Depending which windows we look from there is a view of just about every rooftop in the village. Not one has lost its mantle of snow. Even the houses with skylights have insulation so effective the skylights are still snow-covered.
This is the result, undoubtedly, of the European Union funded availability of grants for housing insulation. When I came here with the New Dawning to renovate what had been discarded so long ago - other times and another country - snow would have been sliding off every roof, threatening passers-by. The Comune served me with a notice to immediately repair all gutters giving onto the pubic street (seeing as I was here and they could at last get hold of somebody responsible). Now it would not matter if there were none at all, until the thaw comes. Every last degree of heat is inside the buildings. The News has shown the gorgeousness of various cities under snow, but there is no suggestion of a breakdown in power supplies.
I was unnerved by the snow and ice-clearing yesterday morning. Luca with a giant squeezy bottle of pink alcohol rather than men broadcasting salt before the shovellers and sweepers seemed unconcerned about potential inflammability. Salt harms cars, so it seems alcohol is the de-icer of choice in Monculi.
2 comments:
Is it not at least possible that they can no longer afford heating oil?
Or perhaps they have taken on board the messages of the Eco-Fascisti, and are sitting inside shivering under several layers of knitwear.
I am sure the snow would never have fallen off my mother-in-law's roof, and insulation definitely was not the reason.
No-one has heating oil here, Yacht, they dashed for gas and before that it was wood or the oxen herded in below stairs.
The current struggle is to get to the head of the queue for the grants for panels - we made it (lots of points) and lopped nearly 50% off the cost, though some of it is a tax offset.
Interestingly people are very ecologically-minded - as long as that doesn't cost more and there is no expectation they should drop their living standards or raise their taxes. That's not as unhelpful as it sounds. F'rinstance the hardware store (he of the squeezy bottle of pink alcohol as anti freeze) sells all kinds of detergents by the litre, bring your own container- no more thrown away detergent containers, half the price of the supermarket and your house doesn't smell of some synthetic disgustingness after a clean through or a load of laundry.
At least two factories have been set up in the last 3 years now rolling out panels, and all the carpenters and joiners provide triple glazed windows in traditional window types and materials (the Belli Arte are looking beadily at alterations to how buildings are restored).
Mothers-in-law, a well-recognised threat to family climate, are having annexes constructed to prevent them leaking out into family life and the environment too.
Post a Comment