It's Just So Cold!

October was a month of mixed weather, and on occasion there were a few days that felt like a last plaintive grasp at summer. However the further into the month we progressed the more dismal and chilly the damp, grey days became, until finally November arrived in a blast of torrential downpours which turned Newhouse Farm into a squelching mud pit. Attempting to walk through the duck and goose area is now very slippery business, and there's been a few times when I've nearly ended up on my backside whilst I've chased Mork the mindless Muscovy duck round and round his house as he refuses to go to bed. Parts of the pig area has turned into a veritable mud bath, where the mud has become so thick and treacherous that it nearly oozes over the top of my wellies. Stand still for too long and I'm sure I'd start to sink as if I was in quicksand!

There's no doubt about it: winter is definitely on it's way. I've been spending a lot more time behind my desk in recent weeks and less time working outside now that the growing season has past its fervour, but I'm still affected by the weather far more than I ever used to be in the city. For one thing, the farmhouse is just so cold! There's no central heating at Newhouse farm, instead the house is heated by several beautiful wood-burning stoves and something called a whole-house ventilation system. Theoretically this is meant to help the warm air circulate around, but to be perfectly honest I haven't noticed the tiniest difference.

What's more the stoves aren't lit very often, because James and Dick seem to be impervious to the cold! My skin hasn't evolved to deflect the cold yet, and I still feel like the soft city girl who's dependent on a central heating system to stay warm in winter. We also have quite an amusing Catch 22 situation that isn't helping matters: because I feel the cold a lot more than James I only feel snug and comfortable in the living room once a blazing fire is lit, but James' allergies seem to kick in with the dry heat that the fire creates and he starts coughing and sneezing and has to open the living room door to let all the chilly air back in so his allergies subside. Whatever are we going to do?! And as James keeps pointing out, we're still not really in the depths of winter yet, so goodness knows what I'm going to be like when the truly bitter weather hits.

Obviously there's a very good reason why the house is chilly. Central heating systems emit a huge amount of carbon emissions, and as we probably all know by now it's far better for the environment to put on a jumper to keep warm rather than turn up the heating. Newhouse Farm is a large and ancient building: parts of it are at least 400 years old and some of the walls are about 5 foot thick. All in all it makes it a difficult house to heat, and the fact that the house is chilly is just something I'm going to have to adapt to.

To combat the cold I've adapted my wardrobe to help keep me from shivering. I've found that if I wear 2 pairs of trousers, 2 or 3 layered tops with my fleecey outdoor jacket over the top, a scarf and thick socks with boots, then I'm actually quite nice and warm. Oh, by the way, that's not my outdoor outfit... that's what I wear around the house! Outside I often feel warmer than I do indoors, probably because I'm much more active and the blood is pumping round my body. It's indoors that the chill really sets in, especially if I'm sat in front of my computer for hours. To help me out Dick has given me a couple of fleecey wrist warmers which he says are an old army trick. Apparently if you wrap wrist warmers round your wrists it warms the blood up before it flows into your hands, so your hands stay warm if you're not wearing gloves. I tried this out the other day and it did work for a while... then I think I got so cold that warmed wrists didn't make a difference anymore!

I've decided that there's only one thing for it: after years of resisting I'm going to have to start wearing thermal underwear. My mum's been trying to get me to wear it for years, and I've strongly resisted because I think that long johns and long sleeved thermal vests look hideous. But style has gone out the window now that I'm permenently chilly. Mum, you've won! Let me guess what's going to be in my Christmas stocking this year!