3rd October 2022 Apple harvest.

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 Monday 3rd 50F. A cloudy day with some sunshine is forecast. It is six months today since my wife died.

 Up at 3.30 with memories and worries.

 4.45  Going back to bed.

 6.30 Up again and feeling much better. It looks almost clear out there. With an occasional breeze moving the trees.

 It is remaining warm enough at 61F/16C downstairs. 65F/18.5C upstairs. I have been burning only one or two medium sized logs each evening so far. Denmark is applying a 19C/66F rule for offices. To limit energy consumption this winter. As all gas supplies to Europe are cut off by Pootin. 

 Meanwhile Denmark doesn't have a serious energy saving, home improvement scheme. They have a one day lottery. To give away peanuts. Denmark has a vast collection of older homes. Often without any useful insulation. 

 "They" have been talking about banning wood stoves and subsidising heat pumps for years. District heating is very costly to expand to new areas and only efficient in more densely populated areas. There is a year long wait for new wood stoves due to demand. As wood fuel prices rocket at the same time.

The world badly needs a very thin. Or paint-on form of insulation. To avoid expensively spoiling the appearance of most buildings. Interior insulation reduces room dimensions and is prone to cold bridging. As is exterior insulation.

 Dawn was delayed by the beech forest up on the hill. A huge, white tailed eagle went over the front field. Followed by its mate without a white tail. A few, nervous crows pottered about on the fields. The commuter traffic was heavy. Largely due to my timing my walk badly. I have an appointment in town later this morning. Some shopping would be a good idea. While I am there. 

 I forgot to mention that my neighbours' new windows are steamed up on the outside in the mornings. This seems to be the norm with well insulated [triple] glass. It is inevitably colder with less warming from indoors. Particularly overnight when humidity is high and temperatures lower. i.e. Below the dew point.

 13.00 60F/15C. Finished lunch after returning from town. Sunny morning but now clouding over.  I have had the greenhouse door open to warm the house. 67F/19.5C upstairs.

 After lunch I fitted two more architraves as pillars. Beside the entrance hall door to the lounge. There is no room for a top rail on the face of the twisted, original, timber beam. I will have to face the beam with a long wedge. To bring the visible face forward to the wall surface. Or perhaps a packing piece one end. Behind a thinner board. The picture of the door is distorted by barrel distortion in the TZ7 camera lens. The black thing at the bottom of the door is a home made draught excluder. I shall remove it as it is so ugly.

17.45 Thanks to the sunshine I managed to wash and dry a load of towels. Another load of laundry has just gone out on the clothes airer.

18.15 I have just been picking apples. We hardly had any [at all] when I was chopping the top branches off. Leave it untouched and it has three washing up bowl's worth and more left behind. Out of reach without a much taller stepladder. They came off the tree easily enough. day. There is a storm coming on Wednesday. So I didn't want a load of windfalls in the undergrowth to deal with. 

I tried one of the smaller apples. The initial impression is rather sharp and very wet. Lots of juice. Edible, but I wouldn't have happily paid much for them. Perhaps they aren't ripe? It is a very shady spot under the huge willow. The larger apples are brushed with red.

 18.30 The upstairs temperature is 68F, 20C. All thanks to the sunshine and the lean-to greenhouse. This means I can put off lighting the stove tonight.

 Dinner was a vast heap of salad. I had to place the potatoes in a separate dish and eat them at intervals. I was quite pleased with the poached eggs. The trick is to delay removal of the insertion cup until the egg has solidified. 

Thanks to the mild temperatures and the help of the warm greenhouse I didn't have to light the stove at all tonight.

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