The luxury fire

We have 2 fires, a woodstove in the large, north-facing front room where the piano is and everyone can fit in, and an open hearth, in the smaller back room that opens onto the herb bed and looks down the garden.


The morning sun streams into the back room and the front room has indirect western light in the afternoon.


The woodstove is obviously way more economical than the open fire, but we kept the hearth rather than installing a  second woodstove because we love open fires.  


When I married Bernard and we lived in his cottage on the edge of Flatropers Wood in Beckley, our only heating was a woodstove, and Bernard jealously guarded his woodstack of 2-year seasoned logs.  So when I wanted an open fire to sit by, he said "Well, you needn't think you're going to be using my wood, you can gather your own!" And he made me a wonderful handcart painted chinese red, to go wooding.


I apply a similar principle to the fires here - the back room open hearth I think of as "the luxury fire" because it burns fast and uncontrolled, and the woodstove is "the responsible fire".


Therefore on the open hearth I burn sticks and fir-cones collected on walks and in the garden, and paper and card packaging.  I figure that if we wanted a fire anyway, it makes sense to burn packaging rather than recycle it and burn wood, since recycling is itself an industrial process.  


The picture shows the luxury fire in action :0)


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365 Day 13 (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, see here)

Still wading through the florist's supplies. 6mm anchor tape today.  These florist's things went to a lady along the road from us, a keen flower-arranger.  Her husband spotted them on Freecycle.