Blimey!

Blimey! Who'da thunkit! from a sunny but cold clear blue sky everything changed. The snow came pelting down, took a long time to decide to settle and then suddenly those great big flakes came and it all turned white. Mr Man brings water from the well, I'm stoking away inside - in the morning it was 4 degrees C in the bedroom when I woke up, so we'll get this chimney really warm this evening and sleep up in the loft where it was 15 degrees C at the same time this morning. A new loft ladder has opened up new vistas for me, since I was never quite able to shinny up the ladder and throw myself over the hurdles to get up there before. Now, I wouldn't say it's a doddle but it works and I have been able to stash my multitude of sins up there. This in turn has freed up the space just about everywhere else to great relief for both of us. Not only that but I've discovered the trick of placing the logs at the right angle in our small wood-burning stove so that when the time comes for the next log it is quite possible to get it in and not all blocked up. There is now a big pan of water permanently on the top and lo! we now have instant hot water. Not enough for a bath but at least one can wash one's hands and face and unmentionables.

dawn chorus

Stone lace and a beach picture from Gotland.

Woke up this morning as dawn cracked with the chorus.

Thrush, with his double toot, sounds a little less melancholy in the morning, perkier.
Ravens calling.

The house smells of mothballs from a million opened plastic boxes of wool and ancient projects. These boxes have been open now for two days and still the smell is abominable. I've put the lid back on some, but the condensation must out of the rest first.

Yesterdays terrible battle lies heavy over the house - needs also to be aired out from old damp and then lids put on. I carry on as normal in the emotional rubble. Is anything irreparable or reparable?

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Afternoon. All is calm though the stench is still difficult. We have bought a loft ladder so I can get up there and store all of these boxes. That'll be a load off.

On the way up the hill I picked some wood anemones.

 

back at the shack

we've been back at the shack for a couple of days and although it usually takes a week to unpack everything from storage and put it in place after cleaning up the mouseshit, we have now decided to do some more moving around of enormous quantities of stuff, from the one little house to the other and sorting through it all. This is major, but I suppose if one makes oneself sort through everything every year, then one will naturally whittle things down a bit.........?.......

The sun is blazing amazing. There are crocuses, snowdrops and a christmas rose and the daffs are budding a month early. I am told that this is the warmest spring noted here since spring noting began sometime in the middle of the 1800's. The first morning here after we came back, there was only one degree or so above freezing inside and condensation was running down the window panes. I froze and we couldn't light a fire because a vital piece had fallen off the wood stove and needed fixing. Got it going later though. The place is gradually drying out.

Today, a person was spotted in the garden. It doesn't happen very often and this time it was a redheaded cousin who normally lives in Copenhagen. We had a casserole with ecobeef in red wne and coconut milk, with some ginger, garlic, celeriac and carrots, all served on basmati rice. It was quite ok. Cousin E is allergic to gluten and dairy so that worked out ok too.

Birds are going a bit mad, nuthatches, blackbirds, thrushes, robins, great tits, blue tits, coal tits, magpies, an array of woodpeckers, all building like maniacs everywhere around us. At night owls are heard, the more owls the less voles we think hopefully. I love the song of the thrush. Its melancholy evening tootle, always by the edge of the forest and always saying everything twice. I love its slender shape, the most elegant of birds. They leave snails shells on our granite doorstep, where they have come at dawn to crack open the shells. I wish they ate the big slugs too, but hardly anyone eats them.