Mixing tap

When I first moved here, to England that is, I thought it was funny that housing ads would say “wash-basin with HOT-COLD mixing tap” or it would say something about having central heating. I thought it was quaint. That is until I moved into a place with night storage heating where, in the night, electricity heats up bricks in a radiator and then during the day it releases the heat. This is fine, if you have enough for-thought that it is going to be cold the next day. But if you wake up at 7 am being able to see your breath, you are going to have to wait until the following day before you will have heat. That is unless you have a fire place, which we do, and a rayburn, which we do. Those do a great job heating up the downstairs areas. They also are great because they heat the water. Or they were great until I burned my hand in the water coming from the hot tap. It is either ice cold our close to boiling, and to wash your hands it is a tricky choice.

It still is quirky, but I understand it now. These houses were plumbed and wired before most of Canada was settled (non-first nation folk). We were told when we moved in that it was only a few years ago that they put a toilet into our place. I always smell around trying to figure out where the outhouse was. One of these days we are going to be harvesting our carrots and they are going to be the size of my arm. Then I will know.