We are not going to hang around waiting for a government hand-out or a tax reduction to plan for our winter survival. It’s crazy how news of possibly the most horrendous energy bill rises are hitting our wireless-sets right now when we are in the centre of yet another heat wave in which we’d truly love to immerse ourselves in cooling shades and eat plenty of ice-cream instead of wondering how we are going to stoke the household hearth when there’s nothing to feed it.

Clearly, the first thing to do is to get rid of relying so much on gas, whether Russian or Algerian or wherever. For our hot water baths, for instance, we’ve recently had a disco-therm panel installed on our roof like we used to have at our former abode. The system works very simply and very well. The sun’s rays hit a ceramic conductive outer layer on the panel fixed on the roof and heats up the water (diverted from entering the gas boiler) contained in it.

Of course, there must be some sunlight for the water to heat up at all. On dull days it’s best to have one’s shower in either late morning or the afternoon. But it’s amazing how the water never seems to fall below warm with this system even with no sun. If hot water is required after days of bleak sunless weather then it’s no problem to divert the water supply through the boiler again just by turning a couple of taps.

What about gas for cooking? For quick meals there’s nothing to beat the microwave which is also great for doing things like coddled eggs and porridge. But what about baking a cake or a roast? Then there’s that classic piece of Italian kitchen hardware – the ‘cucina economica’ (economic kitchen). Our brilliant cucina not only provides an oven and a surface on which to place umpteen saucepans and frying pans but also heats the house. If one doesn’t want to use the cucina then there’s the cast-iron ‘stufa’ to radiate life-giving warmth.

The problem city dwellers will face, however, is where to get their wood supply from. For those of us who live surrounded by forests this is an easy matter for we can just stroll into the woods and pick up plenty of fallen branches. (Never ever hew live trees please!).

We then chop up the wood using either a hand or a mechanical saw.  (Doing this part of the job will warm us up if nothing else does…).

Heat or eat is an oft-posed choice in the extreme situation we could soon be facing. Here again the obvious solution is to dedicate part of the garden to grow-your-own veg. Unfortunately this year because of the drought situation and the hosepipe ban, we’ve not been too successful with our own kitchen garden. A variety of salads, however, have sprouted out in time to grace our lunch table. We hope in better luck next year , however, when we’ll also decide on a bit of crop rotation.

We don’t have a fire-arm licence and besides it’s not the hunting season yet. However, the meat from some of the (cinghiali) wild boars tramping across our grasslands (and doing them in) could make a really tasty sauce for our spaghetti. (Photos from our wild-life night-time camera).

We are inventively adaptable as members of the human species. Hopefully those pretending to rule over us will make the situation a little easier when winter draws on…

Let Gracie Fields have the last word!

Gracie Fields ‘Winter Draws On’ 1935 78 rpm – Bing video

PS There’s an old Italian saying that goes ‘Più’ lana, meno legna’ – ‘more wool (on you), less wood (on the fire)’. That’s probably the best solution!