Friday 6 October 2023
It’s 07:34 and apparently it’s 13°C. I have opened two of the kitchen windows as there have been two enormous flies buzzing around since yesterday. One has exited the window, the other has disappeared, but I know not out the window. You’d think, looking out the window, it would be significantly colder than 13°C outdoors, but the breeze through the window is pretty much identical to the temperature indoors. This morning, I am wearing four layers on my top half.
My friend Lindsay arrived last night from Hove. Chris picked her up from Carlisle, where the trains had gone horribly wrong for the last part of the journey to Lockerbie. It had been raining and windy pretty much all day and they arrived at the house as the sun – not that we saw it all day – was setting. Without doubt the worst weather for any visitor’s arrival so far. Our plan was to go to Edinburgh on Saturday. However, the torrential rain and weather warnings have all been moving further into the week and have gone from Wednesday/Thursday to Saturday/Sunday. If the rain comes down as forecast (up to 17.7mm in one one-hour period), our road will definitely be flooded, meaning the road to Edinburgh and the station will be impassable (and taking a detour of about an hour and a half in each direction is not worth it). The road issue wasn’t quite as bad last year, in terms of how often it happened and on days we wanted to go that way. We only once made the detour, but fortunately it was going out not coming back so we’d only driven ten minutes and weren’t of the mindset of “yay, home in ten minutes … oh no, another hour and a half instead.”
When Lindsay arrived, dressed for another climate, albeit with a waterproof coat on, she immediately went to her room to change for winter. She said how much she’d been looking forward to not being too hot overnight and how refreshing it was to feel colder as her flat has been too hot for months. I gave her an hour before she longed for the warmth of the south coast. By the end of the evening, her feet were cold and she was, well, very cold. I think she’s having the climate shock I had when I arrived back from Lanzarote and London. I feel horribly, ridiculously responsible for the bad weather. Chris and I love showing people around here, it’s such a beautiful place, but we’ve not yet had a day that is a complete write-off for going out anywhere. Even Edinburgh is forecast to have exceptionally bad rain. It would all be a bit easier if we could get the house warm, though I think the mini electric heaters will come out this weekend.
I really need to not bang on about the weather every day. It’s Scotland, we all know this is what happens in Scotland. It’s just that the rain and coldness (indoors) have come at the same time and I’m not quite ready for it yet. Last winter, from when we moved in mid-November, I spent a good few months going on about the [expletive] multifuel burner, ‘coal’ issues and general heating problems. Surely – surely – I won’t go on about that again all winter this year. The chimney has been swept, I am poised to measure for the new grate (that’s so not the right word but the bit at the bottom of the burner that raises and ventilates the burning coal or wood and stops it merely resting on the bottom of the burner) and order a new one (I’m assuming that is possible) … I mean, what could go wrong with the burner this year? I know the answer: a lot.