Well it`s that time of year again, the faithful Franco- Belge wood-burner has been re-lit and won`t go out until March apart, perhaps for a few days at Christmas. It`s muttering away to itself, keeping the kitchen warm and spilling its welcome warmth into the rest of the house. It`s also heating three kettles, two large ones a neighbour gave us years ago and a new one Kim bought in England to use for making tea. The large hot-plate top surface is useful for cooking, too. I lit it three days ago and it has kept in well overnight twice now and I am re-discovering the art of getting the best from it.
Not that lighting up is a matter of throwing a switch! First I had to sweep the chimney with the sweeps brush and rods. Then the stove itself needed a good clear out of the soot and clinker accumulated inside it. Then I pre-heated the firebox with a hot air stripper. This sounds a bit over the top but I have found it a wise precaution, without which a reverse draught can set in, filling the kitchen or even the whole house with choking smoke. Then it`s just a case of dry kindling and a couple of fire-lighters and it was away!
Or you could look further back, to the delivery of five steres of logs a few weeks ago and their stacking in the barn, or to more recently in the cutting of the older logs with the electric chain-saw. Slightly to my apprehension, Kim has undertaken to do this for the moment, though in fact she is probably more practiced in this than I am, she would never let me use our small Black and Decker saw in Plymouth...
If all this seems a great deal of trouble, I suppose it is, but we both feel a strong satisfaction in heating the house in this way. It seems more French somehow, more country-life. The house feels drier and there`s a satisfying tang of woodsmoke in the air. If the time ever comes when we cannot do it, we will be very sad.
Bye for now, going to put dinner on the stove!
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