An interesting day.... our youngest wasn't well so he didn't go to school, but Gill was volunteering in the shop so she went in, and then went to town afterwards to visit charity shops.
Our eldest wasn't feeling great either so he didn't go to Maria's, so we all had a very quiet morning. I did a pile of washing up and assorted online stuff.
I then spent quite a bit of time down the garden.... I emptied a pallet heap into a builder's bag (over a cubic metre) and then dismantled the pallets and sorted out the rodent home underneath. Much though I like nature and animals, I intend to make life as difficult as possible for unwanted beasties under my compost heaps. I've found that if they are raised up on top of other pallets, they are less of a comfortable place to live. So I bagged up a load of finished compost and moved stuff around so I can reconstruct a rat-proof compost bin. I had a constant companion with a robin, and I enjoyed listening to all the other birds.
I came in as it got dark and had tea. Gill took our eldest down to see Simon for his computer graphics lesson. I had a phone chat with a student called Daniel, who's doing a dissertation about greening festivals. We chatted for an hour, I answered his questions and I was very pleased to have helped him. He said I was the most enthusiastic person he'd interviewed, and knew most about the issues!
I got a phone call from a woman involved with a special school in East Yorkshire, wanting to book me for next Tuesday.... which is great, apart from I'll miss a workshop on the same day called Climate For Change. How annoying.
I sent off a bunch of emails and facebook messages to London-based friends asking them if they'd like to host me at the end of March, as I've been invited to talk at UK Aware about urban composting.
At midnight, I went to wait outside the house as two of my student friends had invited me to go 'skipping' with them. There's a supermarket which deliberately leaves it's gates open so that the bins are accessible; I think the stuff which is taken means they pay less for their landfill charges, or maybe they have a conscience. It was just amazing what had been thrown out; bread, cakes, sandwiches, wrapped biscuits and cakes, a luxury curry in protective atmosphere packaging, in date, loads of potatoes, Cauldron veggie sausages and curries, cranberry juice, onions, plums, raspberries, little oranges, apples, cashew nuts, a tub of hommous, a tub of mango chunks, a bunch of lovely fresh carrots, a shrink-wrapped cabbage, lots of ready to eat salads, bunches of roses, and vast numbers of bananas, about 3 bin bags full. The students planned to cook up a big meal and share it with their friends. We cycled home to their place to share it out... and I was home before 1am and then had a lot of sortig to do! Freeganism is fun, but I have mixed feelings. I'm saddened, no - disgusted - by the amount of waste just on this one night. This is multiplied by 365 every year, and by I don't know how much by the number of supermarkets and shops that have this kind of waste.
Our eldest wasn't feeling great either so he didn't go to Maria's, so we all had a very quiet morning. I did a pile of washing up and assorted online stuff.
I then spent quite a bit of time down the garden.... I emptied a pallet heap into a builder's bag (over a cubic metre) and then dismantled the pallets and sorted out the rodent home underneath. Much though I like nature and animals, I intend to make life as difficult as possible for unwanted beasties under my compost heaps. I've found that if they are raised up on top of other pallets, they are less of a comfortable place to live. So I bagged up a load of finished compost and moved stuff around so I can reconstruct a rat-proof compost bin. I had a constant companion with a robin, and I enjoyed listening to all the other birds.
I came in as it got dark and had tea. Gill took our eldest down to see Simon for his computer graphics lesson. I had a phone chat with a student called Daniel, who's doing a dissertation about greening festivals. We chatted for an hour, I answered his questions and I was very pleased to have helped him. He said I was the most enthusiastic person he'd interviewed, and knew most about the issues!
I got a phone call from a woman involved with a special school in East Yorkshire, wanting to book me for next Tuesday.... which is great, apart from I'll miss a workshop on the same day called Climate For Change. How annoying.
I sent off a bunch of emails and facebook messages to London-based friends asking them if they'd like to host me at the end of March, as I've been invited to talk at UK Aware about urban composting.
At midnight, I went to wait outside the house as two of my student friends had invited me to go 'skipping' with them. There's a supermarket which deliberately leaves it's gates open so that the bins are accessible; I think the stuff which is taken means they pay less for their landfill charges, or maybe they have a conscience. It was just amazing what had been thrown out; bread, cakes, sandwiches, wrapped biscuits and cakes, a luxury curry in protective atmosphere packaging, in date, loads of potatoes, Cauldron veggie sausages and curries, cranberry juice, onions, plums, raspberries, little oranges, apples, cashew nuts, a tub of hommous, a tub of mango chunks, a bunch of lovely fresh carrots, a shrink-wrapped cabbage, lots of ready to eat salads, bunches of roses, and vast numbers of bananas, about 3 bin bags full. The students planned to cook up a big meal and share it with their friends. We cycled home to their place to share it out... and I was home before 1am and then had a lot of sortig to do! Freeganism is fun, but I have mixed feelings. I'm saddened, no - disgusted - by the amount of waste just on this one night. This is multiplied by 365 every year, and by I don't know how much by the number of supermarkets and shops that have this kind of waste.
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