Preparing for winter

It is 26 degrees today, so it seems odd to be thinking about preparing for winter, but that is what I am doing. The brief blip of summer we've had for the last few days (during which we did a lot of gardening and took our kayak all the way to Sandford Lock - good times) is surely going to be over very soon, and will be rapidly followed by several months of dark evenings, bitter cold, and the associated feeling of never wanting to leave the house, ever again.

So, here are my thoughts on things my household needs to do before winter really kicks in. We already had the boiler serviced, hurrah!

(By the way, I find the wife of noble character described in Proverbs 31:10-31 totally inspiring. 'When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet... She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.' I want to be just like her.)

• Stock up on tinned and dry goods (for which a semi-major pantry reorganisation may be required)
• Put away summer dresses and make sure winter clothes are ready to go
• Make thermal curtains for living room
• Change to autumn duvet
• Move a duvet downstairs for when we're cold in the living room
• Get a blind for the kitchen
• Install a new fan in the bathroom - no more open windows for showers!
• Make draught excluders for front and back doors
• Clear out upstairs cupboard so we can actually find things in there, and make a place for candles, torches etc
• Get chimney fixed
• Insulate loft in small room

Lots to do! Hopefully over the next few weekends we'll be able to get a lot of this done, and hopefully the result will be we won't be so cold in the house this winter as we were last year.