Yes, we get cold here but soon warm up and 10 degrees inside actually feels warm enough to not have heating on as the sun streams through the windows and warms everything up very quickly, especially our roof which makes the most extraordinary noises!!
So although when we get up in the morning freezing, running around and not thinking about it or making a fuss works! It takes about an hour for the wood burner to get going properly and when it does, it is toasty warm, too much so sometimes then we have to put the roof fan on to push the heat around the house which is does quite well. And gum tree wood burns hot! Although the wood sellers chop the wood up to the same length so you can get the pieces in the wood burners, we still chop bits up of the pine we get for some kindling, good exercise on a chilly day too.
We didn't do too much at the weekend - Saturday was so cold that we went in briefly to see what was happening at the Festival then came home to a roaring fire, put our feet up and read our books for the afternoon, bliss. I made some Morrocan lamb and pine nut filo parcels which were really easy for dinner with proper chips so that was very nice and rhubarb and apple crumble with thick cream, naughty but good! Sunday we were out at around 11 am so had a fairly lazy start then drove through Dalefield and on to the Kawarau gorge to Cromwell and Bannockburn. You couldn't see Cromwell for the mist and it was so icy (photos above on the left and middle) so we went and had lunch in the pub at Bannockburn which was very nice and drove down into the valley when the mist cleared.
Right, time to stoke up the fire and head off now or I will talk myself out of going, 40 lengths last Thursday and I have promised myself to beat that!
TTFN, take care and big hugs to everyone. Three weeks today I will be home, well give or take a few hours and I can't wait. See some of you soon xxxxx