Have An Ice Day.

It's not until you have heat that you realise how much the cold saps you both mentally and physically. After a warm evening and a good long sleep I felt revived and full of energy. Keep your fingers crossed that the oil gets delivered tomorrow. This afternoon Peter fitted a detector that tells a sensor in the house how much oil there is left in the tank so we can order oil before it gets too low. But unfortunately that's not the end of our problems. As soon as it became cold we turned on the kitchen tap and left it running to stop the water from freezing in the pipes. That tap comes direct from our water source, a bore hole , and remains running but somehow we've lost the rest of our water supply. Hopefully the pump in the bore hole has simply tripped out due to ice in the pipes, if not and it has to be replaced that's another big bill to pay. So for the moment all our water has to come from the kitchen tap including water to fill the toilet cisterns. Not too much of a problem when there are only 2 of us here but I'm not sure we could manage with 9 in the house. The sun was shining this afternoon as I walked around the garden looking for things to photograph.
These interesting shapes were found lurking in the ice covering of the pond,

which at first glance didn't appear to hold much photographic promise.

The rest of the day has been spent doing housework and sorting out all the Christmas extras needed for school this week, cards, party prizes and pictures for next term's displays. As a staff we decided some years ago not to give each other cards but to collect the money we would have spent and give it to an overseas charity. We still indulge in Secret Santa presents because that's always a bit of fun and everyday we bring in biscuits or chocolates for the staffroom which adds to the party atmosphere of the week. Can't say I'm looking forward to Christmas dinner with 140 excited children tomorrow but the children enjoy it.