Temperature in our bit of Derbyshire is -3C this morning. Sunshine, blue sky, icy pavements and a thin layer of snow still lingers on the lawn and nearby house roofs.
Maybe it won’t last, but this winter has a retro feel to it, a reminder of the proper winters we used to know. I like it, a proper winter has more character, is more atmospheric than the mild, wishy-washy winters we’ve seen over recent decades.
Chopping logs feels more of a winter necessity than a modern indulgence. It isn’t of course, we could just turn the heat up instead, but the atmospheric aspect of a cold, icy winter is more invigorating than mildly chilly and damp.
8 comments:
Yeah. I hate that
Second weekend to be unable to drive to the supermarket so I had to order croceries online first time ever. Usually I keep some stuff in the freezer but this time I wasn't prepared.
Down to the bottom of the east field again to chainsaw up more willow logs! The previous high winds we had were helpful in this respect, blowing down more over the owner's fence and needing to be removed. Lucky me.
Bucko - I do too, bright and cold is better than dull and damp.
Anon - we've been ordering groceries online for a number of years now. It works well, but it's an easy walk to our supermarket which helps too.
Tammly - yes, lucky you. I have to buy virtually all of my wood, but at least it's kiln dried and burns well.
Same here, cold and bright. Lovely. So much better than rain and gales. -3C today, with a forecast of -4C tomorrow.
I don't chop logs any more, I bought a hydraulic log splitter - great piece of kit, one of my better investments!
I don't bother with kiln-dried either - a year in the open-sided log store does the trick just fine. At present we're getting through a load of beech that's probably two years old, well dried and burns beautifully.
The joys of winter are very real, as you say.
Yes, this is much more like it. Blue skies and a blinding sun glittering off the sea.
There was a big bank of cloud when the sun rose, but it seems to have burnt that off. Sun in the morning is always good news because it warms the house up and we don't need any heating until tea-time.
We'd had Sainsbury's deliveries for years until The Lockdowns when that august institution told us to get lost.
Happily the nice people at Waitrose got in touch, said they reckoned we were "vulnerable" and invited us to use their click and collect service. Even more happily a couple of old colleagues volunteered to do the collecting for us.
Since then our marginal disposable pound has been spent at W rather than JS.
Peter - I've looked at hydraulic log splitters, but at the moment I like chopping the logs, I just enjoy it. We don't have the space to dry our own logs for a year or more although I like the idea.
Sam - ah yes, I'd like to see the sun glittering off the sea. It doesn't warm our house much, not at this time of year, but it's good to see.
dearieme - I didn't know Sainsbury's did anything like that. We had one Sainsbury's delivery during Lockdown, but it was Tesco who kept us going and we still use them.
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