It has been a post-travel day. I have been occupied with recharging the car battery (the car is an electric-petrol hybrid), bringing in the rest of the things from the car (not so easy with a gammy leg), unpacking, organising the things I brought back from UK, dealing with post that arrived in my absence, laying a rug & underfelt, sorting tools, putting away foodstuffs, cleaning the frig (eliminating things that had deteriorated in my absence and turning the rest into soup), making a long shopping list for when I go into town, bringing in wood and lighting fires, airing bedding & putting some away in store, shelving books (I acquired quite a few while in England. Malvern has five bookshops and I also went to Foyles in London), various other bits of tidying & organising, putting down another rug that I got for Tara, harvesting some leeks and cooking an evening meal. It has been a full day.
According to the forecast this is likely one of the coldest weeks of the year. It is nice to think that things are going (with some ups and downs) to get steadily warmer as the year goes on, that each day the sun will be a little higher in the sky. We did have some nice sunshine today making the frost glisten. If one could find a spot sheltered from the wind it was very pleasant around midday to sit outside.
Tara has now made a full reconnaissance of the property and all seems to be in order from her point of view. I try to keep her active in the day time so that she will sleep at night. Her nocturnal instinct would otherwise take over, but then she would become less domestic and there is some danger from foxes especially. Our neighbour lost three chickens while i was away. Only a few feathers remained.
This evening the stars are clear and bright. It is probably going to be another deep frost. Better make hot water bottles for Tara's bed and mine.
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Thanks, Jan. That is very interesting. I would very much like to do the same here, but I am at a loss where I would source the necessary equipment.