Human Lifestyle

Another nothingy day... I slept in late, not surprising as I went to bed at about 3am.

Gill took the boys into town on the bus mid afternoon to go and buy books with the book tokens they got for Christmas, and I did a short bit of chainsawing and splitting.  I now have no more logs which need cutting and very few rounds which need splitting.  But now there's a big pile of stackable stuff which I need to attend to...

Before the family got back I hopped onto my bike to go down to Country Fresh, but they'd closed at 4pm and I'd arrived at 4,20.  I popped in to my friend Debbie as her daughter in law is due to have a baby, which will make her a grandma. So, the news was that she'd been induced, so baby will arrive... well, sometime in the next 24 hours...  I'm looking forward to the excited text message, although Debbie says I'll hear her shout from here when she hears the news!

So, tea was a pastie which Gill got from town, plus a mix of parsnip (phew, now finished!) pasta and tomato sauce.  I had a nice Skype chat with Laura after tea, to catch up with what she'd been doing over Christmas.

So, a fairly nondescript day, nothing particularly exciting.

The day started a bit rapidly because Gill had a GP appointment at 9.40 and woke me up at 9.20 as I'd offered to walk round with her, as it was slippery and I really didn't want her to fall over. So my usual routine of having breakfast first thing was replaced by a slow walk round to Tang Hall Lane, using the only ice-free part of Lilac Avenue, the car tyre tracks.  So Gill was happy to have me with her, and I pocketed her presrciption for painkillers and went to get those later.

We got home and I sat down to enjoy breakfast... and the Suma lorry came, so I put muesli on hold and helped unload our order... peanut butter, muesli base, soya milk, bouillon, rice, goats cheese, some other bits and bobs, plus things for Sue and Melody.

So then it was time to do some log stacking, as we're going through loads at the moment and I really need to get a load stacked by the front door to prepare for the forthcoming cold snap.  I also tidied up the Wisteria leaves which had been knocked off by the snow, and some other mess.  I started splitting the softwood rounds I picked up over the weekend. 

Sue showed up sometime between 2 and 3 to pick up her rye bread and tinned lentil soup, and I took the 2 boxes of rye bread over to her van.  I'd noticed a woman rooting through a skip of household goods in a neighbour's driveway, and as I walked back to the house, I spoke to her and we chatted.  She'd seen the skip last night and put a note through the door asking if she could rummage through.  She'd got a phone call with a yes, so had come down to find clothes and other bits.  She had a huge suitcase plus at least 2 rucksacks, a large plastic carrier bag and a child's scooter. 

About 10 minutes later, as I was splitting rounds with my axe, she struggled past and I wished her well.  Five minutes later, I was setting out on my bike to go and get Gill's prescription, and she was outside our neighbour's, still trying to manage her heavy load.  So I offered to help her move her stuff, it wasn't far, just up Osbaldwick Lane, and we had a good natter whilst going there.  Turns out she was at the Pumpkin evening and Apple Day and I'd taught her daughter to juggle...

I got the prescription and came back and didn't do any more outside as it was now dark. 

Gill had made leek and potato soup, and I had mine with two slices of bread.

Then at 6.15 I set out on the bike again to go to Tang Hall Library for the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel, and we had a very interesting and quite long meeting, lasting over an hour.  So it was nearly 8pm when I got back.  I watched a programme about equations with our eldest at 9pm, and had a fairly quiet evening.

Well, not too bad a day, as I had a relatively late start and got busy with assorted household things, and also some stacking, splitting and chainsawing.  I got a fantastic booking for next April, a big event where I'll be performing to over 100 people - and a good fee promised, too.

During the afternoon I made a pumpkin loaf for the York Rotters Pumpkin Evening.  I used a wholemeal loaf which I made into breadcrumbs in the blender, and also a big spoonful of very dry Meridian peanut butter from the base of the pot, which all blended in very nicely.  I then added a whole onion, chopped, and a red pepper, chopped, and about a third of a pumpkin, grated, and a handful of chopped mixed nuts.  For flavouring I used some red wine, Balsamic vinegar, bouillon and mixed herbs... and a dash of cumin.  Then to bind it, an egg.  I mixed it really really well, and turned it into a greased dish which I'd lined with mixed seeds.  I microwaved it for 10 minutes, and then turned it out onto a baking tray and bunged it in the oven on Mark 6 for 20 minutes... and left it in the oven with the gas off for 20 minutes before taking it to St Nicks in a cake tin.

I also took one of my boys and a friend who lives up the road, both of whom enjoy carving pumpkins and had a good evening.  I took my biggest pumpkin for the competition... mine weighed no more than 2kg, the winning one was over 40kg.   I spent most of the evening peeling dried pumpkin seeds, and then sorting out fresh ones from the pulp.  Two people requested my nutloaf recipe, so I'll send them this link.

The three of us got home at about 8pm and our visitor stayed for another 45 minutes or so.  I had a fairly relaxing evening... washing up, sorting out pumpkin seeds (I have a bucketful to deal with!) and keeping the stove going.

A lovely day... not only the turning of the year but really sunny and I enjoyed myself. Got up just in time to wish the boys a happy solstice before they rushed off to school.

I had a morning doing a report for the York World Naked bike Ride, as we had issues with the police on the ride, who said they were only there to observe, but they prevented some of our marshalls from keeping the ride safe by 'corking' a junction where it would have been dangerous for a motor vehicle to split the group... but later they did some traffic management themselves. Ideally we need a situation like in Manchester where we had police outriders keeping the riders safe.

Gill and I spent some time together over lunch and after lunch I hopped on my bike and cycled over to Kutters/Shannons to get my new chainsaw chain, which cost me £21, but rejuvenates my chainsaw.

On the way back I went to Nationwide, which is the Building Society where I have two accounts, my Fiddlesticks/Composter account, and my savings. Last week I saw a poster which said that my savings account, a 'cashbuilder' was changing, and that any cheque I had made out to a third party would cost me an extra £10, which is ridiculous. So today I asked what the options were to make this situation better, and I had a meeting with a nice guy called Ross who worked out that the account I needed was a Bonus 30. This allows me to make one withdrawal per month, and if I don't make any withdrawals for a year I get some kind of bonus payment... but as I'm not that bothered about a bonus, this doesn't really matter. I might use this purely for savings and see if the Credit Union has a better deal for the occasional withdrawals I make to get magazine subscriptions and the various other things I use this account for.

Anyway, Ross was nice and we got the paperwork sorted, and I came home. I wanted to see if my chainsaw was any good so I got the electrics sorted out and chopped up quite a lot of logs, and split some, and stacked too. A good session... very hot and sweaty but good honest hard work. The chainsaw is working well.

Gill made a quiche for tea. She is the best quiche maker in the World.

Later I sorted out some compostables and found that for some reason one of the shops had thrown out more or less a whole sack of new potatoes, possibly because some fruit or veg had leaked onto them and some of them were damp. So we'll be eating new potatoes for quite a while!

A slow start to the day. In fact a slow day. At lunchtime Gill went into town on the bus with our eldest to see 'Clash of the Titans' at the newly refurbished Reel Cinema which is on the No.10 bus route.

I didn't do very much apart from some housework, until mid afternoon when I went out and split some logs, including a Robin Rawson-type accident when a bit of log hit my shin with great force... extreme pain, but no real damage.

At about 4pm, my new friend Sarah came round with her chap Ian, who wanted to see the assorted low carbon initiatives. We had a chat, tour and cuppa, very nice.

At 7.15 I cycled down to the Seahorse to go to the LETS meeting... and only Ben and Annette turned up. But it was a good meeting and I was pleased to see the new YorkLETS website, which will allow members to manage their own listings, and even do online transactions. I came home and logged in, and sorted out my own page. I am very happy to see this development.

A peaceful start to the day and at 10, Michael, a German chap who has a son at our son's school arrived, as he had invited himself round to find out how to make a compost heap which didn't attract rats. He lives near a farm which has lots of rats and his 'dalek' bin has regular rodent visitors.

So we went down the garden and I showed him the various 'dalek' bins which are on concrete or paving stones, and one on a proprietory plastic base, all of which are rat proof (OK, rat resistant!) and haven't ever been gnawed through or tunneled into. I showed him the GreenCone, which has (or had, as I set a trap) a rat living in the basket under the cone, having tunnelled through the soil and munched through the basket. I showed him the 'New Zealand Bins' made of pallets, which I construct on top of several pallets to raise them off the ground, and line with chicken wire. These are also rat deterrant, as the only way they can get in is through the top. I showed him the Compost Mate tool which I use to disturb the heaps, making rat peace and quiet impossible.

Then I showed him the four sorts of tumbler, all of which are either rat proof or would be really difficult for a rat to get into. He really liked the Sun Mar Compost Flow 400 litre jobbie, and I asked him to let me know which one he decided to get.

So then the next 'feature' of the day was lunch, and whilst having lunch and after, I contacted several organisations through their websites, to ask about using some photos for the website I am working on.

Then I emptied the wheelbarrow (sacks of compostables) and used it to take the logs I cut yesterday and took them to the new logpile for fresh logs which is on a pallet in the shared pathway between us and our neighbour. Some needed splitting too, which not only helps the thick ones dry faster, but makes the stacking easier and safer.

I had tea early, a pile of pasta parcels, broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkin, as the Hull Road Ward Planning Panel was at 6pm today, rather than the usual 6.30. We had a lot to deal with, including some quite complicated applications, and ones where we disagreed.

We finished at 7.10 and my next meeting was at 7.30 in the Black Swan, the first planning meeting of the 2010 York World Naked Bike Ride. Tony and Hugh came... Tony is the main organiser, and he'd prepared a check list/agenda which we worked through, including the route, publicity, police/council liason and assorted other bits and bobs. A good meeting, and on the way back I checked out a logpile, some of which found it's way into my trailer.

On the way out of St Nicks Fields, I saw two youths running off up one of the paths, from a rubbish bin which they had just set light to. There was another chap there, just standing and using his mobile phone. I stopped and looked into the bin, saw that it did indeed have some contents on fire. I parked the bike and said to the chap standing around that it ought to be put out, but I'd just had a pee so could he help? He declined, so I scrabbld around to find enough snow to chuck into the bin to eventually put out the small fire. The only thing the chap said was in response to my saying 'I wish there was more snow'.. and he just said 'you don't hear that very often'. I tried to chat to him a bit more but he was in a world of his own.

I came home, unloaded logs, put the bike away and came in, tired but happy that the meetings had been productive.

A better, smoother start to the morning, and I was able to get to my 10am appointment with Ann up the road, who asked me last week if I was able to help her with a pile of partly cut down apple tree logs. So I took my electric chainsaw there and she took me to see her 91 year old Mother's garden, next door but one, where some wide-boys had partly taken down the tree, been paid, had problems with their chainsaw, and disappeared. Without finishing the job.

So, John to the rescue. I chopped up the big logs from this once splendid 100 year old + Bramley, which they had cut down as they couldn't use the apples and the fallen apples and autumn leaves were 'untidy'. I think that this is almost criminal, but it was done, there was little point bemoaning it's loss. The whole garden had been covered in gravel and it was so ugly.

The job was bigger than I thought and I spent two hours helping them, for no payment, just the logs, which should be about 10 cycle trailer loads full. Glad it's nearby.

Back for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon wooding, chopping existing logs in the front garden, splitting them, and stacking some by the side of the house where I removed the stacks when the work was done last week. I didn't bring any more from up the road as I haven't space.

Later I popped down to Country Fresh to get potatoes, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms and onions. Came back with what I went for plus two sacks of 'resources'.

Gill was feeling poorly so I made tea... pasta and veg with tomato and onion sauce, really simple but both boys asked for more, so it was well received.

I spent some of the evening doing yet more of the huge pile of persimmons... I've only about 20 or 30 left now, but they dry quickly and are really nice when dried.

Late on I had a good conversation on facebook chat with Sabine in Germany. So a good day in many ways, despite my feelings of anger about such a big old productive tree being chopped down for no good reason that I could understand...

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.

Quite a frustrating day in some ways. I had a medium start, ie not a long lie-in, and was able to say bye to our guest from Leamington Spa who was meeting a friend at the station at 10.20 and then getting a train back down south at 10.40. Gill and our eldest (our guests's old classmate) went to the station on the bus and got back two hours later.

I spent the morning trying to sort out the Green Festival insurance stuff and other paperwork. Had a quiet lunch and during the afternoon the insurance got sorted... I paid for it using my debit card. This is a huge relief.

I did some good exercise too... splitting the logs I cut yesterday, and fortunately I'd cut them small enough to split reasonably easily. I popped down to Country Fresh to pick up a few bits of veg and also the weekend's compostables, about four bags or boxes, but I didn't have time to put them on the heap so they are all in the wheelbarrow waiting for tomorrow morning.

Gill made a macaroni cheese with cauliflower for the kids... I had reheated stuff from yesterday with a bit of today's nosh. Then straight out to the LETS meeting, just four of us and although I went down there feeling less than joyous, I left feeling quite a bit more buoyed up, as the company was good.

I just remembered the 'highlight' of the day was when Gill was refilling a 25 litre tub of ecover washing liquid with a 15 litre refill. She was struggling with the opening of the refill box, on the table in the living room, and suddenly it opened and it started flowing but not all of it arrived in the waiting big tub. Plenty of it went onto the short-pile carpet we have. Gill shrieked and I rescued her by holding the tub up whilst she aimed the flow into the opening... Our youngest came running to see if he could help, and found the dustpan and brush, which is what Gill initially used to scrape up the perhaps half-litre of slimy washing liquid which had spilt.

Gill then spent about an hour putting water on the carpet and taking it up again with some of the washing liquid, and again and again... what a huge palaver! I asked Gill to please ask me to help when she was attempting this kind of procedure... sometimes having two people co-operating is better than tying to do a task on your own.

A late start to the day. But a bit of a frustrating day as I'd intended to spend it at my half-allotment but it rained and rained, so I mooched around inside, read, did stuff on the computer and made a meal for all of us to have for tea. It was a mix of lasagne and moussaka... layers of the small sliced aubergines I rescued from the compostables last week and sliced and partially fried last night, tomato/onion sauce, made with sweet pepper paprika and fresh home-grown basil, some slightly out of date no-pre-cook sheets of lasagne and a brilliant cheese sauce made with wholemeal flour, goats milk and goats cheese (so Gill could have what everybody else was having) and my special ingredient for cheese sauce, a teaspoon full of french mustard.

I also sliced a butternut squash and baked that at the same time. The meal was delicious and Gill was really happy that I'd done that with my spare time.

I did have some time outside, splitting some logs and filling the wheelbarrow full of softwood sticks I cut yesterday, and stacking them carefully on the side of the shared passage between us and our neighbours.

I was very happy to get a fan-email from someone who came to Middleton Park a few weeks back, apparently her autistic daughter loved what I did and volunteered lots, and they are looking forward to seeing me again at the end of August. Glad the messages I get saying Professor Fiddlesticks is good far outweigh the few that I get who don't like what I do!

Whilst on facebook someone posted a comment upside down
uʍop ǝpısdn ʇuǝɯɯoɔ ɐ pǝʇsod ǝuoǝɯos ʞooqǝɔɐɟ uo ʇslıɥʍ
like this, and when several people had asked how it was done, they posted the URL:
http://www.sherv.net/flip.html and if you have a look further down the page, you'll find a way of making weird writing too. I'm not really into emoticons but this website has loads of these too! Fun and silliness on a wet day...

I went into town in the morning with our eldest son's bike, to get it serviced before out longish cycle ride next week. Also visited the library to get a map, so we can find our way from Weston Super Mare to Cheddar and to the Big Green Gathering. Finally to my building society to get a cheque out to pay a bill.

Had a good day at home, in the garden dealing with compost and logs, chainsawing , splitting, stacking. Very satisfying and enjoyable.

Later, went into town with my eldest to collect his bike... he was needed to get the height right and the brakes in the right position, and he realised that the stand was missing, so they found that and put it back on. So his bike is in tip-top condition for the journey next week.

So, a quiet evening... a nice baked veg tea, aubergines from the compostables, slices of potato, tomato, onion and all smothered with the very delicious sauce I made a day or two ago.

Some interesting chats on the computer during the evening. Had a shave and bath as working tomorrow and Sunday.

Gill did all the early stuff, I got up, breakfasted, Gill came back from delivering our youngest to school, and we went back to bed as this is the last chance we have for a lie in for a fortnight... both boys are early risers, like Gill. Got up again at 11, I went to Thomas the Baker for Yesterbake bread and some pasties for tea, and the Co-op for some other bits. Met Stephen and as usual, 'chewed the fat' with him, putting the world to rights.

Came back to find Ai's wormery has been delivered. WRAP has a deal with assorted local authorities, through the Recycle Now website, they offer reduced price composting equipment. You put in your postcode and a range of different compost bins and wormeries comes up, with different prices in different areas. In Ali's area, there wasn't a Can O Worms available, but there was in York and North Yorkshire, so she ordered one to be delivered here. Se did this just in time, as now I cannot find any wormeries available on this website! The best price deal that I've found today is in Lancashire, where a 'dalek' compost bin can be had for £3 or £5, with a delivery charge of £5. But I put in postcodes of people I know in Shropshire, Cambridge, Norwich, Hebden Bridge and Leeds, and there are good deals to be had in all of these. My 'top buy' is the 330 litre Compost Converter 'dalek' bin.

I had lunch with Gill and then got on with processing the large logs out the front. I just managed to saw through the really thick cherry trunk and split the chunks, stacking them by the side of the house to dry. One of my neighbours told me that he thought my logpiles were untidy, and that he sometimes smelt smoke from the stove. I apologised for the occasionally poor management of the stove, which only burns smoke free when burning hot and with the air coming through the turbobaffle. Sometimes Gill opens up the air under the grate to get it burning well, and then forgets to close it. Sometimes a log goes on which doesn't catch properly, and it smoulders rather than burn cleanly and heat up well. So these stoves are only smoke free if they are well managed. I didn't tell my neighbour that I found his cars ugly, but I did, in passing, mention the invisible and smell-free carbon dioxide pollution that cars emit in very large amounts, but this was dismissed. Depressing. We ought to live in a smallholding really, where having a few tonnes of logs stacked around the place wouldn't upset the neighbours.

Gill did the school run and the boys had some visitors to play with. Melody and Ros came to drink coffee and chat. I visited Country Fresh and Freshways, to collect my not very fresh stuff.

Melody left soon after I got back, and had been given some garlic bulbs by Gill as I've got dozens and she pickles them. Next to the front door were another 50? or so garlics, thrown out by the veg shops, and I'd been intending to pickle these. I gave them all to Melody, as she's far better at doing pickles than me, she was ecstatic. In return, she'll give me a jar or two of the finished product, yippee!

Tea was delicious... I cropped some of the Shiitake mushrooms and gently fried them in olive oil on the stove, appreciated by all the males in the house (don't think Gill's too keen) and some of yesterday's lasagna and pastie and potatoes.

A warm and cosy evening. Did more dried pears.

Quite a relaxed morning, and as our eldest was at a loose end, we rang one of his friends to see if he could come here or our lad go there. The latter option looked good, and I cycled down to Fulford with him and left him there.

Came back via a logpile and then did some splitting and stacking of the freshly felled softwood that Don left, and spent some time in the garden doing other things. Our youngest had a friend round and they played happily all day.

Gill went down to town to get some birthday presents for a pair of boys who are having a joint party on Friday, I think. When she came back I got veg and eggs from Country Fresh plus some compostables and a nice natter with Rich.

I collected our eldest after 7pm... he'd had a brilliant day, he'd been taken to the City Screen Cinema by one of the Dads, and seen a Pink Panther film. So he was in a good mood, and was patient with me attempting to get a large log home, which I found was quite unwieldy.

Both boys pretty worn out so a relatively easy 'night shift'! A peaceful and pleasant day.

Gill took our youngest into school on foot, as it had snowed last night.

I was up and about by the time she got back, and we had a reasonably relaxing morning doing stuff around the house.

Got a message from my friend Gary Haq, who works at the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York, telling me about his new blog http://garyhaq.wordpress.com/ which I think is very good. He's very knowledgeable and has contributed to lots of studies, and published lots of stuff. It's about 'Human Ecology', which is something I sometimes list as one of my interests, so it's good to read about Gary's take on what's going on.

Gill went to town to buy train tickets for a trip to Birmingham next week, half term, she's taking the boys to meet friends and visit a science centre called Think Tank, which looks really good.

I processed quite a large pile of logs... chainsawing and splitting, to replace the various stacks of logs which have kept this house warm over the past few cold weeks. The logs I'm preparing now will be ready to use in a year or perhaps two, depending on how well they dry. Different types of wood dries at different rates, and some I store under cover, out of the wet... other logpiles are just raised up off the ground and have air all around them (they might look as if they are stacked against the house, but I leave a gap between the wall and logpile).

Then it was time to go and get or youngest. I gave him a lift back, and he had a friend visit for an hour or two. A peaceful evening.

After a pasta and cauliflower tea, I cycled off down to the Friends Meeting House to go to the York Green Festival meeting. We had no agenda... so I constructed one and chaired the meeting. There were 19 of us there... an excellent turn-out. Several more job-posts got filled, including the music co-ordinator and the event co-ordinator too, which is really good! I feel we're really going somewhere now.

I popped into the Golden Fleece to book a meeting room for a co-ordinators meeting, and there will be another 'public' meeting at St John's College on 9th March.

Home soon after 10, Gill asleep in a chair after a tough evening managing our little darlings.

I did the school run, or should that be school ride or school cycle? Then I got out the electrics and did a bit of chainsawing and splitting, til about 10.30 when came in for a coffee and started to prepare to write last weekend's Community Care blog which has got a tad late... but got distracted reading about the latest Climate Camp meeting and a couple of other email newsletters that I receive.. But, hey, it's all really interesting stuff and some of the stuff I get makes its way into my CC blog...

I did manage to do my blog.... eventually! Did it on the church in Bradford I visited on Sunday.

Also had a phone call from Blue Peter about the Green Thumbs Gang 'Mission Nutrition' Bring and Buy plus Assembly... they are looking for things to film. They wanted to speak to someone in the school, so I suggested ringing the Head. I cycled into school very excited and happy with the small possibliity of our project being filmed for Blue Peter...

Had a good chat with Ali late on and offered to go over tomorrow to support her during an interview she has to have... it will also give me the chance to deliver assorted Xmas presents to family over there.

Got up early and took our youngest to school... and as he was performing in the assembly at 9.15, I'd taken my 'Compost Mate' tool in and I turned the contents of the two dalek bins with the most mature compost in, taking sticks out and making a layer of them on the growing heap, and taking out the inevitable plastic contraries... sweet wrappers, cling film. bits of toy off the playground...

The assembly was lovely, with a time travelling boy (my son!) arriving at the Greeks and then several Greek God stories, all with great costumes and props.... and I took Gill's little camera in and filmed the parts with our boyo in. I would have liked to film the whole thing, but this camera can only do about 5 minutes of moving stuff, so I got the beginning and end. I just hope I've done it right and Gill and the boys have something to watch!

Gill got back from the hospital just after lunchtime with news that she needs to have her gall bladder removed, pretty urgently. This is quite frightening when looking at the long list of possible side effects and things which might go wrong.

I cycled down to school to get our little un and came back in time to go down to Freshways and Country Fresh. I also did a bit of chainsawing today, and splitting some huge rounds which I couldn't split earlier in the year, but today I did an initial chainsaw cut which got the splitting started, and I was able to use the log grenade to split chunks off. Hard work, got very hot.

A quiet evening, boys had a good session on the computer with their new game, which was a prize on Wednesday at the quiz, and we busyed around the house.

Later in the evening Gill and I had a game of Scrabble and I thrashed her. She doesn't mind, it's the playing that counts, and she does win sometimes. I had a rare defeat on Facebook Scrabble tonight, Jennifer (a Scrabble friend found by chance through the application) beat me, reducing my stats to just 88% won. Dreadful!