Preparing for Winter V

[Deleted User]

Well my flat roof has finally been completed!!! 🙌 for the first time in 2 years, I'm done with contractors! 😊🍾 
I'm soooo relieved - this one was lovely, did a really good job at a good price and was no bother at all but after all the traumas we've had over the past couple of years I still wasn't sorry to see him go!! 😂😂😂 Now it's just the gardens left but that's work that needs no external input 😉
I've been dehydrating stuff and collecting jars for later in the year - dd has discovered a plum tree that doesn't belong to anyone so I'll be raiding that at the weekend when I pick up my grandbaby- I'm thinking vodka 😉 
Lots of positives at the moment- I've had the oil tanked filled to capacity, I've got plenty of veg growing well and I'm stocked up with food so if we're snowed in/locked down or anything else, I'll be in a good position to see us and my kids and their families through it all for a considerable period 😊

smeeth

Quick reminder as it's now August, some energy suppliers have applications for the Warm Home Discount open for this winter. I just did ours with EON. 

villagelife

Thank you for suggestions cherries - have pickled cherries, fruit leathers, dried cherries and cherry syrup/cordial all made and stored away.

[Deleted User]

Well done you!

Laura_Elsewhere

It's not cold out there - 17C at 8pm - but after a sunny start it turned into a raw blustery kind of day, lowering clouds and very autumnal-feeling. We had stew and veg for supper, a definitely un-summery meal!

I feel all excited... it's on its way....! 

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

I'm a little envious laura_elsewhere. My thermostat is currently reading 24c in the hallway. Was trying to make some plum jam today and the heat was unbearable in the kitchen. 

Laura_Elsewhere

Yeah our kitchen gets bad - we're a top-floor flat with north windows for sitting room and south for bedroom but the bathroom and kitchen in the middle have no windows, and it can get seriously unpleasant in there in hot or humid weather, even if I run the noisy annoying extractor fan!  And our tumble-dryer is in there - no other way to dry laundry - and that chucks out heat too, in the tiny galley-space  

I am feeling excited now the cooler months are within grasp... 

VJsmum

I wish i could be excited Laura_Elsewhere - i feel a cold grip of dread in my stomach when i think about winter.  It kind of spoils autumn, which i think i could enjoy if it didn't lead to winter.  Just the knowledge that it will be months and months before i can feel any warmth on my skin (not tanning / sun bathing - i don't do that, but i just love that warmth).  The last few years we've gone to the Canaries in January as  a bit of respite - i'm hoping we can next January but obviously it's all a little difficult to know at the moment.

Laura_Elsewhere

@VJsmum - that's exactly how I feel about the start of the warm months, a sinking leaden misery about the prospect of the endless heat - anything over about 18C is 'hot' for me, over about 23C and I start becoming really struggling to think clearly, and if it gets to the high 20s all I really can do is curl up and sob exhaustedly...

As the saying goes: if we all liked the same things, they'd sell no tins of mixed biscuits  

VJsmum

I did wonder if it was the same in reverse IYSWIM... i know many (including my DD) who loathe the heat but my 'favourite' temperature is 25C!!  I love anything over 22 and can tolerate even hotter.  When I went to Dubai it was mid-30s which was lovely.  I should have been born into a different climate!  I am a real hibernator and hate being out in the cold - i can tolerate it in daylight but cold and dark is a real no no for me.  They say you like the weather you were born into but i was born in mid-December!