Getting the old house ready for its first winter
The paper doors, the stove, the firewood and the long list we wrote in October, and how much of it we got to.
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Latest posts
A new post every Saturday from the village: one story from an ordinary week.
8 min read
Persimmons from the neighbours
Peeling, stringing and hanging them to dry, with a lot of laughing at my first try.
7 min read
Learning to light a wood stove
Three failures, one smoky kitchen and the order that finally works.
9 min read
Helping with the straw: a day with the neighbours
Tying bundles in a line with people twice my age, and the sore arms that followed.
10 min read
Growing vegetables on a steep slope
Narrow terraces, stones I dug out and what actually grew in the first summer.
6 min read
The walk up to our house
Two hundred steps, a gate and what it does to the shopping.
7 min read
A bridge, a gorge and a Sunday walk
The walk we do on the first Sunday, whatever the weather.
5 min read
Rain on the veranda: a day of doing nothing
A teapot, a pile of persimmons and the best afternoon of the autumn.
9 min read
What we packed and what we left behind
The boxes we are glad we brought, and the rooms of things we never missed.
12 min read
Why we left the city
The plain reasons, the money and the worries we had on the last night.
Newsletter
The Village Letter
A free letter every Sunday from the village: what the week was like, one thing I learned and one thing to try.