Watch this space (again)

Enjoying Christmas: present time!

Christmas Walk 2009

Images from 0ur Christmas family walk: it really was at least as cold as it looks! And N had the best hat...

(btw, we have had heat back since Wednesday pm! Wonderful!)

bleak mid-winter!

We have no heat here. That is, we have no central heating, no hot water, and no gas hob to cook on. This is due to the work of British Gas but I won't tell you the tale ...

It is interesting to go back in time. It's a very useful insight to why my (artisan) ancestors didn't write or do fine art. (Servants and/or heat and hot water are needed to keep the housework at bay!) It also helps us understand how it is that children can now spend so much time sitting still on the sofa with a computer game, when only a short few years ago they ran about and played. (Only in a warm room can you slob at a keyboard without frozen feet & fingers.)

We do have a wood/solid fuel stove: as I worked on planning my next book, I've been up & down to check the stove hasn't burned too low while I've been flying on the heights of creativity. You can't just sit back & let it get on on its own. I've been in and out to collect more wood/coal, and noted just how much of these the thing eats up in only a day.

In addition, doing the laundry has been put on hold till we have hot running water for the machine, having a shower (only hot water source but in a cold bathroom) is infinitely less attractive, going to bed involved going up to the cold part of the house, making porridge for a hot breakfast or heating up soup for lunch is impossible, and planning the evening meal means thinking how to cook fish, vegetables, and potatoes in the oven - yesterday's veg was mushrooms & sprouts braised with herbs in water & oil - I had no idea how long that wd take! (It tasted good though).

Useful stuff really, as it brings you back to basics. Everything takes longer. I would not keep cats in a world with no hot water/heating - they add to the creatures to care for, their litter trays can't be washed out properly & easily ... I would probably be too busy keeping house to do anything creative, with having to boil up water for laundry as well as every other little thing, washing up, cleaning, etc.

No surprise people didn't wash themselves or their clothes so often as we do.

Makes you think about energy use and the planet ...

Can't wait for the gas engineers to restore the gas supply - that is, if they do it right this time ....

Ironing angels...

St M's prepares for Christmas, here are the results, and some of the preparations and conversations

Solstice Weather

A walk by the Canal to Frog Lane Pond today: everything frozen, and the skating moorehens skated into the reeds to avoid the camera ...

vintage activity!

Our church had a bake sale - most unusual ... which is why I've put it on here! (may it be the 1st of many - if each cookie sells for 48p, how many cookies must we sell to meet a bill of £48,000 and mend the roof?)

Essential Winter

The essential mid-morning Saturday: Sparky has found his favourite thing in the world (our new wood-burning stove).

Who's there? What for?

How come she was in Cambridge market - when I thought she was far away in Colombia?

And why did her appearance worry me?

Who else is here I don't know about?

Watch this space...

Paintings to loan

As I said earlier, I'm now loaning out paintings so that you can think whether you;d lke to buy one, or maybe just so that you can "ring the changes". Here's a selecetion of styles....

The last one, "Saturday Afternoon", has been loaned out and is now sold ...

Colour hits back!

A selection of colourful leaves and berries photographed yesterday, and illustrating what a wonderful autumn we've had...

Winterfilth

JRR Tolkien revived the old Anglo Saxon month names, (see OUP Blog below, http://blog.oup.com/2009/11/winterfilth/ ) and although Winterfilth belongs to October, today is definitely Winterfilth-y! Here's my walk through the rain. Avoiding the dustcart which was driving slowly down the road collecting wheelie-bin rubbish, I went by the Canal, (which had a strange, sad, brooding beauty?) Actually, it didn't, it was quite upbeat, the ducks were very happy and I marched through the mud enjoying the peace and being outside, which is so much better than stuck indoors on a dark day. Though the cats, except Spike, have spent today asleep. Spike enjoyed watching the gas man mend the boiler, and then later went outside to collect mud on his paws so he could land splat on the typescript I was working on!

Catstuff again