Hyacinth

Each autumn my neighbour pots up a mass of hyacinth bulbs to give to her friends at Christmas. I’m glad to be included on her gift list and enjoy watching the small green bud grow (so slowly this cold year!) and bloom. I hoped this one would be blue to offset the pretty pink pot and the gods smiled on me for once.

Sadly, although I love the sight, I find the scent oppressive once the flowers are fully open, so like it’s pink and white predecessors, this blue beauty has gone outside. It’s in a sheltered spot by the fence where I can see it through the window and, unless the weather turns really foul again, it will last longer outside than in.

Meter readings

At the weekend I clocked up 13 months of regular gas and electricity meter readings, so now I have a benchmark of usage and can begin to see if my efforts to reduce consumption are effective. I’m pleased to say that for the month of January my 2010 electricity consumption was down 10% on 2009 and gas was down by 13%. And that’s despite the prolonged freezing cold weather!

So what have I done that has made the difference? Just five things in addition to my usual wearing of many layers:

1. I made a “curtain” for the front door. It’s not very elegant –just a £5 Army surplus blanket hung on a couple of hooks with safety pins – but it does the job perfectly well.

2. I filled the gap under kitchen windowsills – it took me a while to work out why the area around the back door and windows was so chilly, but I eventually realised that the top of the tiles under the windowsill hadn’t been grouted and there was an evil little draught coming in. I had a tube of old, but usable filler, so that didn’t cost me anything except a bit of time.

3. I blocked the chimneys. Another cheap and easy solution- I bunged up a load of bubble wrap. I should have stuck a bit of piping up the side to ensure that there was still some draught going up the chimney to avoid getting a damp problem. However, I suspect the bunging isn’t 100% effective, so hopefully it will do for now and I’ll pull it out again when the weather warms up. Next year I’ll do the job better.

4. I put an old sheepskin on my desk chair – this was (although I say it myself) a brilliant idea! If my bum is warm the rest of me seems to stay warm too.

5. I keep my feet warm by wearing woollen hand knitted socks over cotton knee-length socks inside sheepskin slipper-boots.

I haven’t felt deprived in any way by my economies so far – I put the heating on when I feel cold, I have lovely long hot baths and I only have one energy saving light bulb in the house because I hate the beastly things.

Since I started monitoring my energy usage I have become more careful about how I cook though, and I’ve trained myself to wash my hands under the cold tap so the boiler doesn’t fire up umpteen times a day. Apart from that it’s been business as usual – I rarely have more than one or two lights on at a time, I always make a full load for the washing machine and I dress warmly rather than put any heating on. I bath or shower every two or three days and make do with a good wash on the other days. I don’t have a television or dishwasher and I put the computer into sleep mode when it’s not in use.

It would be nice if I was also saving 10 and 13% off my bills, but because the first so many units are charged at a higher rate I’d have to cut my consumption by a lot more to get a significant reduction in the actual cost. And that’s assuming prices stay the same as they are now…

Out of interest I’ve just checked – my gas tariff is the same now as this time last year, but the electricity tariff is a little lower. The main thing is that I now know exactly how much I need to budget each month for energy bills throughout the year and I can adjust my direct debit payments so I don’t end up with a massive credit balance for my supplier to make use of. I’m due a useful-sized refund which I will claim when the next bill arrives.

Sunny Sunday

After the snow and the rain, today dawned bright and blue, and only a trifle chilly. I abandoned my plans for the morning to join the many other locals who headed for the beach to make the most of the sunshine.

Most of them sensibly stuck to walking along the promenade, but I can’t resist the sloosh and whumph of the waves. And I only fell over once running backwards to avoid getting my feet wet.

One day I will take a photo of the sea which has a level horizon. Until then I shall continue tilting the camera and creating gentle slopes for the fish to climb.

A resolution

It’s bit late for New Year Resolutions really, and I never make then anyway, but after this week’s marathon spring cleaning and decluttering session I am going to make one resolution for 2010:

Throw away all padded bags that enter the house as soon as I’ve removed the contents.

Yes, it does seem a wicked waste, but I have a large quantity of the wretched things stored up already and I don’t need to save any more until those are all used up. Spare bubble wrap is easy to get rid of on Freecycle, but there doesn’t seem to be much demand for padded bags.

I’ve squished all that lot into one box and the bubble wrap will go on Freecycle or to a charity shop. What shall I dispose of next?

Footprints in the snow

We had another layer of snow this morning. Just a centimeter or so of wet flakes which made the world look white and clean again for a while. The new snow was perfect for taking footprints from the birds and animals which come foraging for food.

I suspect that by tomorrow the snow will mostly be gone from here. The temperature is rising and as soon at the snowfall stopped this morning the sound of steady dripping filled the air. Rain is forecast and that will clear away any remaining snow and we’ll be left with a soggy muddy mess, which won’t be as pretty, but it will be easier to get around. I shall miss the unusual bird visitors though – a song thrush joined the throng yesterday and there have been other birds I couldn’t identify as anything I’ve seen before.

I have a lot of plans for the garden this year, so I hope it’s not too long before we get a dry spell when it’s possible to get outside and do a bit of work. I want to thin the raspberries and make a new bed for them, cut back the viburnum by about half and remake the flower border in the front garden. At my snail’s pace progress I’ll need a lot of fine weather to get that lot done as well as all the usual tasks.

I counted eight…

…redwings in the apple tree at lunchtime. When I get my new camera I’ll be able to zoom in better, but for now you’ll have to take my word for it that the bird-shaped blobs in the picture are some of them. I think the little flock which is visiting the garden has about twelve members, though it’s hard to count when there are some in the apple tree and some in the viburnum. The robin also made a welcome visit. Well, a robin was on the feeder and I always assume it’s the same robin that I last saw in the garden.

So far I’ve managed to avoid feeling too stir-crazy while the snow is keeping me homebound by getting on with some much-procrastinated housework and decluttering. Naturally the house looks much worse for it, apart from the few areas which have actually been given the complete spring-cleaning treatment. The living room has umpteen piles of books and “stuff” for recycling or selling, which will have to be moved before I can hoover the carpet. Oh well, at least you can’t see much of it!

It’s a beautiful day

The sun is shining brightly and the air completely still, so it takes a while to notice quite how cold it is outdoors. The snow is frozen and crunches satisfyingly underfoot. I’ve only been out in the garden to replenish the bird food and water, and to take a few photographs, but I feel exhilarated by my small excursion in the chill fresh air.

I’ve had some new visitors to the garden since it snowed – a small flock of redwings and a wagtail that I can easily identify, and some LBJ’s that I don’t think are sparrows, but I can’t see well enough to name. I must get myself some field glasses! The sparrows, blue tits, starlings and blackbirds are there as usual, but sadly I haven’t seen the robin. I put out a dish of fresh water and enjoyed a few minutes watching a tiny blue tit taking a bath.

Yesterday the fox came right up to the back door at lunch time and I had a really good look at it. Foxes are often depicted as rusty red in colour, but close up this one has a lot of black in it’s coat. It seems in fairly good condition, but is obviously hungrier than usual. There’s no sign of the squirrels, presumably they are snoozing out the cold snap.

Thankfully I have plenty of food in the house and no need to venture far while the weather is bad. It another blessing that there’s no wind, so the house needs very little heating after a couple of hours in the morning. Mind you, I’m wearing several layers of clothes, handknit woolly socks over long cotton socks and sheepskin slipper-boots, so there’s not much chance of the cold penetrating that lot!

Another half century

Happy Birthday little brother!

Yesterday it snowed

It doesn’t often do that before Christmas here! It doesn’t often do it after Christmas either, so I made the most of the photo opportunity and spent a happy half-hour taking pictures in my and my neighbour’s gardens before it all melted away.

The lichen is always there on J’s old apple tree, but the snow seemed to make it more noticeable. I suppose we forget to really look at what is always there, but add something unusual and suddenly you see everything in more detail.

It was glorious outside yesterday, the sun was shining brightly and there wasn’t a breath of wind, so it took me a while to get really cold whilst trying to capture the beauty of the snow. When I was about to turn into an icicle J made us tea and I retreated into her warm living room to recover.

Today it has been much colder and the snow hasn’t melted any more, so there’s still a good crispy covering of whiteness, but now it is pitted with footprints – cat, fox, pigeon and human.

Full moon and fire

It was a more than a bit unnerving to be woken at 2am by the strong smell of smoke in my bedroom… I think I knew instinctively that it wasn’t my home on fire, but I had a quick and slightly panicky whizz round the house to check that nothing was alight before I looked outside. A long pall of dark smoke was drifting along the road which runs at right angles to my own. As I couldn’t see blue lights or hear sirens I dialled 999, one of many callers as it turned out, and the emergency services were already in attendance.

I couldn’t see much from my bedroom window, so, feeling rather shaky, I went downstairs to make tea and toast and find a bit of company on the internet. When I turned on the tap to fill the kettle I noticed that the water pressure had gone right down – another indication of the severity of the fire? It was tempting to go and sticky-beak (why are we drawn to go and see for ourselves when something out of the ordinary occurs?), but I quelled my ghoulish curiosity and eventually went back to bed.

I slept uneasily while stand-by fire engines rumbled and flashed at the end of the street and occasional small explosions signalled that the fire was still burning. The high moon shone bright through wispy clouds and I was thankful that the raging winds of recent days had abated.

I woke at eight feeling groggy and ill, but needing to find a news report and see what was going on. The fire was located in a small industrial estate and there were fears of gas cylinders exploding, so more than 200 homes had been evacuated and the adjacent railway line closed. From my windows I could see many rescue vehicles and several policemen in the street outside my house. I chatted with neighbours and was relieved to find that we were just outside the evacuation zone. My neighbour’s daughter had kindly left a message offering me a refuge in her home for which I was truly thankful, but I was even more grateful to be able to crawl back into my own bed to catch up on my rest.

Thankfully no one was hurt, though no doubt some are feeling the effects of the toxic smoke and are upset by being forced from their homes in the night. The emergency services seem to have done a good and thorough job of containing the fire and caring for people affected by it. The operation is scaling down now and tomorrow it will all be history for most of us. I hope it will turn out to be an accident, because I prefer the thought of even a stupid careless preventable mistake than that someone would deliberately set such a fire and endanger so many people. We have had several arson attacks on homes in this area in recent months, but someone was arrested for those crimes earlier in the week

While I had breakfast it was cheering and reassuring to see “my” robin bobbing amongst the branches of J’s apple tree oblivious to the human dramas going on around him.