Human Lifestyle

Up reasonably early and once I'd done emails and facebook notifications, I wrote a press release for the compost donation I'm giving to the RSPCA.  This needs to be OKed by York Rotters and the RSPCA, but both groups will get some publicity out of it.  I got a positive response from Sara at the Council, although she suggested that Catherine might put it into Press-Release-ese!

As it was a lovely day, I went outside and saw our neighbour Marion was out at the front... and she'd mentioned a while ago, when I was picking cherry plums, that she'd like a branch cut off the tree, as it's overhanging their driveway and shading their front window quite a bit.  So I offered to sort out this problem now!  I got my big ladder and with her directions, removed several limbs with my bow saw.  Then I used the loppers to reduce these down to sticks worth keeping for fuel and twigs good for shredding.  Then I got the shredder from down the garden and put it in the driveway, and spent a while feeding stuff through it, resulting in four sacks full of woody stuff.  Very useful!

Then Peter arrived, as agreed over the phone earlier.  Peter is Hugh's brother and we got on well at Hugh's party.  Peter is a green, involved in Transition and we have a lot in common.  We had a wander down the garden and then he had a bowl of carrot soup as did I. 

At 7.45 he went as I was due to go to City Screen and see Metropolis, which has recently had some more footage found.  This is one of my favourite films.  The extra 25 minutes of film mean it is well over 2 hours long, but the story is easier to follow and I loved it, absolutely loved it.  What a classic!

It finished at 11.15 and I cycled home with a big smile.

I really enjoyed today...

After a slow start, and after lunch, the family went to Scarborough on the train, with one of the boys' friends, and left me to get on with whatever I wanted.

I spent a bit of time tidying the kitchen and then got the shredder up the garden to the front, and organised various sheets and bags to deal with the huge volumes of vegetation that I was due to process. So, I took all the pine tree I cut yesterday and clipped off any twigs, leaving the slightly larger sticks for stacking into a fruit box. I shredded these twiggy bits with all of the Wisteria I ripped out yesterday, and got 5 large sacks of shredded material off it. I did this on and off for about 4 hours, taking a break to make carrot soup (carrots from unsold Alligator stuff, home-grown courgette) and to prepare another saucepan full of Cherry Plums.

I got a nice visit from Debbie who was wanting me to help with a remembrance event for her friend Debbie Fricker, but I won't be able to attend as I'm doing something else. However, I'll be able to provide a little sack of logs for a ceremonial fire she's having.

Gill and the boys got back at 8 and Gill was pleased to have some carrot soup.

I had a really good chat on MSN Messenger with Leonie, a friend of my sister whom I've met once but have become friends with recently through facebook.

So a hard-working but relaxed day, happy that the Scarborough visit went well, and I feel lucky to have such a wealth of friends.

A quiet day... spent most of the morning sending photographs to my colleague in Canada, so he can help me decide which ones are suitable for the website, and doing publicity for the Fifth York World Naked Bike Ride. Oh, and washing up!

In the afternoon I planted about 20 sweetcorn plants in the raised bed... I needed to remove the old purple sprouting broccoli plants (which I fed through the shredder), and removed lots of American Land Cress which had self seeded itself all over. I left the self seeded perennial Spinach Beet and the self seeded Rainbow Chard. Then I broke up the hard ground with a fork, and sprinkled a sack of riddled compost all over this, and created a sort of grid of planting holes around the Chard and Spinach. I put a dollop of riddled compost in each of these and dug it into the base of the hole, then popped the sweetcorn into them, and watered them in. I hope we don't have any late frosts!

I did a load of pruning too, a renegade beech hedge, some unruly loganberry which has got to the wrong side of a fence and is making access to a water butt difficult, and I took a low hanging branch off the walnut too. All this was shredded and put in a tumbler with loads of waste fruit and veg stuff.

So, a busy day... too busy to remember that I should have gone to a lecture at the University at 6.30. I remembered at 10pm, too late to do anything about it. Duh me.

A much more relaxing day than yesterday. I was woken up at 8 to cut my youngest son's fingernails, and I came down for breakfast and went on the computer for half an hour but went back to bed and slept til 1pm... I must have needed it.

I felt a lot better for that and had a positive day, despite not getting my website work done again! I have set myself a deadline though.

But I did do some website work... I got Gill to take a head and shoulders photo of me, which I think looks sober enough for the intended use.

I did assorted jobs in the house until our eldest got home, then cycled down to Country Fresh and Alligator to do my compost pick ups. I took a photo of my mate Richard outside his shop (ok, his brother's shop!):
Then I went to the Cemetery to take some photos for the website... and got there just as it closed at 4.30. What bad timing... I didn't know it shut so early.

I'll have to try to fit in a visit there over the weekend.

I spent an hour in the garden and at 6pm, Vicky came round. I'd advertised the RHS Plantfinder book on Freecycle... my lovely Auntie had given it to me, but I've no space on the bookshelves and it's not really a book that I would use, as it's about all the different plant varieties and which nurseries stock them. I got about 6 replies, and one of them was Vicky, who is the Clerk of the Planning Panel, and she's just joined Freecycle, and said she would find the list of plants very useful for her work, which is helping an architect make the paper plans better, with landscape elements... including planting schemes.

So Vicky got the book... not the other very deserving enquirers. She said hello to the family and then had a wander down the garden. I gave her a couple of climbing pea bean plants, as she's just making a raised veg bed......

I had tea, a rice-based dish with chopped-up vegan hot dog sausages in, from Rakesh. I watched Gardener's World.

Then I went out again to feed a load of pruned-off branches through the shredder and put a woody layer on the current heap. Came in just before 10, as a facebook friend Sean, who organises the Manchester World Naked Cycle Ride said he'd be on TV, on 'Opinionated' which is a dire programme which I'll never watch again. It was a very brief interview anyway, no film or photos.

Enjoyed Jools Holland as usual, and the LCD Soundsystem, and chopped up another load of fruit for drying.

I had a bath at 2am and went to bed at 3.

A good day, woke slowly and had a relaxing morning doing not very much and at lunchtime I summoned up enthusiasm to go onto the website I'm trying to write, to edit some stuff and add some more things to the maps.
I added the bit I wanted to, but found the maps had been edited and the things I'd spent ages getting right had disappeared. So I gave up, and wrote to the other people involved and asked for a tutorial.

I was left feeling a bit down about this and needed to get outside... Gill asked me to go to the Co-op for us. I got what we needed there and met a friend who was looking very jolly. We passed the time of day and he told me he wasn't living at home anymore, he had moved in with his fella. And, they had agreed to get married! I didn't know he was gay but I wasn't surprised, and asked him to make sure I was invited when they have their civil partnership celebration. This news cheered me up immensely, I am so pleased for him.

After this I popped down to Freshways and then back, to load up Robin's home-made tumbler composter for the second time, and to cut a hedge which has got very overgrown... and then shred all that material.

So, a fairly quiet day, got enough done during daylight hours, and in the evening took two Fiddlesticks bookings and also got confirmation of an invite to a Radio York Question Time thing on 26th April. I've got to write two questions and send them in... My first question is 'Why isn't the Green Party represented?'

I had a late start... after all, I got in last night at nearly midnight and then Gill and I stayed up chatting til after 2am and then we didn't get to sleep until after 3. So I woke and dozed and slept til about 11.

I did a big wash-up after breakfast.

And a late lunch, listening to Gardener's Question Time on Radio 4, but got outside after this. My main job today was to get up into the James Grieve apple tree and remove all the unwanted honeysuckle. I found a honeysuckle 'volunteer' a few years ago and thought it would be a good idea to replant it next to the apple tree. Little did I know how well it would do, and it had climbed right to the top and started to get too much for the tree, and was shading it so much that last year, the amount of apples was quite reduced. So a couple of weeks ago I cut the main stem of the honeysuckle and today I put my ladders up and cut out all the now dead winding vine, pulling it out and feeding it through the shredder. This was a messy job... I got completely covered in bits of lichen and dead honeysuckle leaves.

I also sorted out the cans and bottles from last night and flattened the cans... with a little bit of help from the energetic feet of a pre-teen. Gill took our younger one for a jolly in the park with a couple of his friends.

Tea was a burger thing made from the tea Gill made last night, a rice and bean creation... I think she mixed it with breadcrumbs, and used a hommous pot as a mould, and fried it. Had it in a bread roll, with salad. Had this watching Countryfile.

Later I had an intense discussion on facebook about flying... all triggered off by the Icelandic volcano's ash cloud stopping flights in the UK and most of Europe. Lots of people are delighted about this... comments about airline companies going bust and the like, and lots of comments about the peace and quiet and the clear skies, but some other people don't understand this point of view and I've challenged their view that they have a 'right to fly'. My opinion is that as flying is the single biggest contributor to climate change that any individual can decide to do, and that climate change is already killing people and will certainly kill vast numbers in the future, that flying is directly connected with their deaths. This view doesn't go down too well with some of the frequent fliers who have been inconvenienced by the volcano.

And then I found this NewScientist article by my favourite York author. It maybe that we have to get used to more disruption. Not that I mind that much....

A generally quiet day... Lots of work to do inside, child management, washing up, computer stuff.

At about 5pm I managed to get some time in the garden, and I did a lot of work... more tidying of brambles, and shredding them, and for the first time since the cold snap after Christmas, I have NO boxes or bags of compostable materials awaiting their destination on the heap... I have finally caught up with the crap, and I hope that I'll now keep on top of what I bring home.

However, when I came in at 8.30pm, my hands were really cut up with bramble prickles... they really hurt. But as most gardeners will tell you, it is preferable to use bare hands as using gloves just doesn't 'do it' for me.. I even prefer to hand-weed nettles without gloves. Yet, on my bike, I wear gloves all the year round. Weird!

A nice bowl of soup for tea, and a pastie and roast butternut squash.

A pretty non-eventful day in many ways... up not too early, and a slow start with my usual bowl of home-made muesli on top of 'brain flakes' (the secret of my intelligence!) and a bit of time with the laptop.

And the outside was calling so I got busy in the garden, more shredding (I took the shredder down the garden to reduce the time to-ing and fro-ing) and I did a huge load of brambles, hedge and pruned-out other bits.

I bagged up some more riddled compost and started re-filling the New Zealand bin that I dug out over the past couple of days. Oh, and the usual round of washing up, emptying the ash from the stove and that kind of housework.

I had no visitors and didn't go anywhere. Gill got a family day rover bus ticket and took our youngest to the trampolines in Coppergate, came home and took our eldest to town to get a new book, as he goes through them so quickly. Gill also got a game of Monopoly as an extra thing to help pass the time, and the boys played that until quite late.

So for me, quite an uneventful day, despite being productive and the garden looking a lot less woolly afterwards.

A really good day, with more fun than most days. I got up soon after 9 and all was peaceful. A good start.

I wanted to join my friends in town at 11ish who were staging a 'Jam today, Jammed tomorrow?' stall in Parliament St. The York's Jammed campaign is being coordinated by York and Ryedale Friends of the Earth and they had invited people down to join in.. and suggested bringing circus toys down, so I decided to take my devilsticks (two sets). But I also had three sacks of Freshways 'resources' on my bike, so I took them, a garden spade and my composting knife to St Nicks where they have a composting area and copious volumes of sawdust (from a pet shop), and I spent half an hour chopping up aubergines and oranges, and covering them with sawdust and limp herbs. I washed my hands at the Environment Centre which was open, as it was an Eco-Active day.

Then down to Parliament St where the FoE stall was being set up, and boxes of sandwiches and scones all with jam were on offer. I spent a happy hour or so doing my devilstick, and there was a small boy who's mum was collecting for charity, and he had a go with my second set. Jennie did some poi as well. I chatted to a woman called Liz or Betty from Rotherham who was working with a Cliff Richard tribute singer... she was collecting for charity and giving out balloon models. I made her a couple of my favourites, the 'dog's dinner' and the 'weeble' which she was very taken with.

I left at about half past 12 and went to Sainsburys as I'd had an order for their very nice multigrain bread. Got home at 1, and got into the garden as soon as I could as it was a lovely day. Gill was still tidying and sorting... I took some of the stuff (my dumped mess mainly) down the garden for sorting, and the boys happily destroyed several wooden fruit boxes which I'd piled up in case they came in useful. They are now useful... kindling.

I did loads in the garden... more compost heap turning, some weeding, and later on, shredding.

Gill decided that she had been working so hard that she didn't want to cook... so she bought a pizza, some garlic bread, oven chips and frozen peas. This might seem 'normal' but in our house we generally cook from simple ingredients rather than buy ready-made.

So I came in at about 6.30 to have my share of pizza etc, and as usual, put my laptop on (especially as the incomprehensible Dr Who was on!) and was on facebook, and my facebook friend Tracey Smith sent me a message, saying she was doing her 'internet radio show' on Taunton Hospital Radio, and did I want to tune in? It's called Slow Down and Green Up, so I thought I'd give it a go. After a few minutes, during which we'd exchanged a few messages, she suddenly started talking about chatting to someone on facebook, and how she didn't really know how to use facebook so she was going to experiment and find out a bit more about who she was chatting to. So she said hello to me and clicked on my profile info page and started reading out my favourite music and quotations... and found this blog's URL and I thought she was going to start reading out my blog... but she ran out of time as her show finished at 8pm. Most unexpected.

I decided to use the last of the daylight to finish off some tidying... and within the hour both boys came out and we all had a go on the trampoline. We spent so long there that Gill brought the boys' supper out, and we stayed down there for quite a while until it was really dark and we could see the stars.

So a mixture of fun things, enjoyable activities, and warm sunny weather.

Woken by screaming and yelling at 8am. I feel so sorry for our neighbours. I came down to see if my quiet presence might help smooth the exit off to school, and it did, with one child. Great!

However, there was an absolute refusal from our youngest so I quickly got dressed and got my bike out and Gill and I plonked him onto the pannier rack and took him to school, and he was not late. Hooray. (and, when he arrived home at 3.40, he reported having a brilliant day, so it was worth it)

I had a lot of assorted paperwork to do and Gill did a vast amount of sorting and tidying upstairs. I was doing the washing up after buying bread before lunch and she came down, beaming at me, told me she loved me, and pulled my left hand towards her, and slipped on my long-lost wedding ring. This went AWOL at least two years ago... I had taken it off as I was getting eczema underneath it and put it 'safely' in a pot on the sideboard (so I thought!) and that was the last I saw of it. I wondered if it had slipped off into one of my compost heaps, or had disappeared somewhere else.. but I had obviously put it safely somewhere, just forgotten where. It was on the dressing table in our bedroom; this hasn't been tidied or cleaned for, ahem, some while!

After lunch I cycled round to South Bank to visit a Freecycler who had advertised some logs on Sunday. I'd emailed him and said I'd be unable to come on Sunday but if there was anything left on Monday, that would be good. So, as there were some logs left, I popped over and picked some up. The householder, John, had moved in less than a year ago and had just finished doing up the house, and was starting on the garden. There had been a row of huge bushy Leylandii, two collapsed apple trees and a selection of other trees. I was the seventh visitor to take some wood... most of the apple had gone, and so I only got a few chunks of that, but I took a trailer full of Lilac sticks up to 7 cm diameter. We had a chat about fruit trees, compost and conflict resolution... the usual range of conversational subjects I have with strangers!

From here I recrossed the Ouse on the Millennium Bridge and cycled into Fulford to my agent's house, as I had a booking letter from him I needed to get back to him. And from him through the University back home.

I had a quick tea... mashed potato, pastie and peas, and set out on my second Freecycle trip of the day. Someone else had offered a load of bricks... so I thought that I'd add to the bricks for the wall, and get a trailer load. I managed to get 37 in one load... 6 in each pannier and 25 in the trailer. The Freecycler didn't have time to let me go and pick up a second load, but an extra 37 'clamp bricks' for nothing is worth having.

Despite the rain, I did an hour of shredding before it got too dark to continue. I came in and helped with some homework, cut some fingernails and settled down to watch Newsnight and do more washing up.

I had real difficulty getting to sleep last night... must have lain awake til 4am but eventually I dropped off. Next thing I knew was Gilly awakening me at 10.30. Breakfast and a bit of housework, including preparing a home-grown Chinese Yam for tonight's meal. It needed as many of the hair-like roots removing as possible, which I did by scraping it with a knife in a stream of water, and then I sliced it into rounds about a centimetre thick, for shallow frying on the woodstove.

I didn't get dressed til after lunch, and then went out to deal with last year's brambles and loganberries; the fruited canes need cutting back and then feeding through the shredder to make a woody layer in the latest compost heap.

As it was getting dark I cycled down to Country Fresh and bought mushrooms and bananas, and picked up 4 sacks full of compostable stuff. On the way back I had another root around in the skip, and found a red plastic tray, a glass chopping board, an unopened in-date box of Kellogs bran flakes, a cycle helmet in its box and an orange reflective jacket with Royal Mail on the back. Also a load of wine bottles which I brought back for my kerbside recycling box. There were loads of bundles of leaflets and flyers too, presumably meant for delivering, but I had no space for them. The curtain twitching neighbour did a lot of twitching. I waved at her.

As I cycled away, the twitcher's husband overtook me in his car and was aggressive towards me, accusing me of making an obscene gesture to his wife. I'm glad he didn't bop me one... he certainly had enough testosterone flying around. Some people obviously think skip-raiding is wrong.

Anyway, I was so pissed off with this show of stupidity that a bit later, when Gill asked me to go and buy soya milk, I got that and revisited the skip, and got all the leaflets and flyers and completely filled my trailer with them... all for recycling not landfill. I might have only taken 30 or 40kgs worth out of a one tonne skip, but in my book, every bit counts. I don't know if the nosey neighbours saw me or not, and I don't really care.

Tea was good; Gill did a rice stir fry thing, topped with Chinese Yam 'chips' and it was very satisfying.

Enjoyed a quiet evening with Gill once the boys had settled, and we watched a bit of 'Celebrity Big Brother' which we're half-watching, and enjoyed it when Davina went into the house.

I did quite a bit of research on the computer tonight, about a new business opportunity I'm working on. Exciting!

A lie-in. Awoke with a phone call, then got up and got my huge ladder to start removing the Wisteria which is trying to eat the house. I need to do this to allow the builders to replace the fascia boards and to get access to the roof to put the solar panels on, and defunct chimney off.

This took most of the day. I got the shredder out too, and shredded all the stuff I took off, making 5 sacks of shredded Wisteria for composting.

At 5 I stopped and got myself ready to go to work. I'd been booked to go to Bishopthorpe Beavers and do my show. They are like CubScouts but smaller! So, maybe 20 six and seven year old boys who loved my show and participated fully. I made it quite science-heavy but also with maximum fun, including the gag I do with the Indian club and banging it on my head which makes my eyes go wonky. Oh I do love my job! And I get paid to have such fun! Amazing!

Home by 8pm, had tea (Gill had made rice tonight) and then enjoyed Question Time with the idiotic Nick Griffin who showed himself up as many people had hoped he would. I think appearing on this programme has actually been a good thing, as people have been able to see what a vile piece of work he is.

I had a good chat with Ali on the phone at midnight, and then did the washing up, bed after 2am, as usual.

Up early as was expecting a visit from old friends Tim and Anita, whom we haven't seen for about 10 years. They were due to arrive at about 9.30 and spend about an hour with us, before going to meet their friend who had a big 50th birthday party yesterday, someone Tim went to University with.

At about 9am they rang and said they were running a bit late, could be here at 10. I went out the front and started building a new logpile to the left of the front door (looking out) and soon they arrived, in a taxi. How absolutely lovely to see them again. They had a fruit tea and a walk down the garden and all too soon it was 11 o clock and their taxi back to Bootham arrived. Hopefully next time we won't leave it 10 years! I am very fond of them both.

So then I got to work as it was a lovely day, and did 2 hours hedge removal and shredding. I finished the hedge roots processing... pulling them apart and taking off soil so they are bare-rooted, and don't have any ground elder with them. Put all these aside for the chap to collect later.

Lunch and Gardeners Question time, then cycled to Country Fresh to get some veg and came back with a trailer load of gunk to put in layers with the shredded twigs, the perfect mix.

As I arrived back the Freecycler from near Easingwold had arrived to collect the last of the privet roots, about 160 of them. He was delighted, and shared some Oscar Wilde anecdotes with me, which was interesting.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sorting out the material I'd cut off the extracted roots. Our neighbour got busy setting out where the foundations are going to go and I found him three builders 'dumpy bags' which are a cubic metre each to put the soil in. I used the rotasieve to separate roots from soil, and shredded the roots along with more of the twigs. I also collected together quite a lot of stones, which will help with the wall building apparently.

I stayed out in the rain and came in when it got dark, very achy and tired, but happy that so much has been achieved. Gill had made a good mushroom quiche, had this with potatoes and cabbage salad and some other bits and bobs.

Our youngest was very excited as he's going on a field trip tomorrow, I just kept my head down and let him bounce around and be his lovely excited self. He had a bath with water from the stove which I carried up. Played lots of facebook Scrabble and watched synthesizer stuff from my youth on BBC4.

A very late morning... Gill got me up at 8 to see if I could sort out a child's bike brakes (which I did) and I then went back to bed, til 11. Lovely. Partly as I was up til 3am last night... or this morning, if you want.

So, after lunch I did a big load of shredding, the stuff I cut yesterday. Then I attacked the hedge again and yanked out a load more, cutting the roots and bottom of the plant off and removing all the spare soil, and pulling congested roots apart. This realised another 60 plants, which I bunged in a sack and invited another Freecycler to come and get.

I worked up until teatime and had a quick tea and then went to the Hull Road Ward Committee meeting which was just round the corner. This was the meeting where this year's funding applications are presented. John from St Nicks presented his request... something towards a new CCTV system and another requested grant towards some new play equipment. Then people in the ward vote for which ones they like and don't like... and the Council decisdes who gets the money.

This finished at about 8.30 and I popped in back home to check all was well, and then cycled down to Green Drinks for a single pint, just one hour. Had some chats with Ivana and Graham, Dave and Jennie, and a couple of others, but I was tired and came away at 10. Glad I did as when I got home I watched Newsnight which had a piece on the Green Movement with Justin Rowlatt and Caroline Lucas. 'Twas good.

So, a quiet evening followed, ploughing through emails, following up various things I'm obligated to do.

I got up just in time to have breakfast and get dressed and then receive my guest this morning.

Karen C is an acupuncturist and a colleague or friend of my friend June, and is doing some research into acupuncture and ADHD. June contacted me, knowing that I self diagnosed with ADHD yonks ago. I explained that the experts had told me that although I had probably had ADHD as a child, I did not have enough of, or severe enough symptoms of the condition to be diagnosed with it. However, as Karen was having difficulty finding enough diagnosed adults, she altered her research parameters to include people like me, who are on that spectrum but not 'bad enough'(!) to merit the full label...

So, soon after 10, Karen arrived to do my history, which is standard practice before doing any complimentary therapy. I have done this several times for different people and it does take some time, in this case, over two hours. But it is, for me, the most important part of the work of the complimentary therapists that I've experienced so far (and I confess to have only tried maybe 4 or 5) as 'normal' GPs don't ever have this time for their patients.

I've never had acupuncture, but Gill has and it helped her painful back. I tried homeopathy with a good friend who is a very experienced and well respected homeopath, but I had no response to it whatsoever. I told her in the history-taking that I was skeptical and didn't believe that there was any active ingredient in homeopathic medicines. She said that didn't matter. But my expectations were realised.

I've also tried a couple of types of massage therapies, of which Indian Head Massage was by far the most wonderful and deep tissue Swedish massage was the most horrible.

Anyway, Karen was happy with the info I gave her, and I agreed to go and see her four times in the next month (in Harrogate) to see if having acupuncture helps me either become tidier (!) or more organised, more relaxed or any other improvements.

She had a quick tour down the garden and took a bag of dried fruit, and I had lunch.

Then we all had a good time in the garden... the boys played on the trampoline and Gill and I pruned a large lilac tree... Gill directed, I went up the ladder and sawed the branches off, pollarding the tree for a second time since we moved here. I then spent quite a bit of time shredding the large pile of stuff which resulted from this massacre, and then loading a pallet bin with layers of this woody stuff with layers of vegetable and fruit, surrounded with flattened cardboard boxes up against the pallet sides.

I picked another load of stuff including a courgette, a tromboncino squash, some Jack Edwards climbing pea beans, runner beans invading our garden from next door, bramley apples, James Grieve apples and assorted pears. Tea time!

And tea time was lovely with lots of good fresh veg... much of the above but also tomatoes from the conservatory, all mixed with noodles.

I prepared quite a bit of food tonight, including potatoes and sweet potatoes, which will get eaten tomorrow.

A nice day with the family. I woke quite late but got busy in the kitchen after breakfast, and it was a peaceful and very productive day.

Gill had cut down some overhanging Lilac and cut back an overenthusiastic willow, and she wanted me to dispose of this cut material. I cut off the smaller branches and shredded them, and put the larger sticks aside to be cut to a stackable length for kindling.

I then got busy further down the garden, pruned the cherry tree... cutting the long branches back to half their length to make it easier to put the net over next year. I also cut several lengths of hedge, including one which had got very long and needed work with secateurs not the shears. I shredded all this to help it rot down more quickly. I have several sacks of this mainly woody material to add to heaps and tumblers which have the mainly fruity and veggie material on them, to help with aeration and carbon-nitrogen balance.

We harvested some potatoes from the woven green sacks where they've been growing all summer, very satisfying. I also picked some Jack Edwards Climbing Pea Beans and some broccoli and a small crook-neck squash, all of which Gilly melded into a lovely meal.

At one stage during the day I got my emails and there was a Freecycle offer from John Bibby, my friend who has had quite a bit of tree work done in his garden, offering a trailer-load of willow sticks. I replied and asked if he had any of the other wood left, the pear, laburnum and better-to-burn wood, and he replied and suggested I cycle round and pick some up.

So when I got there there were quite a few of the good-to-burn logs there, and John suggested that I fill his car up and he drive a load round. I was only expecting to take a bike-trailer's worth, but he was happy to be rid of the stuff as he wanted to clear his garden. So I loaded his car, and my trailer, and I cycled back and John drove round 20 minutes later, and I unloaded his car. I must now have one of the best collections of logs in York! And a heck of a lot of work to do!

Our eldest was also busy today, preparing for his younger brother's birthday tomorrow. He has made a complicated map of the garden and cut it up and hidden the different bits in various different places, so that when all of them are put back together it reveals the whereabouts of some buried treasure. This treasure is the birthday present. So there was various help needed with this task, including keeping his younger brother unaware of the preparations. A fun task.

So, a hard working day, good moods all round, productive, happy.