The Long Winter

118 days ago

Shivering in North Wales at the Welsh Hovel as my log store goes down rapidly

The Met Office keeps on telling us all how jolly warm it is as a result of global warming. I have covered how its numbers are bodged and unreliable before but I can say without lying that, here in North East Wales, I feel bloody cold.  It is, after all winter, so no climate change there.  While the Mrs and my son Joshua are enjoying the Indian sunshine for another few days, the cats myself and little Jaya are really feeling it as the temperature, with wind chill, falls to zero

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901 days ago

Photo Article from the Welsh Hovel - Now drying the herbs

In the alcove next to the aga, strings of red hot chillies continue to dry. I really am not sure what I shall do with them as I already have more than a year’s supply and there is another batch awaiting stringing and more still to be harvested. But now joining them are a few bunches of rosemary, thyme and lemon thyme, drying ahead of storage. There are other herbs in the two new herb gardens which I will be harvesting to dry and store this weekend. More progress as we prepare for the long winter.

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932 days ago

I suppose I must view it like the Ingalls’ grasshoppers, massive setback at the Welsh Hovel

Joshua and I are now almost at the end of On the Shores of Silver Lake the fourth of the books by the great libertarian author Laura Ingalls Wilder. My old babysitter, DD, is also re-reading the series, just for her own pleasure, and is now a book ahead of us in The Long Winter. She says I must store up well at the Welsh Hovel as tough and cold times lie ahead. However, on that front, today saw a gut-wrenching setback.

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