Saturday 26 November 2022
I have lost any love or interest I ever had in the stove. It is 08:30, grey and wet outside and we’re down to a few burning embers. I can see the fire needs cleaning again. We’re going shopping today so I’ll let it go out completely then clean it and add another layer of coal dirt to my nails and hands. It’s been a week since I felt a hot radiator. That’s not a euphemism; it’s a cry for help!
Yesterday, I decided against my desk shopping trip. Instead, I drove a short distance to a loch the previous owners had taken us to for a woodland walk. The walk and the forest path was even more beautiful than I remembered it. Along with fungi, I am now fascinated by lichen and moss. Since arriving in Scottish Borders, my new Google searches relate to moss/lichen/fungi and multi-fuel burners/how to light a fire/is it just me or is fire-lighting anxiety a thing? I shall be a wealth of knowledge before the first year is over. You’d think.
As for the utility room and toilet area, thanks to announcing I would be cleaning that area yesterday, I made myself do it. I didn’t want to. It looks magnificent now, though there are things we need for that room, a shoe rack for example. I hope it maintains at least a semblance of cleanliness and order; neither of us has been out that way with muddy boots and no wet coal bags have come in from outside since I cleaned and sorted it. I would like it to remain that way. Obviously it won’t.
I sat in my study for a few hours and did some work on my laptop on a pile of mattresses wrapped in a giant beanbag (beanbags make lovely, warm (noisy) duvets). I couldn’t stop looking around at the boxes and piles of stuff, thinking about how much better it’ll look when I have furniture. I then measured spaces in the study and most other rooms in anticipation of today’s shopping trip. I may have pinned too much hope on this shopping trip. If I don’t come away with a desk at least, I will be crushed. Sort of.
As for the kitchen, I cleared away some random things that were on one of the very deep windowsills. That felt like good progress. Chris, meanwhile, had been in his study, working and unpacking a bit here and there. He came out with some “these are yours” type things and placed them on the just-cleared windowsill. I lost the will to find homes for them and they are still languishing there. The kitchen has no bins, so we have a black bin bag in a tall cardboardy-paper bag and in a large, white plastic crate. They look horrid. I know it sounds ridiculous but I think once we have bins and I don’t have to look at black bin bags taking up a corner of the kitchen, I will take the tidying of the kitchen much more seriously.
Today is Saturday, I give myself no chores or tasks … well, the pressure is on to find at least a desk/table. We might also get to have a coffee out and I will not head home until we have a comforting, big pump-dispenser of Swarfega.
