I hope my body’s not planning on doubling back to any old nasty habit of waking up at ungodly hours.

Zaman’s pendulum wall clock recently struck 3 a.m in our living room, I woke up and decided, wehey, I have an urge to write.

Pendulum clocks, and especially this one hanging on our wall, used to give me a foreboding feeling. For a while I had trouble remembering to wind her up, hence she would eventually stop ticking after about a week. These days I have a tendency to wind her up every time I’m in the living room. Neither is a preferable option if you ask me.

Speaking of time, how many of you have a chainsaw in your closet or car trunk/boot? My husband does and he’s just put it to some good use. We’ve had a large shabby pine tree standing in our garden, with an awkward lean. To add to the drama, our cars are parked nearby. Hence there wasn’t much to consider apart from taking the 60-something year old grand lady down. We will definitely not have trouble keeping the house warm this winter.

I should also give praise to the woodchipper. All branches and twigs less than 5 cm in diameter are fed into my grandfather’s passed on electrical shredder by Maria. When first gazing up at the mountain of twigs and branches, I thought this is going to be one menial task. However, I’m finding that I’m loving it, standing outside in freezing gorgeous weather, shredding wood, hour after hour…