Some of you asked yesterday why we don't keep the heat on just a smidge while we travel, so the flat doesn't get too cold. Usually the upstairs neighbors are home and their heat moderates the chill, and it's never so cold here that we have to worry about freezing pipes. I'm not sure the neighbors were home while we were most recently in Florida. In fact, I'm not sure they're home now. (They're so quiet!)
Sometimes, when we're away in the dead of winter, we put the heat on for an hour or so at night just to boost the temperature a bit. I didn't do it in this case because I looked at the weather report before we left, and at that time no freezing temperatures were expected. Where this polar vortex from hell came from I'm not sure.
(I suppose if it came from hell it would be warm, but never mind.)
The avocado is snugly wrapped (right), as is Barb the banana. I have two layers on the avocado, plus some duct tape to brace it against the wind. Last night only barely got to freezing, but it's supposed to get significantly colder today, all the way down to 23º F (that's -5º C) on Monday night/Tuesday morning. That's chillier than the poor avocado has ever endured. I got on Amazon last night and bought a little heater designed for chicken coops -- it arrives today and I'm going to hang it inside that shroud and turn the whole thing into a mini-greenhouse. It has a thermostat so it won't get too warm and since it's designed to work in a chicken coop it should be safe. Even if I just run it while we're home and awake, it should leave enough residual warmth inside that enclosure to keep the tree from freezing. I think.
My stepmother is still in the hospital but she is scheduled to come home within the next few days. She will have another surgery to remove the mass in her bladder at some point fairly soon. My stepsister is sending us all regular updates.
So, do I have any New Year's resolutions? Not really. The closest I've come to resolving anything is that I have decided to do Dry January. I have felt for a long time that my evening habit of a glass of wine or two is probably not doing my liver any favors, and like many people I drank more than usual over the holiday season. So why not give my system a rest for the next month or so? Cleanse my toxins, or something like that.
I'm also hoping to read more. I took a look at my book list yesterday and found that I read 27 books last year. Granted, some of them were long and took some time ("The Old Curiosity Shop," for example), but I'd like to get through more. (And perhaps even resume reading my New Yorkers!) Blogger Kelly recently mentioned that she read 106 books last year! I'm not sure I'll be that industrious, but we'll see. Being retired will help.
I'm really enjoying "Tramps Like Us," which I mentioned the other day. Remember how I said it reminds me of my youth? Yeah, I take that back. Joe Westmoreland and/or his character Joe (it's semi-autobiographical) lived a much wilder life than I ever did, shooting heroin with his friends and visiting gay bathhouses. But it's a compelling and poignant account of a halcyon time in gay history, when the sex was free and easy, before the world came crashing down in the early '80s. I'm now up to the crashing-down part and people are starting to die. Every party comes to an end.
(Top photo: Trees near the Tate Britain museum, last month.)
108 books read here! - you're going to enjoy the retirement thing!
ReplyDeleteHoly cow!
DeleteThe ’80s can be difficult to read about... and remember. Your garden is beginning to look like a Florida orange orchard. It must be in your genes. And look at the size of the avocado!!!
ReplyDeleteMaybe I have imported my Florida gardening talents! LOL! The avocado is much bigger than I ever thought it would be, which is why I'm now so focused on keeping it alive.
DeleteWell, I didn't do heroin. I looked at the book for my Kindle and it's the most expensive ebook I've seen on Amazon, at something like £8.50 in your money. That would be cheap for a paperback but it is a lot for an ebook.
ReplyDeleteIs life worth living without wine? See how you go.
But you can load it with hundreds (thousands) of books which is cheaper than buying them. I currently have 406 on mine and I have been deleting each book as I finish it.
DeleteFor what it's worth, I'd say it's well worth £8.50 and I don't think you'd regret buying it.
Delete"Where this polar vortex from hell came from I'm not sure..." Err...I would guess the polar region but I could be wrong. As for the heater inside The Shroud of The Holy Avocado, please give the London Fire Brigade some forewarning. It's only fair.
ReplyDeleteIf they have to deal with Christmas trees, they have to deal with my avocado!
DeleteGhostly beings on the lawn at night, I hope it did not give the upstairs people a fright.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not sure they're even home, which is probably just as well.
DeleteHappy New Year to you both x
ReplyDeleteWendy (Wales)
Thanks, and same to you, Wendy!
DeleteI'm glad the avocado is well wrapped. And Barb. Sounds like you have our cold and for that I am very sorry! No real resolutions here, just a partial list of "more" and "less." More focus on drawing and art (instead of mostly in the summer when I go whole hog), more walking/movement; more travel; more purging/decluttering. Less sugar/carbs, less worry; less spending on the wrong stuff. We'll see how it goes.
ReplyDeleteI think that's a good way to approach resolutions -- as a sort of soft recalibrating rather than sudden, dramatic life changes.
DeleteYour little trees look very ghostlike in their shrouds. I now have a vision in my head of your poor avocado tree going up in flames!!
ReplyDeleteWell, it would be warm then!
DeleteWe keep our heat on but at a chilly 50 degrees or so while gone during the winter. We have several things against us though. We have a house not surrounded by other houses with heat and I think during most of our time away this time, it barely got ABOVE freezing for high temperatures.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what happened, but I have gradually given up all alcohol for the most part. I can't recall the last time I had some but it has been several years I'm guessing. It wasn't something I intentionally set out to do but just happened.
I think where you live it would be a MUST to keep some heat on -- it's much colder on the prairies than here in London!
DeleteI think a polar vortex from Hell is the absolute worst kind of polar vortex!!!
ReplyDeleteThey're all from hell, aren't they?!
DeleteThe Ghost Garden...
ReplyDeleteWooooooooooo....
DeleteI don't think I would have enjoyed a cold house for an entire day, post holidays. I have a very narrow comfort range and in our climate, you can't leave the heat off.
ReplyDeleteThose poor plants outside. They must wonder what's going on:)
I wonder if plants "wonder" anything!
DeleteLondon doesn't bear much climatic resemblance to the North Yorkshire I grew up in! I miss your neighbor anecdotes, but I guess you don't miss living on a construction site.
ReplyDeleteWe are thrilled with the neighbor change. I could not be happier.
DeleteI admire your decision to have a dry January. I guarantee that will not be happening here.
ReplyDelete23 degrees is cold! Polar vortex indeed. We are back up into the upper sixties and lower seventies and we're supposed to get rain here in a few moments. Hmmm...
We shall see.
I always think my wrapped plants look a bit like KKK hoods. At least the large ones in the back yard. It's a little freaky. But...needs must, right?
Wrapped plants do look eerie. I remember driving past neighbors' houses in Florida on freeze nights and being creeped out by their altered landscaping!
Delete
ReplyDeleteCovering stuff to prevent freezing is a lot of work. But it works where you are when you only ge the odd frost. you only get the odd frost.
You took a long breath there before you started typing, Keith!
DeleteI shudder to think about the number of books I read, but way closer to your number. I rea at least 12 for book club and then a couple per month for pleasure. I now have the delightful distraction of the grandsons. That's very cold! We're up in the 50s again and need to be colder; our poor mountain snowpack is suffering.
ReplyDeleteI am so ready to get back to 50-degree temperatures. This is ridiculously cold for us, and we don't even have snowpack to support!
DeleteI really made no resolutions. Just to be better leftist pond scum. Get myself to the y to join up, something I have intended to do since the move. To plant more vegetables. Basically, I see it as keeping on with a bit more 'oomph'.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see your chick heater when it arrives. My niece has some that look like little television screens. Very effective, and not a fire hazard. More like a heating pad that radiates and is thermostatically controlled.
I'll post a picture of it tomorrow (Monday). Mine looks more like a plastic hexagonal flying saucer!
DeleteFrozen pipes are a disaster. I'm glad you escaped frozen pipe issues.
ReplyDeleteThe avocado and banana trees look well protected. A small heater should guarantee the avocado is ok throughout the cold period. It would be a shame to lose the trees.
Fortunately I've never lived anywhere I've had to deal with the risk of frozen pipes. When I lived in New York we had building heat that ran all the time in winter (in fact it was TOO hot, like a lot of NYC buildings). Florida and London are just too moderate in their temperatures to have that problem.
DeleteI don't make resolutions either but I am going to cut down the wine this month. Not completely dry but I'll try for several dry days a week. Your trees look like they are well bundled up for the winter. Here in the desert we are having warmer than usual weather. I haven't had to take a coat out of the closet yet this season.
ReplyDeleteAs my Dry January continues, I may segue into something more like yours -- a slightly damp January! LOL
DeleteA mass in your stepmom's bladder does not sound good. Hopefully whatever it is is benign. We're having a very warm winter. So far I have not moved anything into the garage to winter over beyond pullin two big pots in and out and six little ones on two occasions.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's benign, but I don't want to write much about it because I want to respect her privacy.
DeleteI just checked Goodreads and I read 31 books last year - but if you add in the 22 books I re-read that's a pretty respectable number! Still not as many as the year I read 76 books (my highest recorded number).
ReplyDeleteI love the care you take of that avocado!
76 is a lot of books! And even 31 is respectable, especially with the re-reads.
DeleteI still say my book total is totally related to my need to escape from life. It was one of those years on every level. (thanks for the link)
ReplyDeleteSeeing your Avocado really drives home the herculean task it must be to wrap it!
Good luck with your "dry January". I was already planning to cut back this past year and ended up starting a medication that didn't allow alcohol, canabis, or ibuprofen. So I went the entire year without any and found I really didn't miss it. Well, maybe I missed the ibuprofen...
In the past I was horrified by the idea of a Dry January, but this year I feel ready for it. We'll see how well I stick to it!
DeleteI don't make resolutions, haven't done for quite a few years now.
ReplyDeleteI do like the photograph of the trees near the Tate Britain museum ...
Enjoy this first weekend of 2026.
All the best Jan
Probably the best approach to New Years' Resolutions!
DeleteYour liver will thank you and perhaps you can give up the nightly glass more often or for longer? Your wallet will also thank you. Great idea with the chicken coop heater.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think that's the purpose of Dry January -- to break our cycles of habit and make us step back so we only consume what we really want.
DeleteI used to read a lot more books, then I got a computer....
ReplyDeleteSame here! The computer is a time-killer!
DeleteNope, I agree that hell is freezing too.
ReplyDeleteHa! It's finally happened!
DeleteDidn't know you had an avocado tree, that's special, hope it survives the freeze. Our heating is up full blast, hubby insists on wearing nothing but shorts/tee indoors which infuriates me! Nothing like a detox to start the year, a whole month though might be too much for me! Happy New Year. Betty
ReplyDeleteI normally try to wear layers in the house so we don't have to crank the heat so much, but since we got back from Florida we've been running it pretty constantly. It's just so freaking cold.
DeleteMy count for 2025 is 35 books of different lengths. But I am not in a contest here, about who has been reading most; each of us has 24 hours to the day, and how we fill them depends on so many things - work, health, family situation, interests and necessities.
ReplyDeleteYour plants are so well cared for! Having black thumbs instead of green, I usually just let me (few) houseplants look after themselves, giving them a sip of water once or twice a week, more in the summer of course.
I think most plants are happiest that way, to be honest. I suspect more people kill plants with too much kindness than with neglect. (I have no statistics to back that up, though!)
DeleteYou're right that reading quantity ultimately isn't a contest, especially when there are so many variables in the length and difficulty of books.