We have got a new driver on the taxi rank who seems to be completely incapable of amusing himself.
He keeps coming across to talk to me about the surprising things that have happened to him since he started, like customers not wanting to pay. He interrupted The Archers this evening and now I am going to have to remember to turn it on tomorrow lunchtime.
I wish he would hurry up and join the library, or something, I am not sure I can manage somebody quite so social in my working space. I don’t doubt in the least that talking is a marvellous thing, but it is best kept for occasions when you have not managed to bring a good book.
It has become very cold. Mark has become convinced that there is snow on the way in the next week, and so he has been busy for the whole day making contingency plans.
He has spent the day at the farm, hauling logs. If the weather becomes rubbish then it is difficult to get to the farm, unless, like Mark’s sister, you have got a Land Rover. We don’t have one any more, which is because they are just about the least comfortable form of motorised transport on the planet, and if the weather is that bad then probably it would be best just to stay at home. Mark had lots of them when I met him. He used to do racing with them, but of course he is married now.
Since we don’t have bad weather transport we have got to be prepared. He has hauled a trailer full of logs and also brought the generator and some large batteries home. I am secretly very relieved about this as my domestic anxieties have been largely shaped by a 1970s childhood in which electricity was a benefit bestowed on the public by benevolent organisations when they felt like it, and withdrawn when they did not. I don’t at all like not being able to plug my hairdryer in, and am pleased that we are not likely to be afflicted by any meteorological inconvenience, hurrah for Mark.
When we lived in France winter could mean all manner of thrilling weather, from huge snowdrifts to savage frosts, and we have learned from that how to keep everything ticking along even in the worst times. Tomorrow he is going to Lancaster to get the bits that he needs for his car and to put some winter tyres on mine. Also he wants to fuel the cars up so that we can charge batteries if we need to, which I think is jolly clever.
The day after that we have got to take Oliver back to school. We think this might turn out to be interesting. We have had some exciting moments in bad weather on the roads over the Northern fells.
All the same, I really hope he is right. It would be very exciting to have some properly businesslike weather.
I have been tidying up after Lucy’s departure and posting the things that she has forgotten. I have been to the bank and cleaned the kitchen and beaten the rugs and cooked a huge tray of sausages. If we are snowed in for weeks we are going to need them.
I spent a good deal of the day clearing up. The dogs have been upset into tiresome behaviour by Lucy’s departure, and have been gloomily dragging sticks out of the hearth and miserably chewing them up whilst sighing and looking forlorn. Some of the sticks seemed to have fallen out of the grate and been partially burned. There was charcoal and splinters everywhere. This looks really rubbish on a cream carpet and is also why I had to do something about the rugs.
I am also busy laying in provisions for a siege. We had a winter a few years ago when the Co-op wagons could not get through, which led to un-neighbourly kerfuffles over things like milk. I need to make sure we still have plenty of sausages and bread and are not in any imminent danger of starvation.
It is all very exciting. Fingers crossed for a blizzard.
