Six years ago today we were on the A1, travelling north, towing Bri@n, who contained a few basic things to get us through the first week. Sometime early afternoon we got a phone call, just as we were passing the Angel of the North, confirming that we were now the owners of a new home. A house in a beautiful position on a windy ridge that needed an awful lot of work before it was comfortably habitable and could be future-proofed to meet our needs for our retirement.
That was ten days before the first Covid lockdown. Nothing could have prepared us, newly returned from South Africa where we had spent a tense month on holiday, planned a year before, for what would follow.
It feels very similar now – no idea what the next few weeks and months will hold; the world in uncertainty.
But, this time, rather than being in the grip of a virus of unknown origin, potency or magnitude, where everyone seemed to be on the same side, this time we are being held ransom by our dependence on Gulf Oil and a load of foreign megalomaniac men who are playing “my dick’s bigger than your dick” with the future of humanity.
And then, if there is anything left once they have finished, the joy of a world controlled by out-of-control machines, who have been learning from their own misguided and misaligned information.
Honestly, I despair. There is so much that needs saying, but I honestly do not have the strength or stamina any more to say it.
Month: March 2026
Today Radio 4 and the government finally caught up with me on oil prices.
The owner of our nearest petrol station (13 miles away) told me on Saturday that he is expecting a litre of petrol to cost £1.74 by this coming weekend. It was then £1.379. That is $8.85 and $6.52 respectively per US gallon.
But, as Mr BW reminded me, 4 years ago, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the litre price was well over £2 a litre for several months. Now Russia are offering to help Europe out with supply of oil, providing the agreement is long-term. Well, that will be interesting…
No supplier will currently deliver heating oil in this area, at any price. Luckily we don’t need any urgently – with the central heating off now I think we are OK for about 30 weeks – but it might be a long time before this war is over, given that the population of Iran is around 93 million people (the 17th country globally in population and the sixth-largest country in Asia). The population is largely urbanized (over 73%) with a median age of around 32 years.
I always believed that our own North Sea oil was the ‘wrong kind’ of oil for most uses. I’m sure that is what we were told last century. Well, that is what I have written (from the blackboard) in my 3rd year geography exercise book. Miss Agnew must have got it wrong. Now it seems that the reason 80% of our own oil production is shipped abroad is simply because we don’t have the refinery capacity to process the raw product in the UK. Given that last November the UK government effectively banned new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, our dependence on other countries for the power we need is very scary in these times.
Over the past few days, I’ve asked everyone I’ve encountered about the past history of oil and petrol shortages in this area, and have been told that panic buying and queues at petrol stations have never been seen – compared to what happens in the south east – but times are different now, so I shall be watching closely.
Heating oil price is up again to 142.20ppl today.
That is ridiculous given that petrol is 135.9ppl and a lot of that price is fuel duty and 20% VAT, whereas only 5% of the heating oil price is VAT.
Boiler Juice have answered the obvious question, Why doesn’t heating oil move in line with crude oil or petrol prices?
“Heating oil prices do not always rise or fall at the same rate as petrol, diesel, or crude oil. The delivered price of heating oil includes several additional factors, such as:
– Local availability of kerosene (a smaller and more regional market)
– Terminal, storage, and operational costs
– Haulage and delivery logistics
Because the heating oil market is more localised and less standardised than petrol, prices can move faster or appear more volatile.”
Yeah yeah, if you say so. We never buy from Boiler Juice (although it’s the easiest site for checking prices), not least because they charge a £12.99 service charge on every order, no matter what size. We are part of a local group who place an order on the last Friday of the month and generally get a better price than I, as an individual, can We did feel sorry for the new-to-the-area person who last month wondered aloud if he could place less than the minimum order of 500 litres because he didn’t have the money to pay for that amount. I guess he’s very cold right now.
We have discovered that, at this time of year, our now super-insulated house (well, as far as we can be in a property made of stone with its origins in the 17th century) can maintain a temperature of 17°C at this time of year, despite an outside temperature of 6°C maximum, given that the Aga is in the central part (that’s not going off), and provided we have the wood burner alight down the far end. That is more than acceptable.
After a few days of warm weather, including glorious sun and 18 degrees yesterday, it was around zero overnight with flurries of snow (which didn’t settle) this morning. We could see snow on the other (north) side of the valley (about 30 miles away), which is a hundred or so feet higher than us, until late afternoon.
First snowdrops appeared here on 21st January. First Iris Reticula soon after, first crocuses last week, and the first daffodils at the beginning of this week And, exactly a year after the first paths were cut in the orchard by Vroom Vroom, the (then) new ride-on lawn mower, I re-cut those paths yesterday. Let’s gloss over how I got VV stuck in the b33 enclosure, so that Mr BW had to remove the grass box and then lift it round so that I could get it back out. Oops. Luckily those b33s flying were in a good mood and didn’t give me any trouble.
Shep and I are having a competition to see who is most lacking in energy this week. I’m not sure who is winning.
Heating oil is 134.90 pence per litre this morning. Up from 57.00 pence per litre two weeks ago.
Right, the central heating is already off, but water heating now changes to electric for a while at The Coven. Thank goodness we have a huge wood pile (the old roof timbers) and are on a fixed price electric tariff until November.
We were planning to have a week in the Scottish Highlands at the end of the month. I think that’s getting cancelled now, as, even from here, it is a 500 mile round trip, and fuel stations are few and far between and may not have fuel by then. I wonder how delivery companies are going to cope?
We haven’t been out to know if petrol and diesel have gone up in price at the pumps. The internet says that petrol is averaging 132.9ppl, but that seems like last week’s price (plus much of the price of petrol is tax anyway). Maybe it’s just the heating oil suppliers who are profiteering?
Lovely and sunny and warm here today – which is just as well as the heating oil price has gone up from 57.0ppl a week ago to 61.0ppl last Friday to an unbelievable 102.18ppl today! Time to turn off the heating methinks.
Shep doesn’t have any interest in sheep, or rounding things up, unlike any collie I have ever met.
We managed to see Neptune Uranus and the Orion Nebula through The Big Telescope on Saturday night. Unfortunately the 4 planets meant to be visible in alignment on the western horizon proved invisible behind the only cloud – a low band.
Today we had to take Mr BW’s Broom (one year and one day old) for its first service. “Do you like it?” asked the service desk woman. “No, I hate it, it’s too bossy in its on-screen messaging, you can’t turn the so-called lane assist off permanently, and if you play with the radio’s tuning from the passenger seat it tells you to keep your eyes on the road and locks the radio until you stop, turn off the engine, get out, lock it, wait 5 minutes, then get back in again.”
I suspect that all modern cars are as bad though. Thank goodness for the simpler cars of yesteryear. Mi1dred is 93 in a few months’ time. We’ve just bought her 5 new tyres as the ones she has on are about 40 years old. Fitting those will keep Mr BW occupied for a few days. Given that he has 10 tonnes of 20mm gravel (or ‘stone’ as they call it in these parts) delivered last week, to move, by the wheelbarrow, round to behind the Big Greenhouse (to tidy that area up), he probably isn’t short of things to do.
We went to a couple of seasides on our way to the service garage. We are slowly discovering all the lovely small beaches that most people never find. Luckily we didn’t take Shep (as he was feeling quite fragile) as we might have felt the need to put him in the new doggy launderette. Do watch the short video in that link. It is hilarious – and probably not for the intended reasons.
Nine quid for a 10 minute DIY dog hosedown on the seafront. Sheesh. Mind you, I can see stag parties finding this a fun thing to do.