Rites of passage

One of the things about country living is annual rites of passage and an awareness of time.

Perhaps more so than in the city, you know where the sun will set tonight if of course today is a lucky sunshine day as opposed to a sky weeping cloud day.

But on top of this you have key points in the year.

To those perhaps only used to thinking the central heating could go on half an hour earlier they can be obscure.

But as autumn as we have audacity to call fall here in those parts of Wales who do not have the braver audacity not to speak to the masses in the master tongue....

Is upon us, two of the rituals have been passed:

The firing up of the AGA, an event which is marked by an initial optimistic prime and light, followed by a three hour strip down as management bad temperdely cleans everything in the kitchen of the layer of black soot it acquired during the subsequent blow back and mis fire.

The first firing of the log stoves. Always a nice event, there is something innately comforting about a log fire and the pre firing chain sawing and axe waving combines therapy and fitness building.

Finally you have the last ritual, one perhaps unique to Penole. That is the blocking of the louvres of the extractor fan in the kitchen a task usually completed using carrier bags from Tesco.

I did that this morning whilst being treated to displays of genuine and touching affection by the kitten. He is so sweet, I thought he deserved some extra food and he is now eating happily before he returns to that AGA that you could almost say was his.

We were going to call him "Tiddles" but somehow he has ended up as "da man", not sure how that came about.

Management is doing the other Autumn pre frost rites, shorts are being packed and jumpers found along with the winter duvets. T shirts never seem to go away these years though.

A difference between the town and country too. Steve the local log man is coming up because he has been clearing his log yard and he has tons and tons of waste mulch which we have agreed he can tip on out land.

Tipping mulch is a huge help to him and having it is really valuable to us, we help each other and achieve more collectively than crude ego centric individualism can ever do .

Mind you there will be a few sore backs when we spread that lot to make the willow sedge in cold frost March

R