February 10th 2007
I have decided that the best way to keep warm is to do lots of manual work around the house, and to wear two pairs of trousers. Today is all about tackling the woodshed, finding out what lies beneath our fast diminishing pile of logs, and creating some much needed order in that part of the house. My previous experience of this sort of work amounts to knowing roughly on which aisle in B&Q to find whatever I need. Things are a little different here, and the combination of a specialist vocabulary and local dialect make every trip to the local DIY store a challenge.
I have also begun a visual diary of the small hilltop towns around where we live in order that, when the time comes to arrange a painting course, I know what I'm doing, where I'm going, and what places look like at different times of the day.
The woodshed
The stupidest thing I did today;
Bought a chainsaw. Thought I must have one, but picked out the smallest in the store because I was a little scared of the others. Someone later described it as more like pruning shears. Have learnt my lesson, though. To establish your credibility in a small town, always buy the manliest tools you can afford.
Comments