A bit of sewing

I've been sewing! Oh, how I've missed it. This is Patch, my second one, and he's so cheery I almost can't bear to give him away. This one is for my friend's two year old daughter, and I'm just trying to work out the best way to stick him in the post.

The pattern came from an article from an old magazine that Peter cut out years ago and stuck to a piece of card. We have no idea what the magazine was, or when it's from, but I'm so glad he cut it out all those years ago. Patch is really easy to make, even for someone as impatient as me... I didn't use old tights as stuff though - but only cos I didn't have enough!

Anyway, he was very cheery to sew, and I'm enjoying having him hanging round in the kitchen. He's adding an element of cosiness at the minute, as our boiler was condemned today, just as it's starting to turn properly cold.

It's 20 odd years old, makes rather a racket, but was working pretty much perfectly, as far as this morning. Sadly, the man who came to do the annual service didn't quite agree...

There's been rather a lot of cursing about the obsolescence of boiler parts. Apparently, the part we need is small, relatively inexpensive, but they just don't make it any more, and because of this we 'have' to have the entire system replaced, at a cost of several thousand pounds.

Well, we don't always believe what we're told in this house... so there's been lots of tapping of keyboards and phoning of friends as we've searched for a better solution. Questions have been asked that others might consider a little bit extreme - Can we find this obsolete part anywhere? (possibly) Can we manage without central heating? (yes) Is it warm enough with plug in heaters? (yes) Could we possibly, possibly justify a cheery solid fuel stove?? (Probably not, but doesn't stop me dreaming about one!) Do we have enough blankets? (undoubtedly yes, but that's not a reason not to acquire a few more!) Shall I start knitting hats? (ooh, yes!)

So. A fair bit of pondering going on here. This is one of the disadvantages of a 'simple' life - sometimes it doesn't seem very simple...

Both of us grew up without central heating, and we've never heated the house up like a greenhouse and walked around in shorts and t shirts. This house is old, 110 years old, and has lived through plenty of those years without radiators. The walls are thick - but filled with rubble rather than cavity wall insulation. Fortunately we have double glazing, and thick curtains. So we won't freeze, but it would be handy to take the chill off the house and not let the damp set in... So for now, we've got four small plug in radiators, and that's working nicely today. Not sure the washing's going to dry very quickly though, and we don't have a tumble dryer. Mind you, doing less washing sounds rather appealing!

If we both worked full time, we might have just agreed to buy a new boiler straight away. But we don't, and we didn't. So this is going to require a bit of creativity. I'm up for the challenge.