ALL CHANGE

I am going to give up on dressing myself in summer clothes. By about two o'clock this afternoon I had completely changed my outfit.   

Almost as soon as I had finished dressing this morning, my cotton top with elbow length sleeves was hidden by my fleece.  For added warmth I zipped it up.  My twenty-seven inches of skirt did quite a good job as far as it went, however, from below my bare knees to my toes I developed purple skin and goose bumps. Not nice. An hour later I gave in, put on a pair of tights and slipped my feet back into my open sandals.

The sandals were not, I decided, the best footwear for a walk. Why not then, change into a pair of shoes and a longer skirt- ankle length would do - to give added warmth. So, that is what I did. The sleeveless quilted zip top over my fleece finished off the outfit.  

The weather had other ideas as I saw when I stepped outside. In the near distance a haa headed in my direction and I felt a light spray on my face.  My washing! I dived back into the house and out to the garden to unpeg my very damp laundry.

Time for another change of clothing; this time I put on a hat, my gilet was replaced with a warm coat and I wore a pair of gloves. We had a lovely and slightly circuitous walk into town through Scotch Mist, passing by fairy circles, which we saw on the communal green. The toes of my shoes got a bit wet on the grass....it really did not matter.  My feet were warm and dry and so was I.

AMONGST THE CRUMBS

We were doing a mini re-organisation at home this week. Not having done that sort of thing for a long time,  it felt like a large upheaval; it was physically demanding. With a certain amount of  ingenuity, a heavy bedspread and a home-made small platform with wheels, one awkward piece of furniture arrived in its new position in one piece and best of all, there were no bumps, knocks, nor any minor injuries.

I had a mental picture how things were going to look when I finished reorganising. But like the proverbial 'best laid plans of mice and men....' at bed time I was still deciding whether or not the radio should sit on the shelf where it had sat before.  I unplugged it a few times to site it in one or two other places. It finally rested where it sat best, where I  had originally put it! Isn't that always the way. The plant is sitting pretty, in full daylight instead of reaching out to find it. It looked happy, it looked good; it can stay where it is.

A quick tidy to finish things off was on the agenda this morning. Q u i c k...I should have known better. Three little shelves, (they really are little) produced a surprising amount of dust and a treasure trove of  about twenty years of memories.  There's no swift way to sort, or, decide what to discard, with all that emotional attachment. 

Amongst the crumbs of years past, I found a gift card and written on it in a child's script was this:

Looking at this card gave me warm feelings.  It must have happened at the time of a school music festival, but when; worse still, who was Helen?  It is very disconcerting.

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT

My radiators are covered with items of clothing at various stages of drying. It's not that I am stingy about using the the tumble-dryer and using fuel; it is that my consciousness has been assaulted with being economic with the earth's resources. I work much like the local farmers do, observing weather patterns, waiting to quickly take and use any windows of opportunity. In my case, I wait for half decent weather so I can peg out the washing to dry in what nature can provide for the purpose. As the season changes the opportunities to dry the washing outside will contract. 

I am almost wistful for bygone days when rooms in houses were large enough to sustain a wooden dryer fixed with a pulley, which rose to the ceiling. We had one, when I was young, and it settled in a high area in line with the rising heat from the coal range, mostly used for heating. Those were the days of city smog. I would not wish that back. With the thought in mind, I have been eying up any spaces that might accommodate a pulley dryer/airer. The obvious one would be our utility area, but that is far too narrow.

Damp is another issue to think about. These days, with smaller room sizes and the encouragement to insulate houses well, ventilation is more restricted. On the other hand if a house is heated with dry heat, a little moisture might balance things off a bit. The correct balances could be difficult to achieve.

Increasing heating costs focus the mind and the purse. Where I live, there are very limited periods when the heating is completely off during the year. The thinking cap will have to go on again. Meantime, the airers over the radiators and the radiators themselves will have to do their best to support the ecological argument on the basis that every little helps it, and also, every little helps to support the domestic economy drive.

A RUDE AWAKENING

I now know what it means to be rudely awakened. I wish I had not found out. I came out of a deep sleep, my eyes opened quickly and I had a panic thought, all at the same time. "Oh S**t......the bins, I haven't put them out" They are emptied by the collectors about 7am as a rule.

So, at 5.40am I was out of a nice cozy bed, slippers and dressing gown on, I, heavy headed, went out to the bin, opened the gate and wheeled it out to the front of the house. All was quiet, most windows had curtains drawn; it was cold and dark. 

Next, I carried the empty paper box to sit beside the refuse bin. It's easier than carrying a loaded box. That done, I re-entered the house and retrieved all the paper to be disposed of, flattened a cardboard carton and carried it and the paper collection out to the box. The paper box lid behaved itself for a change, unclipping and clipping back on smoothly. Then I emptied every basket and bin there is at home, including the one in the bedroom, and repeated my nocturnal visit to the refuse bin. It was 5.55am when I returned to my snug bed.

I dozed but didn't get back to a proper sleep. When it was light, I got up, still sleepy. I sat in a chair for a bit. Then came the awakening.....the bins are emptied on Mondays, and this was Sunday, all day.

JUST A LIGHT BULB

I switched on the kitchen light tonight, there was an immediate bang. Not a genteel 'pop'. It made me jump. Half the house lights went off as a result. Just what I needed when arriving home with arms full of bags and items of shopping...and the bunch of flowers I treated myself to. 

A poke around for a torch, a visit to the fuse box, which is in an awkward place, with the ends of two full size oars resting on it, revealed two fuse switches were off. That job done, I discovered when I gingerly switched on the lights again, I need to replace one little light bulb! ..... All that for one light bulb.

WASHING,GARDENING AND BIRDS

The threat of more rain requires me to take urgent action to get washing done and out on the line to dry while Mother Nature is being welcoming.  

I sometimes put out peanuts for the birds, even though this is the more fecund time of year when the birds can forage and find food for themselves.  They are regularly fed in Winter and Spring.  I have a firm belief that this consideration stopped the birds from depositing their calling cards on my washing  during the nesting and fledgling times during the Spring of 2010.  Every year, I have had to remove bird dropping from my drying laundry, but, not this year.

As I hung up the peanut holders for our feathered visitors, I noticed that there was more than a healthy crop of thistles against the fence, which were quite tall and ready to burst into bloom.  They were happily creating and recreating themselves around bunches of weeds and nettles.  Some quick but limited thought was given to dealing with these weed miscreants.  They are not welcome. 

Right,   this post stops here, the next wash load is ready to put out to dry.

IT'S THE DAWNING OF THE AGE OF.........

There's been too much domestic technology this week. Certain parts of the UK are slowly being brought into the digital age. We decided to cave in and get a new TV just in time for switch on. Do we need an external aerial? Maybe not; best to wait till the two switch over dates have passed and see what happens, we were told. Okay, they're very soon. Meantime, I am wondering if the new technology warms up to the full bloom of colour, (it does seem to) or if it's hunting for brilliance. The bobbing from horizontal to stretch limousine style pictures I can temporarily live with, since I don't watch much on the box, (ooh I can't say that now, it's not a box)..... Darn, that's another change.

Our new router is ever so easy to set up, said the salesman. Are they ever! Not if you have some old technology in the house which stubbornly refuses to acknowledge anything except through a lovely yellow cable. A specialist arrived tonight to unknot the blocks. To work, the router's new age security level had to be reduced a bit, but then the equipment had to be set on a slightly different technology footing as well. Either that or buy another new computer.... too expensive, so no, not for now. An obscure setting was causing bother as well. Oh, and just for good measure, the system password had to be modified to match the restyled arrangements.

I'm not sure why my old printer isn't talking to my programmes. It's probably kicking up because it's competing with a new one. I haven't got my head round it yet. It's still got plenty ink in the cartridge, (its mono so no colour worries there) and I intend to use up the ink before the printer - wobbly on its metaphoric legs but usable - bites the dust.