What's the earliest acceptable date for turning on your central heating?
There's part of me that is reluctant to turn the heating back on in September but the other part is saying 'it doesn't matter what the date is, do you feel cold?' and boy did I feel chilly last night.
Paul was out playing badminton, it was just me and Coco here and the temptation was great but I resorted to snuggling under a quilt, Coco thought that looked comfortable so she came and laid on my lap too and within a short while I didn't feel chilly any more.
Today we woke to torrential rain, which has now stopped, but we now have very blustery wind which makes me think that there will be a fair few trees around with not many leaves by tomorrow.
Paul belongs to an art class which is being conducted via a WhatsApp group. He went to the class when it was an adult evening class at a local school but ... well you know what happened to things like that back in March. So it has resumed 'virtually' and he's enjoying getting back in the swing of being given assignments and having a valid reason to sit quietly in the afternoons with his paints and pencils. This week's assignment is to draw a collage of things found in the natural world and he's been collecting bits and pieces on dog walks. I thought I'd take a photo of what he's going to be drawing. This is a good roundup of autumn in our area of the UK. Conkers and acorns, teasels and sycamore seeds, leaves and fir cones.
Leo loves being outside finding 'treasures' and it's something we always encourage, but this time of year, a dog walk can take a very long time as he cannot resist picking up every conker that he finds. On Tuesday we came home with 43 - now what is he going to do with all of those? We tried to explain to him that when we were little we would make a hole in the middle, thread string through and then have conker battles but thought we shouldn't make too much of that as this could easily become a way of inflicting pain on everyone he challenged!
So today, we have switched the summer weight duvet for an autumn one, I will be in warmer pyjamas tonight and I've moved my winter shoes in from the garage to the cloakroom. Have you started thinking about preparing for cooler temperatures yet? And most importantly, when will you put your heating on? (asking for a friend 😉)
Our heating in on. A thousand feet up, with nothing horizontally between us and Norway and a north wind gusting at 45 mph, we've needed it. I wouldn't feel guilty if I were you! We also lit the multi-fuel stove yesterday evening :). Love Paul's collection: reminds me of having a nature table when I was younger...
ReplyDeleteI always try and go by RAF rules. 1 October the heating goes on. 1 April heating goes off. It never really works though as we don't like being cold so we've hit the 1 hour boost a few times this week. I really need to change to my quilt too but I'm putting it off for a bit longer.
ReplyDeleteI switched us back to our heavier weight duvet a few weeks ago ... and we popped the heating back on on Thursday evening (having spent the previous evening cuddled up under a blanket and Tilly - funny how both of our pooches love the blankets coming out).
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely shot of autumnal bounty - please ask Paul if you can show us his finished drawing.
It’s on! We have a biomass boiler that uses wood from the farm and does the heating and hot water for all three properties. We also get paid for the heat we generate. (Yes mad but it’s considered renewable). We have underfloor heating which is controlled by room thermostats. Conkers? Surely every child of any age should be allowed to collect as many as they like?
ReplyDeleteWell, our system switches automatically between cooling and heating, so I don't have to labor over the decision. We have had quite a few days where neither was on, so our electric bill will be quite a bit lower next time (only happens 2 months of the 12.) And this is the time of year when we miss having Duke around so much. Hubby calls him our "little heater unit." This will be the week we switch out clothes in the closet from summer to winter - and I suppose the heavier blankets for the beds and throws for the sofa need to come out as well for watching TV. I cannot even bear the thought of winter hibernation - seems like we really never left last year's.
ReplyDeleteMr Man is probably in league with Paul ... Mr Man's usual rule is heat on no earlier than Thanksgiving (this year Oct 12th). Thankfully for those chiller evenings, I can put the gas fireplace on ... never try to outsmart a chilled woman.
ReplyDeleteDuring my Autumn walks I tend to collect the prettiest of colour leaves that I find. Locally there are two huge chestnut trees but I don't think many of the kids know what to do with them. We use to collect, paint & string as necklaces.
Well, I have no idea what the words mean that you used to describe Paul's finds. They would look really nice in a bowl! I do hope you share the picture after he draws them for his class. Sounds like a lot of fun---IF you are an artist! I do not have any talent whatsoever for drawing.
ReplyDeleteIn El Paso, many of the houses have something called swamp coolers or evaporative air conditioning. When the evaporative AC is in use, you can't switch to the heater on a cool night. It is one or the other. AC or heat. But using one means the inability to use the other.
ReplyDeleteWe are lucky that we don't have evaporative cooling any more. We have central air so we can switch back and forth. Tonight we are forecast to have very chilly temps after a record-breaking hot weekend. I am glad we can use the heat at night and the AC in the day and not have to choose one over the other. That being said, we won't turn on the heat tonight!! It is too early. We will just bundle up!! Wish we had Coco to keep us warm.
I have a wonderful childhood memory of my baby brother at about 3 or 4 years of age, picking up brown shopping bag after brown shopping bag of pinecones at a park where we had a picnic. He was so entertained by the pinecones!! I am about the same way even these days. Can't resist an interesting rock, pinecone or acorn myself. Had to look up conker but I am familiar with them by another name. Please share Paul's sketches with us once he begins. Sounds like a delightful activity, the collecting and the drawing.