I had a nice lazy morning but got going after lunch as I'd been booked to perform at the Woodlands MS Respite Care Centre Garden Fete. That was from 3 til 6, so my usual lunch hour from 1 til 2 wasn't affected, and I leisurely got stuff together and left the house at 2.50pm.
At the bottom of the drive there was a group of people gathering to protest the planned closure of the Respite Care Centres by the MS Society, who claim they are not cost effective and patients could be looked after in their own homes for less money than it costs to put them up at the centre, which gives everyone concerned a change of scene. Patients become guests and meet other people with the same condition, and family members back home have a rest from care-giving for a week or two. It is a very good solution for a difficult problem, despite being expensive.
So I went up to Woodlands and got myself organised there, but was asked by a protester to come and join them for a few minutes to have a group photo taken. So I actually started work at about 3.10... but worked solidly all the way through til 6. I started with a show for the children, and had about 20 of them watching and taking part, after which they all disappeared to do some races or something, so I went and sat at different tables and chatted with the guests and their family members or carers, and made balloon models with the usual silly humour. The kids came back in dribs and drabs and I did a few workshops whilst still doing balloons. It was a good day for me, and the other entertainment was good too; a cover-version duo, various stalls, ice cream van, BBQ and bouncy castle. I hope they raised some money!
I bought a veggie burger and salad right at the end, and walked home with that plus my unicycles and juggle-kit. Gill had bought a pizza as the boys had a fussy friend to visit who doesn't eat vegetables (although he did this time eat one potato and one forkful of broccoli) so I had a couple of slices of this with the burger and salads.
Immediately after tea I had a visit from someone I know from LETS, also a Freecycler, who had asked for some wood to make a compost bin out of. I have, over the past few years, collected some treated wood out of skips which I choose not to burn. So Marion and her fella came round and took a pile of assorted tannalised boards off my hands, for which I'm very grateful.
I picked another load of pears after this, right up at the top of the tree... I'm glad Gill wasn't around as she'd have had a fit seeing me right at the top of the ladder, all by myself. It is very high, 30 feet/10 metres. But I am careful how I place it, and do value my life. I'm not a daredevil!
In the evening I watched Richard Dawkins' take on religion and I have to say, once again, he is spot on. Science cannot prove there is no God, but it is always looking for proof which corroborates other proven information, and for me, is a far better way to base a life on than blind faith. I'm still happy being agnostic though, as I cannot be 100% sure there isn't a creator, and so many of the people I know have some version of spirituality, I would feel churlish to dismiss it completely. I wonder how many of my Christian and Muslim friends watched the programme?
Gill and I looked through a good book called 'Pears' by Jim Arbury and Sally Pinhey, and we reckon our huge pear tree is a Jargonelle. I emailed an expert who might be able to confirm this. I'll also message my friend Barry Potter and see if he knows about pear varieties.
I spend quite a bit of time on facebook, and last thing tonight I came accross this video, about plastic bags. It is well worth a watch, it is funny but has an important message.
Showing posts with label picking pears. Show all posts
Showing posts with label picking pears. Show all posts
Straight back to work today, I started with a shower to wash my hair and then loaded my bike trailer up with jugglestuff and my unicycles... the first day with my big unicycle in 8 weeks.
I popped in on Country Fresh to say hi to Rich and then on to the station to park my bike, gather my belongings and get a ticket to Leeds. The 12.15 train was late and due in at 12.37. But there was an earlier train, also late, due in at 12.13, so I went to wait for that. I sat on a seat on the platform and started chatting to a nice older lady, who turned out to be involved in her Transition Town, somewhere near Oxford. She was Ros Kent, and a quick search shows that she is centrally involved in Transition Eynsham Area. We had a really good chat on the platform and then on the train all the way to Leeds.
I had my sandwiches for lunch whilst waiting for Alan to pick me up at the back of the station, and in less than half an hour we were at Middleton Park, and I got ready to perform. It was a very standard show, workshop and balloon show, two hours non-stop, and very enjoyable. The unicycling fitted in with no problems, my ankle breaking 8 weeks ago is now becoming just a bad memory. However, I will try to be more concious in the future and try not to let it happen again.
I especially enjoyed meeting Paul and Margaret, volunteers with FoMP, and my young friend with Aspergers who is doing really well with her Poi, flower sticks and diabolo skills. She's attended all four of my visits to Middleton Park.
4pm came soon and I did the last of the balloon requests, got changed back into 'civvies' and Alan took me back to the station. There was a train within 20 minutes, and I got into York at about 5.30pm. I visited a ripe skip on the way back, and found some electrical cable, which I'll remove the copper wire from, and some lead sheets, which will realise a pound or two at the metal merchant. The skip user gent was happy for me to have these bits and bobs.
Home at 6.10 and I had some quiet time running a blade along some flex and pulling the wire out whilst watching Secret Britain. Gill had created a nice rice-based tea, with home grown tomatoes and home grown beans... totally yummy!
After tea I got the big ladders and picked a big bucket full of pears from our early pear tree. I first put them up in the self-supporting shape, which gets me 6m off the ground, but then I put them into the straight configuration and leant them against the tree, and went up the full 9 metres, my head popping out into the top of the tree! Many of the pears are over-ripe but some are just right for drying, so during the evening I halved, cored and peeled a lot of them and put them on the drying racks over the stove. Dried pears are one of my favourite of all the dried fruits I make. I still have a lot to deal with, and there's more on the tree... and several more trees to deal with, none as big as this one though.
I popped in on Country Fresh to say hi to Rich and then on to the station to park my bike, gather my belongings and get a ticket to Leeds. The 12.15 train was late and due in at 12.37. But there was an earlier train, also late, due in at 12.13, so I went to wait for that. I sat on a seat on the platform and started chatting to a nice older lady, who turned out to be involved in her Transition Town, somewhere near Oxford. She was Ros Kent, and a quick search shows that she is centrally involved in Transition Eynsham Area. We had a really good chat on the platform and then on the train all the way to Leeds.
I had my sandwiches for lunch whilst waiting for Alan to pick me up at the back of the station, and in less than half an hour we were at Middleton Park, and I got ready to perform. It was a very standard show, workshop and balloon show, two hours non-stop, and very enjoyable. The unicycling fitted in with no problems, my ankle breaking 8 weeks ago is now becoming just a bad memory. However, I will try to be more concious in the future and try not to let it happen again.
I especially enjoyed meeting Paul and Margaret, volunteers with FoMP, and my young friend with Aspergers who is doing really well with her Poi, flower sticks and diabolo skills. She's attended all four of my visits to Middleton Park.
4pm came soon and I did the last of the balloon requests, got changed back into 'civvies' and Alan took me back to the station. There was a train within 20 minutes, and I got into York at about 5.30pm. I visited a ripe skip on the way back, and found some electrical cable, which I'll remove the copper wire from, and some lead sheets, which will realise a pound or two at the metal merchant. The skip user gent was happy for me to have these bits and bobs.
Home at 6.10 and I had some quiet time running a blade along some flex and pulling the wire out whilst watching Secret Britain. Gill had created a nice rice-based tea, with home grown tomatoes and home grown beans... totally yummy!
After tea I got the big ladders and picked a big bucket full of pears from our early pear tree. I first put them up in the self-supporting shape, which gets me 6m off the ground, but then I put them into the straight configuration and leant them against the tree, and went up the full 9 metres, my head popping out into the top of the tree! Many of the pears are over-ripe but some are just right for drying, so during the evening I halved, cored and peeled a lot of them and put them on the drying racks over the stove. Dried pears are one of my favourite of all the dried fruits I make. I still have a lot to deal with, and there's more on the tree... and several more trees to deal with, none as big as this one though.
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...
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...
I had a late start as at 2am when I'd finished watching Cell on BBC4, I went down the garden to lie on the trampoline to watch Perseids, and saw two good ones plus what I think was an 'Iridium Flare', where a satellite's solar panels briefly reflect sunlight. It was travelling South East between 2am and 2.30am.
Then I came in and Gill and I went up to the loft where we have a Velux window, and we saw a dozen good meteors between us... lovely!
But it meant we didn't get to bed til 3.30am.
So, a late start but I got up when I heard the phone, and it was for me, a Fiddlesticks booking confirmation. After this I had a very busy day... I did a lot of harvesting... poppy seeds, spinach, a courgette, some small but yummy 'Pink Fir Apple' potatoes, and whilst a young friend was here, I used the large stepladder to pick tiny pears from the huge tree mid-way down our garden. These usually ripen at the end of August and are eaten by wasps and starlings before we can get to them. So I picked what I could, dropping them to the waiting hands of the willing child helper, who caught 80% of them.
I did a bit of pruning too, some of the finished fruiting spurs of the loganberries which were sticking out a long way into the shared passageway, and a vigorous ivy. And I did some chainsawing and splitting.
Gill did a delicious tea with some of the crops... I enjoyed the spinach, tomato and Bulgar wheat portion of the meal best. But Gill's quiche was a close second. Or maybe it was the blackberry and loganberry crumble with custard which was the best bit?
At 7.30 I cycled fast into town as there was a York in Transition meeting at The Hansom Cab in Market St. This was an unstructured meeting to follow up the discussions that YiT members had at their weekend at Nook Barn a few weekends ago. I enjoyed this meeting as it flowed freely and everybody contributed, it was lively and good humoured, with 9 of us attending. We addressed the criticism that YiT was a 'Church of Transition' and just met and discussed worthy issues but didn't DO anything. We reviewed the big events we've organised, the many smaller events, the satellite Transition groups which have spawned from us and are being nurtured by us, and debated what we should be doing in the future and how we should do it. A few firm conclusions were arrived at, and we decided to have the next YiT meeting in the pub as it was obviously the right place to attract good numbers of people and have good communication.
I got home at 10pm with a sack of Country Fresh compostables and 6 bags from Gladys, who rang earlier to ask me to collect her garden clippings.
I spent a long time during the evening preparing pears... some I stewed in red wine and mead, others I cut into 6 slices and put for drying.
Then I came in and Gill and I went up to the loft where we have a Velux window, and we saw a dozen good meteors between us... lovely!
But it meant we didn't get to bed til 3.30am.
So, a late start but I got up when I heard the phone, and it was for me, a Fiddlesticks booking confirmation. After this I had a very busy day... I did a lot of harvesting... poppy seeds, spinach, a courgette, some small but yummy 'Pink Fir Apple' potatoes, and whilst a young friend was here, I used the large stepladder to pick tiny pears from the huge tree mid-way down our garden. These usually ripen at the end of August and are eaten by wasps and starlings before we can get to them. So I picked what I could, dropping them to the waiting hands of the willing child helper, who caught 80% of them.
I did a bit of pruning too, some of the finished fruiting spurs of the loganberries which were sticking out a long way into the shared passageway, and a vigorous ivy. And I did some chainsawing and splitting.
Gill did a delicious tea with some of the crops... I enjoyed the spinach, tomato and Bulgar wheat portion of the meal best. But Gill's quiche was a close second. Or maybe it was the blackberry and loganberry crumble with custard which was the best bit?
At 7.30 I cycled fast into town as there was a York in Transition meeting at The Hansom Cab in Market St. This was an unstructured meeting to follow up the discussions that YiT members had at their weekend at Nook Barn a few weekends ago. I enjoyed this meeting as it flowed freely and everybody contributed, it was lively and good humoured, with 9 of us attending. We addressed the criticism that YiT was a 'Church of Transition' and just met and discussed worthy issues but didn't DO anything. We reviewed the big events we've organised, the many smaller events, the satellite Transition groups which have spawned from us and are being nurtured by us, and debated what we should be doing in the future and how we should do it. A few firm conclusions were arrived at, and we decided to have the next YiT meeting in the pub as it was obviously the right place to attract good numbers of people and have good communication.
I got home at 10pm with a sack of Country Fresh compostables and 6 bags from Gladys, who rang earlier to ask me to collect her garden clippings.
I spent a long time during the evening preparing pears... some I stewed in red wine and mead, others I cut into 6 slices and put for drying.
