Yes, that's right 34C in the direct sun (21C in the shade) at end of garden today - 15th November! I've been told that it's the warmest November since the early 1970's but how much longer will it last? Next two weeks looking fairly mild according to Accuweather and mainly sunny with the odd shower, generally at night. However, I am preparing for winter with a second load of wood which was delivered by horse and cart. Some local men were recruited to carry the wood up the garden as my caravan prevented the horse and cart getting beyond the end of the courtyard. There was a bonus "delivery" left by the horse! I have also been informed that Romania is expecting the coldest winter for nearly 50 years so the extra wood may well have been a good decision. I thought I probably had enough wood already but when a local Roma came knocking on the door offering a cartload for 70 lei, 30 lei less than I paid for each of the first two cartloads, I said "Yes please". After all, if I don't use it this winter, it will be there for the next. Incidentally, I heard again yesterday that we can expect a very cold winter. It had somehow become the coldest in 1000 years but I don't think records go back that far!
Last week I painted the ceiling and upper walls of the en-suite and fitted the glass into the door so it is definitely finished now (see video). Cole has also constructed a new partition wall between the entrance steps and the kitchen which will go a long way to keeping the warmth in. The kitchen is the only unheated area in the house, unless the gas cooker is in use, and the main entrance is a pair of glazed double doors with a large fanlight above which resulted in rapid heat loss once the sun had gone down. Although the temperature in the kitchen area has, so far, not gone below 11C it always feels colder in the morning when I come out of my bedroom which is heated in the evening by one of three wood-fired stoves. Even though the house is 90 years old, the Saxon German builders knew a thing or two about thermal insulation and built the house with 500mm thick exterior walls, 300mm interior walls, wood floors, double (inner and outer) windows and ceilings consisting of 20-25mm of lime plaster, reinforced with reeds, applied to 25mm thick boards. It doesn't end there either - the roof space floor is more 25mm boards covered with a 25mm thick layer of lime mortar! Once the sun has gone down it gets cold very quickly outside and most mornings there has been a light to moderate frost on my car. If I light the tiled stoves in the evening and fill them up so they will keep burning for an hour or so after I've gone to bed, the room temperature by late evening is usually 21-23C. Because the tiled stoves act like night storage heaters and continue to give off heat long after the fire has gone out, the rooms will still be at least 17C next morning, even with night time temperatures falling to minus 8C as they did a couple of weeks ago. When this incredibly warm spell has ended no doubt the stoves may have to be kept "ticking over" all day and room temperatures built up to 25 or 26C in the evening but with my winter fuel stock now nearly 50% more than it was last week, I am confident that my 270 lei (£55) worth will keep me warm!
P.S. How do I get rid of the unwanted "suggestions" at the end of the Youtube video?
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