12.02.2025 Still fiddling.

 ~o~

 Wednesday 12th 30F/-1C [7.00] The forecast is feeling colder than ever. Due to the wind chill factor. Unlikely to get much above 1C/34F today. Gusting to around 12m/s x2.2 = 25mph. There is white frost on the car roof.

 Up at 6.15. 61F/16C in the room. Stove lit at 7am. Using flakes of beech. For a rapid warmup to a red bed for igniting logs. 

 7.45 Getting ready for a walk. The sky is white and any clouds indistinct. A hint of a tobacco filter low in the east. Perhaps suggesting sunshine. 65F/18C in the room. I can feel the warmth of the stove on the back of my neck. No physio class today due to winter holidays. 

 8.50 67F/19C in the room. I was gone for 50 minutes. The wind felt stronger than yesterday. So I was grateful for my hood and any shelter from the roadside hedges. Patchy white frost on the grass verges. The sun rose over the familiar cloud bank in the east at 8.30. Though only briefly. The cloud seems to be winning. I walked up the low hill, branching off the lanes. Which I haven't done for ages. Coming back down was straight into an eye-watering gale. The traffic was sparse and quiet. Presumably due to the national winter holiday.

 12.30 Back from town. The Morris misbehaved on and off but kept going. I found the lower baskets for the top of the kitchen recycling cupboard but little else on my shopping list. 

 1.30 33.6F/1C. The sun is trying to come out but it is very cloudy. I captured an image of the new layout in weak, horizon-grazing sunshine. Porridge oats and raisins [Breakfast] on the left. Two kinds of wholemeal bread rolls and the last containing fresh fruit. Organic apples, bananas and Sugar Drop, cherry tomatoes. I was lucky enough to find some wonderful door knobs in matching wood grain in a charity shop. 

 I removed the wooden moulding which overlapped the doors. To allow free opening of both doors without hindrance. It just makes life so much easier when the doors are opened so frequently. For dropping the paper and plastic into the correct plastic baskets. I use an old washing up bowl for the tins and jars. 

 The food waste container, at front left, is always lined with disposable plastic bags. Which are biodegradable and supplied in generous quantities by the recycling company. Which contracts waste bin emptying and recycling for the local council. I intend to hang the food waste container from the inside of the left hand door. Having removed the shelves from the cupboard. To have the entire, interior space clear. Vintage pine may be a matter of taste but I love the warmth of the beautiful wood grain.

 Who would have thought I'd end up obsessing over the efficiency of my own kitchen. I am rather pleased with the way it is all falling into place. The walls obviously need urgent attention. The interior walls can be filled and painted. While the end wall needs major surgery. It is still two layers from the past. When the lower half of the kitchen was lined with boards. Taken down again after my wife died. Because they were full of woodworm. I have mentioned all of this before.

 I could just add more plasterboard in the lower half of the end wall. That would bring it up to level all over. More filler and paint would lift the room dramatically. The window wall can stay as tiles. It just needs the wallpaper removed from the upper half and the bare walls painted. All of which ignores the question of added insulation. To bring it up to modern standards.

 Dinner was a salmon pasty. With organic Fettuccine pasta and organic peas. A whole tin of chopped, organic tomatoes partially drained and thrown on top. The oven was set to 180C and preheated with the fan running. It did a perfect job within the 20 minutes suggested by the packaging.

  ~o~