It’s been so cold for so long now our normally self-reliant cat has taken to meowing in the bath for someone to turn on the tap for a drink. All the water in the natural world has seemingly turned to ice. When he was a kitten the tap had a chronic drip and he remembers this. We do put water out for him but he still leaves occasional footprints in the bath, and I’ve never seen him drink from a bowl.
Freezing temperatures are not anything you’d bother mentioning to a Russian, or a Canadian. In fact, I’m told in some parts you have to start your car inside, drive out and keep it running until you get home, in case you can’t get it started again. A battery loses so much power in severe cold, as I found out when we got back from Holland. I wonder if it affects a magneto system in any way.
I was amazed when one of the old boys in the village first told me the Black Bullet would start without a battery. This didn’t make sense to me back then but kicking it over is enough to produce the electricity needed for sparks. Once it’s running it’s a self-stoking cycle, like lighting a fire, the small battery on the bike just powers the lights. That’s the beauty of the magneto system.
It’s getting late and I’m filling a glass with water in the kitchen, staring out at a moonlit snowscape. The apex of the shed roof casts a long shadow like a giant witch's hat, the tip folded up by the hedge.
I should be excited - it might be a white Christmas, the first one in years - but it looks less and less likely that the Black Bullet is going to see much action until the spring. There is a trials version of the Bullet which would be fun with the right tyres in the snow, now there's a thought.
