Friday 16 December 2022
It is 08:03, about thirty minutes before sunrise, and it’s apparent the clear skies of the past few days are no more. It’s not as cold (apparently minus two) but it’s grey and there’s low cloud/fog covering the hills opposite. Today is our last full day here before we head to London and Kent for Christmas, a day I now realise entails quite a lot of sorting.
So much for having time to sit and read yesterday, I didn’t even get to choose a book to read. I did everything I had to do and most other things I wanted to do. The bedframe-painting is progressing slowly and I’m not going to get the coloured elements finished before we go away tomorrow, which is a bit disappointing. The colour scheme continues to surprise me. With every coat, it looks ever so slightly better. I have now done three coats and at least one more will be necessary. But because there are six colours, I can’t paint adjoining colours at the same time and I always forget about timings and end up leaving hours longer than necessary between coats. Anyway, that will keep me busy between Christmas and New Year.
I did two washes yesterday. We are on an Economy 10 electricity tariff, which means that ten hours over twenty-four hours are ‘cheaper’, if such a word can be applied to energy bills these days. I set the delay on the washing machine so did the first wash from 04:30 in the morning. That was just towels and a duvet cover. I decided, seeing as it was a lovely blue sky kind of day, to hang two towels and the cover on the line outside. I crunched through the snow, battled with a complicated washing line set-up (must get a twirly round washing drier – rotary drier; that’s what they’re called) and hung up the three items. At dusk, I crunched back outside to collect them, noting that the frosty snow that had stuck on one towel when I’d dropped it while hanging it out was still attached. They were almost hard but felt kind of dry. I brought them in and just placed them on the drier and forgot about them for a while. When I picked up a towel to hang it properly, I realised it had defrosted and was pretty much as wet as it had been when I hung it out in the morning. But it did smell outdoorsy-fresh. Nevertheless, I won’t be trying that again. I suspect above-zero temperatures are needed to make a real difference to drying times.
Chris and I drove out to nearby Eskdalemuir and to the Samye Ling Tibetan temple (where I also went the day before). We can’t stop commenting on how beautiful everywhere looks in the frost and snow. Eskdalemuir has a community hub, a shop and cafe, which wasn’t open yesterday, unfortunately, due to plumbing issues (see, not just us). I went into a community – booth? box? hut? – and enjoyed the view.
It’s general rubbish collection day today, which means the bins are taken out the night before. Last night, in his head torch, Chris took out the rubbish, opened our gate, wheeled the bin down the frozen mud and snowy path, across the wooden bridge over the river, opened the next set of gates and deposited the bin by the road. He came back triumphant, saying how much he’d enjoyed walking around at night with his head torch, looking out for animals we have seen only the tracks of. We are both recent adopters of head torches. I honestly don’t know how we’ve survived for so long without one.
Today, I might head into Hawick for some Christmas shopping before the snow that’s forecast in the afternoon. I would like to do two rounds of painting to get a fourth coat on each colour, my desk is due to arrive today (I really don’t think it will) and I need to sort out some presents and things I’ll need in London. As the sky lightens, I am noticing a pink tinge: red sky at morn, shepherds warn …