ran out of cola

This is what the window looks like now.

...no, I actually meant coal, but I typed this into an Instant Message last night, and, as you may know, you can't change what you've said once you've hit send. Most people seem to make allowances for this, but not my 7 year old niece, who insists on calling me Arntie, in a Blytonesque fashion: "No you meant M-i-c-H-a-e-l, didnt you?".

Anyway, thankfully there was another bag (of coal) in the car, although this garage forecourt coal burns a bit strange and leaves at least twice as much ash and clinker as the stuff I normally get. I decided to pick up a couple of bags of it this morning instead of having huge dirty wet black sacks delivered, thankyou- it didn't work out any cheaper, anyway- I think they ripped me off. Anyway I think I will go back to wood, at least partially, as it smells nicer and doesn't leave black dust all over the room. I just need to find a good source of it. The net of logs I picked up today was not great and was very green. Maybe I'll get a delivery from the sawmill. I am wondering if there are any more birch up on the moors left from last year's pruning by the electricity board. It was a bit snowy to find it at the time, but it should be nicely seasoned now and I know where to look. Just have to persuade the boys its a really great idea to go clambering about with a rucksack again.
So, they made good use of the kindling blocks that they asked me to get for building stuff out of, making all sorts of dens and houses for their people. (Why is this so much more fun that playing with "toy"wooden blocks?). I've been thinking about a range for the kitchen again, after hearing about Tech's find. I don't think I can sell the house at the moment, if I can possibly avoid it. Especially after reading Tom's midnight garden.
It rained all afternoon so we didn't make it on our wood foraging hunt. The weather was just like...the end of the world...like Gaia was trying to wash us away like parasites. The river Hebden was almost touching the bottom of the bridge.
I attempted to do some tidying up: I tidied the newspaper basket, which is very tall and had some of last year's Xmas wrapping paper in the bottom, along with loads of other stuff that's no good for lighting the fire, like magazines, bus timetables, junk mail. We do have a paper recycling collection; shame they're not coming for another two weeks as the box is full now. Ok, I did get through the other piles of accumulated paper in the kitchen too. This is progress? Well maybe it's a start.