Warm as toast
Today I bought 3 hot water bottles. They were on a special offer at Boots ... buy two, get one free. It was lovely to sit on the sofa in the dark with my housemate, watching Cracker (recorded) and have a couple of hot-bottles each under some fluffy blankets a friend bought us. I am almost relishing the prospect of a winter with no central heating. We have a huge woodburner, and some dodgy sixties underfloor system which is effective but cost the previous occupier a whole kidney in electricity. So - blankets and the woodburner are the bigger part of the plan. The office has a small night-storage heater which can keep our fingers from freezing to the keyboards.
I say all this, feel enthused about it, now, in the warmest October since records began. Londoners are today still in short sleeves and sandals. Most peculiar. I believe people have an uncomfortable relationship with this much good weather - it's like they don't believe they deserve it. Especially in the city - where there is no investment, no personal risk. "We should be near a beach" said one guy I encountered in a waiting room this afternoon ... it seemed it was not so much that he wanted to be by the seaside, but that if he had chosen to invest in being near a beach today then his courage would have been rewarded. He would have earned his blue sky by putting himself in a place where it made a difference.
Perhaps I do feel that I've made that investment. Certainly, dry, warm and windy now means washing on the line, where once it meant sitting in the pub garden rather than the main bar. I listen for clues about when to walk the dog, when to bring the chickens in and out, when to chop wood.
Apparently tomorrow morning will begin with a light fog, lifting after lunch. That sounds like every morning to me!
***
I say all this, feel enthused about it, now, in the warmest October since records began. Londoners are today still in short sleeves and sandals. Most peculiar. I believe people have an uncomfortable relationship with this much good weather - it's like they don't believe they deserve it. Especially in the city - where there is no investment, no personal risk. "We should be near a beach" said one guy I encountered in a waiting room this afternoon ... it seemed it was not so much that he wanted to be by the seaside, but that if he had chosen to invest in being near a beach today then his courage would have been rewarded. He would have earned his blue sky by putting himself in a place where it made a difference.
Perhaps I do feel that I've made that investment. Certainly, dry, warm and windy now means washing on the line, where once it meant sitting in the pub garden rather than the main bar. I listen for clues about when to walk the dog, when to bring the chickens in and out, when to chop wood.
Apparently tomorrow morning will begin with a light fog, lifting after lunch. That sounds like every morning to me!
***
Labels: heating, hot-water bottles, sunshine, warmth, washing, weather, wind
posted by Stray at 11:50 PM
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2 Comments:
This speaks to me. I have just drafted something which touches in passing on the discomfort of the unseasonably warm weather ... I'm just uneasily aware of the probable causes of it I guess ....
I love hot water bottles. Aside from a cup of tea few things are more comforting, especially combined with a warm blanket.
Agreed :)
It is kind of hard to enjoy the warmth without wondering whether it has unfortunate roots, and what it might bode for the future.
Still ... on the plus side, it's a few weeks in which the population of most of the UK haven't been burning up fossil fuels to keep their houses warm !
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