Lifestyle

Monday 16 October 2023 The next, most fiddly part of our stairwell painting is now half done. Now that I have adopted the Fitbit thing of making sure to move at least 250 steps every hour when I’d otherwise be sitting at my desk, painting in instalments means I’m more likely to get things done. […]

Friday 13 October 2023 I’m officially cold. It’s 08:45 and apparently 6°C with a feels-like of 4°C, which isn’t as cold as yesterday and there’s no frost, but it feels colder. In Lewisham, I can’t quite believe this, it’s 18°C with heavy rain, apparently. Never underestimate how big a difference there is in temperature around

Thursday 12 October 2023 It’s zero degrees and there is frost. The kitchen, which has been chilly for a while, had not got below 14°C, went up to 16°C for a day last week but is now 13°C. Last winter, it was down to 7°C. I think that isn’t that cold, but indoors, trust me,

Wednesday 11 October 2023 Today and yesterday, we have had an Openreach engineer getting us ready for fibre broadband. As with seemingly everything about living out here, there have been issues, including that the cable will need to be laid underground rather than above ground due to some height issues (even that’s not straightforward, one

Tuesday 10 October 2023 My friend Lindsay stayed with us from Thursday to Monday. Despite the heavy rain on Friday, particularly Saturday and a small amount on Sunday morning, we had walks every day. On Sunday, we left home at 07:30 to drive to Samye Ling for an 08:00 to 09:00 silent meditation session at

Saturday 7 October 2023 It is raining. A lot. The river at the bottom of the garden is wider and considerably more exciting than usual and the odds are extremely high that our road is flooded and impassable for our cars. We had already realised we wouldn’t be able to go to Edinburgh today as