Movin' South

Late summer and fall seem to have a southward bent. Suddenly you notice the hummingbirds are gone and you haven't seen the robins in a while. Monarchs are spotted going south. Geese noisily take to the skies by the thousands. Snowbirds (people who go to places like Florida or Arizona for the winter) pack up their things and head for warmer weather.

With the price of heating fuel we decided to head south too except, for us, it means moving south in our house. We're lucky to have a beautiful 1819 farmhouse in the country. At least we think we're lucky until the first cold snap and we're reminded that our bedroom faces north and that part of the house tends to be COLD. Admittedly, it's not as cold as it used to be before we put heat up there. At that time in our lives when we were MUCH younger (why do we always blame it on youth?) we wore our wool hats to bed to keep warm. Now we do have heat with its own thermostat, but the price of oil is so high we don't like to heat it more than necessary which makes it feel even colder compared to the part of the house that enjoys the warmth of the wood stove. This year it FINALLY occurred to us there was nothing to stop us from moving a bed down to the sunspace (southern facing) for the winter and just close off the north facing front of the house. Of course it hasn't been very cold yet AND the sun (when it chooses to show itself) doesn't come up until 7:30 (it shines right on the bed) but so far so good. We'll keep you posted.