Human Lifestyle

A very productive day.  I got up fairly late but was busy soon, did some housework and after lunch, did a load of fruit picking.  I started with the plums as they are very ripe, many have fallen and others gone mouldy on the tree.  I took the ladders down and picked quite a few, about three quarters of a bucket full, and then asked my neighbour if I could take my ladders down his garden to reach the rest of the plums in our tree from his side of the hedge.  He had no problem with that... they have two similar plum trees which were equally loaded.

So I ended up with a whole bucket full of plums... what will I do with them?  My neighbour also told me that I should be taking the opportunity to pick the apples from our tree which are accessible from his side, so I moved the ladder and picked a large box full of James Grieve, a delicious and fairly early eating apple. We have a Cox apple tree too, this ripens later in the year.

So, lots of fruit to process.  I had some quiet time and sat and cracked shells off hazelnuts.  We have a really good nutcracker, with a spring which opens it up after squeezing it, and the nut goes into a conical chamber which copes with all sized nuts (well, not coconuts!) (looks a bit like this).

I also did an hour or so chainsawing and log stacking, on the right of the front door as you look out.  This means we are now using the stuff on the left which has been there all summer.

I had a quick tea at 6.30, reheat rice and some tomato sauce Gill made, and microwaved green beans, perhaps some of the last from the garden.

Then at 7 I went down the garden and found 4 sacks of compost for Suki, Ann's housemate, and took that round on the way to the York in Transition meeting.  It was Peter's birthday and he, Edward and Andreas were drinking coffee and eating doughnuts... they'd had a Directors meeting which I'd missed, but the Steering Group was from 7.30.  I took minutes.  We finished just before 10pm.

Then I came home via Freshways, picked up a couple of sacks of limp vegetation, and lit the stove to keep the plums drying.  I cracked more nuts whilst watching Lorenzo's Oil, a moving film.  I chatted with an American friend on facebook called Sheila, who sent me a recipe to use some of the plums.

Bed ridiculously late again!

Far too early a start today... had to be in town by 9am. Urgh.

But, if there's one thing I'm good at, it's punctuality. So I got there on the bongs of 9am (I heard a church chiming in case you don't quite understand what kind of bong I'm talking about!) and got the York Rotters stuff together... various leaflets, and tied the marquee side back with some string begged from the butcher next to us. The Council waste minimisation people were there too, doing the Love Food Hate Waste bit of the stall.

I had a very full-on time... really enjoyed it, despite a bit of a quiet start, it was fun to smile at people and say, "Would you like to tell me about your compost heap?", and only one person said 'No' and walked away! I had a short time off at about 12.30 and found a stall selling Foccacia bread rolls with feta cheese and salad... it was a bit expensive but I got a receipt as I think York Rotters will pay me back... but it really doesn't matter as I had such a fun day. I particularly enjoyed working with 'MeJulie' who is a Council accountant but into waste reduction and recycling, and I met at John Morris' funeral. She was very friendly and chatty. Jo turned up just before 2pm and I was able to go after my 5 hour shift.

I popped into Country Fresh on the way back and Rich had more compostables for me... whoopee! Every day I go there is like a birthday!

Things were all quiet and calm at home so I had a few minutes with a coffee and the laptop, and then popped round to the house round the corner where one of the tenants Simon said I could have as many apples and pears as I wanted. Simon wasn't in but another tenant was, and he said 'go ahead', so I went back home to get some wooden fruit trays/boxes and my giant ladders, which reach up to 9 metres leaning against something or 6 metres freestanding in an A shape, with a ladder sticking out of the top, like a Greek lower-case Lambda.

I started with the lovely but rock-hard 'winter pears' which need to sit quietly for a few weeks and ripen, when they go very juicy and sweet and aromatic and soft and are perhaps my favourite fruit of all time. The tree is very tall and I wasn't able to pick them all, but did get about 3 boxes full. Then I picked loads of apples, which are eaters (not cookers!) and are delicious too, and ready to eat now. I also picked the small Victoria plum tree, so that Simon could have what he wanted from what I picked. When Simon came back, I was up the apple tree again and I came down and showed him what I'd picked. He had just a few of each variety but said that I could have everything else.

I came back for tea, Gill had made a lovely veg stew with broad beans, celery, potato, mushroom, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts and quite a few more ingredients, with a goats cheese cobbler - a scone topping. A delish nosh...

I did one more trip up the apple tree after this, but when it got too dark I brought the ladders back.

I popped round to Woodlands to pick up some logs, and met Debbie who asked if she could have some apples so I walked back with her with my first trailer load of logs, and gave her a dozen apples. Collected a second load of logs and came back home to put my bike away and relax.

What a busy day! Glad to have so much quality fruit to keep us going through the winter. Thank you Simon and the absentee landlord for not being interested in your bountiful fruit trees...