We awake to the heaviest frost of the year.
The burgeoning green of an early Spring was covered in a hoary white.
I had gone to bed feeling foolish–wearing an extra warming layer of long-sleeved t-shirt–because the heating tank was EMPTY–the radiators resolutely cold. No hot water either!
I took my eye off the gauge!
The gods were laughing–it was Friday afternoon–NO delivery over the weekend.
Our plan for the evening had been to see I, Tonya—the new biopic about the American figure skater, Tonya Harding, first American woman to land a triple axel in competition (1991):
She’s not only remembered for that, however.
Anyway we stuck to our plan–warm cinema and–post film, a welcoming bistro. We snuggled down in the cosy fug of Salle 4.
The irony–ha ha–was we’d come to see a film largely played out on ICE.
The real Tonya Harding with the actress who portrays her, Australian Margot Robbie.
It was a good watch–but a constant reminder of what we’d be returning home to–an icy cold house.
Back in the fifties, in leafy Hampstead Garden Suburb, I grew up in an icy cold house–no central heating.
Coke boiler in the kitchen, a coal fire in the living room–and keep the doors closed and stay close to the hearth.
Electric heaters upstairs–but careful with them–they are expensive! Better just one bar.
When it turned FREEZING–which seemed often back then–every possible layer went onto the bed.
I remember tensing my whole body as I climbed between the covers, gradually relaxing, as the human hot-water bottle heated up the ice cold sheets.
Che–ooooh!
Meredith grew up near Chicago–a city famous for its wind chill and snow. BUT–and it’s a big BUT–with central heating.
However, no …upmanship–last night we both stiffened the lip, filled the hot water bottles and piled on the layers.
This morning we get our reward–the first baby daffodils and crocus are showing their faces to a brisk but sunny world.
Fluffernut (aka Midnight) doesn’t seem too sure it will last.
The Oil Man Cometh tomorrow–we trust!
The more it snows (Tiddely pom),
The more it goes (Tiddely pom),
The more it goes (Tiddely pom),
On snowing.
And nobody knows (Tiddely pom),
How cold my toes (Tiddely pom),
How cold my toes (Tiddely pom),
Are growing.
from the little song originally created by AA Milne in the book The House at Pooh Corner
Robin Ellis 
And remember the beautiful ice patterns on the inside of your bedroom window,the cream on the milk erupting in a frozen tube when the bottle was left on the doorstep. And if you left washing on the line you would have items of clothing frozen solid….don’t miss those days at all !
I, too, remember those bitterly cold, un-central heated, days of my childhood in our Mews flat in Bayswater, with beautiful frost patterns on the INSIDE of the windows!! Hope your oil arrives tomorrow.
Every sympathy Robin – I’ve been having hotwater bottles for a while but only because I am ‘neche’! Today high sunshine (18 degrees) here so celebrated the arrival of spring at a new bar we’ve found in a local village with Chris consuming 12 oysters and me struggling with calçots (mini barbecued leeks) in full bib and plastic gloves! A wonderful locals event.
Lucky you, Jane–wish we had a similar bar serving good eats. Hope your springlike weather heads our way. Hi to Chris.
Thank you for the lovely use of A. A. Milne. Never often freezing where I grew up in California, but my father’s, and later me on
my own, reading of all his wonderful poems would warm up any evening. Hope the oil was delivered on time.
I had forgotten that poem. Thank you for reminding me.
Lovely story!! We, here in Southern California, have the furnace set at 70 to come on at 5am…last night it got down to 50 and I had an electric blanket! lol!! You English are a tough people!! Thanks for the laugh!!
I also ran out of oil in frosty Herefordshire a couple of weeks ago….doubly bad, because then the plumber has to come and bleed the system to get the oil flowing from the newly refilled tank. Miserable few days that was!
I remember those days too,but occasionally my mother would light a fire for me in my bedroom-sheer bliss. here in the Limousine we have a woodburner and also paraffin and electric heaters.It’s lovely to be warm,long live hot water bottles! hope you are both cosy now.
I feel for you guys! Yikes!
Thanks for sharing your post. 🙂
Another beautifully written piece Robin. I can sense the cold and the beauty of the snow and the new life , through your words. Where I live, in Queensland, Australia, it doesn’t snow. In fact we are still having 29 degree ( Celsius ) days and it is late Summer. So I found your piece very evocative. Loved the poem too.
Oh how my folks loved the Pooh stories and poems! We didn’t have TV, but we had my mom reading that very poem to us. Texas occasionally got snow out west. Such fun! We had central heat there, but I have lived many places that didn’t, and I have such admiration for you hardy British souls. Mine has toughened up here after 35 years in NYC — I’ll willingly put up with the biting cold if it keeps the horrible summer heat at bay! Many thanks for the terrific writing and the fluffernut picture.
Nancy N
You and Meredith have my sympathies for the cold weekend. It seems that you have done an admirable job of coping until the new delivery of oil.
I live in a western suburb of Chicago and it has been a cold winter. There was a period starting on December 23 and lasting almost two weeks when the temperature did not go about 20 degrees F.
One of the local weather forecasters, Tom Skilling, has said that while the people think of the changing seasons as based upon the equinox or solstice, weather forecasters think of meteorological seasons as starting at the beginning of the month (i.e., March 1, June 1, September 1 and December 1) because it is easier to compare the monthly records.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/weather/ct-wea-0224-asktom-20160223-column.html
Perhaps it will help to think that meteorological spring is days away from starting on March 1.
I’m lucky to have grown up with central heating, albeit the forced-hot air kind, which left the house very dry in the winter. Gene remembers his parents closing off rooms and only heating one bedroom, the dining room and den; the kitchen was heated by a kerosene stove. We’ve never run out of oil at our current home (and thankfully, they have emergency service in our area), but you made me think back to the Ice Storm of 2008, which left parts of New England crippled for a month and made us consider how our ancestors had lived in “the good old days.”
We went to bed with NO IDEA that bad weather was on the way, and woke up in the middle of the night to ominous creaking and snapping, and house-shuddering BOOMS!–like the death knell of a sinking wooden ship. We looked outside to see broken boughs and snapped trees everywhere, and huddled in bed wondering if our neighbor’s trees would land on our heads as we slept. By 3 am, the night-lights went dark. The next morning was a glistening wonderland, but trees and wires were still accumulating MORE ice, and were falling down everywhere. Roads were impassable. One big branch speared the garage roof. No power on our street for nearly 2 weeks! We lived by candle-light & woodstove & battery-powered radio…water for toilets carried from the pond across the street. I still have a dented kitchen pot from trying to crack open a hole in the ice…No school for nearly a month…My colleague fed Oreo, the classroom bunny for a few days until the roads were clear enough for us to go rescue him…Christmas parties were re-scheduled…
We spent our days clearing broken branches from the property. Early to bed because it was so dark, you couldn’t really do anything after 4pm. Awake by 5 because the woodstove had long gone out by then. What a crazy life we had for awhile! We finally gave up on hopes of rescue by Day 11 or 12 and bought a generator. A few days later, the power finally came back on. But we were lucky; other areas stayed dark for another few weeks! We’ve never lost power for more than a few hours since then, but it sure makes you appreciate modern conveniences!
Keep warm & hope spring returns soon!!!
I love cuddling down into the sheets on a cold night with a hottie by my feet!❄️🌱
I grew up in the second half of the fifties with no central heating but with a dad who worked at Coventry pit, so we still had the warmest house in the street.
We had a Raeburn in the kitchen and my bedroom was above and open fires in the other downstairs rooms. Miners got free coal so there was no hesitation in throwing more on to keep warm.
I remember putting coats on the bed when it was extra cold. I still put my dressing gown on the bed now. Thanks dad for keeping me warm and a warm home to live in. 😁
Coincidentally, I was just debating whether to see the I,Tonya film. I also remember how cold l was as a child in a Georgian flat London and also had chilblains until we moved to a new flat in Fitzrovia with central heating.
PS. Very cold and snowing here on the coast in East Sussex.
Sorry to hear about your oil-less cold. Here in the Idaho Panhandle it can be -22F at night in February but our wonderful utility company manages to keep the power on for the furnace and the electric fireplace. Hope that the cats slept with you under the covers until warmer hours arrived.
I grew up with a coal and wood burning furnace. “Shut the door!” was often heard. What I remember is if the wind was blowing from one direction, the bathroom was nicely warm and the rest of the house was chilly. If the wind blew in from the opposite direction, the house was beautifully warm except for the bathroom. It was downright frigid and you didn’t linger! Oh, and a washer but no dryer, so you had to deal with laundry frozen on the clothesline. Brrrr! I feel so fortunate now.
Robin I loved this account. So descriptive. I’m lying in my sick bed at the moment but improving and have enjoyed a wander down memory lane. I grew up in the north east of England and the winters at times were bitter. I remember scraping my own patterns in the ice patterns on the inside of the windows. The small gas fires in our rooms being lit only until you were up and dressed ………..hardly made any impact really. Then a walk to school with that North East wind trying to undo your coat and in wellies that ‘ate’ your socks, resulting in a tell tale red ring around your leg top of your calf and below the knee known as ‘wellie chop’ in our family. My dad would insist on rubbing Fullers earth into the sore red ring. Hated it at the time but it seemed to work ! Happy days but I do appreciate central heating !! Ros
I remember those days many years ago when I was young. We had a coal heater and one grate between living room and dining room. Bedrooms would have ice on the windows. No storm window then. I remember one morning we came down and my fish had frozen. Thank heaven those days are over, unless you forget to pay the bill.
Dear Sir
I feel sorry for you… at least a few months of the year…
We live here in a tropical paradise.
Why not take a few months off, each year, and come in from the cold?
We have good hospitals a few minutes away, great food and organic markets, a view like the Riviera.
You and Meredith can chew me out about my political or culinary views, at your leisure.
All the best
Where is this you speak of?
What a beautiful way of writing, Mr. Ellis! As a child, I lived in a cottage built in 1790 with thick stone walls. We had no central heating but we were happy and it was cosy.