For the 29 years we have lived in this house, the gas heater has been a feature of winter life. One of my twins stuck her finger inside the grill at 10 months old and got her finger burnt. I still wonder what I was thinking to leave the kids unattended but I really never expected anyone to do that, she had previously ignored the heater completely.
I remember the kids dressing in the loungeroom in front of the heater on cold school mornings.
I remember setting up a broom across two chairs in front of the heater and using it as a clothes dryer.
I remember once hosting a party and being so happy to be able to have a warm and welcoming home but with all the people in the room we sweltered.
These days Keaghan spends all his time in his bedroom with a small heater keeping the room warm, only appearing for food and to razz Buffy so I am alone in the lounge room and it seems wasteful to run the gas heater for such a large room with only me in it. Instead, I spread a heated rug over the couch and sit on it. My back and legs are toasty warm, my ankles and hands are colder.
Buffy is snoring beside me, taking up her allocated part of the rug. She would rather be on my lap but can't compete with the laptop.
Soon I will make a hot chocolate and dip a buttermilk rusk in it. I first saw the buttermilk rusks at Aldi last year and because I can not resis trying a new product, I bought some. When they arrived in store this winter, I bought some more. It's quite a delicious and comforting little treat.
And as I write, I remember that we are almost out of milk. Will i have the chocolate tonight or will I have coffee in the morning? Choices, choices.
Talking of winter, they say that more people die in winter than any other time and I don't know what the statistics say but this week, the first time we have had temperatures below 10 degrees, and the week of the shortest day, we have seen six aged care residents go to the next life. Six.
Before I turn in for the night, I will heat my wheat bags in the microwave. That winter tradition has been going a good few years now. One heat pack at my back, because who doesn't love a heat source on their back, and the other will keep my hands warm while i drift off to sleep.
Summer in Scotland. Winter in Australia.
ReplyDeleteAs a child this thought delighted me. School geography was an adventure.
In junior school (we say primary) we had a big map of Australia on the wall.
The Flying Doctor was a black & white television series I never missed - the Outback.
Your domestic details paint a picture. The terrible memory of your daughter burning her fingers.
The broom across the heater. A makeshift clothes dryer. Every mother's chore.
Tom Leonard, a very funny Glasgow poet, remembered the Winter Dykes - a wooden clothes dryer.
Tom died in 2018. A great friend of James Kelman, who won the Booker Prize.
Tom died in winter. Often we passed in the street. We never spoke, alas.
Hi Jack,
DeleteWe call the early school years primary here, too.
I used to think my mother was overly focussed on weather but getting laundry processes is an ongoing task and it can back up really quickly so yes, always a chore.
It's hard to imagine you in the midst of winter when Britain is sweltering in temperatures up to 40C. You seem to have found all sorts of useful ways of dealing with the cold. The buttermilk rusks sound tasty.
ReplyDeleteI have heard about your heatwave! Terrible
DeleteA simple life, on the surface of course. That's interesting about people dying in the cold. I'm the accommodation is properly heated, so I wonder why.
ReplyDeleteThe accommodation is so warm i always have short sleeves.
DeleteI suspect the short days signal a slow down.
I did the math. 10 Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) isn’t weather!
ReplyDeleteNo, it's comparatively tropical but there's still a spike in people moving to heaven.
DeleteAlso, our building standards are poor so it's often colder indoors than much colder parts of the world.
Thanks Robert!
Sydney winter is not objectively cold but Sydney houses have historically been neither well insulated nor well heated. Open plan layouts which came into vogue when energy was cheaper exacerbate this. We don't really have the domestic aesthetic of "cosy" that you see in chillier climes.
DeleteI am not a fan of "dunked" foods and never understand how people can enjoy them. I do like hot chocolate though and always make sure there is enough milk in the house/apartment/unit/flat, though I do make it half and half with hot water. Adelaide weather is beautiful and sunny, not too cold once the early morning frosty air warms up around 9.30ish. I turn on the airconditioner around 5pm, (sometimes 4pm) to warm the living room and put a hot water bottle in the bed to warm it.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't dunk a Tim Tam but a plain biscuit, yes.
Delete5pm seems reasonable to put the air con on, once the sun drops it gets chilly
You wrote "they say that more people die in winter than any other time and I don't know what the statistics say but this week, the first time we have had temperatures below 10 degrees, and the week of the shortest day, we have seen six aged care residents go to the next life."
ReplyDeletePeople get very depressed in the cold, that is true. But your poor elderlies might have been so miserable in the cold that they deliberately stopped taking their medication; or they had a condition already and added pneumonia in the cold.
Hi Hels ,
DeleteI think depression may have something to do with it. If life takes a huge effort, it's harder in the winter.
You post proves that it's how you look at things. You can get away with little heat. We can't so we have to be prepared in order to survive.
ReplyDeleteHi Red,
DeleteThe cold here can be very uncomfortable, mostly because we act like it's not there but you're right, it's not life threatening.
I can be content in a cold house in the winter, but admit being dependent on AC during the summer months. THe heat and humidity wear on me.
ReplyDeleteI had non dea what a rusk was but looked up a recipe. I would join you dunking them in. hot chocolate or coffee!
Hi Anne,
DeleteI hate the heat and humidity with a passion. I dont have AC but the ceiling fan runs all night every night in summer and even autumn.
Food and coffee are always winners with me