Preparing for Winter V

[Deleted User]

It's blooming freezing down here, has been raining most of the day and feels a good 10 degrees colder than it was yesterday. We put the heating on for an hour this evening, utter bliss. I've cooked supper wrapped in a throw tonight, looking like Ebenezer Scrooge and am contemplating snuggling up under my duvet very soon.

mardatha

We've had a lovely bright sunny day up here, but started off at 1C and everything was white.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

October Dawn by Ted Hughes is one of my favourite poems, but it's not quite Octobery enough in London for a read.

Great season for squashes; my partner has grown several 3kg whoppers. You can get an awful lot of meals out of them.

[Deleted User]

The wood store comes next week!!! the stove arrives first week in November!!! eeek we'll have to find some logs very quickly. We brought kindling and paper logs with us so we're set up and we get a daily paper so that will be saved from now on for fire lighting. The water butt is moved and the drainpipe replaced so most of the maintenance on the small garden is in place. We have the seed catalogue from the allotment association and can now plan next seasons growing I love this time of year.

Primrose

I'm shortly going to start my winter growing programme on a spare window sill. I put no more than an inch of compost in a waterproof tray, sprinkle on a layer of dried Whitworth or similar soup peas and keep them moist. They will soon start growing delicious fresh pea shoots which I snip off and use as meal garnishes. These provide a delicious taste of spring even when nothing much is growing outside.

If anybody wants to try this you can use old and used compost from this year's growing pots or grow bags. The peas don't seem to mind !

[Deleted User]

The new woodstore that was due to arrive next week arrived this afternoon! HWK is putting it together as I type, great hefty thing it is too, very sturdy. I wonder if someone is trying to reinforce that it's going to be a cold old winter this year and is hurrying us along into getting logs?

I'm making a batch of grape jelly too, didn't do any preserving as we were going to move but it's a really nice feeling to be doing some now!

Phew! one log store built and in position, heavy old beastie weighs 60 kilos and we had to stand it upright before we shifted it, muscles still work!!!

lessonlearned

Ooh grape jelly sounds nice.

Well I have settled in. I'm finding this house is rather cold.....Poor insulation and an inefficient heating system, single glazed front windows.

I have booked my plumber to sort out the heating, and am currently in the process of sorting out secondary glazing. It will take a few weeks. Unfortunately I can't do much about the insulation until I get the building work done next year. So In the meantime I have gone out and bought some draft excluding kits, some thick curtains from the charity shop to tide me over and one of those cling film type diy double glazing kits to try. I'm also going to get a couple more extra thick rugs.

I'm resigned to the thought of high bills this year. So I'm hoping 5he winter isn't too bad but there have been some alarming reports that it is going to be hard one.

[Deleted User]

I still have a bit of coal to use up before I get the chimney swept and the balloon put in, we have bought an electric fire which looks like a wood stove.

Just now our central heating is on just first thing and then for an hour before we go to bed, jumpers or sweatshirts are worn if it starts getting cold in the house in the day time. Stews etc are back on the menu.

I need my daughter to come over and put the long curtains up in the sitting room, they are too heavy for me to tackle on my own. Have just put up a curtain over the kitchen door, we do get quite a breeze when the wind blows in a certain direction.

I am building up some dry goods and try to keep 2 weeks main course ingredients in the freezer. I will also get a couple of cartons of UHT milk just in case we cannot get out. Our only problem will be if the electric goes out, I have candles and also a small camping gas ring, so I could cook one meal in a pot, so we can at least get have a hot meal and drink.

fuddle

Yey for the log store! OK, wood. Is there any prospect of wood on the horizon?

[Deleted User]

We've got 3 suppliers to contact locally so I hope wood will be here next week! woohoo, all we need now is a woodstove!!!