Monday 23 October 2023
It’s zero degrees, frosty and negligible breeze and I have hung my washing out. I am not optimistic much drying will occur but I enjoyed being outdoors at 08:00 to hang it out. I have an electric fan heater on in my office and the room is warming up a treat. I am also wearing thick, wintery clothes. I am just about acclimatised for winter now. Oh, wait, it’s only the middle of autumn. Yikes.
Yesterday morning, I did my ‘patrol’ as the sun was rising. It wasn’t a memorable sunrise but I loved walking at that time of day. Early this year, I did the majority of my most-days patrols in the mornings around sunrise but morning walks weren’t ideal in summer, firstly because of the very early sunrise but also because of being a favourite time for midges. I reiterate that October is looking set to be my favourite month to be here, which is all the more astonishing from me because it’s usually my least favourite month. I used to get SADS quite badly in October and in London it can still be quite warm so I can’t wear the winter clothes I enjoy wearing, but then it gets cold once the sun goes in so I’m in a constant state of wardrobe confusion. I suppose October here is like November in London, which makes it better because the days are longer in October. This time last year, we were counting down the weeks to our move here.
Yesterday, while Mitch was overachieving (pretty much repairing the road outside our drive, digging a trench for water pipes …), I planted two bags of daffodil bulbs. It was lovely, sunny, comfortably-cold weather and I started the digging with a dibber and mallet. After two deep holes and two bulbs, I realised that two bags contain a lot of bulbs. I sort of enjoyed it, though considering the bags of bulbs laid claim to guaranteed daffodils there were a lot of squishy/dusty bulbs. I have no idea how you can prove their guarantee failed. There’s no way a lot of those bulbs will come to anything. I also think we have too many badgers and other diggy-diggy animals around for at least some of them to be dug up and nibbled. Anyway, those bags had been sitting around waiting for me to plant them and now it’s finally done.