Barbecue Summers and Dire Winters

It was alarming this morning to hear that several weather forecast companies (now there's a gig - I predict it will rain in Preston next week - that'll be £1000 please) are expecting a very harsh winter. Then I remembered these are probably the same people who assured us a year ago that 2010 would see a barbecue summer.

Strangely I feel rather drawn to the idea of a harsh winter, selfish though that is, as I love the cheerful cosiness of eating in a room with a wood-burner throwing light and heat about the place. We have bought some of our winter log supply, and half of Sunday was spent sawing up two fallen branches from one of the apple trees. Odd how the wood smells of apples, distinctly so. Those logs are now in the greenhouse drying out, there is precious little plant life beyond a big tarragon plant competing for the space.

Economic doom and gloom that sometimes gets to depressive depths, and food inflation running way ahead of the general level, is nudging me to lay in a load of tins and other keepable stuff, may as well invest the money in such stores as see it lose value in the bank. I am reminded of just such a suggestion on the bloody awful Nationwide in the Seventies. And if the world spirals into total economic meltdown we will be able to have tomato ragu and various bean dishes. Add indispensible olive oil to the list then.