P is for Post-box

This photo of the post-box in the village was taken in October and I mentioned then how it was wrapped in plastic waiting for the 'automated system'. 

Thankfully it is now back in use and looks like this

There is still a slot for posting letters but now there is a way of posting parcels too, all using a QR code......there seems to be a QR code for everything nowadays! I have no idea how it works and if I want to post a parcel I shall go to our post office 100 yards up the road. Just hope this isn't a way of  getting rid of our village Post Office - which is in our village shop.

In youngest daughter's town near the Suffolk coast the Post Office was inside a hardware shop, which closed quite suddenly which left the whole town -extra busy due to  the building of Sizewell Nuclear Power Station - without a Post Office and anyway of  banking at all . Their Barclays bank shut earlier in the year. There are now 3 towns in the area without a single bank and just a couple of post offices to serve a population of over 20,000 people which will increase by a 1,000 more as the Sizewell building work continues.

I've no idea what businesses in the three towns do with nowhere to do their banking - yet another push to a cashless society.

Back Tomorrow

O is for Oil Fired Central Heating

 Until we moved to our last home - Clay Cottage at the end of a Suffolk Lane - we'd never had oil fired central heating. We had a wood-burner and a multi fuel Rayburn for 23 years and LPG and electric where we lived before that. The boiler at Clay Cottage  was in a cupboard in the kitchen and at least 30 years old - it had a few problems in my 5 years living there and thank goodness the father/son heating engineers business had been looking after it for the lady who lived there before us and knew all about its care.

Moving here to my bungalow and the oil fired boiler was only 7 years old so I thought it wouldn't have too many problems, but in the first couple of years here I had to call on Ian several times. Then it developed a leak which was repaired and since then I've had 2 years with hardly any issues. I know what to do when the Low Pressure light is flashing so that was one problem I could sort out by myself.........

.....until last week when the heating didn't come on and I went out to the garage to find the low pressure light on but when I tried to turn the little levers that let water in to get the pressure up again one broke....whoops.

No heating isn't too big a problem as I've got alternatives but no hot water for shower and hair washing is horrible. Thankfully after  I left a message for Ian the heating engineer, he called in the next day to do a temporary fix.

At both Clay Cottage and here I've had to have new oil storage tanks - this one here wasn't on a firm base and leaned against the back of the garage wall. New rules mean they have to be double skinned (bunded) and situated over a metre from buildings. 

I'm just about to order 500 litres to top up the tank for winter. The price goes up and down but I'm very glad I can afford to fill the tank to keep me warm..........as long as the boiler works.

Apologies for this post being very boring ...........if you have gas, which arrives in your home without any effort  to power your heating you are lucky!

Back Tomorrow

N is for the November Library Book Photo (and Nails)

I started off puzzling over what to write about for N............ Another letter difficult to fill. In 2022 I used all sorts of N words and in 2023 found some Norfolk Cheese for a taste test.

In childhood A,B,C picture books N was often a nail (woodwork sort)- how many children have much to do with hammers and nails nowadays? 

Say nails to anyone young now and they would think about the sort for which you need a 'nail bar'. But in rural Suffolk the words 'nail bar' would have been a mystery 20 years ago, there might have been places for a manicure - perhaps included at a hairdressers but a whole shop for painting nails was unknown and those weird long fake nails that people have are not for me - I don't even like nail varnish - it feels horrible.

I had to help a woman with inch long nails get her £1 coin out of the trolley at Aldi recently - made me smile.

THEN the library van came and of course it was obvious what N was - The November Library Book Photo!

Twelve books and every one is a crime novel. I think I have a serious problem!

They are all books I'd reserved online so it's just coincidence that all of this month's are crime fiction.

Some are authors that are favourites, others are authors I've not tried before and one or two are authors I've failed with in the past and I'm trying again.

On the left is the tenth and last - at the moment - of the Christina Koning stories involving The Blind Detective. I've really enjoyed these so I hope she writes more.

Back Soon