Rather Victoria than Putin

Climate change bothers me. And the war in Ukraine bothers me. And that combined made me at some point just grumpily switch off my boiler. I don't know where the gas comes from that powers it. It might be partially Russian. I know the Brits use a lot less Russian gas than continental Europe, but still. Even if it is not Russian at all, I am increasingly uncomfortable by burning any fossil fuels in my house.

When the weather turned the house got cold, obviously. But I have two wood stoves! So I should be okay.

Normally, when I have the fire on I am there to enjoy it. And sometimes I have guests there too. So there is plenty of opportunity to attend to it. But if it is only a heat source, I am actually upstairs in my office, focusing on different things. That's different! Time flies when you are working, and you have to pop down quite often to add some wood to the fire if you want to keep it going. But it does work! The stove warms up the room rather quickly, and you can feel the heat percolate upwards. I have not yet used both wood stoves at the same time, but maybe I should just for the heck of it. And I am burning through a lot more wood now than I otherwise would be, but that is okay because I have quite a lot in store. I am not anywhere near the bottom of the pile that was created when I had the roof of the garage rebuilt! And the garden keeps yielding new wood. And soon it will be summer and then the house will be warm on its own initiative. And by the time it will be winter again I might have made up my mind about what to replace the actual boiler with! Solar panels and infrared panels are all good and well, but only the start of my energy transition. And wood is renewable, but not very clean. Watch this space!

In the meantime I am feeling positively Victorian. There is something about waking up in a cold house and then lighting the fire! And about having to interrupt your chores regularly in order to fuel it! I'm sure it won't stay fun forever but for now I am enjoying this excursion into the 19th century…

My heating