend's garden, someone who'd given me logs in the past. As they weren't in, I put a note through their door asking if they'd be happy for me to take the logs.  A bit later, I got a phone call from Linda, my friend, saying that actually they'd purchased a Morso stove and those logs were very much wanted!  I was delighted, as I think some of my green 'stuff' may have rubbed off on them. 

I also got a confirmation of a Fiddlesticks booking at the end of the month, and I did a load more fruit and the usual round of washing up, logpile building and assorted parenting stuff like taking hot water upstairs for a child's bath.  I really enjoyed Gardener's Question Time on Radio 4 as it was from Bradford and included questions about how to grow various tropical things which don't grow well in Bradford.  So a day with not a lot to write about, but a low carbon day nevertheless.

A lie in... woke at 8 but then slept til about 11... bliss.

A very restworthy day actually, although I did stack all the logs I cut and split yesterday, and in the evening attended the post-ride meeting of the York World Naked Bike Ride at the Yorkshire Terrier on Stonegate. Hugh and Tony were there already when I turned up, and we were joined by Hedley and Richard. We reviewed the feedback from riders, and discussed how we can have a better ride next year, especially concerning a protocol for the police and our stewards.

After the meeting finished I stayed on with Tony and had a really good chat with him, before leaving soon after 11pm.

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.

Both boys off to school, late, but they went.

Gill went into town to pay in a cheque to the Credit Union. I did some stuff inside and then moved logs from the huge stack of beech at the back round to the front, to build up the pile on the right of the door.

Gill came back from town and had forgotten to get various things... including a book our eldest wants, and is waiting for us in Waterstones. So at about 2.30 I cycled in and visited Alligator for peanut butter and marmalade, Waterstones, my building society and then Sainsburys.

Gill did a spaghetti-based meal... I stir-fried some sliced sprouts to go with it, and soon after 7pm set out on my bike again to go to Millers Yard to have the 'York Festivals' meeting with Dylan. Baz turned up, and Sarah from Kyi-Po. Later, Helgi arrived to give me his Duke of Edinburgh Silver booklet to fill in.

Dylan and I had already had a conversation about York Green Festival and York Peace Festival this year. York Peace Festival goes back over 20 years to when York had a Peace Centre, and it was connected to that. I loved the Peace Festival, and when it stopped happening about 5 years ago (not sure when the last one was actually) I missed it and then in 2006/7 I decided to 'do' a Festival, which became York Green Festival in 2007. We had our third last year. But this year, several of the organisers are involved in organising the World Carfree Cities International Conference in York this summer, so we're taking a break and York Peace Festival can take place. This is provisionally booked for 5th September. Dylan also has plans for some events and activities in the week leading up to this, but this is for Dylan to announce when it is more concrete, and the other partners are agreed.

So we all discussed about these events and some other York Festivals, such as the Carnival, which is on June 5th, and a York in Transition (dance?) event on 17th April which I'm partly responsible for. The meeting wasn't very long... and I got away so I could go to St Nicks where my York in Transition friends were having a meeting. I found some logs on the way there, but the weight in the trailer made cycling in the snow much more difficult so I had to push my bike some of the way along the cycle track. I got to St Nicks just as they were on AOB, so I was able to fill in some of the stuff I'd just learned.

So, got home just before 10pm, banked up the stoves, kissed both my boys goodnight, and settled down to a quiet evening.

I enjoyed lots of time outside in the garden today, turned a compost heap, tried to mend my large Compostumbler which has rusted through in a couple of places, tidied up a raised bed and assorted other bits in the back.

I did a load of chainsawing too, in the front. And built a bit of logpile on the right of the front door. And let a neighbour have a wheelbarrow full of logs for their chimenea or whatever.

A difficult evening. Went to bed early. I read NewScientist and got up again at 11 when all was peaceful again. I filled two 700g peanut butter jars with dried apple rings and one with pear slices, plus a smaller jar with pear slices. I jarred up all the quartered and dried kiwi fruit, one 700r peanut butter jar managed to get 29 kiwi fruit in, that is 116 quarter portions! Then I re-arranged the bananas I'd done in the last day or two onto the bottom rack (36 of them) and peeled and prepared and placed very carefully another 48 bananas on racks for drying over the next 24/36 hours. By then, the older ones will be ready for their jars, and I'll move the current fresh ones down onto the lower rack. It's a slow production line, keeping fruit out of landfill and out of my compost heaps... and into my muesli and into the tummies of quite a few of my friends and relatives!

The whole family were together on the stroke of midnight but I wasn't in a celebratory mood. It was civil and sober. In fact, this must be one of the first New Years for some while when I haven't had anything to drink.

Happy New Year all! Let's hope it's one where the majority take on board the importance of conserving resources, polluting less, living more simply and being nice to each other. In particular, I'd like ordinary people to get the 10:10 message. I see this as a crucial year. Certainly a crucial decade.

A far from easy day. I needed to find the Christmas Day Fiddlesticks paperwork and that took ages and then I had a phone call with my agent which was difficult.

I got outside after lunch and finished the logpile to the left of the front door, and sorted out some other woody stuff. Later in the day I had an important email to do and that was difficult too.

I spent lots of time playing Scrabble on facebook and doing thing around the house but felt not 100% today. Hope tomorrow will be better.

Another late morning but a peaceful one.

I spent time on LinkedIn, replying to a topic posted on 'The-Green-Group.com' by a guy who's developed a technology which converts 'waste' (his terminology) to 'SynGas', a type of pyrolysis or gasification, a way of heating materials and getting a fuel off them. I am a proponent of materials recycling, keeping plastic as plastic, agricultural wastes as solid carbon (and sequestering it in soil as compost), rather than converting it to something which will power cars or electricity generation... and releasing that carbon into the air. I also feel that having a constant market for these materials, to feed incinerators, will skew the economics for recyclable materials. For instance, (purely hypothetically) if it costs £100 per tonne to take plastic bottles to a recycling plant and render them into a new product, and a 'waste to energy' plant pays £10 a tonne for the same material, which is the local authority more likely to do? I don't have a problem with renewable materials (like agricultural wastes) being used for power generation, and I'm particularly interested in anaerobic digestion, which gives methane or natural gas, plus a digestate which can be composted and added to soils. BUT this can only replace our fossil fuel addiction if we rapidly cut the amount of energy and resources we are consuming. The 'Energy from Waste' proponents just want to replace coal power stations with rubbish powered ones. They are not in the game of radical reduction in energy use, per se. However, many of the people involved are in fact keen greens and support concepts such as permaculture and low carbon technologies.

Interesting discussions and hopefully some mutual awareness raising.

During the afternoon I finally got outside to bring logs from the back up to the front to rebuild the logpile on the left of the door... and we've nearly used all the pile on the right, so hardly any really dry logs left. We've plenty of old dry wood, but it's been outside on pallets and has had a wet winter's worth of rain and snow on it. It will burn, but best if it has a few weeks in the dry first. I'm stacking some round the stoves to flash-dry them... although this process reduces the warmth coming into the room somewhat, as the heat on the damp logs is used to evaporate moisture, not left as 'free' heat.

I had rescued a tray of slightly shriveled kiwi fruit from one of the shops before Christmas and today I managed to peel and slice quite a few of them to dry. I did 5 for a fruit salad and about 20 on racks on the stove. I helped Gill prepare the meal... rice and assorted veg, roast Turk's turban squash, and some felafel.

I watched a very interesting programme about how people who were affected by the tsunami felt about their faith. Despite my being an agnostic, I'm really interested in what people believe and why. This programme was good as some had come through the event without questioning God, some had questioned their faith, one person who had lost their entire family said she hated God for doing it. There were some who blamed 'Karma' for the loss of innocent lives... it was fascinating.

I got a phone call from my sister which was most welcome. I am so lucky to have the support of my siblings. They both have very different qualities and attributes, and I'm grateful for them both being in my life, and supportive and loving.

I had a long facebook instant messaging chat with a friend in Germany who is going through some difficult times. It feels good to be able to offer some support there.

A bit of a late start to the morning, as one of the children joined us in bed during the night following a bad dream or something. I was also bunged up and woke with a swollen throat. But got downstairs at 10 to find Gill listening to the Archers and making bread, proving it next to the stove. An hour later she was dancing round feeling very pleased with herself and saying she'd made the best bread she'd ever made. And it is delicious.

I watched the Sky At Night on BBC iPlayer about the tiny impactor which was crashed into a shadowy crater to see if there was any water ice in the material at the bottom... but it was a bit of a non event in many ways because all the people expecting a huge 'splash' of material were very disappointed. Then I listened to a Radio 4 programme on Listen Again on crickets and grasshoppers. So a very sedentary morning.

But after lunch I did a load of fruit sorting... took dried fruit off the rack and put another load on... 30 small bananas from Freshways this time. I did this whilst listening to Gardeners Question Time on Radio 4.

But then I went outside and replenished the stack of logs outside the front door; this one's on the right looking out, so to keep the house warm and cook, we're now using the stack on the left which has been drying for one or two years in the open air, in the wind, rain and sun, and has had a few weeks under cover in our porch. I judge whether something is dry enough to go on the stove by just picking the log up and feeling the weight. Although the weight of a dry log depends on the type of wood it is, I can tell when they are dry enough. There is also a visual clue, if the log has split radially, and has developed cracks in it, it has lost enough moisture to burn.

Anyway, I continued this task til dark. I built a good pile which won't collapse as it dries off fully, as the logs are interlocked and even as they shrink the last little bit, I predict this one will be OK.

Gill made a good tea, quiche, potatoes, avocado and a slice of baked squash, reheated in the microwave. We watched 'Life' on BBC1, about fish, then Countryfile.

This evening I really enjoyed the music played by Equinox, who broadcast in York on 103.7 FM on Sunday afternoon/night, and on the web at Cranky Radio (well, sometimes!) and they hold events too, find out more here. I phoned in a dedication for Gill and the boys, as they were all enjoying the music. Lovely!

Up early as builders coming to remove the unused chimney and put on new boards at the edge of the roof.

But it was raining hard and when they came they realised that my logpiles had to be moved. The workers rang the boss and he rang me back to say they'd be around on Thursday. And yes, I do have to move the logpiles. They offered to do it, but building a new logpile is an art, so I'm doing it. I've never seen somebody else build a better logpile than me, apart from Alastair Heseltine, who is an artist and sculptor whom I think is inspirational. Do have a flick through his website, click on the photos on the left of the screen to move around...

I moved one of the two logpiles at the side of the house to the side of the passage between our garden and our next door neighbour. I'll move the other one tomorrow, and tidy up. I didn't move the second one today as there was a thunderstorm with hail and driving rain.

I spent some of today peeling and slicing and drying a huge load of Persimmon, sometimes known as Sharon Fruit. They naturally have a couple of dark marks on them, and can get very soft and squishy but are still delicious and edible. However, one of the greengrocers has chucked out about 20 to 30 boxes, each with six fruits in. Each fruit makes 4 slices so that's a huge amount of dried persimmon, but it is really worth it as it's lovely, a great texture and flavour!

I got ready for work at about 4pm, as was booked to go and entertain at the 20th anniversary of the University of York Nursery. I was able to take my bike and trailer through to the back where there is a covered outdoor area with a soft surface, and I did about half an hour of walkabout and making faces to the kids inside the building, their laughing faces pressed up against the window, and me either sticking my tongue out or crossing my eyes, or thumbing my nose... all silly but good fun interaction. Then I did my show... a big audience of at least 40 children and same numbers of adults, a very quick show but a good un! Finally, I made a lot of balloon animals, just giving them out to whomsoever wanted them, til about 6 when there was a firework display at the front of the building. I had a baked potato with beans and cheese, packed up and cycled towards home. Lovely!

I popped in to Simon and Melody as both their children went to that nursery, and I had mentioned this during the booking discussions and as I left today, one of the staff said to give their regards to the family. So I did so.

Home for a bit of fruit, cake and ice cream, and out again to the Seahorse for the first 'Climate Argument Club', an offshoot of York in Transition. Some of us are engaged in debates, discussions or even arguments with people about things connected with climate change, so we met to discuss how to handle them, and whether to do some kind of training to help us deal with the sorts of arguments and opinions we face. We felt that if people understood the science, then we wouldn't need to do too much else, but we also recognised that people are affected by emotions, traditions, religion, 'gut' feelings, where their heart leads them and of course, misinformation and propaganda. We didn't come up with any firm conclusions, but I'm sending a couple of files and links to Bryony, Dan and Sue, as these would help or come in useful.

I had promised Gill that I'd be in by 10pm... I just managed it!

But I then had a lot of email and facebook stuff to do, plus the obligatory blog post, and there's space on the drying racks as stuff shrinks.

I enjoyed today as I visited my friend Ann for the first time in ages. She had requested some compost as she's just prepared a little patch of land for growing things in.

So I took 5 sacks of well rotted compost in my trailer over to Clememthorpe, and also some freegan Masala tea, freegan Saudi biscuits and a small bag of apple rings. I had a coffee and chat, met her handyman who was replacing a Velux window.

After this I went over to Millers Yard to pick up 5 sacks of orange halves, which I took to St Nicks. I collected my tin bath from here, as I left it there after Apple Day.

Home for lunch.

During the afternoon I finished building the logpile outside the front door.

And during the evening I watched The End Of The Line on More4, as well as playing Scrabble on facebook and doing the washing up.

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!

A nice sunny morning so I got up reasonably early, and at 9.30 got ready to go to John Bibby's again, as yesterday I'd promised to help his wife, Shirley, move her compost bins, as the new development (they've sold a chunk of their garden and a house is due to be built) will be on top of where their compost bins are. I took my 'compost mate' tool as it is the best way to extract the top layers from a dalek bin, so they can be put back in the new empty bin. Once I had a wheelbarrow full of the most recently added stuff, I installed an empty bin in a new place, and put a load of prunings and cardboard in the bottom before putting the semi-rotted stuff on top of this.

The base of the compost bin was full of well-rotted material, so I just lifted it up off the pile, and installed it in the new place, leaving the pile of rich compost for Shirley to use in a new border, which will go in front of a new fence. I shovelled one wheelbarrow's worth into the barrow and left the rest for Shirley to do. I reckoned an hour and a quarter was enough. I filled the trailer, panniers and rack with another batch of logs and cycled home, slowly.

Gill was just getting ready to go out with the boys and one of their friends to Pocklington by bus... there's a lovely garden there, Burnby Hall and Gardens, where there are fish to feed and water lilies to look at. And a Sainsburys.

So they went out and I had lunch and got on with various things in the garden, including log chopping and splitting, sorting out an old compost heap... a pallet version which has finished rotting down and some of it's contents have fallen through the base, so I took it all to pieces, tidied up and put everything in a builders bag. Also did more weeding... green alkanet, ground elder, nettles, all growing much better than any crops!

I did a load of stacking too, round the back under my covered woodpile, and then Gill came back; they'd had a nice time and the bus journeys were easy, and the fish were hungry.

We all had egg, beans and chips for tea, and whilst they watched Robin Hood I did some more wood wrangling, getting in at about 10. I love these light nights.

Late on, I played Scrabble and watched a version of The Midwich Cuckoos, a film called Village of the Damned. John Wyndham was one of my favourite authors when I was a teenager... I gobbled up Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, lots of science fiction. Now I don't have time (or inclination?) to read fiction... and I prefer science fact anyway now! Some of the stuff I read in NewScientist is stranger than fiction anyway!

Gill went to a little party gathering next door, Diane and her sister, female friends only. She enjoyed the company. It's not often she goes to a party!