Human Lifestyle

Another good day... I went to the local Thomas The Baker and got a fiver's worth of 'Yesterbake', bread left over from a day or two ago and available at ridiculously low prices.  I got two small loaves, four bags of rolls, four 'naughty spirals' and some cheese straws.  Should keep us going for a few days.  I foresee a nutloaf coming on....

Gill went into town with our eldest, to the library to research oxbow lakes.... are there any in Yorkshire I wonder?  Or have all the mature rivers been so managed, there aren't any?

I went to the Building Society to put in two cheques and get out some cash to pay the Steiner School for this term.  Then I cycled down to the school and collected our youngest.  However, I was pleased to meet someone I've wanted to meet for a bit now, a writer called Kate Ravillious, who has done some cracking pieces for NewScientist.  She has a young daughter who'll be starting at the Steiner School soon... and an 11 week old son, which is why she's not writing at the moment.

Good cycle back with our lad, he's getting a lot better at cycling.  I had a short time at home... did a little bit of wood-management, but at 5.30 set out for town again to go to David's for my care work.  I was pleased to meet his cousin's daughter who helps with his accounts, and Richard, another cousin, is back from France, and it was good to see him too.  David wanted to see where his solicitor's offices were, so we explored Piccadilly, found the office block, and returned and headed to City Screen for a coffee.  We met one of David's friends Chris, who's a Professor at the University, in the Department of Education.

We didn't spend long there, but went back to David's place, where I cooked his tea and sorted him out, and was able to get away for 8pm.  I sped home and watched a really good programme on Channel 5, 'The King's Speech Revealed', followed by The Secret Millionaire on Channel 4, followed by Catfish on More 4, which i found really interesting, being in the 'online, facebook, GoogleMaps' generation!  A really interesting story. Gill watched these with me too, whilst I did more red peppers for drying.

A slow start to the day but soon got busy, made up my muesli... this time with dried banana chunks, pineapple, nectarine or peach, and some almonds, either the foraged ones or some that Melody and Simon harvested and gave to us as they had so many.  Oh, and my home-peeled pumpkin seeds.  I do love my muesli.

Gill was preparing for a visit tomorrow from someone from the Council Education department, to check that we're home schooling well enough.  I sorted stuff out in the kitchen whilst she vacuumed and tidied.

I had a meeting at 4pm at the Guildhall, the monthly Environment Forum, and I planned to come back via the cycle path where there were some pruned-out trees which I could harvest, so I took my loppers so I could tidy them up for transport.

The Environment Forum was very well attended... over 20, which I think is a record.  I was pleased to see two new members from People and Planet, whom I'd introduced to Kate Lock, our Chair, yesterday at the Green Party talk.  Kate steered us through a packed agenda, including info about the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, which could have been used to fund a city-wide 20 mph limit, except that Steve Galloway, one of the Lib Dem Councillors (who in this case is the decisionmaker) wasn't convinced that there was enough evidence that it would make York's streets any safer, so he vetoed it. I wish we had Councillors who were a bit more bold and had a vision of a sustainable city.  Guy Wallbanks presented a piece on the Local Transport Plan, and Chloe Smee told us about Edible York, which got a round of applause!  Then there was a fairly long discussion about the Vision Document which several members have been preparing, and I offered to ask Jim Semlyen if he could put a website together for us, as we don't want to print such a big document, and publishing online would be best.  There was information about a tree-planting strategy which Kate has called Treemendous York, and there are quite a few different tree-planting projects happening already, including a BTCV-run 3500 tree project on Bootham Stray.  Finally there was a bit about Climate Week, which is March 21-27. 

I chatted with a new member Gwen, who works in developing countries, and then cycled off and headed to the cycle track, and gathered the branches I'd had my eye on for a while.  There was another bit of wood I've been thinking about for months... at the entrance to flats called Tradewinds on Hull Road, there's an ornamental tree which last September had a branch partly torn off.  I spent a few minutes lopping it off.  Whilst I was cutting it up for my trailer, a young lady approached me and asked if I was 'Compost Tom' so I said nearly, and she said she'd met me at the Caleb for Heslington Launch Party.  Her name was Alice.  We chatted for a bit an she continued walking up Hull Road, and I finished loading up my trailer.  I overtook her a minute or two later and asked where she was going.  She was heading for People and Planet.... except she was about an hour late!  And she was going in the wrong direction... she wasn't from York University and didn't know where she was going.  So I unloaded my sticks and walked to the University with her, and then cycled home, getting in after 7.30.

I had a mix of tomato and squash soup plus a hommous sandwich for tea, and spent well over an hour sorting through about 30 red peppers, putting strips of good firm flest to dry, to make sweet red pepper paprika.  Bed earlier than yesterday.