Human Lifestyle

I got up early as I wanted to attend the York in Transition Christmas Presents Swap at St Nicks, which started at 10am.  On the way I found a bunch of bright yellow 'Winter Mushroom' or Enokitake, Flammulina velupites.  I picked about a dozen, all quite small.

I was pleased to go as I met some good people and did two 'mini-tours' for people new to St Nicks, and I explained about the old landfill site, the beginnings of the nature reserve, the John Lally Wood, passive solar design, the two types of solar panel, green roof, rainwater harvesting, compost toilets and more.  I really love showing people round! 

I took a bottle of red wine with mulling spices, a Christmas present which we won't use as we don't drink red wine, and my usual bag of dried pea beans which I'm always happy to give out.  I met my friend Linda, who really likes red wine, and gave her the bottle.  She didn't want mulling spices, so those went on the swap table and were snapped up!  I came away with a jigsaw, a wok stand for the stove and a pair of gloves.  I gave two people some pea beans.

I came home at 12.30, Gill had gone to Scarborough on the train with our eldest and a friend, leaving the youngest at home in York.  I had lunch and spent a bit of time on the computer but then suggested to our lad that he come off his Roblox thingy and do something active.  Amazingly, he agreed and came outside and helped me move a lot of recently split logs from the front to a safe store at the rear of the house.  He kept going whilst I did some chainsawing and splitting.

Later, he asked if he could have the stove lit in the front room... and I talked him through how to do it, provided the raw materials and he did an excellent job, got it laid and lit really well.

I cooked tea... a 100% freegan tea, apart from a tablespoon full of EV olive oil.  I fried 2 onions (ones which had manky outside bits but the majority of the bulb was firm and lovely) and chopped up a small butternut squash which had a bit of damage at the stalk end, easy to chop out, a courgette which had one end going soft, a red pepper and most of 5 tomatoes.  All this got fried up on the front room stove.  I marinaded some out of date tofu (but hermetically sealed and absolutely fine) with garlic, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, and then slow fried them in some free pumpkin oil which dates back to Out Of This World years ago, I think!  I put the mushrooms in with the tofu right at the end, and they just about disappeared.  Enokitake is a very small mushroom!  Then Gill came in and there was a request for pasta, so I boiled that on the stove.  Actually, this pasta was bought too, so not a 100% freegan meal... shame!   But a nice tea, much enjoyed.

I also really enjoyed... to the point of tears, the lovely BBC2 tribute to my favourite and now deceased actor, Pete Postlethwaite. Click here to see this on iPlayer, for the next few days only!

More fruit wrangling this evening, putting pineapple and apple into jars. And washing up, as per bally usual!

Well a late start as we went to bed at 3am, but had a good day with a bit of logpile stacking, some compost bin filling, pruning brambles, to give me a layer of carbon rich/aeration material, and sorting out stuff for drying.

Later, I had a go at making 'raspapple', as Richard gave me about 9 punnets of raspberries yesterday, which were unsaleable as some of the fruit was going off.  Gill sorted out enough to make a little pie, leaving me the rest... I removed the worst ones and brought the rest up to the boil on the woodstove, and sieved off the juice.  I then put the pulp back on the stove with a bit of water, and after this had come to the boil, sieved it again, giving me a cup of raspberry juice.  Then I got a load of already dried apple rings, which I have a lot of, and in small batches, put them in the juice to soak up a bit of raspberry flavour.  I then put these for redrying on the rack on the stove.

I cut up the banana and cranberry leather which had fully dried... in fact, some bits had got to the crunchy stage, which isn't what I wanted, as it should be leathery.  So I got a jar full of these strips, and some extra bits which didn't fit.  I invited my boys to try these offcuts and got a big thumbs up. 

So a quiet and pleasant day. No hiccups, no hassles, quite productive.

A busy morning, dealing with the arrangements for our youngest son's schooling. 

In preparation for today's event, Gill made a load of small quiches with goats milk and goats cheese, after I'd been out to buy the milk.  I grated cheese as we'd promised to bring that, and I collected together a bag of dried fruit together. 

The YorkDistrict Home Educators were gathering for a Christmas party at 1pm at Rawcliffe Pavilion in Clifton Moor.  This is really convenient for us, as it is less than 5 minutes walk from a bus stop on Rivelin Way, with the No. 6 bus, which also goes along Tang Hall Lane, which is 5 minutes from us.  The only disadvantage is that this journey with the No. 6 takes 50 minutes, winds it's way through Heworth, Layerthorpe, town, crosses the river, almost gets to the station before doubling back, crossing the river again, going past the hospital, through the Burton Stone Lane/ Burton Green area, and eventually gets to Rivelin Way. 

So I reckoned that if we left the house at about midday that would be about right, but there were major shenanigans and messing around, so I announced that I had got all the mini quiches, cheese and fruit and was ready, and went outside the front door, as I reckoned my presence inside wasn't helping my mental health OR that of any family member.  I stacked logs for half an hour whilst things calmed down and people got ready.  When the bus came, about 5 minutes after we got to the bus stop, I got a family Day Rover for £7.40.

We got to the event just after 1.30 and there were others still arriving.  Our eldest immediately found a group of boys his own age and was all smiles and laughter, it was so good to see.  Our youngest was determined not to enjoy any of the event and therefore didn't.  I enjoyed chatting to one of the other dads and a few mums, and helped by doing a short spot of 3 ball juggling workshop, and lots of clearing up at the end, taking 2 sacks of paper plates and food waste back home on the bus to put in the tumbler.  It was good to meet some other home educators, and although I'm only slowly coming to terms with this change in my life... and not really enjoying it, this event will have helped me move towards acceptance.

When we got back it was dark.  I lit both stoves as the house was cold.  Tea was yesterday's nutloaf and I made a sauce with the rems of the leek and potato soup and some dead pasta and cauliflower. It was delicious!

I kept myself to myself this evening, didn't interact with the children, thought it best not to, and just let them do as they wanted.  I fielded a phone call from Jonathan, a teacher at the Steiner School, about us coming to see the school and discussing our youngest going there.  I also had a crisis message from a friend who's an alcoholic and has an Aspergery boyfriend who had put the phone down on her as she'd admitted to having had a drink, which although he's a drinker himself, he disapproves of.  Complicated, and I'm not sure I was able to help much, but I did ring and listen, in case I was able to help.

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.

I got up at 10ish and by the time I'd had breakfast and woken up properly, it was too late to go into St Nicks and help with their coppicing task.  I ought to have been there when things were starting.  I'll try to get to another EcoActive day task.

So I had a quiet day, with an hour or so working outside, chainsawing and stacking. I cycled round to the bakers in the morning and bought cereals at the Co-op.

Once again I had quite a lot of time on the laptop, keeping the stoves going, making sure my boys were OK, doing kitchen stuff, jarring up dried fruit.

I spent quite a long time filling in a questionnaire to help a student with research.

I had an appointment at 10 to see Jane, a newish green friend who shares a love of Scrabble and has a lovely wildlife garden.  We'd met at several meetings and had tried several times to meet up, failing on at least two occasions.  But today's meeting had been in the diary for a while and it was good to meet up, attempt a game of Scrabble, and then give that up as chatting and Scrabble were not very compatible, and then had some lunch.  Our conversations ranged from bird and tree identification, oil paintings, communication in relationships, optimism versus pessimism, food and a whole lot between. 

I came back via Country Fresh where Shirley gave me the usual sack of gubbins, and then via Freshways who had a sack for me.  I got back to find Gill and our eldest had gone into town to get some glasses repaired but they soon came in.  I did a little bit of log stacking, and then our friend Maria came round to talk to us about home education, as she is a tutor who has some private students who learn mainly chemistry with her.  She had a good pile of text books and advice about resource material to get him through to GCSE in the three sciences.  Later we accepted her offer of an hour a week tuition.  Things are beginning to fall into place.

I had a subdued evening, dealt with some admin stuff and tried to write an important email which I've been composing in my mind for a week or two.  Late on I prepared some more apple and then a large pile of yellow peppers which I'll use to make sweet pepper paprika once they're dried.

An odd day as we have decided to home educate our eldest child, as of today.  Gill spent quite a bit of time doing the required admin with the Local Education Authority and the school, and we'll be contacting the local home schooling group which is very active.  I've done a party for them, and I hope we can get involved in this group.
I'm not brilliant with major changes like this but I expect I'll get used to it.  Between us, Gill and I have a lot of expertise and learning, and we have a lot of contacts who could do some specialist teaching.  I am extremely disappointed that the school has been unable to accommodate our child's needs and has been unable to deal with the dreadful behaviour of some of the other pupils.

Anyway, we look forward to exciting and positive times ahead, and most important, happy times.

I did quite a bit of work outside... stacking logs, filling the leafmould pile, a bit of compost heap management, taking down bean vines and bringing in more dry beans.  I even found a meal's-worth of potatoes.  I had an appointment with the GP practice nurse for an asthma check and flu jab.  On the way back I collected a large sack of gubbins from Freshways.

In the evening I had a use-it-up meal and did some more apple prep for the dried apple production line.  I watched a great programme on the ultimate environmental absurdity, bottled water.  I had an email enquiry from a Tesco marketeer asking me to do a blog post about how Tesco is green.  I could hardly believe it!  I'll consider writing this up over the next few days.

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.

Another good day, very busy though, despite getting up at 10am!

After my usual bowl of cereal and soya milk, I got going with stacking about 5 wheelbarrows worth of split 'green' logs, taking then down into the back garden and onto pallets where they will spend a year or more drying, ready for the stoves. Whilst I was down the garden, someone rang up wanting to talk about green funerals; she'd seen the Novaterium.com advert in The Book of Green.

But she didn't leave her number and when Gill did a 1471 call, it was withheld. She said she'd ring back in half an hour. So I worked out at the front, chopping sticks up with loppers and putting them into wooden fruit boxes for stacking and drying for kindling. Then it was lunchtime so I came in and had my usual pile of sandwiches. At 1.45 the phone rang and it was the Novaterium enquirer, Lynne from Morecambe, who was wanting to know more about green funerals but doesn't have internet access. She wanted to know if I could provide the information on paper. I spent 40 minutes talking her through the various options, explaining what the problems are with 'traditional' disposal and the new developments which should be available soon. She was enquiring as someone she knows has a terminal illness and she was hoping to help organise a greener funeral. She might send me an SAE and I'll send her some information which will help her sort something out.

Then it was 2.30, when I'd got an appointment with the volunteer co-ordinator for Woodlands MS Respite Care Centre, where I'm hoping to volunteer in the grounds, as they have lots of logs and branches which need clearing; the groundsman usually just has a bonfire, but I'd like to use some of them, by cutting the branches off the logs and taking the useful stuff away, replacing fossil fuel use with renewable waste wood. So I want to help, but with a good dose of self interest and environmental issues there too. I took my documents... birth certificate, wedding certificate, bank stuff, tax stuff and a couple of others, so I could get CRB checked. Although I'm not going to have any close contact with the guests, all volunteers need CRB checks.

On the way back from Woodlands, I popped in on Debbie, to tell her that I had a sack of dry wood for her, for Debbie Fricker's memorial, and would she like to come and choose a branch for the memory tree thing she wants to do? I had several Lilac branches which might be good for this, so she came over and chose one, and I took the sack of sticks and logs back over to her. She was very pleased.

Then I loaded my trailer up with 2 sacks of soya milk cartons and others, and Gill gave me a sack of clothing and material only suitable for shoddy, and I cycled them down to Hazel Court, where the notice forbidding cycles up on the top level has now definitely gone. I reckon the 'civil disobedience' and letters to the paper must have worked. I'm very pleased with this.

I went on to a pet shop to get fish food, then off to my building society to get out a cheque for British Telecommunications plc for advertising, and to pay a water bill at the bank. Then I popped in to see Dylan as I knew he'd have some oranges for me, and David, Debbie's brother was there so I chatted with him as Dylan was busy. I took 4 sacks of orange skins and coffee grounds, 2 boxes of mostly mouldy oranges and two sacks of plastic bottles. Then I came home, calling in on Freshways where they had a sack for me, which I had to put on the handlebars and tri-bar to get home.

Then I did some composting, fully loading up the Compostumbler and adding to the SunMar Compostflow.

I had carrot soup for tea, then set out to go to Edward's house for a York in Transition Directors Meeting. This was mainly taken up with Anna's funding stuff again, which is causing us significant problems, as she has not consulted the Directors and we hadn't got any documentation. Edward is going to have to go and chat to the Council people, and I have to write a letter to the Neighbourhood Unit about another issue connected with a different set of Anna's Ward funding approaches. However, we may be able to work with the YiT funding applications she's put in, but we'd have to see if we can find volunteers in all 18 wards she's applied to, or find a volunteer or paid co-ordinator to run the scheme citywide.

We worked on these from 7.30 til well after 9.30pm. I visited two skips on the way home for some scrap wood. Later, at midnight, I mashed all the stewed cherry plums to remove the stones, which I took out one by one with a fork. Gill made a cake for our youngest son's birthday tomorrow. Finished this at about 2am.

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!

Well a busy day... Gill went to Fountains Abbey with our youngest's class, so I had most of the day to myself. I did a bit of work on the computer and decided I really didn't want to be stuck inside all day, so I did a bit of a tidy up in the garden. I did a variety of little jobs, including some weeding, finding broken plant pots and other plastic rubbish and binning them, and a bit later, some stacking of logs, chainsawing, more stacking and pallet butchering.

At 7pm I got a phone call from the Progressive Radio Network, a US-based web-radio, who had asked to interview me about green funerals. The show is hosted by Steve Barnett and is called Paradise Parking Lot, and explores green issues. So the producer rang me up and a few minutes later I was chatting to Steve about this sensitive issue. The archive recording is here (or better, here).

It went well, and although I was nervous beforehand, I enjoyed the experience. Rory was online for some of the time and trying to prompt me, but I really had to concentrate on what the interviewer was saying.

So I had a happy evening after this... a feeling of relief, and glad that it went well.

I also had a 'first'. I don't have a mobile phone... but Gill has an old one which she's lent to me for situations where it might be useful for me to have one, and today I put £10 credit on it. So I'm still learning new technology.

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.

An easy start to the day and I got the 11.20 train back to York. I managed to delete 130 unwanted emails from my sent folder and inbox. And reply to a few which needed replying to... which I saved as drafts and then sent when I got home.

I got in at 1pm after picking up a sack of compostables from Country Fresh. I had lunch and did emails and then went to the St John's Playing Fields, where the grounds maintenance staff had put a large pile of shreddables from some of the other bits of the campus, and told me that the largest chunks wouldn't go through their shredder so I could have them. Yippee!

I got two loads and there is more to get. An excellent local resource. I also did some chainsawing and stacking. I love my outdoor activities...

Gill did a veg stew with the butternut I rescued a day or so ago and pre-baked in the microwave, and she made scones to go with it. It was delicious.

We had a game of Scrabble later and although Gill slept through bits of the game, she still won. Amazing!

Another late night, went to bed at 3 (whoops) and then lay awake for at least an hour, with absolutely no reason whatsoever this time. But I did drop off eventually.

Was woken at 8 by loud refusals to go to school, so I sleepily and passively talked to the refusnik and then hung around til he got out of the door. I am such a sight in the morning, so dopey and nonthreatening, this seems to work.

When I'm awake, I generally cannot go back to sleep, so I got up and by 10am was dressed and heading down the garden, to sort out the slightly nightmarish situation with my voluntary compostables collection. I finished the cleaning out of the pallet bin, which is perched on 3 horizontal pallets and lined with metal mesh, both these to reduce access by rats. I then put a load of shredded hedge (remember last year, the huge hedge removal? Well, the sacks of shredded twigs have just sat quietly awaiting today!) in the base, and then alternate layers of rotting veg and past-it fruit with shredded pine tree, hedge and other garden material such as artichoke stalks. I must have put on about 20 brewing bin's worth before I came in for lunch at 1.30.

I had a good afternoon with the chainsaw and splitting maul, and re-started the processing of the fruit logs I got from John Bibby last year. I started a new stack in the front of the house, this is green wood and it will take a year or two to dry. I stack it in a particular way: raised up off the ground on bricks and long parallel lengths of wood, to keep the logs out of the wet, and with the bark, if any, uppermost, as this sheds the rain slightly better than the cut surfaces. Also, really important, not touching the wall of the house, as this would possibly allow moisture into the walls and I like the airflow to get to all sides of the logs. I generally don't cover them up, as I don't mind them being rained on as I don't believe it stops the wood drying out. I only have one covered woodstore.

Tea was parsnips and potatoes with a cheese and home-made baked bean toastie... the last of the home made baked beans, thank goodness. I was getting a bit bored of them!

At about 740 I got my bike and headed off to Stonegate and the Car-Free Cities Conference planning meeting. I'm not a core organiser but I am playing a role and have a handful of people to contact and things to do. My dynamo was playing up and after the meeting I tried to fix it but seemingly made it worse. I'll ring Cycle Heaven in the morning and ask for help.

A peaceful evening at home followed, watched an interesting TV programme on diarists, which I enjoyed as I've written a daily diary for over 20 years... until I started writing this blog which I find even more satisfying, and have just about managed to post daily since I started.

This is the sponge sitting on a potato sack, the top side.

This is the underside... note a partially rotted tomato skin and grape twigs.

This is the same organism in my hand, to show scale.

So, what is it? Well I believe this is a 'slime mold' which is fairly closely related to fungi, but it's different. It has a really interesting life cycle. It starts as a spore, which germinates and becomes a single celled organism, maybe similar to a bacterium or amoeba. It is motile, ie it can move around. Then, due to some environmental cue, these single celled organisms club together in groups, and start to behave like a multicellular organism, somewhat like a slug. Some cells become the foot, some the front end, etc. They don't develop a mouth or gut though. What happens next is that it settles and starts to grow into what looks more like a fungus, with surfaces or specific parts where sexual reproduction takes place, releasing spores like a fungus. These disperse and become the next generation. So, unless I'm told something different, this is what I think this thing is. Apologies for the poor quality of the photos, Gill's camera isn't designed for close-ups.

I had a quiet evening, watched some TV with the children and prepared a load of bananas and melon for drying. Enjoyed the 3D films on Channel 4.