winter's preliminary blast

Winter is here.  There's been frost on the grass for the past two mornings, and I've been shutting the greenhouse and the conservatory at night.  The colder weather takes some getting used to.  I turned the radiator on in our room a couple of days ago.  The central heating is on a timer so it gives a burst in the evening and early morning, to take the chill off as we go to bed and get up again.  I have added an old Musto base layer thermal polo neck to my gardening garb which was standing at two t-shirts, and a pair of clean thermal leggings to my evening attire.  They are different to my gardening thermals, which I live in for all except the warmest months partly for the extra padding when crawling about.  The indoor thermals are not any smarter or more glamorous than the outdoor ones, but it is off putting as you relax in front of the stove after a hard day's gardening to realise that a vague smell of earth and vegetation is rising up from your nether regions.

The cats have responded in their own way by suddenly doubling the amount they eat.  Having a larger surface area to body mass ratio than us they are sensitive to cold, and become ravenous as soon as the thermometer drops.  I wouldn't say they were sitting in front of the Aga more than usual, as they'll do that any time, apart from a heatwave.

The chickens just look miserable standing in their run.  There is something intimidating about the thought of letting them out to roam round the garden at this time of year, and knowing that once they have come out you are irrevocably committed to staying in the garden with them, however cold it gets, until dusk approaches and they choose to go in again.  But in reality I'm going to stay in the garden until it gets dark anyway, if it's not raining.  I should let them out.  They don't want to have to stay in their run all the time until next spring, poor things.  It seems pretty rubbish being a hen in the winter.

And this is just the beginning.  There's another three or four months to go.  I'm hoping my hypothalamus will kick in soon and crank up my metabolism, so that it can start converting food to warmth, and I can eat more like the cats while feeling toasty warm instead of simply becoming fatter.