Tuesday 17 January 2023
Snow is still frozen onto trees and plants so outside still looks beautiful, but the house is significantly colder than is comfortable. We can’t even go to a café to warm up, the roads haven’t been gritted and they’re largely just ice. Vehicles have been driving past but even the huge logging trucks have been driving slowly. The problem with the heating appears to be that the thermostat isn’t working and we think the thermostat has defaulted to the lowest temperature. My hands and face, ie the exposed bits, are suffering most, particularly when I’m typing.
The multi-fuel burner is set up ready for a log fire, but neither of us can quite face the rigmarole of the fire again. Those first three weeks scarred us for using a fire. Once I can ignore the image of dirty hands and nails, coal scuffs and coal finger prints on white walls, coal water, carrying heavy bags; then I might be able to replace that experience with an idyllic vision of huddling round a roaring fire hugging a mug of coffee and commenting how warm and cosy it all feels.
Yesterday, I had a productive day in terms of researching agents, and sending my manuscript off to one of them, and other writing. I also resumed Adobe Photoshop training.
House-wise, I did a very minimal amount. We have curtain rails to put up, the weedy ones I bought from IKEA, but can’t put them up as we don’t have the right kind of screws and no more curtain fittings. If all goes to plan (and right now, with all the snow and ice, it doesn’t seem possible), we have a friend, Kyla, staying from Friday. Today, it’d be good to do some house stuff that will make the house look a bit more sorted.
I was cold at lunch time yesterday and had a bee in my bonnet about making thukpa, a Tibetan/Nepalese noodle soup. There are a lot of recipes for thukpa, none of which share all the same ingredients. The one I made yesterday had a good paste base, which had tomato in it. Tomato is not in every recipe, but I think it works well. Yesterday’s was good, but today I’ll be reheating the soup base (vegetables with chicken stock), though cooking noodles separately. I think it’s going to be amazing, and I know it has a chilli kick, which is comforting (distracting?!) in cold weather. I’m very much thinking about a warming soup because my hands are now cold from having been exposed while typing.