I had a slow start to the day as I'd worked hard yesterday but after lunch I decided to get my trailer mended, and as I got it ready to put on my rack to cycle it down to James St, a wiry old chap walked past and stopped and came down the drive asking where I got it made, or if I'd made it myself. I told him a friend had made it (Rob Kay) but I was getting it mended and was just off down to The Raylor Centre where there is a welder and car bodywork repairer. Tom, his name was, suggested that I should go to 'Blackers' in Osbaldwick, and then proceeded to tell me how to get there three times in a row! He said they'd do it for a couple of quid and on the spot, there and then.
So, I decided to give his suggestion a go, as the place at the Raylor Centre always needs me to leave it overnight and charges £10 cash or £20 with a receipt. I easily found Blacker Steel and a gent said he'd do it there and then... and indeed, only wanted a couple of quid for it. I gave him a fiver. I'll use that company in future!
On the way back I noticed an apple tree in the hedge which I went to look at, and then a greengage. I picked a couple of greengages but most weren't ripe, and a very little old lady came past and pointed down the Osbaldwick Link Road and said there were sweeter ones down there. So I went to look... and found two yellow cherry plum trees, one still with lots on the tree but lots on the ground, so I picked up quite a few there. Then I continued towards Hull Road and found another similar tree, with almost the whole crop on the pavement; it was thick with yellow cherry plums, and I almost filled the carrier bag I had. Opposite here were some damson trees absolutely laden. I have put these trees on the York Wild Fruit map which is part of the Edible York project.
I came home and my youngest son was enjoying his birthday party... although he had his big day earlier in the month, his party was today and he had 3 friends round, and they were all playing computer games together. I did a big load of chainsawing.
A Freecycler came round and picked up our unwanted armchair, at last! We advertised it yonks ago but it wasn't picked up... but Mairi posted a wanted and she came to see it and loved it... and put it in her car. Great!
A bit later, Melanie came briefly to pick up a carrier bag of compost.
I stacked logs and prepared a few plums from our Victoria Plum tree, then worked til 3am doing various things including a VAST pile of washing up. Enjoyed Ideal on BBC3 and Glasto revisited on BBC4.
Showing posts with label mending trailer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mending trailer. Show all posts
A good day.... I got up in time to make my muesli and have breakfast and take my damaged trailer to Cycle Heaven (I managed to break a couple of spokes with a badly aimed attempt at a narrow bridge... the wheel slipped off and I kept going, buckling the wheel). I delivered that and then went to see Pauline, to give her a few more logs and to get my regular bottle of Port, my annual present from her. Mind you, I haven't actually finished last year's bottle yet! That's how little I drink...
But lovely to see Pauline. She had some very good news for me, potentially very good news but I promised to keep it completely confidential, so oh, blog readers, you will just have to wait. But I am very happy.
I then went to the bank, was surprised how little money we have, went to the building society and took a wad of notes round to pump up our account. Then back to the bike shop... and the chap assigned to my wheel was still wrestling with it, so I said I'd collect by the end of the day.
Cycled home and sorted out a large pile of envelopes for composting and put some cheques in the post, assorted memberships (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Equity, Garden Organic).
I finished making the tomato soup in the afternoon, and washed up and did bits and bobs of housework, plus computery stuff.
Then at 4pm, back into town to pick up my trailer and popped into see Dylan at Millers Yard to pick up his unwanted orange halves and chat about York Green Festival. We had a lovely chat and I got a second piece of very good news... but again, this is embargoed until it is ready to be made public. I cycled away happy but with a very heavy load of compostables.
I had soup and an avocado sandwich for tea, and then looked at my emails to try to find out where this evening's York in Transition meeting was. No mention of the venue whatsoever! It could be St Nicks or it could be The Stables, or even someone's house... i cannot remember and it isn't in my diary nor is it in any of the email communications... So I stayed at home and watched an excellent programme on BBC1, called The Human Power Station, a Bang Goes The Theory Special. This is available on iPlayer for a week... it's a must watch! The experiment was to install an average family into a house wired up with cameras and all the normal mod cons... and to ask them to live normally for a day. However, they didn't know that the house was switched to being powered by a bank of 80 cyclists, each on a stationary bike with a dynamo, capable of producing 100 watts if going normally, or up to 200w if pedalling really hard. The cyclists could see a dial with how much was being used versus how much was being produced... and it is a very exciting and interesting result. I loved it anyway, and decided to start a facebook 'fan' page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Human-Power-Station-Bang-Goes-The-Theory-Special/216787805126?ref=ts
So, a happy and productive day, despite my foolishness in breaking a wheel and having a reasonable bill to have it repaired.
But lovely to see Pauline. She had some very good news for me, potentially very good news but I promised to keep it completely confidential, so oh, blog readers, you will just have to wait. But I am very happy.
I then went to the bank, was surprised how little money we have, went to the building society and took a wad of notes round to pump up our account. Then back to the bike shop... and the chap assigned to my wheel was still wrestling with it, so I said I'd collect by the end of the day.
Cycled home and sorted out a large pile of envelopes for composting and put some cheques in the post, assorted memberships (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Equity, Garden Organic).
I finished making the tomato soup in the afternoon, and washed up and did bits and bobs of housework, plus computery stuff.
Then at 4pm, back into town to pick up my trailer and popped into see Dylan at Millers Yard to pick up his unwanted orange halves and chat about York Green Festival. We had a lovely chat and I got a second piece of very good news... but again, this is embargoed until it is ready to be made public. I cycled away happy but with a very heavy load of compostables.
I had soup and an avocado sandwich for tea, and then looked at my emails to try to find out where this evening's York in Transition meeting was. No mention of the venue whatsoever! It could be St Nicks or it could be The Stables, or even someone's house... i cannot remember and it isn't in my diary nor is it in any of the email communications... So I stayed at home and watched an excellent programme on BBC1, called The Human Power Station, a Bang Goes The Theory Special. This is available on iPlayer for a week... it's a must watch! The experiment was to install an average family into a house wired up with cameras and all the normal mod cons... and to ask them to live normally for a day. However, they didn't know that the house was switched to being powered by a bank of 80 cyclists, each on a stationary bike with a dynamo, capable of producing 100 watts if going normally, or up to 200w if pedalling really hard. The cyclists could see a dial with how much was being used versus how much was being produced... and it is a very exciting and interesting result. I loved it anyway, and decided to start a facebook 'fan' page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Human-Power-Station-Bang-Goes-The-Theory-Special/216787805126?ref=ts
So, a happy and productive day, despite my foolishness in breaking a wheel and having a reasonable bill to have it repaired.
Wrote my Community Care blog
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/2009/04/green-man-switches-off.html
After lunch I put my trailer onto my back rack and carefully cycled it down to Cycle Heaven where I'd checked that they'd be able to fit the new inner tube it needs. I had to be very careful cycling down as part of the trailer was sticking out, but got to the shop without incident. They sorted the problem within 10 or 15 minutes, replacing the shredded inner tube and putting a new tyre on, as the old one had torn. It was good to get back on my bike and have the trailer bouncing along behind again!
I went through town and to my GPs and then to inSainsburys and then via the cycle track where there were still logs and branches to harvest, so came back with a trailer load plus Freshways stuff on top of this too!
I planted some more seeds... courgette and zucchini tromba, a weird-looking curved courgette, I grew one last year so this year am planting quite a few more.
Gill made some cheesy scone pastry and made a pie with it, using yesterdays spaghetti and tomato/bean mixture, with new potatoes and some salad from the garden. Lynn had emailed me inviting me to provide her with some composting worms, so I went to delve in a wormy heap for pets for her new wormery (actually one that Ben had made out of stacking plastic boxes, and sold on the LETS).
I came in for tea and enjoyed the whole plateful, and asked Gill what one of the salad leaves was. She said 'Good King Henry' and I said I hadn't noticed her picking that, as I'd put that right down the bottom of the garden, near where I was harvesting worms. I asked where she'd got it, and she described the place where I thought I'd put some 'black salsify' or Scorzonera, so I looked that up to see if the leaves were edible. I found that Scorzonera leaves were totally different to the leaves Gill had harvested... so what had I eaten? I knew I'd harvested some tasty roots from that plant, so I looked through various books and on the web to see if I could find it. Eventually, with family panicking around me, wondering if I'd been poisoned, I found it was Skirret, Sium sisarum var sisarum. I cannot find anywhere about the leaves being good to eat... just indications that it might be like some other Umbelifers, ie not good to eat...!
Anyway, I stayed conscious during the meeting at Lynn's house, which was a LETS working group discussion about the constitution and managing the membership, and I was able to contribute quite sensibly. I also remembered to take the worms with me, and enjoyed seeing Lynn's garden.
Got back home after 10 and did a load of washing up as Gill had fallen asleep as soon as the children were in bed. Then onto the computer...
Nice photo of me in the Press:
http://www.thepress.co.uk/search/4304325.Green_issues_on_the_big_screen_in_York/
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/green-living/2009/04/green-man-switches-off.html
After lunch I put my trailer onto my back rack and carefully cycled it down to Cycle Heaven where I'd checked that they'd be able to fit the new inner tube it needs. I had to be very careful cycling down as part of the trailer was sticking out, but got to the shop without incident. They sorted the problem within 10 or 15 minutes, replacing the shredded inner tube and putting a new tyre on, as the old one had torn. It was good to get back on my bike and have the trailer bouncing along behind again!
I went through town and to my GPs and then to inSainsburys and then via the cycle track where there were still logs and branches to harvest, so came back with a trailer load plus Freshways stuff on top of this too!
I planted some more seeds... courgette and zucchini tromba, a weird-looking curved courgette, I grew one last year so this year am planting quite a few more.
Gill made some cheesy scone pastry and made a pie with it, using yesterdays spaghetti and tomato/bean mixture, with new potatoes and some salad from the garden. Lynn had emailed me inviting me to provide her with some composting worms, so I went to delve in a wormy heap for pets for her new wormery (actually one that Ben had made out of stacking plastic boxes, and sold on the LETS).
I came in for tea and enjoyed the whole plateful, and asked Gill what one of the salad leaves was. She said 'Good King Henry' and I said I hadn't noticed her picking that, as I'd put that right down the bottom of the garden, near where I was harvesting worms. I asked where she'd got it, and she described the place where I thought I'd put some 'black salsify' or Scorzonera, so I looked that up to see if the leaves were edible. I found that Scorzonera leaves were totally different to the leaves Gill had harvested... so what had I eaten? I knew I'd harvested some tasty roots from that plant, so I looked through various books and on the web to see if I could find it. Eventually, with family panicking around me, wondering if I'd been poisoned, I found it was Skirret, Sium sisarum var sisarum. I cannot find anywhere about the leaves being good to eat... just indications that it might be like some other Umbelifers, ie not good to eat...!
Anyway, I stayed conscious during the meeting at Lynn's house, which was a LETS working group discussion about the constitution and managing the membership, and I was able to contribute quite sensibly. I also remembered to take the worms with me, and enjoyed seeing Lynn's garden.
Got back home after 10 and did a load of washing up as Gill had fallen asleep as soon as the children were in bed. Then onto the computer...
Nice photo of me in the Press:
http://www.thepress.co.uk/search/4304325.Green_issues_on_the_big_screen_in_York/
Up quite early so could do my review of Age of Stupid for my Column in Community Care. It wasn't easy to write, as my first draft was over 500 words... I have to try to keep it under 350!
But I got it done by lunchtime but had a fairly quiet afternoon too. But this was most welcome as I was tired. I did go and get my bike trailer from the menders, cost me £23 but I got a receipt this time which I'll save for my accounts. I popped in to Country Fresh and got some plums which my boys like, and cucumber, tomatoes and eggs, plus two boxes of compostables.
I pulled apart a compost heap after this, one made of pallets. I put the contents in the bay next to it, this being it's first 'turning'. I also dug up the contents of a nearby dalek which has rotted down really well and put this on the big riddle, to start making my potting compost. I had topped the dalek's contents with some turf, so there was a good mix of soil and compost already.
At 5.30 came in and cleaned up, using the composty hand-washing water to water and feed the houseplants. I first wash my hands in cold clean water, with the plug in the sink, and scrubbing the compost off with a scrubbing brush. Then I scoop up the water and dribble it into various houseplants. Then I finish off with a bit of soap. I don't give the plants this, despite it being biodegradable.
I cycled down to David's to pick up the LETS bank paperwork, and had a good chat about some of the issues which Age of Stupid had thrown up, and a conversation on Facebook about flying.
But he was going out so I didn't spend long, and cycled up to Bootham to see Liz, who used to be our Treasurer and I needed her signature to take her off the account, and we had a short but good chat.
Came back via the cycle track, and brought home a large and long tree trunk, not on the trailer (far too long and heavy for that!) but held to the frame of my bike with several tightly stretched bungees. The heavy end of the trunk stuck out over my front wheel, the narrower end out over the trailer, the whole thing being a bit longer than my bike and trailer combined. Felt a bit odd to cycle, initially, but I got used to it quickly.
So, home, I reheated the long-lasting mushroom soup and used it as a sauce for the pasta left over from yesterday. So, a use it all up meal. There were homework shenanigans this evening, and I did my best to keep out of it. Any involvement from me generally exacerbates the difficulties being experienced, which is a pity as I'd love to help.
I did a huge pile of washing up and prepared 3 pineapples for drying on the stove.
But I got it done by lunchtime but had a fairly quiet afternoon too. But this was most welcome as I was tired. I did go and get my bike trailer from the menders, cost me £23 but I got a receipt this time which I'll save for my accounts. I popped in to Country Fresh and got some plums which my boys like, and cucumber, tomatoes and eggs, plus two boxes of compostables.
I pulled apart a compost heap after this, one made of pallets. I put the contents in the bay next to it, this being it's first 'turning'. I also dug up the contents of a nearby dalek which has rotted down really well and put this on the big riddle, to start making my potting compost. I had topped the dalek's contents with some turf, so there was a good mix of soil and compost already.
At 5.30 came in and cleaned up, using the composty hand-washing water to water and feed the houseplants. I first wash my hands in cold clean water, with the plug in the sink, and scrubbing the compost off with a scrubbing brush. Then I scoop up the water and dribble it into various houseplants. Then I finish off with a bit of soap. I don't give the plants this, despite it being biodegradable.
I cycled down to David's to pick up the LETS bank paperwork, and had a good chat about some of the issues which Age of Stupid had thrown up, and a conversation on Facebook about flying.
But he was going out so I didn't spend long, and cycled up to Bootham to see Liz, who used to be our Treasurer and I needed her signature to take her off the account, and we had a short but good chat.
Came back via the cycle track, and brought home a large and long tree trunk, not on the trailer (far too long and heavy for that!) but held to the frame of my bike with several tightly stretched bungees. The heavy end of the trunk stuck out over my front wheel, the narrower end out over the trailer, the whole thing being a bit longer than my bike and trailer combined. Felt a bit odd to cycle, initially, but I got used to it quickly.
So, home, I reheated the long-lasting mushroom soup and used it as a sauce for the pasta left over from yesterday. So, a use it all up meal. There were homework shenanigans this evening, and I did my best to keep out of it. Any involvement from me generally exacerbates the difficulties being experienced, which is a pity as I'd love to help.
I did a huge pile of washing up and prepared 3 pineapples for drying on the stove.
Up early to go to the Climate Change Plan and Regional Adaptation Study launch event at the Royal York Hotel next to the station. I took my bike trailer off as one part of it had broken, I'll try to find time to take it in to repairs sometime.
The conference was organised by the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly about the 2009-2014 Climate Change Plan for Yorkshire and Humber, see yourclimate.org, and the Y + H Regional Adaptation Study, see adaptyh.co.uk. After a coffee at 9.30, and an introduction by the chair of the Y+HA Sustainable Development Board, the Rt. Hon. Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spoke in his usual quite animated and enthusiastic way... he really does understand the enormity of the situation and the difficulty we're going to have reducing emissions (mitigation) and dealing with what climate change throws at us (adaptation). There was a short Q+A afterwards, and I managed to be one of the two people to ask a question. The question I originally intended to ask was partly answered when he answered the first person (it was about whether he saw the economic recession as a good thing as it caused reduced resource use and therefore carbon emissions, and whether he could see any opportunities to address the greenhouse gas issues as part of the recession). So when my time came with the microphone, I said I was pleased to see him again, as I'd first met him as a winner of the Oxfam Carbon Footprint Competition, and I asked if the Government had any plans to adopt The Green New Deal? He seemed genuinely pleased to be reminded of the Oxfam/CRAGgers visit a year ago, and praised my 'extraordinary' attempts to live a low carbon lifestyle. He did partly answer the question and came to chat to me afterwards.
My favourite quote from him today was "The future will be inherited by the low carbon and the resource efficient."
After a short break we were introduced to the Climate Change Plan by Jeremy Walker, chair of the Regional Flood Defence Committee, and he explained why this region is especially vulnerable to climate change, and briefly went through the priority areas of strategy and monitoring, our built environment, transport, health services, businesses, land management, and the importance of engaging us, the citizens and decisionmakers.
He handed over to the Nick Cooper from Royal Haskoning, the agency which co-ordinated the Regional Adaptation Study, who took us through some of the projected climatic changes we might expect by 2050. These include average temperatures up 2 Celsius (doesn't sound a lot but it actually is) and extreme temperatures up 3 degrees C. There will be 17% more rain in the winter and 26% less in the summer (read winter floods, summer droughts) and sea level up by 35cm with much higher surge events. The mean wind speed stays much the same but with storm events more likely, expect higher destructive peak winds. The impacts of these variables are flooding, erosion, buildings damaged from wetting/drying stresses plus storms and floods, agriculture and forestry affected by changing seasons, differing yields, new crops possible/necessary and irrigation needed in summer, possibly by trapping winter rainfall in reservoirs. Also pests and diseases with new vectors (for instance 'blue tongue' in cattle, transmitted by a fly which originated in Africa and, due to mild winters, has come through Europe and crossed the Channel to the UK, damaging our livestock industry). Then there's the impact on the emergency services, with floods and moorland fires, and heatwaves like recently happened in France, which killed many people. Our transport will be affected... rail tracks buckling or being washed away, 'roadmelt' and even lorries being blown over, a surprisingly serious problem. And then there's biodiversity... many species will need to move, needing corridors, and many niche species will just die out. The importance of our peatlands was mentioned, as they are a vast store of carbon, and drainage lets that oxidise into yet more CO2, keeping it wet allows them to grow, absorbing carbon.
Then, a quick dash through how we adapt to the inevitable climate change, with planning, monitoring, innovating and taking any opportunities it throws up. Implementation of these was discussed, with the different sectors such as green infrastructure, land management, the private sector and public services all playing their part. How to enable change and engage stakeholders, collecting and publicising evidence and pioneering pilot studies... all enormously complicated and far from easy.
Then a presentation from John Clubb, about how to take forward the delivery of this.... after all, we have no time to waste and don't want to come back in a year to hear more of the same. We need action. For me, one of the most telling graphs of the whole morning was one showing the effects of the current policies of the Y+H Assembly (creating jobs, prosperity, improving infrastructure, etc) with regard to carbon emissions.... the projections are that they will just go up and up. And what's needed is a swift reduction. Which, if that's to be achieved, means a radical rethink in what the Y+HA stands for, in my view.
Finally, a short Q+A session with a panel of people from the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Forward and the agencies already mentioned. The best question was from Dylis Cluer, a Green Councillor from Scarborough Borough Council, who mentioned that at a previous meeting like this, that there was a suggestion that aiming to reduce meat consumption by 1% a year would be one way of helping to reduce overall greenhouse emissions. She asked whether or not that was in the Climate Change Plan. The Chair of the meeting, Cllr Arthur Barker, confessed he was a beef farmer, so he wasn't positive about this, and the another panel member also said it wasn't included. A pity really, as the UN suggested that it would be a very effective way to cut our footprint, and called on Westerners to have 'one day a week without meat'.
I had a quick lunch there, and was disappointed to see lots of bottled water there, and meat too, which meant that the carbon footprint of the event was much higher than it needed to be.
I cycled away bearing loads of interesting documents from UK Climate Projections, the Environment Agency, the Nottingham Declaration, Yorkshire Futures, Natural England, the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly, the Local Government Association, the Friends of the Earth (including response to this Climate Change Plan), Royal Haskoning, Yorkshire and Humber Biodiversity Forum and AEA. A lot of reading!
Called in on the Building Society on the way home and then to the welders on James St, who said if I left my broken trailer with them over the weekend, they'd fix it on Monday. So before they closed, I cycled down carrying the trailer and left it with them.
Tea was more mushroom soup, with a chunk of Gill's quiche and another avocado sandwich. Spent a long time during the evening looking through the documents I got today, looking through websites, and familiarising myself with the subject.
The conference was organised by the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly about the 2009-2014 Climate Change Plan for Yorkshire and Humber, see yourclimate.org, and the Y + H Regional Adaptation Study, see adaptyh.co.uk. After a coffee at 9.30, and an introduction by the chair of the Y+HA Sustainable Development Board, the Rt. Hon. Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spoke in his usual quite animated and enthusiastic way... he really does understand the enormity of the situation and the difficulty we're going to have reducing emissions (mitigation) and dealing with what climate change throws at us (adaptation). There was a short Q+A afterwards, and I managed to be one of the two people to ask a question. The question I originally intended to ask was partly answered when he answered the first person (it was about whether he saw the economic recession as a good thing as it caused reduced resource use and therefore carbon emissions, and whether he could see any opportunities to address the greenhouse gas issues as part of the recession). So when my time came with the microphone, I said I was pleased to see him again, as I'd first met him as a winner of the Oxfam Carbon Footprint Competition, and I asked if the Government had any plans to adopt The Green New Deal? He seemed genuinely pleased to be reminded of the Oxfam/CRAGgers visit a year ago, and praised my 'extraordinary' attempts to live a low carbon lifestyle. He did partly answer the question and came to chat to me afterwards.
My favourite quote from him today was "The future will be inherited by the low carbon and the resource efficient."
After a short break we were introduced to the Climate Change Plan by Jeremy Walker, chair of the Regional Flood Defence Committee, and he explained why this region is especially vulnerable to climate change, and briefly went through the priority areas of strategy and monitoring, our built environment, transport, health services, businesses, land management, and the importance of engaging us, the citizens and decisionmakers.
He handed over to the Nick Cooper from Royal Haskoning, the agency which co-ordinated the Regional Adaptation Study, who took us through some of the projected climatic changes we might expect by 2050. These include average temperatures up 2 Celsius (doesn't sound a lot but it actually is) and extreme temperatures up 3 degrees C. There will be 17% more rain in the winter and 26% less in the summer (read winter floods, summer droughts) and sea level up by 35cm with much higher surge events. The mean wind speed stays much the same but with storm events more likely, expect higher destructive peak winds. The impacts of these variables are flooding, erosion, buildings damaged from wetting/drying stresses plus storms and floods, agriculture and forestry affected by changing seasons, differing yields, new crops possible/necessary and irrigation needed in summer, possibly by trapping winter rainfall in reservoirs. Also pests and diseases with new vectors (for instance 'blue tongue' in cattle, transmitted by a fly which originated in Africa and, due to mild winters, has come through Europe and crossed the Channel to the UK, damaging our livestock industry). Then there's the impact on the emergency services, with floods and moorland fires, and heatwaves like recently happened in France, which killed many people. Our transport will be affected... rail tracks buckling or being washed away, 'roadmelt' and even lorries being blown over, a surprisingly serious problem. And then there's biodiversity... many species will need to move, needing corridors, and many niche species will just die out. The importance of our peatlands was mentioned, as they are a vast store of carbon, and drainage lets that oxidise into yet more CO2, keeping it wet allows them to grow, absorbing carbon.
Then, a quick dash through how we adapt to the inevitable climate change, with planning, monitoring, innovating and taking any opportunities it throws up. Implementation of these was discussed, with the different sectors such as green infrastructure, land management, the private sector and public services all playing their part. How to enable change and engage stakeholders, collecting and publicising evidence and pioneering pilot studies... all enormously complicated and far from easy.
Then a presentation from John Clubb, about how to take forward the delivery of this.... after all, we have no time to waste and don't want to come back in a year to hear more of the same. We need action. For me, one of the most telling graphs of the whole morning was one showing the effects of the current policies of the Y+H Assembly (creating jobs, prosperity, improving infrastructure, etc) with regard to carbon emissions.... the projections are that they will just go up and up. And what's needed is a swift reduction. Which, if that's to be achieved, means a radical rethink in what the Y+HA stands for, in my view.
Finally, a short Q+A session with a panel of people from the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Forward and the agencies already mentioned. The best question was from Dylis Cluer, a Green Councillor from Scarborough Borough Council, who mentioned that at a previous meeting like this, that there was a suggestion that aiming to reduce meat consumption by 1% a year would be one way of helping to reduce overall greenhouse emissions. She asked whether or not that was in the Climate Change Plan. The Chair of the meeting, Cllr Arthur Barker, confessed he was a beef farmer, so he wasn't positive about this, and the another panel member also said it wasn't included. A pity really, as the UN suggested that it would be a very effective way to cut our footprint, and called on Westerners to have 'one day a week without meat'.
I had a quick lunch there, and was disappointed to see lots of bottled water there, and meat too, which meant that the carbon footprint of the event was much higher than it needed to be.
I cycled away bearing loads of interesting documents from UK Climate Projections, the Environment Agency, the Nottingham Declaration, Yorkshire Futures, Natural England, the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly, the Local Government Association, the Friends of the Earth (including response to this Climate Change Plan), Royal Haskoning, Yorkshire and Humber Biodiversity Forum and AEA. A lot of reading!
Called in on the Building Society on the way home and then to the welders on James St, who said if I left my broken trailer with them over the weekend, they'd fix it on Monday. So before they closed, I cycled down carrying the trailer and left it with them.
Tea was more mushroom soup, with a chunk of Gill's quiche and another avocado sandwich. Spent a long time during the evening looking through the documents I got today, looking through websites, and familiarising myself with the subject.
Firstly, would Sabine please ring us again and leave a phone number, or leave a contact email using the comment facility on this blog, I won't publish your details Sabine. Thank you from Gill and John. x
Had a busy day inside mostly... I took the boys to school and then did various research about something I want to write about in my paid blog, and mid morning, went up to Archies to sign a form booking the library quiet room for the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel. On the way out of Archies, my bike suffered a 'catastrophic failure' and the back axel broke. I was due to go up to B+Q to get a sheet of plywood for our youngest son's train layout, but instead came home to ring Cycle Heaven who kindly offered to do a repair after lunch. I then half walked, half gingerly cycled to Bishy Road and they were able to get it sorted... many thanks Ash for swift and expert service. Came home via the body-repair shop place in the Raylor Centre on James St which does welding, as my trailer has suffered another fracture too! What a day!
More research, and the developer of NET.MESOMOCO CIC contacted me to tell me he had a meeting in York tomorrow and could come to see me too. I picked up the boys and then went to pick up my trailer, which was easily fixed.
At 6.15 got myself ready to go to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel meeting at Archies... but the front door wasn't unlocked for us, nor was the library or the library quiet room, but a cleaner unlocked them for us. A good meeting, quite a lot to do, and we used the whole hour.
Came home and did a bit of work in the garden as it was a lovely evening.
Had a busy day inside mostly... I took the boys to school and then did various research about something I want to write about in my paid blog, and mid morning, went up to Archies to sign a form booking the library quiet room for the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel. On the way out of Archies, my bike suffered a 'catastrophic failure' and the back axel broke. I was due to go up to B+Q to get a sheet of plywood for our youngest son's train layout, but instead came home to ring Cycle Heaven who kindly offered to do a repair after lunch. I then half walked, half gingerly cycled to Bishy Road and they were able to get it sorted... many thanks Ash for swift and expert service. Came home via the body-repair shop place in the Raylor Centre on James St which does welding, as my trailer has suffered another fracture too! What a day!
More research, and the developer of NET.MESOMOCO CIC contacted me to tell me he had a meeting in York tomorrow and could come to see me too. I picked up the boys and then went to pick up my trailer, which was easily fixed.
At 6.15 got myself ready to go to the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel meeting at Archies... but the front door wasn't unlocked for us, nor was the library or the library quiet room, but a cleaner unlocked them for us. A good meeting, quite a lot to do, and we used the whole hour.
Came home and did a bit of work in the garden as it was a lovely evening.
Such a busy day... lots of rushing around! Started by taking the kids to school as I was not going to be available at 3pm to pick em up.... but this changed! Had a good little chat with Mrs. P the headteacher about a child brandishing bullets in the playground bought from Eden Camp yesterday.
I started by writing a letter to Eden Camp War Museum about the wisdom of selling bullets to children. I wrote out a copy for school.
Then eventually went down to town to take my rtailer to a welder, put a cheque in, shop for a wireless router, pay a bill to CVS for roomhire for CRAG.
Got a phone call from a friend who was due to meet me at 3 saying she wasn't feeling too good, so calling the visit off. This meant I could relieve Gill of going to school at 3, she doesn't like doing the afternoon trip much.
Home for a late lunch and did a little bit of stuff outside, before going back to the welders to collect my trailer, and then back home for 3 and immediately off to school to pick up three boys.
Did more woodpile when got back but at 5 came in and lay down for a rest, but was rudely woken by lots of angry noises before 6. A rather troubled evening, although we had a pleasent 30 minutes watching the last episode of Summerhill, very moving.
Spent most of the evening sorting communications on email and may eventually try to get my wireless router done, although I doubt it. I don't rate myself highly on taks like this!
I failed miserably as I could not even work out how to plug the thing into my phone socket!!! I emailed Netgear and confessed my ignorance and stupidity and asked for help...
I started by writing a letter to Eden Camp War Museum about the wisdom of selling bullets to children. I wrote out a copy for school.
Then eventually went down to town to take my rtailer to a welder, put a cheque in, shop for a wireless router, pay a bill to CVS for roomhire for CRAG.
Got a phone call from a friend who was due to meet me at 3 saying she wasn't feeling too good, so calling the visit off. This meant I could relieve Gill of going to school at 3, she doesn't like doing the afternoon trip much.
Home for a late lunch and did a little bit of stuff outside, before going back to the welders to collect my trailer, and then back home for 3 and immediately off to school to pick up three boys.
Did more woodpile when got back but at 5 came in and lay down for a rest, but was rudely woken by lots of angry noises before 6. A rather troubled evening, although we had a pleasent 30 minutes watching the last episode of Summerhill, very moving.
Spent most of the evening sorting communications on email and may eventually try to get my wireless router done, although I doubt it. I don't rate myself highly on taks like this!
I failed miserably as I could not even work out how to plug the thing into my phone socket!!! I emailed Netgear and confessed my ignorance and stupidity and asked for help...
