Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Elemental

This morning started with proper blow-you-away weather; gales whistling around rooftops and ripping twigs from trees, leaving a trail like little broken fingers scattered across the road. On the A1, cars bob like corks in a river, drivers' knuckles clenched on the wheel against swift side-swipes that send you off course, while dead leaves scooped up by gusts from I know not where are hurled maliciously at the windscreen. Wizard of Oz weather.

Nor am I a fan of the cold. I currently have three quilts on my bed - a goose down one, a summer weight duvet and a long lusted after patchwork quilt delivered by Santa Claus. However, I recently discovered that trying to brave bed at this time of year without a hot water bottle is a false economy: 10 minutes after huddling down, I am invariably forced out to find one.

As a born and bred Northerner, people from elsewhere seem to find it odd that I don't tolerate the freezing temperatures terribly well. "But you're out feeding horses in all weathers," they say. Yes, but I'm usually wrapped up in sufficient layers to cope with Siberia. They also consider it curious that I am too mean to switch on the central heating. Instead, I tend to use a halogen heater in the room I am in. Currently, there is no heating on in the house and I am wearing a padded coat as I type.

Cold though our winters are, I don't think the mercury falls as low as it did when I was a child. I no longer awake during the night with cramp in my legs or unable to feel my fingers and toes.
But I miss the frosted feathers on the inside of winter morning windows and the weeks when flooded fields froze solid enough to skate.

18 comments:

@themill said...

Have you never heard of electric blankets?

Mutterings and Meanderings said...

I don't trust electric blankets - I fear I may be fried ..

Pig in the Kitchen said...

No offence @themill, but electric blankets will kill you! At least that's what my Mum taught me...i got a right rollicking for getting into bed with the electric blanket still on. Is there any truth in the 'death by electric blanket' scenario i wonder?

You are on fire M&M, I can't keep up with your posts!
Pigx

Pig in the Kitchen said...

oooo, that was weird. we had an electric blanket moment at the same time!

Omega Mum said...

I think managing without heating is pretty impressive. We do it only because so few of our radiators actually work, and I don't know what a halogen heater is but I want one. Several, ideally.

Mutterings and Meanderings said...

Cue theme from the Twilight Zone ...

Mutterings and Meanderings said...

OM, halogen heaters are like big bulbs in a heater that you plug in. They're cheap to buy and cheap to run. My cats are also big fans.

Ariel said...

Ah, hot water bottles... Love 'em and am considering the acquisition of a second one - is that greedy?

Gone said...

You haven't been unkind, your last line shows your true feelings for our wonderful northern climate, you would miss it like hell if you were anywhere else.

Mopsa said...

Wailing winds down in Devon too, and you try getting hay into the hayracks for the sheep when the wind is holding the cover down and won't let you in. I lost my snug-fitting fleece hat (twice) and the wheelbarrow was sent dancing across the field too. And the builders have gone home because of the weather. And so to bed.

Gill said...

I was always frozen until I enetered the menopause, I think the goverment should promote it as a way of cutting fuel bills, and of course us fat bitches carry our own internal duvet!

rilly super said...

M&M, making the bedroom the only habitable room in the house? why didn't I think of that. Just in time too as husband is due back tomorrow...

@themill said...

Is deep frozen better than fried?

Mutterings and Meanderings said...

Ariel, if I can have three quilts, I'm sure you can have two hot water bottles ...

Grocer, we have our own ecosystem here I think...

Mopsa, hay is a slippery creature at the best of times...

Gill, you could be on to something - they may give you a carbon footprint cutting grant to study the effects of the menopause on central heating bills ...

Good luck Rilly m'dear!

@themill, that is a very difficult choice!

Brom said...

Warming a cold bed with your own body heat is one of the pleasures in life for me.

I miss the frost on the inside of windows, definitely!

Gill said...

If we could harness the heating power of lots of menopausal women connected together there would be no need for expanding the nuclear programme.

Arthur Clewley said...

that brings back memories of playing 'ice hockey' with sticks and a stone on flooded fields under trees full of rooks on foggy mornings.

Gill, I think the menopausal women generator could make chernobyl look like a picnic *shudders*

Gill said...

oh yes it works best if the menopausal women are really angry about something!