We spent the week-end on the beach, not in swim suits, but soaking up the sun in jeans and t-shirts. After a closeted winter breathing in wood smoke, the sea air and gull calls smelt and sounded like freedom.
I don’t enjoy the winter months like I used to, my bones feel creaky and my energy levels deplete with the effort of making a cup of cocoa. Another cold front is blowing in today, I can see it building across the sea on the horizon. But, the flowers are out, the dawn is earlier, and I’m stocking up with white wine instead of red.
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A week or so ago was the coldest night I’ve ever experienced in Sedgefield – 3 degrees Celsius in my bedroom! Sure, it gets much colder elsewhere, but houses are designed for it. Our houses aren’t and it’s just not worth altering them for the few days of such cold. What I have decided, though, is that in my next life I’m going to be a tortoise. That way, I can live very comfortably in Sedgefield (provided I don’t stray into the road) and I can hibernate!
Yip, bloody freezing for a couple of days a week and a bit ago. All these houses are designed for beach holidays, not for a Cape winter. We’re slowly adapting the longer we live here, and as cash dribbles in! We’ve put a hot art fireplace in the dining room so we can eat in comfort – now just need another upstairs in the bedroom. And then one in the bathroom.
Springtime! And look at those flowers. What a wonderful setting for the statuary. It has a vaguely Easter-Islandish look to it, there in the midst of all that natural beauty.
We go through the same thing here in Houston. Some homes have all the trimmings, but apartments and many houses aren’t built for the winters we’ve been having. No double-paned windows, etc. Fireplaces are mostly decorative, and suck all the heat out of the house.
On the other hand, the cabin in the woods, only about 14 x14 and with windows all around, could be absolutely toasty in winter. Of course, the old-fashioned wood burning stove was the reason – it could heat the cabin even down to nearly zero. Lovely.
Only problem – no indoor plumbing. That was mostly ok, but there weren’t any outdoor showers taken. Time to get out the washtub and heat water on the stove.
We’re too clean nowadays anyway! Leading to a rise in things from superbugs to asthma. Dirty and warm is the way to go, and while we’re at it we may as well enjoy cream, butter, bacon and eggs too.
Your mom lived to a good age, I wonder what her diet was like? My gran lived to 101 and had bacon and eggs every morning, a small slice of cake with tea every afternoon, and a whiskey every night. She never pigged out though, portions were always moderate and she enjoyed every bite.
It’s the moderation thing I have trouble with. Mom didn’t worry a whole lot. Her favorite things were cheese, fried food, cream gravy, ice cream and so on. Of course, she did have a heart attack and high blood pressure, so there’s that. I suppose my attitude is be careful, then cross your fingers and go ahead and live!
As a nature photographer during the long Texas summer, I can assure you I never come home too clean after a few hours of taking pictures!
In our antipodal ways we’re both relieved, you to be warming up now and I finally to be cooling down.
Steve Schwartzman
http://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com
Fabulous photos Steve! Could that squirrel be any more appealing? The reptiles not so much, guess we are wired to like the cute and cuddly rather than the damp and scaled.
The trick is to distinguish between clean dirt and dirty dirt. Clean dirt is dust, spiders’ webs. I tend not to remove it – particularly spiders’ webs, which are a very environmentally friendly way of keeping mosquitoes at bay. Dirty dirt is what dogs (and small children) produce and it needs to be dealt with instantly.
Regarding foodstuffs, unfortunately the nanny state is increasingly inclined to try to decide what’s good for us – encouraged by corporations that desperately want to sell us goods from factory farms. Here in Sedgefield we have a good share of sources of locally produced real food, so I live on unpasteurised dairy products, produced by farmers that I know personally. I joke with my favourite farmer that he actually kisses his cows goodnight – it’s nearly true, I swear!