Roads to Joy

Awaking early this morning to -4ºC, and a heavy frost that has the snowdrops sagging, it was such a joy to start the wood fire in our cosy room, the room we call the Craft Room, and to enjoy the warmth. Our heat pumps are struggling, but we have hunkered down next to the fire with our porridge and eggs.

But we also had an urgent situation during a much more clement weekend at the beginning of this week, before the cold set in again. Our freezer began to fail, as I clocked on Saturday morning, and that set me off on a trail of discovery for useful work-arounds. As it turned out, I managed to source two used freezers, both of which are now installed in the shed in place of the failed freezer we’d inherited from the previous owner, and keeping our frozen goods safe. So that was an early joy this week, though it took some perseverance and ingenuity.

The owner of the second freezer, offered for free on facebook’s Marketplace, queried, when I told him I was ready to pick the item up in our little Fiat Panda: ‘You do realise it’s six feet tall?!’ I hadn’t thought it would be quite that large, but of course the Panda’s hatchback opened wide enough, and the back seat went down enough while the passenger seat moved forward enough, so that I could lash the freezer on board safely and then trundle on home with the hatchback door near-fully open over it. Simples, as we might say. But would it work when it was home?

The joy when ice formed in my test ice cube tray was almost visceral. At least, I could feel it as a lump in my throat. So today I’m just musing on how the opposite conditions of warmth and cold, but in their proper place, can inspire joy in almost equal measure. I’m reminded of the Aesop fable, ‘The Satyr and The Traveller’ where the cold traveller tries to warm his hands by blowing on them, and then to cool his soup by blowing on it. The satyr takes great affront at this anomaly of breath. I guess everything is relative, but in its place is so much appreciated.

When we finally get our next wood-fired stove installed in the living room, possibly as early as next week, I shall look forward to being warm while spooning delicious ice cream into my gullet at the same time. Bewitching wonders never cease.