Dark Nights

The nights are definitely drawing in now. It's dark by 5pm and the weather's taking a turn towards freezing this week, it won't be long before frosts are the norm every morning.


At dusk our house becomes a flurry of activity. The curtains which have been opened to let as much light in as possible during the day are quickly shut to keep as much heat in as possible. There's a fine line between being daylight and darkness and it seems to change suddenly. Big thick curtains are great at keeping heat in but I can never understand why radiators are often situated directly under windows. It just makes it harder to keep the heat in! So, as well as drawing the curtains around the house I am found carefully tucking the curtains behind the radiators so that any heat they give off will go into the room and not out into the night.

It's not just curtain tucking that stops heat getting out. Our porch door is really draughty and the stream of cold air coming in is a sure sign that warm air is escaping out. So next weekend a pair of old jeans will be given a new life as a draught excluder, stuffed with more old, worn out clothes. Pushed against the bottom of the door this should keep the living room nice and toasty for those long winter nights.

Another tip for keeping the house warm that we used whilst at university was to have everyone in one room for the evening. This way you only need to heat one room and if you have enough bodies, and laptops, together it's amazing how much heat they can give off. You might not even need the heating on!