Saturday 29th January

Six thirty start, bathroom trip and then decided to try for another few zzz's and managed it until just after eight.  I've moved taking my tablets until after lunch and it's made a real difference to my sleep habits...I sleep more deeply and feel like I've had a night's sleep.  Cornflakes for breakfast watching morning television, noticed that the boiler is still not heating to the required temperature overnight so swopped out the timer control for the one in the conservatory and I'll see if that makes a difference.  I used the override and there's nothing wrong with the boiler, it reaches temperature within and hour so I'll give an update tomorrow.  The replacement is working OK in the conservatory, the lights have come on according to the setting and I'll check that it switches off before I go to bed tonight.  

So washed and dressed, it was dull and threatened rain but nothing happened except that wind got up and it was very cold.  I put the food out for the birds and threw the crust from the loaf out and the sparrows settled for the bread on the grass and the jays and tits picked happily at the seeds.  The sparrows did go back to the seeds when the cats finished the bread but that's the way it goes.  I settled for a bacon sandwich for top up and then added another jumper and went out with my trusty hoe and garden fork and set about the ice on the terrace and between the two implements I cleared most of it and what's left should thaw out if the temperature stays as good as it is now.  It was plus two when I last checked.

I made a couple of ham sandwiches for lunch and fried off a packet of 'Royal Meze' as it translated via Google and put it in the slow cooker with some pasata and that is ready now and I just need to do a jacket potato to have with it.  Avatar came over this afternoon and pinged my doorbell using the control I gave her and brought over the finished scarf that she's made me.  I actually persuaded her to come in and sit down for a while but all the time she was telling me that she hadn't locked the door.  A couple of minutes later another lady from the village arrived with another knitted hat that she'd made as a present for me but unfortunately it wasn't quite long enough so it's gone back for a modification.  Between them they virtually finished the After Eights but I don't mind, it saves me putting on more weight.

Off they went, I topped the fire up and settled down in the lounge to binge on the second series of ' The Sinner',  same detective, different case and with an unusual twist....compelling and I didn't guess the 'who's the daddy'.  So fire rescued yet again, supper is ready and the jacket will be done in the microwave.  There's enough supper to take some over the road but because it's pork it's a no-no so the rest will go into the freezer and come out on a day that I can't be bothered to find anything to spend time on.  We've got another clear sky and the stars are out so I'm really expecting the temperature to drop again...time to close all the curtains and batten down the hatches.  LN.....Forecast minus seven, sunny tomorrow and snow on Tuesday......LN

Sunday 30th January

Slept really well again and the usual routine for breakfast although I didn't bother lighting the fire and thought that once the sun had come up then the temperature in the house would soon be comfortable.  It was cold out at minus six again and that was slow to climb as well and suddenly noticed that there was a glint of red from last night's embers so nursed them back to life around eleven thirty.  I settled for cornflakes for breakfast again and it's mainly to use up the milk but succumbed to a bacon sandwich not long after, tidied the kitchen and it's been a bit of a none day after that.  I'd just got the fire working well and had settled down to watch a little television in the lounge when it went off and I realised that the power had gone and now I had a problem.  The perked up fire needed to be dismantled before it got too fierce. the UPS had only so long to live so nothing to drive the pump and then chaos......so I cleared the top of the little woodburner in the kitchen and moved the burning logs from the big one to the little one and the large one I put to the back of the burner in the big one.  At least I'd alleviated one problem.  

The power came back on around one, stayed up until two and by which time I'd move the logs back and then it went off again.  I decided to leave it for an hour, the fire wasn't burning too intensely and the power came on again around three fifteen and this time it's stayed up, thank goodness.  Now I was cooking on gas again I turned on the slow cooker, there was enough meat left from last night to make supper for later.  By this time the clouds had rolled over and I'd banked the fire up really well but still felt cold so at five I closed all the curtains in the house, put some potato wedges in the oven to add some internal heat and ate around seven.  I have to remember to change the time on the timers otherwise I shall be paying for electricity at the expensive not the cheap rate for the boiler.

Supper was good, the washing up can wait until tomorrow, at last the house if feeling warm again and so am I.  Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow so far but I might head into Djebel since it's market day if the weather is OK.  Lots of birds in the garden and I think the jay's are quite used to this as a food source as have the sparrows, tits and robins.  LN....And now to reset those timers.....LN

Monday 31st January

Another seven thirty start so nothing to complain about. The outside temperature was minus three, the inside the other side of the curtain in the stairwell was thirteen but the good thing was the sun was just coming up and it didn't take long to crack seventeen that by lunchtime it was up to twenty seven.  Free central heating, thank goodness for it....I didn't have to light the fire until five thirty this afternoon.  I settled for cornflakes, put food out for the birds and sat watching them for a good half hour....they're so funny how they chase each other off the food source and tackle each other for what is perceived to be the best bit.

I washed up and tidied the kitchen, I had a very lazy morning and decided to have a shower and wash may hair...a good start to the week.....using the towels from the downstairs loo and that made up a very good load for the washing machine.  It was such a good day that it got pegged out around one, brought in at four and it's finishing off now in the bathroom.  I walked the garden and settled down on the bench on the little house terrace and a very large eagle began circling, I went back in the house to get the camera and by the time I got outside again, it was nowhere to be seen but the washing blowing in the wind and sun was worth capturing and so were the daffodils that are breaking through.  I also found my snowdrops but not many of them but they need another day to open.

I found a shank of pork in the fridge that I'd forgotten about and that went into the slow cooker around twelve,  brought it out about five and not really sure if I like it or not.  It had been coated in a spice and would probably have been better roasted not slow cooked.  The cats might like the meat and the dogs the bones, it's back in the slow cooker to check that it's cooked through properly....I can't disappoint my animals.  I'll see how hungry I feel later.  LN....Potential snow for the next two days...here we go again......LN