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~

 

11.02.2025 Them logs, them dry logs..

 ~o~

 Tuesday 11th 33F/0.6C [7.30]  Overcast and increasingly windy from the east. Some sunshine possible.

  Up at 6.30 after waking earlier. Several times. Otherwise a quiet night but with weird dreams. Short term nosebleed. Too cold and windy for a ride today. While the car is untrustworthy.

 2/3 of a trailer full stacked against the wall. Any sunshine helps to dry out the logs further. The split logs are housed in huge heaps in a large and draughty open sided barn at the supplier. Ideal for natural drying.

 9.25 Back from a walk. The wind was roaring in the trees as they swayed. I wore my Ventile winter jacket. It is completely windproof and comfortably warm in harsh conditions. The down sweater stayed at home. While the Karrimor neck sleeve stopped the draughts. The GripGrab winter gloves were too cold yet again. 

 A large tractor was slashing the hedges. Managing a walking pace. I crossed the road to avoid holding him up. There was very little traffic this morning. I stopped to watch and we exchanged a wave.

 It doesn't look like much but there are five large wheelbarrows full on the floor. Scrap plywood protects the greenhouse glass. I save the small pieces of wood as kindling. It is handy to revive a fire that has all but burnt down to ashes. 

 Brief glimpses of the sun between the clouds. Much more visible now I have reached home. The room rose from 60 to 66F [15-19C] while I was out. Thanks to a large log on the stove. 

 I used to split these oversized logs. My new source provides shorter logs. Which allows them to go easily through the stove door. To be placed exactly where I want them. Rather than jamming at an angle between the fire bricks. Large logs last much longer and useful to keep the stove going while I am out.

 12.00 36F/2C. Continuous sunshine but a strong and cold wind. I had a look under the bonnet of the Morris. One hose clamp was not tightened at all. Between the air cleaner and the engine block breather/oil separator. Is this likely to have had any affect on the mixture? Unknown until I have a test drive. I also refilled the oil in the carburettor cap. There was some oil on the piston but none visible in the well. I checked all the electrical connections and waggled all the ignition leads with the engine running. No change.

 13.15 Returned from a tootle around the rural block. The engine backfired as I pulled away but soon settled down. I need more logs. Only about a week left at current consumption. The weather might change to snow and make the roads more difficult. Worth the risk to drive up there with the trailer?

 15.30 I have collected a trailer full of logs and drove them home. After parking the trailer outside the greenhouse I brought them all in using a wheelbarrow.  Stacking as many against the house as I could. Without blocking the windows. The rest were piled loosely on the greenhouse floor. 

 After using the last of the previous load I shall take the new logs from the floor first. They go straight into the strong plastic baskets. Which I use for moving them indoors. This avoids double handling. One of the baskets can be seen on top of the wheelbarrow.

 I am aiming for scrambled eggs on toast for dinner. Well, it's a plan.

 

  ~o~

10.02.2025 It never ends!

 ~o~

  Monday 10th 34F/1C [8.20] Very heavy overcast as the stable winter conditions continue. Increasingly breezy from the NE. Gusting between 12 and 14m/s. x2.2 = 26-30mph. Forcing temperatures well down on the wind chill index. They quote -5C but they obviously haven't been out on a bike! My forward speed has to be added. Say 20mph? That is a 50mph headwind! Equivalent to -8C on the human bod in still conditions.

 Up at 7.30 after a busy night at the fire bucket. I woke early [4am] and then dozed repeatedly. 61F/16C in the room. Stove lit.

 Should I ride to the village with the newly opened flea market? It's not that far [10km/7miles] but not the most pleasant ride. The first half the journey is on a twisting and humped main road. With speeding traffic around blind corners. Including buses and 7 axle container lorries. No cycle lanes marked. Big drops off the edge of the road due to continuous drainage problems. Repeated addition of loose gravel on the ragged edge of the asphalt last until the next shower. This has been going on for decades.

 The second half is on a wide open, main road with little shelter from the wind. The 70kph/43mph speed limit is routinely ignored by all. Including the buses. Some drivers find it fun to brush closely past cyclists. Despite the considerable width of the road and mostly generous cycle lane. Protected only by a painted white line on the road. I need to visit the chemists [apotek] to top up my heart medication. So have to go out anyway. The car was misbehaving again yesterday. The engine missing jerkily and backfiring repeatedly. 

 11.30 Back from a 27km ride to two, new, flea markets. The three cupboards I saw proved to be unsuitable. Too small or much too long. I could see another cupboard through the window of another flea market. This one is only open to calls on their mobile phone. It would also be difficult to reach to measure it as the shop was so packed with stuff. Which isn't very helpful. 

The brand new oven tray twisting when warmed.

 Another charity shop is only open in the afternoons and doesn't do much in the way of furniture. The wind was viciously cold. It felt like knives cutting into my face at times. My fingers were cold. With and without thinner gloves inside the bulky skiing gloves. I remembered to collect my tablets.

 After lunch I worked in the kitchen. Fixing the washing machine drain hose and standpipe to the wall. I also found some longer screws and fixed the knobs to the doors of the wall cabinets. Though small, the knobs match the colour and wood grain of the cabinets. They are nicely ergonomic now. Without shouting about their presence. A nice height to avoid stretching.

 The white plastic baskets are rather too tall for easy checking of their contents. I missed the presence of bananas one day. Still better than loose rolls and fruit on the top of the recycling cabinet. I'll look for some lower baskets. 

 The waste food tub is more useful on there. Safely avoiding the sun. Which it formerly enjoyed on the windowsill. Regularly causing excessive odours as the temperature soared in summer. Particularly from the discarded skin of my daily banana with lunch. 

 I am now dropping my teabags into an old glass cup on the work surface to dry out. This saves too much moisture collecting inside the recycling tub lid. Obsessive? Moi?

 Dinner was.. burnt. I underestimated the speed of conflagration of the grill again. Not least due to the ridiculous twisting of the oven tray. I cut off the blackened crusts and it was fine. It was meant to be mackerel in tomato sauce with real tomatoes. Luckily, that was exactly what it tasted like. I had an apple for pudding.

  ~o~