A bit of an unusual day as our youngest is heading off to Todmorden to have three days of fieldtrip. So Gill and our little one headed off at 7.50am, on foot, to get to school by 8.15. I spent time with our eldest, and chatted carefully about things which I hoped wouldn't piss him off, and he got out of the house at the normal time.
So at 8.45 I was out in the garden finishing off the shredding of the twiggy bits of hedge... and completed this job! Hooray!
I also unloaded a couple of sacks of compostables from either Country Fresh or Freshways and found a large stash of tomatoes, of which about 25% were compostable and the rest washable and I therefore brought them in and washed them, fried an onion on the stove (in a pan, lol) and added about 40 small to medium tomatoes and a stick of celery, and cooked that up on the stove top to make a delicious soup.
Then I made sandwiches and had them before cycling off to the station to get on the 13.11 to Harrogate for my last acupuncture session with Karen. I fell asleep on the train and again on the acupuncture table. I asked her quite a few questions today, about what she was doing. Few of her answers made any sense to me, but I do come from 'Western medicine' background. I decided not to take her up on a further two sessions as although I've enjoyed this experiment, I haven't really got anything positive out of it. I agreed to fill in her questionnaire at the end of this week.
I cycled quickly back to Harrogate station and got the train to Knaresborough, and then mooched around the tile and stove shop whilst waiting for the York train. I had a fiddle with a Dovre stove and chatted to the shop assistant about flat irons and stoves. Then the York train came and took me and my bike home.
Gill had taken a phone call from a Dave on Windmill Lane, who's taken down a cherry tree and has offered me the branches. He wanted me to go round after 6pm, so I did and picked up a trailer and panniers full of freshly chopped cherry logs. He hadn't managed to take down the trunk and asked me if I had a chainsaw and could do it? So I'll go round in the next few days to help him out. Then I popped down to see Raj as he had asked me to help him with something, and after I'd spent half an hour with him, he gave me two veggie samosas.
Then I came home for tea, at about 7pm. Once again, a good tea... tomato soup followed by cauliflower, macaroni, potatoes, quiche, salad, olives... yummy!
Enjoyed some telly and tried to catch up with emails which are again building up...
Showing posts with label woodstoves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label woodstoves. Show all posts
An early start but the taxi arrived at 9 and we were ready...just! We got the 9.44 train to Leamington Spa... the Bournemouth train, and it was quite busy. We were in the quiet carriage but it was far from quiet... a chap near us was talking very loudly to the ticket person (are they still called conductors?) and we could hear that he wanted to go to Sheffield, but our train was going via Leeds, Wakefield and then Chesterfield, by-passing Sheffield. The chap seemed agitated, and before Leeds loudly announced that he was completely deaf and wanted to go to Sheffield. Everyone else had heard that to go to Sheffield, people should change at Leeds. So Gill found a sheet of A4 paper and a felt-tip pen (we carry these to give the boys something to do if they announce 'I'm bored') and wrote on it "You need to change at Leeds" and I took it to the chap who then shouted 'B****r Off' at me! So I sat down, and another chap got up and approached him and signed something... and he got similar treatment. There was quite a bit of a stir in the carriage because of this! The chap didn't get off at Leeds but we think disappeared at Chesterfield and presumably travelled back North again to Sheffers.
At Chesterfield though, a group of perhaps 6 young women got on and it was obvious that they'd been out the night before 'on the lash' and were either hung-over or still drunk and very loud and girly, and off to a festival or some type of camping trip. It took til Derby for them to notice that it was the quiet carriage..by this time my rather intolerant child was getting ready to say something to them. I was reminded of my festivaling days, and was a bit distracted by their short skirts and long legs. Fortunately I didn't spot something that Gill told me about afterwards, that one of them was flashing her see-through knickers! That would have made it an even more interesting journey! They got off at Birmingham New Street and a quiet chap got on near us... I had a chat with him; he was just finishing his degree on Sustainable Architecture, his dissertation was on sustainable interior design. We had a good conversation and a bit of a laugh about various things.
Then we were in Leamington and Katharina and her two boys met us at the barriers and we walked to her house through the town, passing through a lovely park with a bandstand which I remember from years ago when I performed at the Leamington Peace Festival. There was a Farmers' Market and I bought 4 little bottles of perry, locally produced. Katharina's house was another 15 minutes walk through the town, on the Kenilworth Road in a very large house, now split into several smaller residences.
My boys were very happy to see their old friends, and Katharina was pleased to show us her new house which they've had re-vamped, with new flooring (following removal of dry-rotted wood) and a wonderful new woodstove, apparently partly inspired by seeing ours. Katharina and Ulrich have liked the idea of a woodburner for a long time, as in Germany they are more common, but they've lived in rented property since living over here. So they have bought a HWAM 'Beethoven' with Soapstone surrounds, which slowly heat up and keep the heat really well! It is a very stylish, having a curved glass door and it's a lovely grey colour. It's a smoke-free model.... Ulrich had been wanting the version which heats water, but it's not legal to have it in a smoke control zone.
I felt very tired and very relaxed, and as the boys all sat on one of the futons playing with a computer game, I went to sleep on the other! Just for a few minutes though, nothing too antisocial. I heard Ulrich come home and soon roused myself and was more sociable. However it is lovely being 'on holiday' and with people whom I feel very relaxed with.
We had a simple tea, pretty late, and a game of Scrabble with everybody else doubling up in teams, and me by myself... but their partnerships obviously hampered them and I won! Gill and I slept on a futon in front of the stove, which was wonderful!
At Chesterfield though, a group of perhaps 6 young women got on and it was obvious that they'd been out the night before 'on the lash' and were either hung-over or still drunk and very loud and girly, and off to a festival or some type of camping trip. It took til Derby for them to notice that it was the quiet carriage..by this time my rather intolerant child was getting ready to say something to them. I was reminded of my festivaling days, and was a bit distracted by their short skirts and long legs. Fortunately I didn't spot something that Gill told me about afterwards, that one of them was flashing her see-through knickers! That would have made it an even more interesting journey! They got off at Birmingham New Street and a quiet chap got on near us... I had a chat with him; he was just finishing his degree on Sustainable Architecture, his dissertation was on sustainable interior design. We had a good conversation and a bit of a laugh about various things.
Then we were in Leamington and Katharina and her two boys met us at the barriers and we walked to her house through the town, passing through a lovely park with a bandstand which I remember from years ago when I performed at the Leamington Peace Festival. There was a Farmers' Market and I bought 4 little bottles of perry, locally produced. Katharina's house was another 15 minutes walk through the town, on the Kenilworth Road in a very large house, now split into several smaller residences.
My boys were very happy to see their old friends, and Katharina was pleased to show us her new house which they've had re-vamped, with new flooring (following removal of dry-rotted wood) and a wonderful new woodstove, apparently partly inspired by seeing ours. Katharina and Ulrich have liked the idea of a woodburner for a long time, as in Germany they are more common, but they've lived in rented property since living over here. So they have bought a HWAM 'Beethoven' with Soapstone surrounds, which slowly heat up and keep the heat really well! It is a very stylish, having a curved glass door and it's a lovely grey colour. It's a smoke-free model.... Ulrich had been wanting the version which heats water, but it's not legal to have it in a smoke control zone.
I felt very tired and very relaxed, and as the boys all sat on one of the futons playing with a computer game, I went to sleep on the other! Just for a few minutes though, nothing too antisocial. I heard Ulrich come home and soon roused myself and was more sociable. However it is lovely being 'on holiday' and with people whom I feel very relaxed with.
We had a simple tea, pretty late, and a game of Scrabble with everybody else doubling up in teams, and me by myself... but their partnerships obviously hampered them and I won! Gill and I slept on a futon in front of the stove, which was wonderful!
A lovely lazy morning following exertions yesterday, read lots of NewScientist and sent a letter to them for publication about particulate emissions from woodstoves, and how woodstoves can reduce someone's fossil carbon footprint.
The rest of the day was good too, put a couple of layers on a sit and wait compost heap, and dug out the 'Compostumbler' and put the contents into a 'dalek' to complete the process. Found the 'Belu' bottle, disintegrating quite well now, and put it back into the tumbler for another 'cooking'! Started to refill, including the roadkill from yesterday and woodchips from stumpgrinding ops over the road. Late lunch, started working on my book's questionnaire again, after several months away from the project. Collected the kids at 3.15 and then stayed in and made carrot and orange soup for our tea. Continued doing my questionnaire on the laptop. The next thing is to find a way of distributing it, may use 'SurveyMonkey'.
The rest of the day was good too, put a couple of layers on a sit and wait compost heap, and dug out the 'Compostumbler' and put the contents into a 'dalek' to complete the process. Found the 'Belu' bottle, disintegrating quite well now, and put it back into the tumbler for another 'cooking'! Started to refill, including the roadkill from yesterday and woodchips from stumpgrinding ops over the road. Late lunch, started working on my book's questionnaire again, after several months away from the project. Collected the kids at 3.15 and then stayed in and made carrot and orange soup for our tea. Continued doing my questionnaire on the laptop. The next thing is to find a way of distributing it, may use 'SurveyMonkey'.
I took the boys to school and then did housework and some email answers, put some info on the CRAG forum on woodstoves, about wood and its burning characteristics, including a great poem about logs, which I got from a workshop on wood fuel at Askham Bryan College a while ago.
Then at 11 am, Max from YellowTom came to pick up my cheque and we didn't spend much time together but he did demonstrate his brilliant Blues Piano playing skills. He liked out 'honky tonk' type piano and told us it sounded fine, didn't need tuning (for his type of playing anyway!)
Then I went for lunch with Jo, at her house for the first time, and was fed well and we had some good chats until about 2pm.
After lunch I zoomed into town to do my pick ups from Out Of This World and the greengrocers and got back in time to go and pick up the boys. Asked the head-teacher if ITV are allowed to film me next Wednesday doing my usual routine in the school playground after school and cycling back with the boys. I told her that the TV people would be ringing her.
Spent most of the evening trying to do the difficult risk assessment.
However did have some good communication with K. in US of A over Googletalk, which was lovely.
Then at 11 am, Max from YellowTom came to pick up my cheque and we didn't spend much time together but he did demonstrate his brilliant Blues Piano playing skills. He liked out 'honky tonk' type piano and told us it sounded fine, didn't need tuning (for his type of playing anyway!)
Then I went for lunch with Jo, at her house for the first time, and was fed well and we had some good chats until about 2pm.
After lunch I zoomed into town to do my pick ups from Out Of This World and the greengrocers and got back in time to go and pick up the boys. Asked the head-teacher if ITV are allowed to film me next Wednesday doing my usual routine in the school playground after school and cycling back with the boys. I told her that the TV people would be ringing her.
Spent most of the evening trying to do the difficult risk assessment.
However did have some good communication with K. in US of A over Googletalk, which was lovely.
As Gill's legs still hurt following the physio, I took the boys to school.
The morning was mainly concerned with creating a placard for Santa to carry whilst unicycling on the World Naked Cycle Ride. Gill and I finished the poem, which was started with help from our eldest son:
OH, OH, OH,
How will I cope
With not enough snow?
It won't be as nice
With much less ice.
Ho, HO, HO,
A solution I like
Abandon your car
And get on your bike
Take the train or bus
Or travel my way...
Unicycle or reindeer sleigh!
This was carefully written on a large piece of cardboard and the backs of posters found outside the Lloyds TSB, put for landfill!
Also did various bits of housework and garden jobs. Early on our Polish roofer Artur arrived to repair the tarry sheets on the studio roof, which had perished. Some of the wooden batons underneath have perished and will need replacing, but he reckons that it will be ok for another 10 years.
Next door are having scaffolding erected to replace soffit boards, finish their loft conversion and do some repointing. Good banter with Lee the scaffolder, who has a stove for sale. Contact TB scaffolding for this!
During the middle of the day Ken our neighbour popped round to tell us we had a swarm of bees in our garden... infact it is 8m up a conifer in the other next door's garden, overhanging our garden. Barry, friend of Ken, suggested putting a box with honey smeared inside, and a hole or two in, which might attract the bees so they could be taken away and rehoused, but by nightfall they had not found this and were a tight ball in the tree.
At 2, a lady who advertised in the back of the Press came and had brought round her son's 2 yr old bike, suitable for a 10 yr old. Our eldest who has wrecked his bike needs a new one so we bought this for £30.
I took it down to the school (pushing it whilst riding mine) and he was delighted and promised to look after it. Came home with D and J, friends of our boys, as their mum is unable to pick them up until 5pm, which she did.
I left shortly after this and took my unicycle on my trailer, plus costume and placard, and parked in the Out Of This World car park, and unicycled to the Memorial Gardens to get dressed up as Santa Claus. Lots of seminaked and bodypainted folks, and minutes from leaving lots of people went totally naked for this local expression of a global protest/celebration. The route was fairly gruelling for a unicyclist in a Santa outfit, quite a sauna.
Afterwards went for a pint at the King's Arms, which was lovely and refreshing.
Home and I created a quick tea of onions, vegetarian black pudding and goat's cheese, with rems of quiche from yesterday. Ate this at 10pm, collapsed after and watched a bit of TV, then did a quick email and blog, and watched Joolz Holland with Paul McCartney and Bjork.
The morning was mainly concerned with creating a placard for Santa to carry whilst unicycling on the World Naked Cycle Ride. Gill and I finished the poem, which was started with help from our eldest son:
OH, OH, OH,
How will I cope
With not enough snow?
It won't be as nice
With much less ice.
Ho, HO, HO,
A solution I like
Abandon your car
And get on your bike
Take the train or bus
Or travel my way...
Unicycle or reindeer sleigh!
This was carefully written on a large piece of cardboard and the backs of posters found outside the Lloyds TSB, put for landfill!
Also did various bits of housework and garden jobs. Early on our Polish roofer Artur arrived to repair the tarry sheets on the studio roof, which had perished. Some of the wooden batons underneath have perished and will need replacing, but he reckons that it will be ok for another 10 years.
Next door are having scaffolding erected to replace soffit boards, finish their loft conversion and do some repointing. Good banter with Lee the scaffolder, who has a stove for sale. Contact TB scaffolding for this!
During the middle of the day Ken our neighbour popped round to tell us we had a swarm of bees in our garden... infact it is 8m up a conifer in the other next door's garden, overhanging our garden. Barry, friend of Ken, suggested putting a box with honey smeared inside, and a hole or two in, which might attract the bees so they could be taken away and rehoused, but by nightfall they had not found this and were a tight ball in the tree.
At 2, a lady who advertised in the back of the Press came and had brought round her son's 2 yr old bike, suitable for a 10 yr old. Our eldest who has wrecked his bike needs a new one so we bought this for £30.
I took it down to the school (pushing it whilst riding mine) and he was delighted and promised to look after it. Came home with D and J, friends of our boys, as their mum is unable to pick them up until 5pm, which she did.
I left shortly after this and took my unicycle on my trailer, plus costume and placard, and parked in the Out Of This World car park, and unicycled to the Memorial Gardens to get dressed up as Santa Claus. Lots of seminaked and bodypainted folks, and minutes from leaving lots of people went totally naked for this local expression of a global protest/celebration. The route was fairly gruelling for a unicyclist in a Santa outfit, quite a sauna.
Afterwards went for a pint at the King's Arms, which was lovely and refreshing.
Home and I created a quick tea of onions, vegetarian black pudding and goat's cheese, with rems of quiche from yesterday. Ate this at 10pm, collapsed after and watched a bit of TV, then did a quick email and blog, and watched Joolz Holland with Paul McCartney and Bjork.
