30.11.2022 Blog Comments.

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 Wednesday 30th 4C/39F. Overcast. Possible rain or showers. Up at 6.45 after a 12.30 second bedtime. 18C/64F upstairs. Farm museum day.

 

 Comments: I have a problem with my blog Comments. Recently, it seems can no longer respond to comments on my own blog. My sincere apologies to those who have commented but I have not replied. 

 

 I have repeatedly tried Google searches on the subject. Since it is a Google's Blogger blog after all. There was nothing useful in Google's own help. Other than unblocking 3rd party cookies. No doubt Google's corrupt way of ensuring their sewer of advertising remains all-pervading and obscenely profitable. But at increased security risk for its users. I'll keep trying.

 Success! I can now comment on my own blog by signing into Chrome. Which I never normally use. I presume that Firefox is automatically blocking 3rd party cookies. My thanks again for your kind words and patience in this matter. 

 My regular readers will know that I have been exploring shelving options for storage. 

 A wise and helpful, online contact [whom I may call a friend] has suggested [quite rightly] that I am making my own life unnecessarily difficult. By continuing to store all that I still possess from a past life with my dear wife. She died some 8 months ago. 

 The combined collections of both my wife and myself remain. We were both hoarders over a very long period. All of it valuable in some way.

 To paraphrase his words,: The combined collection of "stuff" is controlling my every action. As I struggle to bring the house back to a more normal home. The huge volume of mixed items is a nightmare which is not going away. Not without my making some very difficult decisions. 

 There are countless boxes of china, glass and decorative metal objects. My late wife's collection. There are countless boxes amounting to thousands of books. We both collected books within our own range of interests over many years. The books cannot be easily disposed of. Nor housed in damp conditions. 

  

 Much of the rest [glass and china] is unlikely to deteriorate in a shed. It just needs careful handling and secure shelving. 

 Part of the collection is a potentially useful resource. It contains useful items for DIY projects and the like. Hinges, locks, brackets, lamps and parts. Unfortunately it is highly mixed in very mixed containers. Access to useful items remains extremely inefficient. Requiring severely disciplined sorting to make it truly useful. 

 

 The cost of buying all new items would be crippling at bubble pack pricing. The cost in my valuable time, to do any serious sorting, would be equally painful. Where to start? I tried indoor shelving and it is bulky and extremely inefficient without some sorting of the contents of assorted boxes and tubs.

  8.30. I don't have time to continue this now. I must shower and change for the museum.

 It was cold and damp this morning. I started by loading a trailer with hay from an antique cart using a pitchfork. I had been responsible for loading the cart with the same hay earlier in the year. After that I was tidying up the machine house to make room for further work. Heavy picnic benches had to be moved and stood on end. Antique carts and garden machinery moved around to park them more compactly. Concrete paving slabs lifted and moved away. 

 

 The museum is seeking a professional quote. To lay the heavy paving slabs which we dug up and wheeled away to place on pallets. I really wasn't looking forward to laying them as well. 65kg is far too much for young and fit workers without specialist tools. Using pensioners is risking serious injury. These days the professionals use suction lifts mounted on excavators. 

 

 After lunch I raked leaves and barrowed them away to the compost heap in the nearby woods. Then I shopped on the way home.

 

14.30 4C/40F with a very heavy overcast. The lounge had dropped to 12C/54F. So I lit the stove for the first time today. I wanted to check how cold it would get without my intervention. Still 16C/61F upstairs.

 My nice new, neighbours have hung Christmas lights on some of their small, garden trees. We used to have a long string of Christmas lights to hang along the top of the greenhouse. I don't know where they are now. I found a pretty set of light which we used to hang along the TV wall. They are now arranged tastefully[?] in a double swag in the front dormer window.

 During my search for the lights I found some bits of cloth. Which I had somehow managed to cling onto. 99.5% went straight to the charity shops. A duvet cover makes a reasonable tablecloth. Ignore the scruffy plasterboard in the background. The whole wall needs to be covered again!

 Dinner was fish fingers with pasta and peas. Followed by tomato soup and a bread roll.

 

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29.11.2022 Echoing footfalls!

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 Tuesday 29th 4C/39F. Up at 5.45. Brace yourself for another ample dollop of surreal, domestic triviality! A small lacewing is still sitting in the middle of my PC monitor screen after several days. Perhaps it is warmer there?

  8.00 Thanks to an incredibly heavy overcast, it is still too dark for my morning walk. After the intense build-up to yesterday's home visitor I have to get back to the home improvements. I have rather painted myself into a bedroom corner with the steel shelving rack upstairs. It is standing, half completed, in the wrong corner. With stacks of boxes between it and its intended destination. On the other side of the room. The logistics of clearing the other corner and everything in between, are truly daunting. Where will it all go to allow a clear path? 

 In a stroke of pure genius, for which I am internationally famed and acclaimed, I have the answer. Complete the present rack and stuff it with the detritus which has gravitated unnervingly to the floor. Then assemble the third rack in the desired position in the now empty corner. Transfer everything over to that rack and then attend to the redundant rack. 

 Or, perhaps, simply shrink it to a more modest height. So that it can be moved well back against the sloping ceiling and dwarf wall. Vertical storage is the only way to go in the absence of adequate real estate. It works for people. It can work for me.

 Meanwhile, the tallboy chest of drawers is shuffling awkwardly towards the front dormer window. Not that it can take up that highly [sic] des.res. on the grounds of being much too tall. Another plan bites the steadily accumulating dust.

 Yesterday I half joked about moving waste bins in the kitchen. In fact their position has been changed for the better but I must learn to adapt. After a few months of use and abuse in their previous positions. I have developed a wonky auto-pilot situation. I turn to toss something effortlessly into the open maw of the metal recycling basket. Only to discover it is now in a far more convenient but far less intrusive position. 

 The same goes with the tall, flip-top, rubbish bin. Like its partner, the metal, recycling basket, it now sits under a working surface. Such triviality is turning me into a bit of a basket case. Did I mention that I can now hear my footfalls echoing in the kitchen? So clear of clutter has it become. 

 I should have bought the shallower model of rack. It looms too large beside the fridge. Nor is its great capacity being utilised wisely. It is already covered in ill-assorted junk. This rack's abuse in the kitchen was a flash of inspiration during first assembly. On the only bit of clear floor to be found at the time. The rack will now have to earn its keep. Or suffer the indignity of disassembly and inevitable exile. 

 8.15.  I think that's enough waffling for the moment. It doesn't look as if it intends to brighten out there. I'll just have to take my chances against the crash test dimmies.

 9.30 I have returned from my walk to the lanes. Traffic light and nothing of interest to report. It was grey, mild and dark and the sky dripped steadily but inconclusively. The parking area has collected standing water in the middle. This will not do!

 I hit a bit of a log jam on the laundry front this morning. Fortunately the towels had dried on the clothes horse near the stove. So I could reload it with all the other stuff in the queue. Except for the socks. Which found a new home as they hang, like drying fish, on an Ikea indoor plant stand. There is nobody but myself to blame. I had been ignoring the ominous, sacrificial mound, rising above the laundry basket, for far too long.  I told you I lacked self-discipline, didn't I?

 We ordered some identical clothes horses online. Only to discover they were as rough, all over, as a roughly sawn plank. I have seen better firewood offered in sacks. The modern alternatives of steel and string are poor shadows of our, now my, vintage model. The outside, rotary drier is about as much use as a chocolate teapot in 99% humidity and rain. The greenhouse too cold and damp to reliably manage evaporation.

 10.20 Transfer from floor to rack completed. More by sheer luck than planning half a rack will not overlap the bottom of the window. The racks are 90x90x45cm units. Vertically joined, if needed, by angle iron couplers. To form racks of double the height. As feared, the tall, loaded rack intrude horribly into the window area. So I shall arrange two racks, at the 90cm height, in the corner. Then go on from there as space allows.

 11.30 Two more half height racks assembled and loaded. The top shelves come up to the underside of the window sill. Though they could be lowered if I want a slightly less obtrusive arrangement. Anything placed on top would have to be decorative. Not just more storage. 

 There is exactly room for four half-height racks. Which is far more desirable than a tall rack either side of the window. Downside is that the 5 shelves supplied leave me with one shelf sort of a matching set. I have also cut down the uprights of one rack by 23cm to fit under the sloping ceiling. 

 If I buy one more rack I will have the four uprights I need and lots more shelves and supporting steelwork. I can use the reduced height rack elsewhere. 

 Or, I could remove the top half of the tall rack in the kitchen. Reduce its unwanted impact at a stroke. End up with a handy working surface in the corner with shelves below. Right beside the 'fridge and mini-oven. Where it will be very useful indeed. The reduced height rack upstairs can go under the overhang on the end of the kitchen worktop. The top half of the kitchen rack can go upstairs to form the fourth rack in the row under the window. It is all falling neatly into place. Though one hopes not quite literally. 😉

 Right. I'll just do that before lunch.

13.00 Separating the two, double racks was time consuming. There isn't much to aim at with the mallet to remove the couplers. I managed it though. Using a bit of kindling as a punch. I didn't want to use a screwdriver in case it spoilt the paint on the racks. 

 Then I went on to complete four, half height racks for the bedroom. I'll sacrifice the shortened rack to gain a shelf for the others. I haven't invested in shallow tubs yet. So shelf vertical spacing has yet to be confirmed. The new shelving absorbed what was lying around in the bedroom but that was it. Still more boxes to house somewhere. If I get some shallow tubs I will have to do some sorting. To what end? Will it magically reduce the volume? 

17.00 I really hadn't reckoned on the difficulty of arranging shelving at a gable end with a central window. I can't block the window. So the top shelf of two units cannot be utilised except for decorative objects. The top shelves were dropped slightly to  make them less attention seeking. I can't build upwards at the edges because of the sloping ceilings. Initial optimism has been unwarranted.

 Setting the shortened shelving unit on top of the lower one in the kitchen didn't work either. The hoped for working surface became a pokey, enclosed box. With the uprights spoiling the show. I can have a working surface or a shelving unit. Not both.

 Amongst all the mixed, boxed stuff  in the bedroom I found our son's photographs from art college. That would be back in the 1980s. They were with over 50 years of Christmas and Birthday cards and letters sent within the family. Sad relics of times past and people who have passed on. 

 Though I still don't know if our son is alive. I have his school woodwork projects on display in the lounge.  Just a simple lorry and a ship. Along with a head he made in fired and glazed clay. 

 He was brilliant, from an early age at comic book, fantasy art. An accomplished, electric, blues guitarist too. We bought him a Squire Stratocaster, Marshall 4x cab and Master amp. He played incredibly quickly. Jimmy Hendrix and Malmsteen were his inspiration. 

 8.00 Dinner was boiled potatoes, cod in batter and baked bans. 

  11.30. Went to bed at 11.00 but I had to get up again. I was being tormented by memories of my wife.

 

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28.11.2022 Visitor day.

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  Monday 28th 6C/42F. Heavy overcast with rain and strong winds forecast all day.

 Up at 5.20. My back is hurting from yesterday's lifting and carrying of heavy steel racking in boxes. No walk. I don't have time. The council's "old farts" therapist is coming today after a long break. She will probably be shocked at all the changes I have made. If, she can remember the state it was in when she was last here. Some of it looks worse for being exposed by the removal of unwanted furniture.

 I spent a lot of time last night scrubbing and mopping the kitchen floor. The tiled floor had been "untidy" for months. After initial mopping shortly after my wife's death it had made do with only an occasional brush. There always decorating and building stuff on the floor still being used. 

 Furniture is being moved around. As I constantly seek a workable layout for myself. As the newly installed "Head Chef and Chief Washer Upper" I now have a free choice. Just moving the waste bin is a carefully thought out strategy. I search for opportunities to improve the "ergonomics" and comfort of my kitchen. It is my outlet for suddenly released, long pent up creativity.

 The new steel shelving rack in the kitchen corner had allowed me to remove most of the big paint pots, rendering and tiling "junk" from the floor. So the tiles could finally be cleaned properly from end to end of the kitchen. A first in many months! 

 Normal soapy "universal liquid cleaner" had little effect on the grouting. I mopped repeatedly following the diagonal lines of the grout with only a slight overall improvement. So I resorted to crouching. With a hard washing up brush and an abrasive, scouring paste. This was much more satisfactory but was slow and very tiring on my hands. Further mopping and wiping left a surface I can live with. At least for a while. I believe a softer brush would have been just as effective.

 I then moved onto the newly laid tiles in the entrance hall. These were "a bit muddy" from going in and out so many times. I have three coconut mats in series between the outside and inside but they still aren't good at preventing muddy footprints. I wear smooth soled, slip-on sandals, year round, as slippers. Also to reach the sheds and the bins by the door. I badly need a new pair. So could keep the new pair inside the door for a quick change routine. Will I have the self-discipline to do so?

 The outdoors is still badly in need of a firm, non-muddy walking and parking surface. I have half of the concrete "patio" broken up. With self-compacting gravel temporarily helping to smooth out the very, very rough, resulting surface.  The concrete had been poured onto completely unprepared ground and had badly fractured over its long lifetime. 

 The grassed parking space is outboard of the patio and is almost always wet and muddy. I really do need to work on getting a clean approach surface to the house. Even a row of paving slabs from the drive would help. Though I have far greater ambitions than that.

 After mopping repeatedly I went over all the hall tiles with a clean, dry cloth. The hall and kitchen are now fairly acceptable [to me at least] for my expected visitor.

 My main problem remains the prints and paintings in the lounge. They are bulky yet fragile due to the thin glass in the frames. Stacks of them everywhere. Perhaps I can put them under the stairs if I remove the present detritus? Throw a cloth over them? Can I find a suitable bit of cloth? I doubt it, but we'll see. 

 I managed to get them all under the stairs. Though it meant removing my boot and shoe rack to the corner of the kitchen. The thin glass fell out of one old picture frame. Whereupon I immediately stabbed my thumb while trying to quickly pick up the pieces from the floor. Blood dripping everywhere!

 Sticky plaster duly applied and the expert prognosis is that I should probably last the day. Lots more tidying ongoing. More work cleaning the tiles and grouting in daylight. I have promised myself to keep the floors clean from now on. No more excuses. Though I'd really like a "proper" sponge mop instead of these microfibre things. I couldn't find a sponge mop in any of the shops yesterday.

 The lounge carpets have been repeatedly vacuumed. New areas were being constantly exposed by my removal of excess furniture and storage boxes. I have found a pair of low key, plastic baskets for the logs and kindling out in the greenhouse. Before that I was bringing it indoors in handfuls. Which was very  messy and let the heat out of the room.

 I gave away all the real [willow] baskets to charity shops. Just as I gave away all the material. Bedding, curtains and tablecloths had filled the airing cupboard. There was more hidden upstairs. Foolishly, it all went ASAP. I could do with a better tablecloth now. The present one looks tired and has even been criticised by an "onlooker." Who saw photos of my slow progress towards domestic acceptability. I'd better have a look in the charity shops when I go shopping later.

 11.00 I lit the stove. It had dropped to 15C/59F in the lounge overnight but had not sunk any further. There is colder weather being forecast but not today.

 12.00 More tidying and then I had a shower and changed. 

 It will be more work but I am going to have the steel shelving stepped under the sloping ceiling in the left corner of the bedroom. With the shelves matching in height to allow quite shallow tubs to slide from front to back at each level. If I had two racks separated by the window it could seem claustrophobic. The window might appear to be at the end of a short tunnel. Rather like a dormer, I suppose. Only lowering the height would pull them back from overlapping the window. The 45º ceilings ensure that with simple geometry. Retreat is equally matched by pruning the height.

 13.50. Still 6C/42F. Enjoying my identikit lunch with the absence of the daily banana. My visitor had stayed for over an hour. She was suitably impressed with all my home improvements and showered me with warm praise. There is still a very long way to go before I am satisfied with the place. If ever! We had a good long talk. Where I did most of the talking. In Danish. 

 I lack the vocabulary to express myself as well as I do in English. Though it is becoming more effortless with time and practice. She is a perfect sounding board for my thoughts and feelings. Completely non-judgemental and supportive. 

 The temperature in the lounge quickly rose to 19C/67F. So it was cosy. I am used to much lower temperatures while I am active. One can't expect the same from a visitor if we are sitting still.

  Today I found a whole series of indoor pictures. Which I took back in September of last year. but had completely forgotten. They turned up on Google Photos under a search.

 I shan't post them here. Because that would embarrass the memory of my dear, late wife. What they do show is all the reasons for my desperation to clear the house. Of so much of the clutter and [mostly] unwanted furniture after her sudden death from cancer.

 We were both equally guilty of collecting lots and lots of "stuff." Well beyond the ability of our very modest home to house such a volume of items and furniture. Our freedom of movement indoors became restricted by our own possessions. 

 Do not think that the place was ever filled with rubbish/garbage. Like those horror story TV programmes of hoarders tunnelling through household waste. It was never, ever like that. It was just filled with too much secondhand furniture and too many boxes of pretty or interesting things. Almost all of it bought from charity shops and flea markets. Almost all of it hidden form view. Often for decades.

 My wife liked glass, china, knitting, pretty material, jigsaws and china cats in particular. I liked technical things. Like clocks, barometers, thermometers, mechanical items, instruments and tools. We both collected countless books and all the other interesting and/or beautiful stuff which crossed our parallel paths. 

 All the items which arrived here, over many years, but were never allowed to leave. All of it quite inexpensive when we bought it. One or two items at a time. It was our shared hobby. To go off in the car. To markets and charity shops in search of everything we could never afford in the UK. The Danes seemed not to value the "stuff" which would normally be found in antique shops in the UK. Not remotely the best stuff with inflated antique prices. Just the stuff which filled their browser's shelves. And eventually ours.

 We regularly joked that this was the private flea market which never opened. We had enough stuff to please a great many people. But! Access for potential customers was almost impossible. We were out in the sticks. Stuck on the very end of a long gravel drive with no parking and poor [to impossible] passing opportunities.

 Access to and from the busy road is/was particularly hazardous. Due to being on the inside of a completely blind corner. Traffic takes this corner at 50mph+. Without a care in the world for those coming or leaving the shared drive. Or those trying to leave their homes. Along this winding stretch of undulating road.

 It is six days since I had mackerel on toast. With tomato soup, tomatoes and a bread roll.

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27.11.2022 Endless storage nightmares!

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 Sunday 27th 44F. Up at 5.30. The only thing I can see in the pitch black outside is a solitary, distant light. Which suggests the mist is not as thick as forecast. Or completely absent.

 

 I am [somewhat] desperately trying to think of a means to clutter reduction. I could sort specific items into clear storage tubs. Gather all "electrical" items for example. Having them together would actually make them useful. Rather than the present burden of unsorted volume. 

 

The tubs' transparency provides easy identification of contents without complex labelling. Or, worse, the complete anonymity of fragile cardboard boxes. Shallower tubs, would cover more floor space, initially, but would be stackable. With far easier access to find useful items within a specific "family." 

 

 Stacking is the key to successful floor space reduction but requires lids. I have yet to find transparent tubs or trays with the reversible stacking feature. Where feet on the bottom match those in the interior. Only matching in a certain orientation. End-to-end reversal of the upper tub making the tubs nesting. Lids provide stacking and dust protection but can be unnecessarily clumsy if they are locking.

 

 I am at a loss to explain the terrifying lack of imagination. Within the [presumably] Chinese storage tub industry. Where is the competition to provide really useful storage? Rather than billions of identical clones of each other. Mere safety in numbers results in a very limited number of design options. Almost regardless of retail outlet.  

 

 The tub shown above costs nearly ten pounds equivalent but provides almost ideal storage. Shallow enough to easily find items amongst assorted contents. Large enough to be useful. Stackable and lidded. I'll keep looking online. For something more affordable and nearer than going all the way to the city.

 

 The table lamp in the corner of the lounge is proving invaluable. It provides enough light for safety when moving around the [still] cluttered room with trays or cups. Low power consumption means it can be left on when I am around and it is dark. I can go closer to read something if needed. Such a trivial change but a huge improvement over a past life of fumbling around in the dark. Where the chest of drawers blocked access to the wall switch nearest the door. 

 

 I must find storage space for all the prints/paintings in their frames. They take up a lot of room and are inevitably untidy no matter how they are arranged. Then there is the stack of drawers from the chest. It all has to be found its own space but remain accessible. The balcony floor is covered in stuff but nothing can be stacked to soak up the volume. 

 

 The boxy shelf units beside the computer are already half full of junk in assorted boxes. No order and less than half the potential storage volume is used. The rest is just air. Much like the shelving in the sheds. I need shallow tubs which can be stacked. While the contents MUST remain instantly identifiable. 

 

 I bought some shallow, tray-like storage tubs from Ikea. They work but are solid colours. So identification of contents is impossible. Not without lifting every damned unit out of a stack. I quickly discarded the lids. Because they instantly hide the contents. Making safe stacking all but impossible. The containers had to rest on what was in the tray below. Two trays stacked was about the limit with mixed tools in each tray.

 So now there is 9/10s of the storage space, above every expensive shelf, supporting only fresh air! The ample load capacity is a sick joke. I can't stack anything to reach a tiny fraction of the sturdy shelving units' effortless ability to put everything on one, single shelf! So it is all spread across eight shelves and the floor! It needs some sort of supporting rack for multiple, shallow trays/tubs. Just like a chest of drawers but open. For contents visibility in all light conditions. 

 

 If the trays are spaced vertically then I can see into the trays for contents identification. A nominal waste of storage volume but infinitely better than the present waste of time, money and space. It needs a steel rack for specific trays. So they can be slid out to easily access the contents. Wooden drawers are hopeless. The bottoms are always far too weak. They stick when trying to open and close the drawers in an unheated shed. I have tried lots of secondhand chests of drawers and hated all of them. 

 

 A storage rack needs lots more shelves than usual. Just to reduce the volume of stored air. While maximising real storage capacity for shallow, transparent trays/tubs.

 8.00 Almost light enough for a walk. Very heavy overcast and windy. 

 11.30 I have been working non-stop to tidy the kitchen. Untouched for months since I brought in the new worktop. I have also tidied up a lot outside and in the lounge. Hours more work to do.

 15.00 I've bought some strong steel shelving units with 5 shelves each. Then had to saw off 23cm to get them under the sloping ceilings. I might take a bit more off because they just reach the edge of the new bedroom window. The shorter they are the closer the shelves are to each other. Less wasted space with shallow tubs. Now I should be able to get a lot of stuff off the floor. 

 

 I have just realised I could fit them in one corner instead of both against the bedroom's gable end. They would need to be stepped in height to fit under the ceiling. The shelves arranged at the same height from the floor.

 

 My previous experience with cheap 30cm deep, steel racks had been putting me off. So flimsy they were a complete waste of money. So I went with larger, slightly more expensive units from Rochfort at 180x90x45cm. 

 

 Very pleased with their clever design and sturdy members. Tool free, slot together too. Easy to work with and they easily come apart again if needed.

 Two shelving units completed. I put one in the kitchen alcove beside the fridge to clear the floor.

 19.20 For dinner I am going with chips and fried diced chicken. No mushrooms left. I added some fresh tomatoes. I experimented with larger cuts of chicken. This worked well.

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26.11.2022 Thrice racist firewood?

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Saturday 26th 40F/4C. A mixed bag is forecast. Sunshine and showers with light winds. Up at 5.45. Still 65F/18C upstairs this morning. 60F/15C downstairs in the lounge.

 The rubbish left after removal of all the 30cm lengths of "proper" firewood from yesterday's trailer load. 

 Completely trivial, I know, but I am really enjoying the lamps with their new [green] shades. The table lamp in the corner of the lounge is quite wonderful. It lights the room softly and is far kinder to the still shabby decor. Far better than overhead lights, daylight or camera flash. The white, painted brick wall has taken on a whole new appearance. Providing a soft wash of light into the room. 

 I also have a lamp on either side of my untidy computer desk now. Which, together, provide a much higher level of overall brightness. Compared to the dim, now distant past. LED bulbs make it effortless to have enough light. Without the toll on electricity bills or my personal, climate conscience.

The bark and garbage left in the bottom of the trailer after removing even the smallest bits of  real wood. Most of this is bark, soil and dust.

 Plans for today: I need to get the remaining firewood into the greenhouse from the trailer. Preferably before it rains. I also need to seriously tidy up the lounge. In preparation for the increasingly rare visit from the council's talking therapist. I must now presume that I am no longer considered in need of critical, emotional support. 

 She was wonderful to talk to. With just the right balance of empathy, honesty, praise and openness. Her actions in getting me to become more social, after years of isolation, proved to be priceless gifts. Helping enormously on my way to recovery from the loss of my wife. 

 The garbage collected into two boxes and two, full mop buckets of broken bark. To dry out as future kindling. The remaining dust went onto the garden.

 Without the aid of this councillor I would probably be sitting here alone. In the dark and the cold. Of an unchanged and hideously disorderly house. Rather than slowly building a more comfortable home for myself. With over forty, new social contacts.

 As almost the only visitor. For quite some time. I deliberately used her visits to spur on my painting, renovation and tidying. If only out of shame at the state of the place. Also, to be openly rewarded with her warm praise for all my efforts. I had been short of praise for far too long.  So that I had lost my confidence in my ability to improve things.

 I could build large wooden sheds from scratch working alone. Build complex, two storey, domed observatories and all the instruments within them. All by myself. Provided it was done outside. I repaired our various cars myself for decades. But was considered unworthy of even the smallest repair jobs indoors. 

  The completed stack. Including the original stack on the left. The short lengths can be burnt but are not what I paid for. Nor as described on their website. They also make stacking far more difficult.

 Despite having fitted a new roof with thick insulation and two dormers. Closed off the balcony with huge, recycled windows. Fitted all new doors and many new windows. Built the kitchen cupboards and working surface. New, insulated, concrete floors with underfloor heating. New boarded ceilings. Rendered walls. Tiled throughout. 

 Hand excavated and installed a completely new PVC drainage system for the whole house out to the boundary. [Approved] Replaced all the old plumbing throughout the house. Built the huge, lean-to greenhouse and laid a herringbone brick floor. Fitted a new bathroom. Installed a stove with a domestic  water heating system. Always working alone. Using a lifetime of built up experience. Learning new skills from books or videos. When needed for safety and building rules compliance. 

 My wife called me Mr Pastry. A bumbling, TV clown from our 1950s childhood.

 9.30 I have returned from a late walk to the lanes. The pain in my back and hips was soon forgotten. A couple of pheasants pecked at the fields. The cold wind was easily neutralised simply by pausing. Ample evidence of the wind chill factor being dependent on quite low velocities. It seems this morning's rain has been cancelled. Though still no sign of the promised sunny periods.

 Now I had better stop time wasting and get on with moving the firewood. I have a chest of drawers to be rid of at the recycling yard. Not to mention the beheaded conifers. It was suggested it might make firewood from the chest but it is varnished inside. It would also need cutting into useful lengths. More work than the savings warrant, I think.  

 11.30 45F/7C and weak sunshine. I emptied the trailer of the remaining firewood and rubbish. See the pictures above. This was supposed to be a trailer load of premium priced, 1000 Kroner [£116 equivalent] dried beech firewood of 30cm length from the local timber yard.

 I wondered why the driver went to the far end of the shed. When there was a 2000 m^3 of proper firewood from the open end and onwards. The digger driver had obviously been told to get rid of some rubbish wood by the woman in the office. Some of it was covered in stinking white mould as well as many being very short in length. 

 Do you suppose all their customers get this quality of service and a load of garbage? Or do you have to be a pure bred Dane to qualify for the expected service? It's a shame there is no consumer protection in Denmark. I expect they are still waiting to invent it independently. Otherwise it would conflict with Janteloven. [Jante's Law] 

 Filming,  photographing or naming a possible criminal online can result in the "reporter" being heavily fined! While the criminal will often be fined less. If I mention the name of the timber yard online I face the risk of prosecution and a large fine! 

 Those of you with long memories will know. That I was [almost] cheated over my firewood purchase in June. I paid for low moisture content, 15%, oven ready firewood but was served with normal quality. 20-25%. Fortunately I had my Morsø moisture meter with me.  So the first trailer load had to be thrown off the trailer by hand. To be replaced with the correct quality. For which I had paid a considerable premium.

 No doubt the staff remembered me as a nuisance from six months ago. They can't get that many customers speaking Danish with an English accent. So, I had to be punished! For doubting this timber yard and their very questionable business practices.

 12.00 45F/7C.  I broke up the unwanted chest of drawers with the sledge hammer/splitting maul. Before taking a trailer load of mixed scrap wood and garden waste to the recycling yard.

 12.45 The greenhouse now stinks of mould from the latest load of firewood. Is it dry rot? Can it spread? Perhaps I am exaggerating the racist element due to the paranoia of 26 years of suffering from overt Danish racism. 

 The timber yard staff could just be crooks. Though that doesn't explain why I had the good stuff last time. After questioning the moisture content of the first batch. Which was fine for cleanliness and uniformity of size. Then getting the crap I had [literally] dumped on [and all around] me yesterday. 

 I just thought back to the first time I visited the timber yard for firewood some years ago. I paid and was expecting the driver to fill the trailer with his waiting bucket loader. But then the chap in the office came out and said something to him. The driver was sent away to do something else. So I was left to fill my own trailer with logs by hand. The machine would have taken seconds. Let's just go with overt, Danish racism, shall we?

 13.20 Lunch over and the sunshine has gone. A small flock of mixed birds was foraging around the remains of the chestnut out on the western lawn. 

 14.00 47F/8C. Thick, but patchy mist has descended. There is a weather warning for thick mist overnight. 

 17.30 I have cut the skirting boards to length for both halls. Six pieces, all cut on the mitre saw. The boards are all sitting in place but some need slight relief on their bottom edges. To sit right down on the tiles and grout. Then they can be screwed to the walls and filled around the edges to hide any gaps. It is quite an improvement already. 

 I am going to replace the inside doorstep with birch plywood. The existing board hides the water meter but is unnecessarily thick. Which lifts the inside doormat somewhat. So that it sits at an odd height above the hall tiles. I may make a channel construction. To fit down around the meter but support a much lower step at tile height.

 The grassed parking space is getting soggy again. This is caused by rain run-off from the gently sloping drive. The compost has become almost liquid in places. Something has to be done and soon. This may involve sharp gravel and a plate vibrator to compress the area properly. Using grass on imported compost was simply too optimistic. Even downright naive. Fine in summer. Absolutely hopeless after a little, autumn rain.

 I now know of two more contacts who have lost their wives to cancer. Both are still missing them after some years and often talk to them at home. 

We must pay a terrifying price for their companionship. The only bright side is that we didn't leave them alone.

19.30 Dinner was poached eggs on toast with a few fried mushrooms on the side. The latter were completely superfluous to the enjoyment of my perfect eggs. 😋  I just didn't want the mushrooms to go off.

~~

25.11.2022 Have you got wood 2?

 ~~

Friday 25th 43F. Almost overcast but with some small breaks. A wet afternoon is forecast.  64F/18C upstairs. 60F/15C in the lounge. 57F in the kitchen. 50F/10C in the bathroom.

Walked to the lanes. A rather chilly, variable wind. So that I kept my hood up some of the time and my hands in my jacket pockets. I saw three birds of prey and a heron. Including a Red kite. 

 Plans for today? I'm not sure yet. I really ought to try to render the lounge wall. If only to a higher standard than at present. It is mostly far too rough to paint.

 The stack of firewood in the greenhouse has halved since I moved it in. The price has risen by 25% since I bought the last lot. Better to buy now than wait until I am almost out. Each split log lasts for about an hour. Small differences in outside temperature are making large differences to my heating needs. It can only get colder from now on. Until spring arrives. The sooner I get the wood into the greenhouse the drier it will remain.

 12.00 I have collected a heaped trailer full of split, beech logs. Then shopped on the return journey. My box of 100 waterworks pills cost me 430Dkk or £50 equivalent. The lady in front of me at the pharmacy was complaining bitterly about the price of her own medicine. Having worked all her life, paid taxes and then became a poor pensioner.

 I have already used up half an hour stacking logs in the greenhouse. With what seems like 3/4 of trailer still left to move. This was despite bringing the trailer to the door and have only a couple of paces to carry 5 logs at a time. I moved all the dry wood towards the house door. Then started stacking the new wood near the greenhouse door.

 I measured the moisture content at the timber yard. All the logs were at around 20%. The driver said not a word and just dumped the logs with the oversized bucket of a telescopic handler. So that they fell all around the trailer. Never mind. I needed the exercise in picking them all up. Didn't I?

13.00 Lunch. It had started raining. So I covered the trailer with its fitted tarpaulin. 

14.00 Lit the stove. It had dropped to 58F/14C in the lounge.

I have had another SMS. Pushing my hospital hearing test forwards to the end of March. That would make it a waiting time of about 9 months. With at least another month for the hearing aid[s] to be fitted.

 Today I bought crinkly, frozen, oven-ready chips. So I'm going with chips, fried diced chicken, mushrooms and fresh tomatoes. 

20.00 44F. It has reached 67F/19C upstairs and down. I like the combination of chicken and mushrooms. The chips were much better than the last lot. Though I think a few more minutes in the oven would do them good. I gave them 20. I'll try 25 minutes next time. The packaging talks about turning them. I'm not sure how that can be safely achieved.

~~

24.11.2022 Lamps galore!

 ~~

 Thursday 24th 43F/6C. Another grey day, but a milder, 6C, is forecast.

 Up at 6am. Fortnightly cooking class. Followed by a visit to the doctor. To discuss my waterworks and deliver a diary recording several day's frequency and volume. 

 It took me seven months [since my wife died] to finally add hand wash. In a dispenser bottle. To the kitchen worktop by the sink. I fitted a hook for a hand towel as soon as I brought in the new working surface. Now several months ago. I fitted a chrome wall bar for a kitchen paper towel roll holder soon afterwards. 

 For two and half decades we would always have to go out to the [often cold] bathroom to wash our hands or dry them. Such simple changes are so much more convenient and energy saving. Being slightly warmer in the kitchen the hand towel has a chance to dry. In the cold of the bathroom it never does. 

 The milder conditions have allowed the upstairs temperature to remain at 65F/18C overnight. The stove was allowed to die down by mid evening. The oil-filled radiator is easily maintaining 55-57F/13-14C in the kitchen. The unheated bathroom has risen naturally from 44 to 47F/ 7 to 8C. 

 I took a shower, without my usual pre-heating of the bathroom with the fan heater. Due to a lack of time. It was quite comfortable because I had closed the [usually open] window venting. You can tell when a bathroom is cold because it fills with thick "steam." Even when the water is deliberately set at luke warm. The temperature rose by 2F during my short stay. I kept the door closed and opened both windows wide to be rid the steam. Then closed the windows and opened the door, as usual, after a few minutes.

 On such seeming trivialities I can judge whether I actually need a costly heat pump installation. An installer had given me a price for a smaller model to heat only the kitchen and bathroom. When I requested a price for installing a large, "whole house" system he could not comply. He claimed that the wholesalers are holding onto specific manufacturers [Panasonic] for their own installs. 

8.00  Still dark grey overcast but just light enough to risk a quick walk. 

8.50 A quarter of an hour walk. Then I lit the stove while I made morning coffee. Almost time to go.

 Today I was  mostly responsible for making 3kg of bashed [sic] potatoes. No, not mashed. Bashed. I cleaned the potatoes and then boiled them. Followed by mixing them with oil and Timian in a  large bag. They were then laid out in two, large, baking trays. Then slightly squashed. Either with the flat of the hands over baking paper or a flat implement. They were then baked in the oven until golden and wrinkly. I made a dressing for the broccoli salad as well. 

 This afternoon I took about twenty of my wife's knitting books to a wool shop. I simply handed them over for them to do what they would with them. The delightful lady owner was thrilled to see several books by Kaffe Fassett and others. Lots of older fashions are coming back around. This was so much more satisfying than giving them away to yet another charity shop. Where they have forgotten you two second later and you were lucky even to get a simple thanks. 

 I moved on from there to a real, village, electrical shop. Where I bought more of the beautiful green lampshades. Of which I  already have three in the kitchen and one in the front hall. The shades have a less tapered form than usual. With a fine green cloth finish when lit. Which I find very satisfying.  The shades clip over the bulb itself. Allowing a jaunty tilt or upright to taste.

 I stated a request for a bulb holder adapter. To suit my antique bronze, Art Nouveaux, table lamp. This resulted in the opening of a special compartmented case. With umpteen possibilities. Several items were chosen and given to me free of charge. 

 I want to use the bronze "poppy" lamp on the chest of drawers in the corner of the lounge. I think table lamps will be far preferable to overhead or wall lamps. They can be switched at a distance on a long flex. Without needing new, wall switches and fixed cabling.

 The visit to the doctor resulted in a claimed, low impact pill. To try to solve my waterworks frequency problem with old age. Hopefully without side effects.

 19.00 42F. Time to think about dinner. Cod in batter, with pasta, peas and tinned tomatoes.

~~

23.11.2022 Modern slavery for old farts.

 ~~

 Wednesday 23rd  39F/4C. Autumn weather returns. A breezy but grey forecast with slightly higher temperatures. The temperature is 62F/17C upstairs but feels much colder. I had to put on my duvet jacket over the fleece.

 My blogging station with newly added storage capacity. Stop laughing at the back or it's detention!

 Up at 5.00. Aching all over from yesterday's repeated heavy lifting. The boxed books were bad enough. Then the box-shelving units at 1m x 1m x 39cm. Which were right at my limit for lifting such bulky and heavy items up the steep stairs. I just wanted them to be gone from the lounge. They are now full of the junk which always surrounds my computer desk. They even look the part. If I was in a cubical in open plan office.

 I now have a table lamp on the right side shelving unit to light the keyboard. I type quite rapidly with four fingers but my accuracy is poor. Requiring frequent typo correction. I have been typing since I was 16. Or about 60 years. Despite occasional attempts to learn to touch type. I have never really improved to my own satisfaction. Spelling checkers are a lifesaver! 

 I rotated the chest of drawers in the corner of the lounge to look across the room. It seemed happier like that. Not so much an exclamation mark at the end of the room. More of a full stop.

 It is museum day! The morning at the museum started quietly. Or rather noisily. I had to mark out screw positions for fixing corrugated sheet steel to the huge, sliding, portal doors to the machine house extension. Then punch small pilot holes with a hammer and sharp object.

 Soon, several of us were driven to town to perform modern slavery. We had to dig up then lift 60x60x7cm paving slabs upright. Each weighing 65kg/143lbs! For others, with sack trucks, to wheel them away to waiting pallets. I was already tired from yesterday's lifting. So I started slowly and warmed up. It rained on and off all morning. 

 We returned to the museum for lunch. Though I drove home as usual. Returning later to clear vast quantities of leaves. Which were dumped in a huge cardboard box on top of a wheelbarrow. Then trundled off to be dumped in the woods to join the heaps of compost. The rain continued well into the afternoon. The doctor's appointment is tomorrow. I had the dates mixed up.

 My nice neighbour called in the afternoon. Confirming they are holding their neighbourhood party this weekend. This is their first Christmas here since buying an old farmhouse in this tiny hamlet. 

 I really must fit a proper door knocker. People never like to knock loudly enough for a deaf old fart like me to hear clearly. It was sheer luck I heard anything at all. Pardon? I am having my hospital hearing test in readiness for hearing aids next week.

 18.30 43F/6C. I am working up my courage to tackle the washing up. No washing up? No dinner! Will he cheat and get more crockery out of the cupboard? Read the next exciting [?] instalment! 🙄

 Washing up completed. Dinner was cheese on toast. Followed by tomato soup. No excuses. I overdid the cheese. Nor did I find any acceptable tomatoes at the shops. 

~~

22.11.22 Redistribution.

 ~~

 Tuesday 22nd 32F. A cold, grey, rather windy day is promised. With a wet afternoon and maximum temperature of 2C. 

 Up at 6.30. Back aching. Coughing up phlegm. The stove was still going well at bedtime. I pondered adding a final log to the red glow but decided against it.

 8.00 It is so dark this morning that I will have to delay my walk for safety. Everything is moving in the wind. The thin snow covering is clinging on where it can. 61F/16C upstairs. I should probably light the stove now instead of when I get back. 

 After being recommended by various sources I approve of inverted fire preparation. A log on the bottom plate. Followed by packing around it with newspaper and kindling laid on top. After frequent failures with the logs on top it now works every time. I usually add a log on top of the kindling. For a longer, initial burn without needing to be fed more logs.

_____________________________________

 Every bereavement, in a loving relationship, leaves a rocky, deserted island of misery.

_____________________________________

 You can be too rich to be committed to an asylum. Or even to be tried in court. But even billionaires need pay nothing to rave on Twatter. To earn a second fortune from commercializing, victim blaming. Musk's mechanical intelligence fooled him into believing he has the wisdom of Solomon. A common enough mistake for every smug dictator and modern slaver. He stands on the [downtrodden] shoulders of those who work for him. Never, the other way around. I used to admire his many projects but he has  now proved himself little more than just another greedy tyrant.

__________________________________

9.30 Morning coffee is over. My walk to the lanes was unremarkable. Though the local group of wind turbines was not turning. The nearest was facing into the cold wind. The second away from the wind. I wore my GripGrab 2+2 winter mitts and was perfectly comfortable. My Ventile winter jacket, with the hood up, kept me cosy over a fleece jacket. 

 I think I am going to move some of the boxes of books upstairs. To make room for further progress in the lounge. The heavy boxes will want to be near the edges of the floor for maximum support. I will move the tubs of clothing from behind the clothes rail. The tubs weigh practically nothing even when full. So can be placed more sensibly. Trying to reach them through the clothes on the rail is very frustrating. Moving the tubs temporarily to the middle of the room reminded me what I had been missing. My winter long johns, gloves, hats, etc.

 13.00 35F/2C Heavy overcast and windy. With rain and occasional snow flurries. Sixteen removal boxes full of books are now resting on the floor in the bedroom. You would not believe how heavy they are. Getting them up the 55º stairs was quite a struggle!  I think I might bring at least one of the box/bookshelf units upstairs too. They would provide some useful vertical storage. Perhaps backed onto the large bookshelf sitting in the triangle between the chimney and sloping walls.

 The lounge is looking slightly more empty now. Though the stack of drawers is still looming. They'll have to go upstairs too. After I have finished lunch. With the box units gone I can move the large chest of drawers into the corner. 

 14.30 After stapling the hardboard back onto the shelves I fought the weight of the box units upstairs. It was very close as to which of us would win. Right on the limit! The first was placed back to back against the large bookshelf containing the best [boxed] china and glass. Where it made a decent storage space right next to the computer. 

 The other unit is still hovering without purpose or a finding a new home. It could go in place of the computer and printer trolley on the other side of the computer desk. Which would hide the untidy mess on the "stage." Which hasn't been touched for months. While providing the missing storage space on that side. 

 The second box unit is now installed on the left. The computer is lying on its side on top. It has an SSD hard drive so won't notice its orientation. The sockets/ports on the front are just as easily reached and easier to see at eye level. The ventilation grills are facing upwards and backwards. So no obstruction there.

The big chest of drawers is now in the corner of the lounge but open to further discussion as to whether this is its ideal spot. Its broad top can easily absorb a few ornaments and a useful table lamp. Its voluminous drawers can hold whatever I need. It might be better on the left wall instead of against the brick wall.

 17.30 36F/2C. I took some pictures of the lounge now that it is almost cleared and was horrified how awful it still looks! The ceiling and cross beam are next for a coat of white paint. Then I need to explore how to best to cover the long wall with more plasterboard. 

 Dinner was mackerel on toast. Followed by tomato soup and bread roll. Sitting at the table. Which made me feel more lonely than ever. The only time I have eaten alone was when my wife was staying with her mother in Denmark. That was over 27 years ago.

 

 

~~

21.11.2022 Gridlock!

 ~~

 Monday 21st 32F/0C. Just light enough to see another 2cm/1" of sticky snow has fallen. Up at 6.15 after a late night watching TV. Plasterers make it look far too easy on YouTube!

 Wide angle view of next door's abandoned back garden. Taken through the new bedroom window at 8am. The background trees are well over 6m/20' high. The foreground hedge over 3m/10' high on the other side of the boundary fence.

 7.15am. 60F/15C upstairs. Comfortable to sleep in but feels a bit cold for comfort now. I have put on my down jacket while I wait for enough light for my walk. 57F/14C in the lounge. 54F/12C in the kitchen with the mini oil-filled radiator. A chilly 44F/7C in the unheated bathroom/entrance hall. 

 The last log on the stove went out last night. Due to a lack of air. I had turned the air lever down slightly too much. It had been well alight when I left it. Disappointing, but unlikely to have affected indoor temperatures noticeably. The stove manufacturers warn against try to burn overnight on low air settings.

 Sitting still is chilly. Moving about soon makes me too warm. So I had better start reorganising the lounge/dining area. I need to find space for storage boxes elsewhere. The house continues to behave like one of those grid locked toys. Where a single piece has to be moved before others can be shuffled around. Grooves and tongues on the edges of the bricks kept the pieces firmly locked into the tray.

 I tried searching for "gridlock puzzle" but nothing similar came up. Found it: "Sliding numbers puzzle." If only my puzzle could become 3D. Instead of being locked into 2D. I cannot stack boxes safely due to their heavy/fragile contents. Boxes are also anonymous once closed. Labelling would not help identification with such mixed contents. Paper wrapping makes things much worse.

 8.00 Misty and heavily overcast. Fine snow falling. Walkies!

 9.15. A walk to the lanes in steadily falling snow. The traffic was heavy but the roads well salted today. No doubt aided by tyre spray extending the salt out to the verges.  

 A huge, eight wheel, forestry tree harvester went past in the lane. The driver gave me a wave. The stove is now lit and morning coffee is over. Time to start tidying the lounge again.

 11.00 34F. It has stopped snowing. I am having a rest. The dining table has been cleared [again.] Then clearing the top of the oak chest of drawers under the northern window. It was so heavy I had to remove all the drawers before it would even budge. Then all the prints and frames had to be moved [again.] All the chairs moved to the other end of the room.

 I hate going through my late wife's furniture. So many different things kept for decades. Sometimes for literally half a century. Just in case they would prove useful. I presume it was a survival response to hard times. When we hadn't much money. Despite my working antisocial shifts and she was working several part time jobs. 

 17.00 The cottage dining table has been moved to the northern window. Horrible flash image. The northern wall needs a new layer of plasterboard over the top of the old. There is foam insulation behind the old plasterboard.

 I am sorely tempted to box the contents of the drawers. Then dump the chest at the recycling yard. It is not remotely an attractive piece. I could keep the sturdy drawers for storage. They are stacked at the other end of the room. Only taking up a fraction of the volume of the chest itself. 

 One more, unwanted piece of furniture taking up valuable space. Or, I could put one of the bookshelf box units on top in the corner. To revive the original storage unit theme. Decisions-decisions... No. It has to go! It will always look like a hybrid and the greater depth will take up far too much room. If I want furniture then it will be something I choose myself.

 I kept the drawers and managed to drag the heavy chest outside. Lifting it up to 45º allowed me to walk it out on the corners without too much effort. It had woodworm in the bottom planks.

19.00 Time to think about dinner. Boiled potatoes, a salmon pasty and frozen organic peas. Washed down with an organic, Danish beer.

 Finally I have a table at which I can sit and eat in comfort. Instead of a tray on my lap in front of the TV.   

 I need to move an overhead lamp a metre or so to the middle of the table. The window sill and window still needs to be cleared and cleaned. There is still the matter of all the boxes and drawers to tidy up. A chest of drawers and the bookshelf/storage box units will have to be rearranged. Nevertheless, it feels like I am making real progress towards a socially acceptable, spacious and comfortable lounge/dining area.

~~

20.11.2022 Part 2: New lounge/dining area layout

 ~~

 The lounge always felt rather cool for three seasons of the year. Certainly compared with the attic. Now I have brightened the room with white paint. More will certainly follow. Probably including painting the dark, pine ceiling white ASAP. The lounge floor is now clear enough for relaxed freedom of movement. Or soon will be. After I have redistributed all the storage boxes of books.

 17.15 I have just been sitting in each of the three Stouby armchairs. Purely as an experiment. It suddenly feels warm [now at 69F!] and remarkably spacious. 

 Image showing a potential new layout. The dining table moved to the north window.

 The long leg of the L-shaped lounge has previously had no useful purpose. Except for access and storage. Because of the existing furniture it could not previously have accepted the dining table. [80x135cm] 

 Moving the present [2] chests of drawers would allow the table to replace them. With hardly any more projection. The table would easily seat four when required. One on each end and two on the long side.

 With fresh insight I am really beginning to see that space as an offset, dining area. There is a rather cluttered window just there. Which could easily be cleared of ornament and decoration. To become a relaxed focal point for the table. Allowing a view to the north. Of the garden and background trees beyond the parking space. Depending on which seat is taken.

 Freeing the main lounge area of the dining table. Would open it up to a far more spacious and practical layout. The lounge might even become a TV watching room. With the TV screen on the blank northern wall. Where the end of the cluttered table is pointing blindly at present.

 Removal of the large, double storage unit and bookshelves has really made the lounge far more useful. I just wasn't seeing it until now. Due to it having had a rigidly fixed layout for so very long. [26 years!] The room filling unit was there when we moved in. We filled it up to the brim. With books above and the cupboards and drawers below stuffed to the gills. Access was all but impossible due to the dining table and chairs in front. A three seater settee along the brick wall only added to the rigidity of the layout.

The new wood stove adds the living flame for a cosy feeling. Thanks to its large glass door and enough warmth for real comfort. Provided the internal doors are close during frosts.

 Talking of dining: Time to think about dinner. Of the top of my head: I have potatoes, chips, pasta, chicken, five kinds of fish, peas, mushrooms, beans, tomatoes, soup, toast, cheese, rolls, tinned tomatoes and... ? It is eight days since I had chips. So, chips with fried diced chicken, mushrooms and halved tomatoes. Adventurous? Me? No. 🙄

~~

20.11.2022 Ensuring energy poverty.

 ~~

 Sunday 20th 31F/-1C. Thin snow is lying. 2cm or about an inch stuck to the car.

 My new digital thermometers are sitting in a row on a shelf upstairs. The mean between seven of them is 61.5F/16C.There is a deviation of 0.7F between the highest and lowest reading but they drift very slowly relative to each other. The lounge is at 58F/14.5C at 7.00am this morning. I should really monitor and graph the indoor temperatures of rooms relative to those outside.

 My inability to keep the lounge and attic comfortably warm with a modern stove does not bode well for a heat pump. I would be paying inflated bills for electricity. Most likely in parallel with the cost of logs for the wood stove. Historically, we paid peanuts for heating. Running the old stove on wood briquettes. When prices were modest but now effectively doubled. Hence the change to logs. We wore down jackets indoors all and every winter. It was simply impossible to raise the indoor temperatures high enough with the old stove. Nor with the new one it seems.

 The sloping attic walls have 30-40cm of rockwool in three/four 10cm layers. I fitted it myself years ago. Each layer was carefully overlapped both ways. To ensure there were no gaps to form cold bridges. 

 I watch the roof during periods of snow and frost. To see where heat is lost. It is important to ensure the melting isn't due to sunshine. A north facing roof slope is a safer indicator.

 The dormers are a weak point. It being impossible to insulate parts of them as well as the main roof. Not without them become very bulky. I used the small, double glazed windows as my minimum interior dimensions. Then added 10cm of rockwool in the sides. With the full thickness 3-40cm over the tops.

 Unfortunately, the house walls are solid brick or single skin, lightweight cement blocks. The bathroom walls can go below freezing! I use a fan heater when I take a shower. The heater rapidly raises the air temperature but not the wall temperature. The hand towel in the bathroom has to be constantly replaced because it is always so cold and wet from hand washing. 

 Adding a heated towel rail would help to take the chill off but would use a lot of electricity. It's not just the cost of the KWhs but the 17 "green" taxes on top. Including VAT at 25%. This is how Denmark keeps its electricity consumption low as a nation. By ensuring energy poverty is rife. So they can claim they are fighting climate change effectively.

 7.45 I have lit the stove and will go for my morning walk as soon as the logs are burning steadily. Sometimes the stove forgets to burn if I turn the air lever down slightly too much. 

 9.00 Just a walk to the lanes. The roads had been salted but the 1m strip on both edges was icy. The sky was all but clear. Apart from the horizon being entirely circled by tumbling cumulus. A deer dashed away as I wandered past. Only a few gulls and geese wandered the skies.

 The stove has been on for a little over an hour.  61F/16C upstairs and down. [down, meaning the lounge] 55F/13C maintained in the kitchen by the little electric radiator. 45F/7C in the unheated bathroom. 44F/7C in the greenhouse before the low sun reaches it. 

 I have cut down one towering "pencil" conifer. To avoid its shadow falling on the greenhouse all day. There are two others but they only affect the late afternoon. Where they might actually be useful in hot summers. I am keeping temperature readings to whole degrees F now. No point in trying to be more precise. 

 Plans for today: I was going to do more rendering but fear I lack the skill to improve what is already done in the available time. I have only a few days left before my next visit from the council bereavement lady. If there is any hope of her being able to reach an armchair in the lounge. Then I have at least a couple of hours of tidying to do first. 

 I have removed the bookshelves and there are boxes of books literally everywhere. In fact there is clutter in every room now! Perhaps I should abandon all hope of an impressive wall finish by then? 

 I could just pile all the book boxes in a neat row along that wall. Or against the long, brick wall as well. A stack of book boxes in the left corner? Not ideal, but it would save me constantly having to climb over "stuff." I had to leave the window wall and floor clear to have easy access for rendering. Which made the clutter far worse!

 I was sensible [for once] and tidied the lounge. There were another three removal boxes worth of books on the floor. Once full, they are difficult to lift, due to their sheer weight. Lots of lovely, illustrated books on the arts, crafts, interior design, gardening and many other subjects. 

 Then I had to see to the furniture. Which had wandered across the room to allow me space for rendering. The lounge rose to 67F/19.5C. So I was soon stripped down to a T-shirt. Upstairs rose to 64F. The greenhouse was 55F/13C last time I checked. The bathroom crept up to 47F/8C. It has been sunny all morning but I was far too busy to go to the observatory. Still half the room full of boxes to attend to.

 13.20. 34F/+1C.A quick shopping trip for essentials for lunch. Which is over. It is clouding over more now. I am being visited by blue tits on my dormer window. No doubt they are looking for spiders in the corners.

 We had a fully glazed door just standing in an inaccessible corner of the lounge for twenty years. I have just rediscovered that it is the correct size to replace the entrance door! Its original purpose was to form an airlock in the hall. The problem there was the small size of the hall. The coat rack was also on the wrong wall beside the entrance door. So it would have interfered with any door swinging within the narrow hall. 

 The door is an attractive unit with eight, bevelled glass panes. Probably a window? How can I best use it? Being single glazed it would be poor thermal and security performer as the main entrance door. As an air lock door it would block draughts without causing severe claustrophobia in the hall. If only there was room for it!

 Blocking heat from rising up the open stairwell might be an option. I could build a partition across the long leg of the L-shaped lounge. Insert the "glass door" for access to the rest of the lounge just beyond the stairs. A counterbalanced, hinged trapdoor above the stairs? Or, close off the open side of the stairs. Then have the glass door to allow light and access to the bottom of the stairs?

 Do I really want to block the heat rising naturally to the attic? It provides a large, open and comfortable sitting and sleeping area. Except at the height of heatwaves and very cold winters. The lounge has never been a real sitting room. Because of the storage clutter, excess furniture, dark surfaces and dim lighting in the past. 

~~