Well we woke to an ice fog this morning. Beautiful but cold. It's cold in the living room today too..I can hear the wood in the stove making small crackling sounds but I'll obviously need to go feed it something more substantial in a minute. The indoor temperature is 61degrees f and the outdoors is 16 degrees f ..very symmetrical!
This house was built when heat here was virtually free, and it therefore has no insulation to speak of, and far less than any house I've ever lived in, in Shropshire, or anywhere else for that matter...you'd think an Alaskan house would be super insulated..think again. There are a lot of cold houses here in spite of high heat bills.
The heating system in our house could never get/keep the house warm ..so we don' t bother with it.Just leave the circulating pump on so the pipes don't freeze in a cold spot. My other half/partner/dear one/husband...'M' installed a beautiful, huge, fat, black, cast-iron, Cawley wood stove and we feed it well and it keeps us warm, toasty warm..especially when he's feeding it! There is a skill in choice of logs and stacking arangements. Stove has a charm and character of it's own and it's very pretty to look at. She wraps us in Blissful warmth, will boil a kettle and make waffles or pancakes too. Last night we left her with too much air and very dry wood and it was 80 in the bedrooms and too warm...the stove was glowing a bit too (oops)not a good idea.
Well my two finger typing is improving, I have my right arm strapped tight from finger tips to armpit to encourage it to go back to normal size..it started to swell a little (side effect of a damaged lymph drainage system) and is now being massaged,strapped and exercised daily to sort this out and it seems to be working. The only catch being I have one arm that is padded and strapped so it looks most odd...and awkward... I have thought of covering it with silver foil and pretending to be a cyberman from DrWho...muttering delete ominously..but as I'm not too sure how many people in this neck of the woods are familiar with the Doctor.. I'd get even funnier looks than I do now! if not locked away.
Well I should be cleaning the house, baking or catching up with other chores put on hold due to the family practising a relay with an unpleasant tummy bug...littlest first, then eldest, then M.. poor lot most horrid and miserable, and no one getting a good nights sleep for several days..oh dear...But all mending well now and the children able to go back to school today.
Eldest has just discovered the joys of a good book read into the night..(It'll be all night soon Nan!)so last night, 'lights out' was almost a battle, fortunately eldest has also discovered the joys of Anticipation (and reading in bed in the morning! ) so (with only minimal kerfluffle and indignant protests)Enid Blyton's collection of stories "the cuckoo clock" (Yd's choice) and Astrid Lindgren's 'Ronia the Robber's daughter' (Elder d's) were both finally parked on the respective rugs folded on the end of each bed to be gobbled in the morning..which they were with great satisfaction. "18 chapters Mum, it's sort of scary and exciting and I've got to read what happens next "(her first unputdownable book) Oh the pleasures of a good book.
Perhaps I should next, go collect a load of wood, put a chicken in the oven and bake a plain cake... then I'll feel like I've achieved something, the house will be warmer,then I can get well muffled up and briskly walk through the crunchy,squeaky snow to collect the girls from school and the baking smell will greet us when we get back.
Oh and a useless tip for the bored...if you have a fat hand that won't fit in any glove or mitt you possess..try on a fleecy dog snowboot..works a treat (just keep it stuffed in your coat pocket so it doesn't show..unless of course you wish to start a new fashion trend?!)
Well............after a shortish break... that's the washing up dealt with..yes!!! Agatha Christie's "The Million dollar bond robbery" read by David Suchet, followed by "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb"... nice short stories that together with a plastic bread bag glove for the hand, helped me take care of a disliked chore.
Now the Chicken is roasting in the center of the oven and a tray of Tea Scones baking on the top shelf. Time ran out on baking a cake so it's going to be scones hot from the oven for tea.
It's now 66.2 degrees f inside (and feel's warmer) and 15 out, a fat birch log is doing it's stuff in the stove. I'll try and take a snap of the stove and see if I can do the castings credit? and the scones before they disappear! but first it's off into the cold to fetch small girls home. ttfn Val
What a lovely natter, Val. I feel as if I were sitting by the stove with you. I'd love to try one of those scones.
ReplyDeleteWhat a thrill when the children discover the joys of reading for themselves. We didn't have television when our children were growing up and they thank us for it now, being the best-read people they know.
I'm sorry to read about your lymphoedema - I have it too and it can be a nuisance but management has improved in recent years. Good luck with it. I don't think we'll ever be cold enough here in Devon to need snowboots but I'll remember the tip in case our temperature plummets! I wouldn't mind some crunchy snow at Christmas.
How nice to hear from you, I think you were very wise to not have a TV when your children were young, doesn't it make a difference...
ReplyDeletecatching up with the TV later is so much easier than catching up with the World of books.Most TV can't compare with the thought,skill and effort that go into producing and reading a good book!
Though I must admit our children do watch a little. Mostly dvd's we choose (David Attenborough's Nature series, also Bagpuss, Camberwick green, Sooty and Sweep as well as 'the Goodlife' and 'to the Manor born'...you know perhaps that is a large 'little' :o)but thinking about it it's a treat that happens sporadically) also
and a little pbs (public service ...No adverts)
I shall wish you crunchy snow for Christmas eve :o)
We had TV when our girls were young but rationed it. Both of them were like your children, real book addicts, especially my eldest who worshipped Enid Blyton, C.S Lewis and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her daughter is now turning out the same...
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post. Like Maureen I feel like I've been sitting there by the stove with you with a cuppa and having a cosy chat.
Our fire is all laid in for the night, *the* most important job of the day in this house, despite the fact that's it's hardly as cold here in Devon as it would be in Alaska. Sadly no lovely stove like yours.
Hope your arm is better soon, I don't know much about what you have but it sounds very unpleasant.
Rationed Tv ..describes it well Cath!!
ReplyDeleteThere is something very satisfying about a nicely laid fire, isn't there, promising coziness to come I think. As a child in Shropshire it was a great treat to be allowed to do this task watched carefully by the family Collie, who loved the sound of crunched up newspaper which he alweays thought might turn into a game, he'd lie on the hearth rug and wriggle in anticipation, I made the mistake of reading an article for what, to him at least, must have been an inordinate anount of time when he, all of a suddun, exploded through the middle of it like a circus dog through a paper ring...a very amusing and quite unforgettable moment...
Devon may not get lot's of snow but I'm sure it has lovely Springs andf Autumns, seasons that are incredibly short here ..each probably two weeks in length maximum and therefore times of ferocious activity..or not as the case may be... Darn missed it again and the mower has disappeared under a blanket of snow before making it under cover...oops!
This is the first time I've looked in at your blog, so Hi! And then I recognised some names from other blogs, so immediately felt 'at home' even though I've gone North to Alaska, as the song says!
ReplyDeleteWhat's 16f when it's at home? We're on the celcius scale now and I can't convert downwards, only upwards, i.e. 16C is 16 x 2 + 30 which would be 62f roughly. That's the sum total (pardon the pun) of my mental maths prowess!
I dread lymphoedema - I had lymph glands removed 4 years ago and have been warned not to lift heavy things, etc, but one forgets!
I must now make a note of your blog and look in again soon.
Best wishes,
Margaret Powling
Hi Margaret,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the snowy North ... and Pleased to meet you :0)
white stuff is actually falling out the sky as we speak/I type.. and the forecast is for a total of 28.7cm over the next 4 days ('bout a foot then...love to know how they can be so exact)
16f is the same as -9 degrees C
(Ok I cheated and Just looked this up...not great at f to c calculations! as my Brain is on a distinct go slow after chemo..but to be truthful it wasn't great at f to c before if I'm honest :0)
I'm wearing a stretchy sleeve to help my arm behave before radiation..fingers crossed that it works!
All the best Val
Having just looked in yesterday, I'd not realized that you were still having treatment - do I presume that this is for breast cancer? I'm just two years after the end of my 2 years of treatment. I was diagnosed just 4 years ago in Dec 2004. I had the op to remove the tumour and lymph glands (and cancer was in 7 out of 8 of them so they presumed the cancer had gone walkabout and not been contained.) So ... op, followed by 6 months' chemo, then a month of radiotherapy each day and then a year on the drug Herceptin - which was new at the time for primary cancer - as my cancer isn't hormonal and can't be treated like hormone-based cancers. And when I first knew I had cancer I didn't know there were different types! But, I'm glad to say once I got over the shock (and there's no shock quite like it, I don't think; you feel your body has been violated, I think) I felt well (D.V.) all through my treatments which lasted 2 years in all. I just hope your arm gets better; a whole group of us women who had the operation went to a talk on lymphodoema (sp?) and were told that we mustn't lift this or do that, but it's easy to forget when you feel well. My thoughts are with you and I hope you get through all this and come out the other end smiling. I was quite intriged by the radiotherapy. The first time I went it was a pre-radiotherapy session, when I was instructed to lay this way and that way on a couch and then laser beans criss-crossed my torso. From this they could pin point exactly where they wanted to focus the beam onto my breast and under my arm. It was all very James Bond-ish! I was absolutely intrigued, it was too exciting to be frightening, I thought, and my only complaint was that I had to lie completely still ... I wanted to look this way and that to see what they were doing! Then the staff made three tiny - and I mean tiny - tatoos, just a little scratch in the skin and a dab of die added. I still have them, but they're minuscule. This may be too much info for you right now, but I only mention it because there is nothing scary about it and it doesn't hurt. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteMargaret Powling