Winter 🥶

I feel the cold. I’m living with someone who doesn’t. This makes for some interesting cohabitation!

As autumn creeps in and mornings and evenings begin to get cooler, that’s when the debate about heating the home begins. When friends share their bravado about waiting until October or even November before turning on their heating, I wait for my husband’s usual response!

‘Our heating has been on since September’, he’ll pronounce!

‘Not continuously’, I’ll find myself apologising. ‘Only if it’s cold’.

‘And that’s our problem,’ my husband will say, with a pained expression. ‘It’s not what I or anyone else on the planet would call cold!’

And here we’d go again! For over thirty years I have tried to toughen up and become a true Brit! Perhaps if I ignored the cold and just wore a light jumper around the house my body would acclimatise? That didn’t work! I tried wearing thick clothing but felt like a wobbly man. Movement was restricted and simple tasks assumed Herculean proportions.

The thermostat at the bottom of the stairs has caused so many arguments that I now accept it as part of my winter trials and tribulations. The house is warm when I wake up but the heating doesn’t stay on all day. I’ll walk passed the thermostat and turn it back on.

A while later by husband will erupt. ‘It’s like the centre of a volcano in this house. I’m about to spontaneously combust!’

I’d hear the click of the thermostat and wait for the radiators to cool down again.

But it probably isn’t necessarily my husband’s fault that he doesn’t feel the cold, ever! His parents’ house was never warm. In fact, his mother was in her nineties and still set her heating to come on in the morning for two hours and then two hours again in the evening, no matter what the temperature was inside or out! I have sat in her house wearing a fur coat, gloves, thick socks and boots to try and thaw out! Yet when she visited us she would always comment on our lovely warm home!

But I think I might have found the solution. It will be eco friendly and cost effective! Martin Lewis, the financial whiz kid, said that we should keep our bodies warm and not our homes! Really? Easier said than done! His suggestion was a visit to M&S for some decent thermal underwear! I wonder if he has been paid a hefty commission?

So off I went to Marks! I was pleasantly surprised that the vests and socks weren’t too thick. I then visited their jumper department and bought a few soft, warm but not bulky, jumpers. I came home sporting quite a few bags. An expensive day out but I saw it as an investment which I’m sure will eventually prove cost effective! This is what I told my husband when I saw his raised eyebrows!

So, has Martin Lewis’ theory worked? I’m definitely not as cold, which isn’t rocket science! I’m still feeling a bit overdressed but wearing a lot less layers! So perhaps winter has finally lost its sting? Maybe not completely but the thermostat at the bottom of the stairs has become less of an issue!

However, winter does offer one large positive. Nothing quite beats sitting in front of a roaring fire. As a real treat I recline on the sofa opposite and watch as darting orange flames reflect through my glass of red wine. I lean back and, through half closed eyes, see sparks ricocheting off glowing embers and shooting up into the chimney. Very hypnotic and very relaxing! The best mindfulness experience if stressed, or just, simply, to enjoy the ambiance! Highly recommended!

The Christmas cards we received in South Africa often showed beautiful snowy scenes and, usually, as we were baking in the middle of a summer heat wave, made me long for a white Christmas! The first poem I ever wrote, as an eight year old, was about winter. Out of the blue I remembered it one morning a couple of weeks ago!

It was a cold, cold day near the end of May

The trees were white with snow and the bitter winds did blow

Snowflakes fell from the skies and I knew that I must rise

To see the wonderful sight that had happened during the night

The snow on those South African Christmas cards definitely looked better in pictures or from the inside of a warm house. We’ve passed the shortest day but need to get through the next couple of months!

So, on that cheerful note I’d like to wish everyone all the very best for 2023! Hopefully it will be a good one and we can stay warm and the lights won’t go out!