21 December has always been an important day in my life - it's my birthday! - but it's particularly of interest this year as we are totally reliant on solar for our electricity. It's both the shortest day of the year and the time of year when the sun is the lowest in the sky; from here on in, it's longer days which equals happiness of those of us off grid.
Unfortunately, as you can see from the picture, it is not a great day today, even though we are in "sunny Spain" therefore we are taking the opportunity to complete jobs outside the house, so we aren't using much electric.
We have our shopping list to hand for a big shop, we need to go and see if we have any post (we are so remote that all our post is delivered to the post office in the village and we have to go and collect it) and there is always wood to chop. As a bonus, Tom is also taking me out for a birthday dinner.
So, it's time to get the coffee on first and then we will be off.
Happy winter solstice, everyone
