Saturday 18 February 2023
I had a long To Do list to work through yesterday, and I’ve given myself until Monday to complete it. A lot of items on the list were things I’d have needed to do wherever I lived, but I was aware that a fair few were specific to our everyday life in rural Scotland rather than London.
I did my almost-daily patrol of the garden/grounds (most of it is just hillside land that isn’t at all ‘garden’) twice, in part to check the water level of the water tank (a new addition to patrol duties since the tank drained – it had to be the 1,700 litres of hot tub water that caused the problems) and remove and replace the wildlife camera SD cards. I checked, no animal sightings, but it was the night of storm-force wind.
I didn’t get around to vacuuming the hall, which is currently full of clods of mud.
We know there is a very strong likelihood of a power cut longer than an hour or so (the neighbour said they lost power for a week once and a few days a few other times) so I am starting to place candles around the house and need to buy some more matchboxes to leave alongside them.
It would have been pointless doing any washing while we had no heating, so we needed to make a start on that. It will still take three days, best case scenario, for washing to dry properly.
Among my nicer, non-work and non-chore tasks, I put up the cotton lanterns I’d bought in Delhi. I had hoped they’d work out well in the entrance hall on the small beams in the ceiling. I put up all six of them and I am really pleased with how they look. I think it’s an attractive ceiling with the beams and it’s now become more of a feature because of the lanterns.
Today, we are probably going to Hawick and Selkirk for at least one curtain pole, to stock up on fresh food and other everyday shopping and we have a selection of pictures, most from India, to take to a framer. It may not be an exciting day that we have planned but after a few weeks of being away, working, packing, unpacking, I’m looking forward to a day like this.