19.02.2026 Give me sunshine!

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  Thursday 19th 20F/-7C [8.00] 65F/18C in the room. 0C/32F in the greenhouse. Overcast. A sunny day is promised after the early cloud clears. It will peak at just below freezing. A thaw is promised for Saturday. With plus temperatures and rain! Probably causing flooding where the snow is really deep. Mostly up in the north.

 Up at 7.30 after an even weirder night than usual! At 3.30 I couldn't remember if I had turned the lights off on the Morris. Which was parked on the main drive 100m away! It was far too misty to see the car from an upstairs window. So I quickly dressed and headed off up the drive in a 10F/-12C frost clutching a small LED torch. The car was completely frosted over. Thankfully I had taken the keys and could open the door to check the light switch really was off. A few stars were visible as I crunched my way back home again. 

 The oil heater had stopped working earlier that evening. Presumably from a lack of fuel. So I did my first refill at 03.30 from the full container. Kindly provided by my friend. With the tank safely reinstalled I switched it back on. After a pause I was rewarded by warmth. It was 63F in the room at the time but felt colder. This morning it is at 66F. Which is much more comfortable. 

 I am still trying to work out where I can turn the car around. While remaining on level ground. Or at least clear of snow. The car is currently facing east. After my trip to the shops. While the very dangerous exit to the road faces west. I will have to take a shovel and clear the exit. The Morris is rear wheel drive and can't get a grip on the hard packed snow and ice. Which left me dangling half in and half out of the exit yesterday. With traffic bearing down on me and my being completely unable to move! 

 I managed to rock the car in third gear until it finally found the asphalt with the rear tires. Which took over ten minutes of noisy wheel spinning! Something really must be done about this exit. It is not helped by the unchecked hedges of the abandoned restoration/building site. Which blocks the view to the left and approaching traffic. Right on a blind corner! Where traffic is usually cruising on autopilot at 50mph/80kph. While totally ignoring their braking distance. The council hedge slasher never touches the mixed and badly overgrown hedge. Presumably because it is considered private property. 

 09.30 I have delivered a bottle of wine to the neighbour. Who cleared the drives of snow with his digger. 

 Then took a steel shovel to the solid ice on the main drive's exit to the road. Now I am dripping with sweat. It took me at least ten minutes. Just to reach the asphalt over two narrow tracks. Where I could see where I struggled to pull out yesterday. 

 All the while the traffic was mimicking a Hollywood, presidential security convoy. Nose to tail, 50mph/80kph. Not a chance in hell. If the leading car should meet an obstruction. On the completely blind bend. Collective suicidal insanity!  

 10.10 27F/-3C. First sunshine. I have been sprinkling more salt on the drive. The small boxes of table salt don't go far. Nobody local has any stock of sacks of salt for winter. Called "vejsalt" or road salt in Danish.

 A mostly sunny day. Though not always a clear sky. It really helped to lift temperatures. I had turned off the paraffin stove. It reach 75F/24C in the room with just the wood stove going.

 I went up the drive at dusk to check on the Morris. Still frosted over. There is now a clear space in my section of drive where I could park. Then accelerate enough to get out again. The two boxes of salt were a complete waste of time. No sign of it having any affect at all. It was quite chilly. A fine crescent moon hung in the west. A few bright stars too.

 8.15 22F/-6C. 73F/23C in the room. Dinner was a fry up. Chicken, mushrooms, tweggs and fresh cherry tomatoes. I washed up while it cooked.

 

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18.2.2026 I don't believe it!

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Wednesday 18th 20/-7C [8.45]Overcast, sunshine promised, new overnight snow!?!?! The car is stuck in the drive and now plastered in new snow! 20F/15.6C in the room. I had set the borrowed Zibro oil heater to 16C to hold the room at a comfortable temperature but not hot. Reset to 18C and it is already 64F/18C. It must be the fan which raises the temperature so rapidly. It is rated at 3kw! Fuel consumption is still an unknown.

 Up at 8am after several false starts. 5, 6, 7 & 8? Must try harder!

 I need to bring in more logs for the stove. Currently getting through two baskets full from the stack outside. Then I have to explore the snow depth in the drive. My back is killing me! Probably all the snow digging.

 9.05 Still 64F/17.8C in the room. Stove lit with flakes and scraps of logs.  

 9.20 Two more baskets of logs are in. Totally breathless again. It looks like at least 5cm or 2" of new snow. My numerous, earlier footprints to the log stack were erased. 

 10.00 26F/-3C. The snow on the drive wasn't much. I tried for ages to move the car. Then placed a dirt cheap [discarded] car mat under the spinning back wheel. It started forward and I kept it in third gear to the top of the incline. The car is now parked on the level in the main drive. Noe I need to find somewhere to park it where it won't obstruct the drive. In case of a return to the empty properties. 

 10.30 After lighting the wood stove the temperature has shot up to 70F/20C! Whew? 

 11.00 Time to go shopping before my list runs out of paper. 

 12.30 31F/-1C. Back from the shops in bright sunshine. Nobody has any road salt. So I bought several boxes of cheap salt. Which I have spread one of on the drive. That was after putting away three bulging carrier bags of shopping. 

 Hopefully the sunshine and slightly warmer conditions will help to cut through the remaining snow. I left the car on the main drive safely on the level. Which meant carrying the heavy bags over 100m. Wot a hero! 😇

 Both my plywood snow scraper and aluminium snow shovel have vanished. 

 Dinner was poached eggs on toast.  

 

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17.02.2026 Still snowed in! [No more!]

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  Tuesday 17th 25F/-4C. [10.30]  Overcast and snowing lightly.

 Up at 7.00 after a reasonable night. 

 9.30  I wasted half an hour trying to get the car up the gentle slope to the main drive. My 100m of snow clearing hadn't helped. Mostly wheelspin. Even in third gear. Once I finally reached the junction to the main drive I discovered it was drifted over. The tire tracks left by an occasional neighbour were gone. I managed to reverse back down to the house but no further. The car is stuck at the boundary. I was too exhausted to do any more digging.

10.30 It is snowing steadily. The car is already white. 62F/16.7C in the room. My English friend is now coming to visit me. Instead of my going to him. I have lit the stove, washed up, mopped the kitchen floor, brought in two baskets of logs and had a shower. 

 12.00 My visitor has arrived. Bringing cakes and an oil fan heater. The temperature immediately soared to 74F/23C and climbing! He is parked half way along the main drive because drifting has blocked it beyond that point. It must be 30cm deep over most of its length! We had to do some digging so he could turn around. It is exhausting to walk on it. At first there is some resistance but then my boots sink deep into the snow.

 The temperature outside won't get above freezing until Saturday. So the snow will hang around. I am going to ask the neighbour on the back field, with a JCB [digger] if he can clear the drive for us. 

 13.00 My friend has left. Time for some lunch. 

 My neighbour, at the rear, has promised to come around with his digger later to clear the drives. 

 And has! My nice neighbour came around for chat about setting up something permanent. For drive maintenance and snow clearance. We had a nice chat about everything under the sun. His English is excellent.

 Dinner was fish fingers, pasta and peas. I only discovered the lack of tinned tomatoes once committed. The larder needs attention.

 

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