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15C/60F upstairs. 13C/55F in the lounge. 10C/49F in the kitchen. The stove was going well last night. Inexplicably struggling the day before. As I have already mentioned: I clear the ashes every morning before lighting it. Yet the draw changes from day to day. Even though the wind has been very light for days.
Up at 6.30. I woke up feeling cold at 4am. My winter duvet was on the floor! My long underwear grips the duvet cover like a rubber roller as I turn. Wasn't it lucky I was wearing long underwear when the duvet fell off? 🙄 Do I really need the long underwear with the bedroom hovering around 15C? Probably not. Fortunately, outside temperatures are due to rise 10C within a few days!
7.30 I lit the stove. With great difficulty because of the non-inflammable kindling. Bought from the sheltered workshop! Now I need more kindling. How will I explain that I only want the stuff which burns readily? I buy it by the sack and they have just doubled their prices! Perhaps because it is so safe? Childproof kindling? 🤣
08.00 I shall have to clear the drive. It looks as if another 5cm/2" of snow has fallen. The car is completely covered too.
I shall leave my wife's garden to its own devices for the moment. The birds spend a lot of time there searching for seeds and foraging.
The lounge is dark because of the 5cm of snow on the greenhouse roof. I'll have to clear that too after morning coffee. A window squeegee on a pole works wonders. No point in a walk this morning. I have already had enough exercise. With plenty more to come before the day is out.
9.15 -3C/26F. Golden sunlight on the tops of the garden trees!
9.30 Golden sunlit mist! The mist slowly layered and then thinned as I spent another half hour on clearing the drive. The telescopic pole was frozen internally. I had to bring it indoors to thaw out beside the stove. So I can clear the top half of the greenhouse. Every drop of sunshine counts.
10.45. Finished clearing along the middle of the drive. Then started on the greenhouse roof. Unfortunately it was refrozen snow. So it would not clear. Leaving a rough ice cover. Meanwhile cloud has arrived and hidden the sun.
13.30 I am having to catch up on the laundry backlog. I was down to the last pair of winter socks. It tends to disappear into the darkness of the bedroom. At least, that is my excuse. 😇
15.00 I started tidying the stage area behind the TV. Then decided to take most of it to the charity shops. I even took several boxes downstairs. Before deciding that I didn't want to get rid of a lot of it.
I went on tidying boxes, glass and china onto the steel shelving. I looked through eBay[UK] nut none of the china looked remotely valuable. Just pretty and more of the same. Then I lost my updated post. One step forwards. Two back.
I decided to turn my attention to the kitchen instead. There was far too much stuff cluttering up the working surface. A stack of mixed crockery and loads of mugs on a tray. Each mug holding segregated cutlery. Cutlery trays in the shallow drawers have a complete mix of implements and cutlery. None of which I shall ever use nor ever want to. Most of it can go. I'll have my regular cutlery in a plastic cutlery tray in the drawer under the main preparation area.
The cupboards underneath were stuffed with items which would never, ever be used again:
Stacks of pretty plates and pretty saucers. Collected for their prettiness over a lifetime. I like the matching blue plates. The rest is going to charity. The decorative plates and saucers would make a 60cm high stack in all. Twenty different mugs I shall never use.
I'll keep the baking trays and cake forms. You never know. I might develop a taste for baking. Perhaps even the skill one day. Most of the other stuff can go. All of it was used by my wife at one time or another. It all makes me feel very sad. As if I am discarding fond memories of countless cakes and tarts, pies and meals. Always perfectly prepared and presented. Always self critical, modest and self-effacing. Alas no more.
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