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.

A lovely day, woke slowly and had a nice breakfast and after a bit of email/facebook stuff, then got busy in the garden.

Gill had got up early and pruned some lilac and holly, and removed a Buddleia, and she asked me to process this. In fact she suggested that the lilac tree could be taken right down, to maybe chest height, to make more light into the part of the garden currently made a bit claustrophobic by several large trees.

So I got the ladder from the conservatory and, with the bow saw, removed the top branches (with a diameter of about 10cm) and then cut down the trunk, which had a diameter of about 20cm. A nice big log for the front garden and soon for the logpiles. It's good to be able to grow our own fuel!

However, this generated a huge pile of shreddable material, so I spent quite a long time with my Mountfield Quiet Shredder (see this humorous YouTube video of one, worth watching right to the end, and enjoy the Joan Baez song) and got a lot done. I ended up with about 7 sacks of holly and lilac, some of which I used immediately on the current pallet bin, which I nearly filled with fruit/veg and shredded twigs, in layers, surrounded by cardboard to stop the material falling out. It was a very satisfying day.

When the post arrived, there was a lovely get well card from Sheffield Green Party, who had met recently and asked Nigel to send it on their behalf, following my accident at the Green Fair on 26th June. Well, today I've been working in the garden with just wellies on, and my ankle has felt OK, although when I go away tomorrow, I think I'll wear my support, just in case. But it will take several more weeks before I'm completely back to what I was able to do before the accident.

Before the shop shut I visited Richard, since I won't be able to tomorrow, and got a few veggies plus several sacks of resources for my compost heap.

Gill made a nutloaf with grated butternut squash in it... really good! I continued working outside until nearly 10pm, and came in and had a bath.

Both of us are preparing for a busy day tomorrow; I'm working in Pickering and then camping in Thornton Le Dale with the boys til Tuesday, to give Gill a break, and to have some fun with my sons. I'm hoping we can hire bikes on Monday and explore Dalby Forest...

Upbeat day, although spent the morning on the computer catching up on yesterday's conference.

Then after lunch I took two medium sacks of seed compost down to St Nicks as Ivana had asked for some more. She also gave me the cheque for doing the Extreme Composting talk last week.

I cycled out of the back of the nature reserve to the Council depot, Hazel Court, with two broken toasters for their WEEE recycling. No hassles here this time.

Then down to my building society, to put that cheque in and transfer some money into out Co-op Suma account, as we're doing another order. And then to the bank to put that cheque in and one from a friend who participates in our food Co-op. I met my friend Jenny H and discussed a possible mediation session, but she might not be the best person for the situation which needs mediating.

From here I went to Country Fresh and got two carrier bags of fruit and veg, plus one sack and 4 boxes of lovely compostables. I got home just after our eldest son did, and he helped me unload the groceries. I then got busy in the garden... I pruned two of the small pear trees, removed honeysuckle from the James Grieve apple tree, pruned a shrub (can't remember it's name), cut down some brambles and dug out a compost heap into plastic sacks, to make space for turning another. I expect I'll do that on Sunday evening.

Gill created a noodles-based tea, with mushrooms, cashew nuts and asparagus. It was delicious. She'd made a microwaved cake for pudding which wasn't her best, according to her, but I enjoyed it...

Later I rang my Auntie in Norfolk and we chatted for nearly an hour. I also enjoyed watching Professor Brian Cox on the Jonathan Ross show, quite entertaining...

Got up early and got outside to split and stack three big logs I found and brought back last night on a nocturnal sortie! I also did a bit more pruning of the house-height pine tree which is too close to our house and our neighbour wants removed... and we'll be happy too as it cuts a lot of light from our front room. I'm not taking it out all in one go, as the soil will swell and damage our foundations, so I'm removing branches bit by bit, over a couple of years, and later this year I'll take the rest of it out.

So an active morning, followed by a stint of doing emails which was interesting as I engaged in some dialogue with one of the people behind we love the earth centre, about someone on the email contact list who is unhappy about the involvement of RTTG, and has proposed an anarchist 'solution' or response, and has been emailing aggressive rants to others on the list. Several people have asked for their details to be removed from the list because of this person, and I was worried that 'we love the earth centre' was being damaged.

Later in the day I had a good phone conversation with Mike from RTTG, which he said does not yet have any partners for their Earth Centre redevelopment, and that RTTG is a voluntary group with just 3 people at it's centre. Whether he means unpaid (which is what I understand by the word 'voluntary') is something I'll have to check! But what I did ascertain was that half a dozen people involved with WLTEC including myself, are invited to the first open day, where RTTG want to gather ideas for the future of the site. Should be an interesting day!

I also went to see my friend Debbie, as when I got home yesterday, she had given Gill a message about her friend Debbie F, who has died from cirrhosis of the liver; she was an alcoholic. Very sad. I knew Debbie F a bit, and she liked me apparently, but I didn't have time or energy to get to know her better or become a real friend. And as she was often drunk, that put me off trying to be a better friend or try to help. Her problems were just too deep. Anyway, sad to hear the news, and I spent an hour with my friend hearing about the fun times they got up to. I expect I'll attend the funeral next week.

At tea time I shredded the pine tree limbs which were small enough to go into my Mountfield quiet shredder and put the bigger branches in a pile for chopping up and drying.

I managed to get onto the tax website and found that they have to send me a new password in the post. What a palaver!

I went to Bryony's 'leaving drinks' do at the Yorkshire Terrier on Stonegate, and on the way there, met my old partner I lived with for 10 years, and we had a brief but friendly chat. I was really glad to get her email address, as several people from our past have asked me how she is and all I could say was 'she's in York and whenever I see her, she seems OK, but I have no contact details'. But now I'm going to be able to email people's details to her so they can reconnect. I didn't stay at the leaving do for long, as I'd promised Gill I'd get back to assist with the bedtime stuff.

Played a bit of Scrabble in the evening and chatted to Ali on facebook instant messaging. A peaceful evening.

Not too early a start, and after breakfast went for lie down which was a treat. However, too sunny a day to stay in, so I went out to restart the hedge processing, as the pile of chopped hedge has just been sitting in a pile, so I really need to continue that and get it all chopped and into potato sacks for drying.

My neighbour is putting up fenceposts where the hedge was, so we chatted a little bit. But I also did some weeding, finished digging out/turning a 'sit and wait' compost heap and started refilling the same set of pallets with shredded twigs and the last of the contents of a large feather mattress that someone gave me for recycling, plus a layer of fruit and veg.

Also cut some hedge and pruned a couple of small pear trees to make them into more of an open shape, removing some crossing branches and cutting off the ends of long straggly branches, so they don't bend down quite so far when they bear fruit.

So a good day. Inside, after lunch, I washed and prepared a large pile of leek tops, cut off the white stems by the wholesaler, and then I chopped them into the big Le Cruset saucepan on the woodstove, with some olive oil, potatoes, onion, yellow pepper and tomatoes... ready to make a stew/soup for tea.

A good start to the day as our friends Katarina and Ulrich dropped off their two boys early as they are going down to Leamington Spa to sign for their new house, so we're looking after their lads for the whole of the day and possibly for a sleepover, depending on when mum comes back and their behaviour!

Then got a booking for a Fiddlesticks gig in April, which was funny because last night Gill asked me when my next booking was, and I looked in my diary and said 'May', so I've brought it back a month! Still looks like a quiet spring though.... may give me time to do more writing and research.

As it was a lovely day, cold but sunny and dry, I did a load of outside stuff. My neighbour asked me again if I would like to cut the pine tree down which is on our boundary and about 1 metre from the house. It's as tall as the ridge of the roof and over a 30 cm in diameter at the base... and it's dropping lots of stuff in the gutters and is too close to the house really, so I agreed to prune it. Taking it out completely isn't a good idea as the loss of the transpiration might make the ground swell and make cracks in our properties... so a prune is a first thing, might remove it at a later date. So I got my 9 metre ladder and got 3/4 to the top, removed side branches with my small pruning saw but couldn't get through the trunk. Went round to 'fix it' shop round the corner but they didn't have a replacement pruning saw blade, just a 30 inch bowsaw blade so I got that to replace the one I've had for ages. I roped the top of the tree and my neighbour pulled on this as Gill footed the ladder... and took off about 3 metres of the top of the tree, to about eves height. A good job, ruins the look of the tree but my neighbour is happy... I hope!

Then continued making my other neighbour happy by removing more hedge and processing that. I use the wrecking bar... and when not in use; when pulling on the hedge to get it out, I put it in the ground, just plonking it into the wet lawn, sorry, mud patch. Then on one occasion the hedge I was yanking on knocked the bar over and it fell on my foot... it hurt but not much and I carried on. The boys came down the garden before their tea and the visitors were enthusiastic about helping me... so I let them poke twigs into the shredder, something my two have never offered to do.

At 4.45 I cycled down to the Heslington Road veg shop and Martin was just leaving as Richard is not well and not working, and as it was very quiet, Martin was shutting up early. However he had put a wheely-bin's worth of stuff which had spoiled over the New Year, perhaps 80 kg, and I spent some time scooping some of it up into sacks. Jamie the wholesaler (or is he a catering provider?) also gave me a load. My foot began to hurt, but I carried on and rode home with a good load for composting and drying.

I separated a load of grapes for making into raisins (or sultanas perhaps as they are big white ones) and pears and tomatoes for tea tomorrow... a good haul! However when I got home my foot really hurt a lot and I had to lie down and writhe in agony.. and be dosed with paracetamol and have iboprufen rub put on it. Excruciating for an hour, until the medicines kicked in. It took me a while to remember how I'd done it, as the original bump didn't seem that bad.

Did myself a hot bath to wash out sawdust from my hair and soothe the foot.

Then watched a film called A lot Like Love. Quite good.

Gill woke me at 8.10 and asked me if I could take the boys in to school as her shoulder ached, so I leapt to her rescue and got ready for our usual 8.30 lift off. They cycled well, I am always proud of their cycling abilities, and I got back before 9am and spent a bit of time with Gill before she went out, as our youngest has broken his cycle helmet (deliberately, we think) and I did various bits and bobs around the house, before going out to my friend who had borrowed my bowsaw to sort out her woodwormy floorboards. On the way there I called in to Cycle Heaven and found out that my new bike frame has been delivered and it will be assembled tomorrow... so possibly ready by the weekend! When I got to my Freecycling friend, I had a good little chat and loaded up the trailer with floorboards and some of her next-door-neighbour's apple tree which they've started to chop down. I came back via Out Of This World and collected their recyclables, and got home before 2...... Gill had developed a flat tyre and had gone in by bus.

I chatted to my friend on Googletalk, the last scheduled time before she flies over to the UK.

I got the children at 3, and was very pleased to meet up with my friends Marina and Alan, over from the Balkans as Alan has a bit more research to do at the University, so he's brought the family over, and it's lovely to see them. At school, there'd been a ceremony to open the Japanese Garden which IRA Bob has finished. The school investigated my complaint about creosoted sleepers being used, and the City Council expert came down to check it, and said that the sleepers had to be painted with something to reduce the possibility of the tar/creosote coming out, and that had been done. The Japanese garden looked good.... I'd have preferred an organic vegetable garden, but the children chose what they chose, and all in memory of a child who died of cancer, so a memorial garden. I told Bob that it looked good and I was pleased that the sleepers had been painted. He was quite polite!

Marina, Alan and their 9 year-old daughter came back with us and had a chat, hot drink infront of the stove and a quick walk down the garden. We might see them at the weekend, hopefully.

I decided to do some work in the garden, so I got the ladders and pruned the variagated sycamore tree, as it has a load of green-only shoots, and if these aren't pruned out they take over as they are more vigorous. So a half hour's work every year keeps the tree looking lovely and variagated. I shredded the pile of unwanted branches, and made a 'woody' layer in the latest heap. I put the fruit/veg stuff collected today on the top, another compost heap is beginning to grow!

I had a microwaved potato and stir-fried veg in mushroon soup for tea. The children (well one of them.. censored!) broke two things today. An expensive (at least £6) 'paddle' hairbrush and my lovely 'light up' cycle reflector band which goes around my body when out cycling at night. This made me pretty annoyed, as I hate waste and I wish the particular child would be more careful.