Had quite a busy morning, up just after 9 and dealt with a slight hangover by having a large coffee and 2 paracetamol, and a shower.
I needed to be in tip top condition for work... Professor Fiddlesticks had been booked by Anna, the organiser of today's 'Multi Sports Day' near the Fulford end of the Millennium Bridge, which was due to run from 2 til 4pm. So I had an early lunch and got going with my bike trailer full of the usual gear at just after 1pm. I also took a couple of bags of dried apple rings for the LETS stall, and the York World Naked Bike Ride leaflets.
Stuff was already happening when I got there, and I secured a place on the path with my bike propped up against a lamp-post and immediately there were youngsters wanting to have goes on the unicycles. So I was busy for over 2 hours, unicycling and helping people with the 4 wheel unicycle, 2 wheel unicycle and occasionally the one wheeler. Oh, and rewarding people with balloons and doing some unicycle and devilsticking demos.
But it wasn't a perfect day... we had gusts of wind, strong enough to lift up some of the gazebos, rain showers and even a hailstorm, but several nice patches of sunshine. There were at least 100 people there, possibly up to double that, and it seemed that everybody had a good time. I was pleased to see quite a few of my friends, including Tony my WNBR friend who had collected the Yorkshire WNBR leaflet, half of them for Sheffield, half for York, and he'd also got some flags. These will be available on the York Ride, at a slightly discounted rate.
I packed up soon after 4pm as I'd had a phone call just before I'd set out from Randall, who wanted me to help fill in a Risk Assessment for the forthcoming CarFree Network Street Party, and he was due to come round at 5pm. I got in at 4.50, and then got a phone call from Rand saying he'd been moving paving slabs around with his bike trailer and would prefer not to have to cycle from Acomb to Hull Road... so could we do the meeting by Skype?
So we had a 1 hour 45 minute Skype call, filling in the documentation and raising several important questions. At the end of it Gill gave me a bowl of home-made celery soup which was delicious, and then home-made 'stuffed crust' pizza with salads, also delicious. Gill is an awesome cook, and knows it, and loves it. She's always saying how much she likes being a mother and looking after us. We are all damn lucky.
I visited Ben as he had offered a CFL bulb on freecycle which would fit our ceiling light socket in the front room (downlighters) and he also might have a solution to my shaver conundrum. He'd found a large heavy transformer, a box with knobs on which changes mains power to whatever voltage you set the dial at, and analyses whether things are shorting, etc. In return, I'm taking a box of waste metal to the recycling site for him.
Later I did the washing up and sorted through the bananas and set about 30 of them to dry, and left my shaver charging on Ben's machine.
Showing posts with label pizza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pizza. Show all posts
Spent the morning filling in forms and writing letters.
The rest of the day was similarly an indoor thing... I processed some 'seconds' tomatoes (OK, I lie, they were 3rds) and carefully removed anything I wouldn't eat, and made a large saucepan of soup. Gill made a pizza which was tasty. The soup will be good for tomorrow.
The highlight of the day was that my favourite musician of all time, ever, my ultimate musical hero, Brian Eno, was on TV with a series of programmes about him and his work. I don't know what it is about Eno's music, but nearly all of it transports me to a different mental state.
But, the best bit of this evening's programme was when the bit came on about his collaboration with the computer game Spore, which my children love. Gill called them to come in, and both of them were amazed... they both think the music is excellent on Spore and really adds to it. This was the first time my children have ever taken any interest in the music I like, and it was a really nice moment.
The rest of the day was similarly an indoor thing... I processed some 'seconds' tomatoes (OK, I lie, they were 3rds) and carefully removed anything I wouldn't eat, and made a large saucepan of soup. Gill made a pizza which was tasty. The soup will be good for tomorrow.
The highlight of the day was that my favourite musician of all time, ever, my ultimate musical hero, Brian Eno, was on TV with a series of programmes about him and his work. I don't know what it is about Eno's music, but nearly all of it transports me to a different mental state.
But, the best bit of this evening's programme was when the bit came on about his collaboration with the computer game Spore, which my children love. Gill called them to come in, and both of them were amazed... they both think the music is excellent on Spore and really adds to it. This was the first time my children have ever taken any interest in the music I like, and it was a really nice moment.
A reasonable day... Gill was getting ready to take our two and a friend to see Avatar, so I went to the baker and the Co-op and by the time I got back they were gone.
I did a bit on the computer and had lunch, and washed up, then went outside and did more woodpile. Also started to dig out a semi-finished pallet-bin and turn it into it's neighbour, to make way for the stuff which is currently awaiting it's final resting place alongside sawdust, hedge trimmings, straw and cardboard, and some warmer weather! I got very cold and was glad to come back in.
Gill had made a pizza dough before going out and when I got in, she was in the middle of cooking a pizza for the children. All of them had enjoyed Avatar, though the glasses had made Gill's eyes water.
So, a nice pizza for tea, with home-made baked beans. I'd done these earlier today: beans from the garden, soaked and boiled, then drained and put with a litre of out of date tomato juice, and brought to the boil again and left on the stove for a couple of hours simmering. Not bad at all!
The boys watched The Simpsons Movie on TV whilst I played Scrabble on facebook and waited for the bathwater to heat up enough on the stove for my bath.
Through facebook I was pleased to learn about the latest news from Georgina Downs' campaign to prevent pesticides being sprayed near where people live. She won in the High Court and the Government appealed and her victory was overturned. So she's taking the case to the European Court, and I hope she wins. See here for today's article in The Ecologist . The other thing I found was that the Royal Mail, apparently, are going to reduce the number of posties who use bicycles, and replace them with vans. How stupid is that? If you feel the same as me, and live in the UK, you can sign this 'Number 10' petition to the Prime Minister: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Royalmailbikes/
I did a bit on the computer and had lunch, and washed up, then went outside and did more woodpile. Also started to dig out a semi-finished pallet-bin and turn it into it's neighbour, to make way for the stuff which is currently awaiting it's final resting place alongside sawdust, hedge trimmings, straw and cardboard, and some warmer weather! I got very cold and was glad to come back in.
Gill had made a pizza dough before going out and when I got in, she was in the middle of cooking a pizza for the children. All of them had enjoyed Avatar, though the glasses had made Gill's eyes water.
So, a nice pizza for tea, with home-made baked beans. I'd done these earlier today: beans from the garden, soaked and boiled, then drained and put with a litre of out of date tomato juice, and brought to the boil again and left on the stove for a couple of hours simmering. Not bad at all!
The boys watched The Simpsons Movie on TV whilst I played Scrabble on facebook and waited for the bathwater to heat up enough on the stove for my bath.
Through facebook I was pleased to learn about the latest news from Georgina Downs' campaign to prevent pesticides being sprayed near where people live. She won in the High Court and the Government appealed and her victory was overturned. So she's taking the case to the European Court, and I hope she wins. See here for today's article in The Ecologist . The other thing I found was that the Royal Mail, apparently, are going to reduce the number of posties who use bicycles, and replace them with vans. How stupid is that? If you feel the same as me, and live in the UK, you can sign this 'Number 10' petition to the Prime Minister: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Royalmailbikes/
And, tomorrow, the 16th anniversary of our first kiss... the beginning of our loving relationship.
We had intended to do something like get the bus to Beverley, have lunch and come back in time to get the children, but due to yesterday's chimney removal, we needed to replace the TV aerial and the person we rang said they could do 11am today.
So at about 10, Gill went to have her hair cut and I loaded up my trailer with 5 sacks of aluminium cans and several sheets of lead (which came off our chimney), and cycled down to the metal merchants on Foss Islands Road. They weighed in at 24 kg alu (£7.20) and 20kg lead (£13) so I came away with £20.20, which was OK. I remember a time when aluminium cans were worth almost twice this... but it's still good to get money for stuff I find lying around.
We had also wondered about going to see a film at sometime after midday... but guess what, the aerial chaps didn't come til midday, so no film.
After lunch I popped down to Country Fresh, came back via Freshways. I tidied up the passage way between 127 and our house, as the chimney removal left it messy. I did another big batch of waste fruit for drying.
We spent most of the afternoon together pottering around... preparing tea and tidying.
Gill went down to school and came back with our youngest and two of his friends in the pouring rain. No mini-bonfire this evening! It was lovely to hear them all laughing and playing.
They had pizza and baked squash, a few bits of salad. Followed by chocolate cake which Gill made this afternoon.
When they had eaten theirs, we had ours, with a glass of wine which one of the boys' parents brought us as a present.
We had a relaxed evening, the boys played on the computer and we played Scrabble until after midnight, with the logstove keeping us nice and warm and some good telly... Joolz Holland is always good to listen to.
We had intended to do something like get the bus to Beverley, have lunch and come back in time to get the children, but due to yesterday's chimney removal, we needed to replace the TV aerial and the person we rang said they could do 11am today.
So at about 10, Gill went to have her hair cut and I loaded up my trailer with 5 sacks of aluminium cans and several sheets of lead (which came off our chimney), and cycled down to the metal merchants on Foss Islands Road. They weighed in at 24 kg alu (£7.20) and 20kg lead (£13) so I came away with £20.20, which was OK. I remember a time when aluminium cans were worth almost twice this... but it's still good to get money for stuff I find lying around.
We had also wondered about going to see a film at sometime after midday... but guess what, the aerial chaps didn't come til midday, so no film.
After lunch I popped down to Country Fresh, came back via Freshways. I tidied up the passage way between 127 and our house, as the chimney removal left it messy. I did another big batch of waste fruit for drying.
We spent most of the afternoon together pottering around... preparing tea and tidying.
Gill went down to school and came back with our youngest and two of his friends in the pouring rain. No mini-bonfire this evening! It was lovely to hear them all laughing and playing.
They had pizza and baked squash, a few bits of salad. Followed by chocolate cake which Gill made this afternoon.
When they had eaten theirs, we had ours, with a glass of wine which one of the boys' parents brought us as a present.
We had a relaxed evening, the boys played on the computer and we played Scrabble until after midnight, with the logstove keeping us nice and warm and some good telly... Joolz Holland is always good to listen to.
A good morning because all the children were playing happily together. However we were planning a trip into town so we set a time to stop playing and get ready to go out.
So, into town and we ended up having pizza in Museum Gardens, which was fun and very unusual for us as we hardly ever eat out.
All back home and at about 6pm our lovely relatives went home. We will miss them as we all get on so well.
Over the past few weeks we've become aware of a wasps nest quite near our back door, in the ground in amongst the plants in the border. Initially we decided to ignore it, as we are not anti-wasp particularly, and know they perform a useful ecosystem role of eating caterpillars and fruit flies etc. However, the numbers had increased to levels which started to ring alarm bells when hearing about a chap recently who disturbed a nest and was stung so many times he died. Also, quite recently, both Gill and our youngest got stung (one at a friend's house, one whilst on the train) and it was unpleasant so I decided to destroy the nest.
I wondered about just covering it up with a large pile of compost, during the night when they were less active. I cut the plants back a bit to reveal the hole and soil, and then at midnight a few nights ago, I poured a large bag of compost onto the hole and surrounding area, and watered it in.
The following morning, they had re-excavated the hole and were just as busy as before. I considered pouring a large volume of boiling water into the hole, again whilst they were mostly asleep. But Gill suggested they might go berserk and to check on the net how to do it properly.
There were lots of suggestions about using chemicals, and petrol etc, but the one which took my fancy was the glass bowl method. This looked like a better way than just covering up the nest entrance with soil, as the darkness means they just dig their way out. The glass bowl trick means they think the hole is open to the air but of course, cannot actually get out to collect food for the grubs in the nest. The bowl is left in place for several weeks and they gradually all die.
So we found a big mixing bowl and the composty area I'd so carefully put on gave a really good base to push the basin into, again, whilst it was dark. I put a bit more compost round the edge and watered it in for a good tight fit. All of today there was a lot of activity inside the dome, and only a little bit outside it, from insects which hadn't been in the nest when I capped it. However, another suggestion off the 'net was to put an industrial vacuum cleaner next to the nest entrance and suck them into the vacuum cleaner... So I used our old Dyson and spent several short sessions sucking in stragglers, just a minute or two about 5 times. This definitely reduced the numbers of confused wasps outside the dome.
I feel this method, chemical free and not dangerous (I haven't received one sting) is a good one. I'll report on it's longer term success as the weeks roll on. If the nest had been elsewhere in the garden, I'd have left it, but right outside the back door was a poor choice of position for the little darlings.
So, into town and we ended up having pizza in Museum Gardens, which was fun and very unusual for us as we hardly ever eat out.
All back home and at about 6pm our lovely relatives went home. We will miss them as we all get on so well.
Over the past few weeks we've become aware of a wasps nest quite near our back door, in the ground in amongst the plants in the border. Initially we decided to ignore it, as we are not anti-wasp particularly, and know they perform a useful ecosystem role of eating caterpillars and fruit flies etc. However, the numbers had increased to levels which started to ring alarm bells when hearing about a chap recently who disturbed a nest and was stung so many times he died. Also, quite recently, both Gill and our youngest got stung (one at a friend's house, one whilst on the train) and it was unpleasant so I decided to destroy the nest.
I wondered about just covering it up with a large pile of compost, during the night when they were less active. I cut the plants back a bit to reveal the hole and soil, and then at midnight a few nights ago, I poured a large bag of compost onto the hole and surrounding area, and watered it in.
The following morning, they had re-excavated the hole and were just as busy as before. I considered pouring a large volume of boiling water into the hole, again whilst they were mostly asleep. But Gill suggested they might go berserk and to check on the net how to do it properly.
There were lots of suggestions about using chemicals, and petrol etc, but the one which took my fancy was the glass bowl method. This looked like a better way than just covering up the nest entrance with soil, as the darkness means they just dig their way out. The glass bowl trick means they think the hole is open to the air but of course, cannot actually get out to collect food for the grubs in the nest. The bowl is left in place for several weeks and they gradually all die.
So we found a big mixing bowl and the composty area I'd so carefully put on gave a really good base to push the basin into, again, whilst it was dark. I put a bit more compost round the edge and watered it in for a good tight fit. All of today there was a lot of activity inside the dome, and only a little bit outside it, from insects which hadn't been in the nest when I capped it. However, another suggestion off the 'net was to put an industrial vacuum cleaner next to the nest entrance and suck them into the vacuum cleaner... So I used our old Dyson and spent several short sessions sucking in stragglers, just a minute or two about 5 times. This definitely reduced the numbers of confused wasps outside the dome.
I feel this method, chemical free and not dangerous (I haven't received one sting) is a good one. I'll report on it's longer term success as the weeks roll on. If the nest had been elsewhere in the garden, I'd have left it, but right outside the back door was a poor choice of position for the little darlings.
Gill walked our youngest and his friend to school and I got up and did some paperwork and chopped wood. A few weeks ago someone suggested I enter a competition being run by the Yorkshire Post to find a green person.. even the greenest person, so I entered that. I also took some photos with Gill's camera of my assorted logpiles and compost bins.
Before going down to school I went to Country Fresh and came back with a huge load of stuff, which again I photographed to give an idea of the sort of stuff I bring back with me. When I transfer these to my laptop I will be able to post them on this blog... exciting! Well, exciting to maybe a few people!
Had an email from Susanne Wiigh Masak who has invented a compost burial process which is more environmentally friendly than conventional deep burial, called 'Promession', something I've been interested in for quite a while. And then I had a brief Skype chat with her. Excellent!
I prepared some of the contents of the fruit and veg haul, including a load of tiny tomatoes which Gill added to the tomato and onion base for the pizza she was making.
I went down to school and did my self-imposed composting duties, emptying the playground bins of about 20 Kg of fruit and veg bits, which as there is no compost bin at school to put it all in, I put in a large potato sack and brought it home, where it all went into the Compostumbler. I have had an email from the headteacher saying she had received my letter, and could she pass it on to the Health and Safety person who said schools weren't allowed to compost. No apology though, not yet. I would like one..... it would make it feel a lot better. I asked her to copy anything in to Councillor Waller as he said he was taking action, and I trust him.
I did some more splitting and stacking, had a phone call from Thomson Directories about extracting money from me, and then continued with the much more enjoyable wooding.
Gill's pizza was good, but it arrived too late for me to go to the Critical Mass, but I'm not obliged to go to that... but maybe I should have as there was aggro at home which I could have done without. But once the little darlings were in bed, all was peaceful and I prepared a large number of pears, putting them on racks for drying.
Watched 'Rocket Science' on BBC2 which was OK but not brilliant. Nice chats with Ali, sorting out future visits to Sheffield.
Before going down to school I went to Country Fresh and came back with a huge load of stuff, which again I photographed to give an idea of the sort of stuff I bring back with me. When I transfer these to my laptop I will be able to post them on this blog... exciting! Well, exciting to maybe a few people!
Had an email from Susanne Wiigh Masak who has invented a compost burial process which is more environmentally friendly than conventional deep burial, called 'Promession', something I've been interested in for quite a while. And then I had a brief Skype chat with her. Excellent!
I prepared some of the contents of the fruit and veg haul, including a load of tiny tomatoes which Gill added to the tomato and onion base for the pizza she was making.
I went down to school and did my self-imposed composting duties, emptying the playground bins of about 20 Kg of fruit and veg bits, which as there is no compost bin at school to put it all in, I put in a large potato sack and brought it home, where it all went into the Compostumbler. I have had an email from the headteacher saying she had received my letter, and could she pass it on to the Health and Safety person who said schools weren't allowed to compost. No apology though, not yet. I would like one..... it would make it feel a lot better. I asked her to copy anything in to Councillor Waller as he said he was taking action, and I trust him.
I did some more splitting and stacking, had a phone call from Thomson Directories about extracting money from me, and then continued with the much more enjoyable wooding.
Gill's pizza was good, but it arrived too late for me to go to the Critical Mass, but I'm not obliged to go to that... but maybe I should have as there was aggro at home which I could have done without. But once the little darlings were in bed, all was peaceful and I prepared a large number of pears, putting them on racks for drying.
Watched 'Rocket Science' on BBC2 which was OK but not brilliant. Nice chats with Ali, sorting out future visits to Sheffield.
Woke late... as expected having eventually got to bed after 2am fairly loaded with Russian redcurrant spirit.
Decided to get out into the fresh air and go and collect some logs I rooted out last night... and then chopped them, finishing for lunchtime.
The boys had a friend around during the afternoon, which kept them quiet and happy.
I did a bit of compost management, and more importantly, sorted out a new supply of partly composted sawdust for my toilet... it's the ideal cover material as it's biologically active and any smell molecules will emanate from the 'deposit' are adsorbed into the particles of sawdust, where microbes use them as a feedstock. If dry sawdust is used, the deposited material is covered but odourific molecules may pass through the dry sawdust. Sawdust is used as it is mainly carbon, which balances the humanure which is high in nitrogen when it composts down. I leave it for about 4 years, by which time it is a very fine lovely compost, ideal for mixing with various other media for growing tomatoes etc in.
Did this til nearly dark, came in and watched some telly whilst warming up and doing emails. Gill had made a dough for pizza, and used the tomato/onion thing I made yesterday as the stuff on top. She does make a good pizza!
A good evening... rang round a few friends to wish them a HNY and visited Debbie to give her some bananas and wish her well with her difficult New Year's Resolution.
Made a carrot and tomato soup quite late on, whilst watching the 1980s remake of The Fly... I've seen it loads of times, first when it came out and I saw it in the cinema.
Decided to get out into the fresh air and go and collect some logs I rooted out last night... and then chopped them, finishing for lunchtime.
The boys had a friend around during the afternoon, which kept them quiet and happy.
I did a bit of compost management, and more importantly, sorted out a new supply of partly composted sawdust for my toilet... it's the ideal cover material as it's biologically active and any smell molecules will emanate from the 'deposit' are adsorbed into the particles of sawdust, where microbes use them as a feedstock. If dry sawdust is used, the deposited material is covered but odourific molecules may pass through the dry sawdust. Sawdust is used as it is mainly carbon, which balances the humanure which is high in nitrogen when it composts down. I leave it for about 4 years, by which time it is a very fine lovely compost, ideal for mixing with various other media for growing tomatoes etc in.
Did this til nearly dark, came in and watched some telly whilst warming up and doing emails. Gill had made a dough for pizza, and used the tomato/onion thing I made yesterday as the stuff on top. She does make a good pizza!
A good evening... rang round a few friends to wish them a HNY and visited Debbie to give her some bananas and wish her well with her difficult New Year's Resolution.
Made a carrot and tomato soup quite late on, whilst watching the 1980s remake of The Fly... I've seen it loads of times, first when it came out and I saw it in the cinema.
