Goodness, it is cold.
It is so cold that the end of my nose and my fingers are still a bit tingly even now, ages after I have warmed up.
It has been a bit of an outdoor day.
It started this morning. Obviously days always start in the morning, of course, what a stupidly obvious way to start a paragraph, perhaps I should have paid more attention at Cambridge. Anyway, it started when I became involved in ferrying Mark and Oliver about. Jack buzzed off to carry on bashing Elspeth’s minibuses back together, Oliver’s car was still reduced to a pile of rusty bits in the shed, and Mark had to take his taxi to leave it with the valeting chap, who was in a bit of a rush because of having to stop working at three o’clock to collect his children from school, we do live in a very modern world.
I rushed about making sure that they were all adequately fed and were clutching boxes full of calories to keep them going through the cold of the day, and then drove to Kendal to collect Mark after he had dumped his car with the valeting chap.
I left him with Oliver at the shed, and the dogs and I stumped off up the frozen, snowy fells. There was an icy little wind whipping about my newly exposed short-haircut ears, and the mud had frozen into uneven cow hoof print lumps which were excitingly challenging to navigate, but it was a splendidly bright walk.
Rosie jumped in the tarn, although she did not stay in there for very long. Roger Poopy, who is heartless, galloped along the bank, barking and nipping at her to try and stop her getting out, but she managed it in the end and revenged herself by jumping all over him until he was almost as wet as she was.
When I got home I thought I would get all of my outside jobs done before taking my boots off and getting warmed up again, and so pegged the washing on the line and set to refilling the hearth with firewood and sawing some more.
This took ages, because we are using a lot of firewood at the moment, although I do not mind because the house is wonderfully warm, this is a magnificent thing when you realise that it is all because of one small fire. My fingers were numb and frozen by the time I had finished, even through my gloves, but that was all right, because I always think it is something of a bonus to have any fingers left anyway after a couple of hours with the circular saw.
I was a bit disconcerted to come in, pink-faced and blowing on my still-intact fingers, to discover that it was three in the afternoon, and almost time to start getting ready for work, but I thought I had earned some self-indulgence so I decided that I would have breakfast anyway.
I had barely dipped a spoon into my porridge when the phone rang, and it was Mark telling me that they had finished mending Oliver’s car and were on their way home.
I yelped with horror, and shovelled the rest of the porridge in so hastily that I had to try and ignore the resulting indigestion for the rest of the afternoon.
Once they got back, Oliver went to bed, because he has got to work all night tonight, and Mark and I took the new camper van off into Kendal. We were supposed to be putting it on the weighbridge to check how heavy it is already, and therefore, by process of some simple arithmetic, calculate how much clutter we are going to be able to stuff into it, but to our irritation the weighbridge had shut early, so we collected Mark’s car and took the truck to the shed to empty out all the clutter that has already accumulated therein.
It was going dark by then, and was very cold. I was not at all sorry to hurl the last bits inside with freshly numbed fingers, and set off again, home to drag in the frozen washing from the line.
Actually it was almost dry, so that was a jolly good result.
I fed them all and listened to stories about bolts and suspension, track rod ends and ball joints, whilst I organised myself to come out to work.
Oliver went off to work for the night. Mark went outside to carry on bashing his car about, and I am here on the taxi rank. Jack has got an online interview for a job this evening, so it is just as well that the house will be quiet.
The day is almost finished. We have got to take Mark’s car to Kendal to leave it for the MOT tomorrow, but that is everything.
Another couple of hours and it will be over.
I have not painted any Advent calendars.
Really I am going to have to get my act together.
