Photos in Advent - December 1st

 After the A-Z posts through November .....and thank you to everyone who said they enjoyed reading.... it's back to normal this month with general news of what I've been up to, as well as a Christmassy or winter photo every day of December until the 25th for Photos in Advent 2022.

The December Country Diary plate is having it's first outing along with some of the usual winter and Christmas bits that come out of the cupboard every year.  

The small snow globe, the bell and the snowman were all from charity shops, the house belonged to my Mum and the big snow-globe was bought the Christmas after Colin died- I decided it was a late gift from him for Christmas 2018.

Chill December brings the sleet,
Blazing fire, and Christmas treat

(from The Months by Sara Coleridge)

 December was originally the 10th month and takes it's name from the Latin decem meaning ten. The Anglo Saxons called  it Wintermonarth and then after their conversion to Christianity Halighmonarth meaning Holy month

There are a few bits of weather lore that would have been familiar to people in times past, before we had scientific weather forecasting.

Rain on the first Sunday before Mass, rain for the week

Thunder in December foretells fair weather 

Jerome K Jerome - best know for 'Three Men in a boat' said - sometime around the beginning of the 20th century -

  " If December passes without snow, we indignantly demand to know what has become of our good, old fashioned winters, and talk as if we had been cheated out of something we had bought and paid for; and if it does snow, our language is a disgrace to a Christian Nation"

I wonder what sort of weather we'll get in December this year. November ended very wet but still not too cold, and that means the grass has kept growing but it's never dry enough to cut.

 Being fairly mild means less heating oil is getting used. The remote control thermostat is set in 6 different time periods so if I do nudge it up a couple of degrees in the late afternoon or evening it only stays at that temperature for 2 hours at the most, that way I never forget to turn it down again. At 8pm it reverts to overnight setting and the room stays warm enough until 10pm when I head off to bed.

I've not lit the wood stove much at all as yet but that will be used as the weather gets colder and I'm indoors more.

I was looking back at how much heating oil cost through 2020 at Clay Cottage and found it was at it's lowest price during the pandemic. In that summer 500 litres was less than £200. I've just had my new oil tank topped up and 750 litres was over £600. That means it's almost doubled in 2 years.

Users of oil for heating are supposed to be getting £200 towards the huge price rise but no one has worked out how to pay it to us as yet and I shall get the pensioners winter fuel allowance too. With the  unasked for monthly "donations" from the government towards electric, my fuel bills will be very small  BUT one way or another sometime in the future we will all have to pay for it and all the Covid handouts.  I fear this will fall on working tax payers like my children.

Back Tomorrow

Sue