I don't use my drier very much if I can help it.  I'd much rather hang washing out.  The weather has been so bad this year that I've covered over the passageway on one side of my house.  There are gates at both ends and with these open I can hang washing out when it's raining, down the side of my house where it can't be seen but there is enough air blowing through underneath the roofing to dry the washing.  I've had a carport put up the other side, so if push came to shove I could hang out under there as well.

Obviously there would be huge implications regarding electricity anyway.  Computers, washing machines etc.  There would be a lot to get used to not having.   My grandma managed very well with a wash tub and a mangle.  It's all harder physical work but people would be slimmer and fitter.

I read somewhere that it doesn't have to be very sunny to power solar panels.  Apparently there is enough sunlight even on a winter's day if you have enough panels and strategically-sited.  A swimming pool would be out of the question I suppose.

I have high hopes of wind farms.  For heaven's sake there are enough gales here to power half of England I'd have thought.

I take it you don't agree with me then Mabeljane? 

I know it's all pie in the sky, but I do hanker a bit for a slower pace and more time to smell the roses.  We all seem to be meeting ourselves coming back to pay bills and mortgages.  It's a full-time job just keeping clean and fed. 

You can say what you like about a time when there were fewer mod cons, but sometimes I wonder if they've actually saved us much time.  I seem to be twice as busy as my grandparents even with all my so-called labour-saving devices.  They used to take time to read more and before we had a tv we played games and talked more as a family.  Now if I use energy I feel guilty all the time because I should be saving the planet.

I dunno, I'm just feeling that way out I suppose. 

And since I have a full-time job teaching, I am very grateful for all the mod cons I have use of to make the cleaning and feeding not a full-time job.

not to mention



 

Yes really.  I do.  Impossible not to feel guilty when we use anything at all.  The trouble is, everything is run by power of some kind.

I'm heating my home at night because I have a young child who gets up several times and throws the covers off in his sleep.  I also like an even temperature in my home.  I pay dearly for it financially but that's ok because I can and I choose to do it.  "Incredibly wasteful" though it may be I make other savings that a lot of people do not.

I also drive a car and I wish I didn't have to.  Public transport round here is dreadful.  If it were not, I wouldn't have a car.

At no time have I said that heated swimming pools are ok.  I mentioned that my friend has one, mentioned how much it costs and wondered whether there might be a more fuel-efficient way of running one.  I do not have one, nor would I.

Impolite final sentence due to being overwrought removed. 

Perhaps that's because he becomes too hot...

Anyway, I have NO heating now and NO hot water as the boiler's playing up. And a slow drip of water from underneath it - the expensive plumber's been called and should be here later this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Radiator drip only happens when it's turned up to 4 but I've told him so he should be able to sort that out too.

... maybe because you don't know it's broken until the weather gets cold and you switch it on?

Hope it gets sorted quickly, MJ.

I had no heating for a while last week (faulty pilot light), and I was feeling grateful it wasn't this week. Commiserations, MJ.

At this moment someone is mending (I hope) my gutters. Houses.......what a nuisance they are, but we have to have them, I suppose.