I really do love winter. I love the snow; I don’t mind shoveling. I don’t mind having to bundle up. I love staying in during a storm and watching the snow accumulate during the day, venturing out every few hours to shovel the walks. But I can’t say as I’m enamoured of the last week and a half, when temps have rarely gone above 20 and have been below freezing, sometimes well below freezing at night. We heat with a woodstove, and the front room, where the woodstove is, is mostly toasty warm…as long as we keep the stove loaded and cranked up. Sleep late and come down to a cold house! However, when it’s been this cold for this long, the back rooms (where the DVD player and TV are in one room, and my computer in the other) are COOOLLLDDDD. Afternoons I try to either make a roast or a pound cake, which adds some heat to the equation for the evening, and that helps, but how many pound cakes can two people eat? And still be able to walk around, that is?
A friend emailed me today, wondering if she might come down and we could skirt her fleeces from last spring…at 15 degrees? I don’t think so! My hands don’t do skirting or anything else without mittens in winter. The capillaries close down and those hands BURN. So, I had to say no. I’m trying to figure out how I might get the skirting table into the basement, but it’s 4 x 8, which doesn’t promote negociating around halls and down stairs, so I am not sure how we’ll manage this. I think it will just have to wait until the weather is warmer.
I’ve called Gwen for a shearing date in mid-March, but she hasn’t called back yet. Shearers don’t really seem to call back promptly! Oh, well, she’s a great shearer and worth waiting for. I miss her dad, who was our former shearer. He NEVER answered the phone, but would call back after a while. I think sometimes, they’re away down south shearing and wait til they’re home to call back.
The weather site online says that starting tomorrow, daytime temps will be in the 30′s all week, and nighttime lows won’t go below 25. January thaw? I’m sure it will get cold again before winter is over, but I’m looking forward to mornings answering emails before doing chores without sweater, hat, fingerless gloves, scarf, and quilt!
