Given that I live inland on the Costa Brava you might be thinking that as I write this post I’m sat poolside, with my laptop or iPad on my lap and enjoying the sun on my face, or the shade.
In fact I’m sat indoors, and when I look up from my screen I can see the trees in the plot next door. It’s early December and the sun is shining. However, far from being warm enough to sit by the pool, I’ve got far more on than a pair of Speedos; in fact, I’m blowing warm air into my hands to keep them warm, eying the fingerless gloves that will probably be slipped on later, while sat in a thick fleece and thermal underwear.
It’s freezing!
In fact, this morning it was minus four degrees Celsius, and a look out the window first thing confirmed a thick layer of frost across the lawns of the neighbouring houses. If you’ve never been to Catalonia at this time of day it might take you by surprise as most people only visit during the summer. And in your mind therefore, the Costa Brava enjoys an eternal summer, with the locals free to swim at whatever time of year.
The reality is far from it, and one of the great pleasure of this time of year is to light a roaring fire where I can attempt to work, but more usually spend hours gazing at the flames, going to collect more wood to add to the fire, or simply dozing off.
There is an easier option for warmth, which is the central heating. However, given that we live in an urbanization in the middle of nowhere there is no gas supply and instead our heating runs on diesel oil. And that, at the moment, is expensive. We do use it, of course, but we keep the heating low (hence the thermals) and get by as best we can.
The fire is fantastic to warm ourselves in front of, but it has another warming effect too. While many people buy their firewood, we go into the forest with an axe and some bags to find broken branches of pine, load up the car and drive them home; days later I get out the chain saw and cut up the branches into logs.
It’s amazing how warm you get quite quickly and soon, even on a cold day like today, you have worked up a sweat.
The other advantage is that we get firewood in a variety of sizes. While you may think the bigger the better, and it is certainly true that the big stuff will take longer to burn, it is also useful to have a variety of other sizes when getting the fire going, and pine cones are almost essential if you want to light a fire with a single match without using firelighters.
And so I toil in front of my computer, trotting out words on the keyboard, warming my hands by blowing into them, wearing gloves, or by a hot cup of coffee.
I can only dream of the day on the other side of this winter when I can start to strip off and head for the beach. We’ve got a long winter ahead to get to that point and, if it’s anything like last year, frozen pipes and nine below zero to contend with before that point.
