19.02.2026

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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.

 

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