As winter bites, we are settling into a kind of routine for survival in the caravan.
Our lovely but ancient spaniel was very confused and disorientated by the move to the croft. It’s not surprising really, as he was essentially an urban dog.
Here he forgot his house training and when he did go out, he’d stand in the wind and rain, ears streaming out behind him, rooted to the spot, seemingly not knowing where to go or what to do. He’d taken to leaving puddles on the carpet during the night. Not good.
Husband has been getting up in the wee small hours to let him out, which seems to be working. Bertie (!) is settling into new routines gradually and has even been seen bounding around in the horizontal rain as he accepts this new “normal”.
The mornings are the most challenging of times here. The static is cold from several hours overnight with no heating, often only a few degrees centigrade in temperature, and the bed is at its warmest and most comfortable.
When I can avoid it no longer, I get up. I layer up as swiftly as I can and wrestle myself into a warm robe, trying to expose as little skin as possible. Then it’s through to the tiny kitchen to put the kettle on for a pot of hot coffee to nudge us into consciousness.
Breakfast is my domain.
It’s usually a bowl of porridge with banana and maple syrup, or eggs and toast, or if we have good fresh bread, a butty with local cheddar (that’s a sandwich for those readers not from these shores).
It takes us a few mugs of coffee to get going enough to enjoy joined-up words together and be able to plan the day. By now the temperature is usually up to around twelve to sixteen degrees Celsius and it’s feeling less arctic.
We watch the weather and sip our coffee, chatting about build plans or deliveries for the day. We read the news online but at the moment are more absorbed by our own new, little world as we work together to start to establish our place in it.
It may be like living in the cold wash, fast spin cycle of a washing machine at the moment, but with every day it feels a bit more like home.
Ravencroft Skye 
Husband has been seen “bounding around in the horizontal rain as he accepts this new “normal”.
Wow….he’s going to love the snow then 😁
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Behave. 😂
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Behave. 😂 My bad grammar! I’ve corrected it, thank you. Although husband loves the idea of him bounding around in the horizontal rain… 😊
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Haha…. glad you’re both enjoying the dream 👍
And fingers crossed for an unseasonably warm winter 🤞
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That would be most appreciated. Let’s hope you have influence with the Weather Gods 👍
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Cherish the memory, eventually your feet will touch the floor and it will be warm. Oh the joys of underfloor heating. Not to worry the days are getting shorter, the perfect excuse for an extra half hour under the duvet!
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Excellent advice!
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As challenging as those times are, I have never felt more alive and vital than when I had to fight heroically to get out of bed and get the day started. We start our day at 4:30am at the moment, because the heat of the day is impossible to work in. We try to get all the animals settled for the day with food and water etc, before the sun rises and the heat takes away any appetite. I begin to see the practical reasons for Ramadan in hot middle eastern countries.
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Interesting isn’t it. I struggle to get up because of the cold and you because of the heat 😊
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It is interesting. The struggle is what makes life interesting though.
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I had an iffy few days before I realised I was crossing my fingers for Zeus instead of Helios. It’s all good now. Hopefully I can spread this influence in a northerly direction 💨🌝
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😂😂😂
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