We had our first frost today. It was very late this year. If I’d been a better diarist over the years I would be able to compare it properly, but can’t. Tonight, a day late, I put the cover on my windscreen to prevent it frosting up. It probably won’t freeze now, though they were gritting roads tonight so the council must expect it. We’ve been lucky so far but, realistically, winter hasn’t really started yet.

I’m spending my evenings daydreaming about the house I will build if I win the lottery. This isn’t the one in an air-conditioned bubble in the desert, this is the slightly mor realistic one with ground source heat pumps, solar panels, a windmill and lots of insulation. I’ve not decided whether to build it into the side of a hill yet, but will probably have a garage I can drive straight into. And a narrow gauge railway for taking the bins to the bottom of the drive.

This, of course, relies on a larger win that my normal disappointing wins of between £2 and £5. It always seems like I’ve used all my luck up with one of those wins, when I would rather save all my luck up for one big win. Sadly, the laws of probability don’t seem to work like that. It’s a bit like good luck charms – if that “lucky” rabbit’s foot was really that lucky it would still be attached to a rabbit.

I’ve just been looking at my household insurance renewal. We have never claimed on it and it has just gone up by 25%. The broker I use lost my car insurance business with an outlandish renewal price a couple of years ago and it looks like they are heading the same way with the house now. There’s something distinctly unsavoury about insurance companies and the way prices rise at random. The problem I always have at this time of year is that I’m too busy to mess around with quotes so I tend to nod it through. To be fair their prices have always been reasonable, but this move is a bit steep.

I’ll give them another year, but after that it looks like it will be the end. Once an insurance broker loses your trust, the end is not far away.

Frosted bamboo

Photos are from December 2017 – a colder winter.