I gave up on the 52 books in one (school) year a while ago. MK's recent post on whether or not we are still readers was interesting. I know that my attention span is definitely going the way of all my grey cells. So I have decided to get a grip!
I am 46 years of age and not at all proficient in lighting a fire. My mother was the protector of the fire, as of all other things, when I was at home. Then when I had my first house, Prince Charming would motor down to the little country town where I lived and show off his fire-building skills, and I was quite happy to let him do his cave man thing.
Our first house together had a gas fire, which I loved. Switch on when wanted. Switch off when done. Phone Andy's Stores (local purveyor of everything you could possibly need ever- including home removal service) and order new cylinder when necessary.
The Meadowplace however has a real fire in the Book Room. PC lit it often through the winter, usually on grim Saturday afternoons if we'd bought the weekend Irish Times and could hide from Minecraft with tea and the magazines.
Yesterday it rained all day and the boys had friends round from church. I decided to pull a chair right up to the fireplace with one of the remaining unpacked crates of bumpf and resolved to light the fire. I was nearly there. I did need some cave man assistance to make it properly secure. I was there the whole afternoon thereafter, supplementing with peat and old paperwork as came to hand. One crate down, x to go.
I'll have a photo of my first solo lit effort by the end of the month. I also want to have a photo of a clean car. Last night at friends' C. told us that if they are just in from school and her son is pottering and she still has her coat on she'll just nip out and wash the car. Just nip out and wash the car? Is this normal? I'll soon see....
7 comments:
I always found washing the car a nuclear scale operation-at least the way my Dad taught me! Well done though. I am totally scared of lighting fires, didn't light a match until 17, scared of bunsen burners and when I thought I was ok with bonfires, I went inside to answer the phone, forgot about one and it some timber fell down and almost burnt down my shed! X
I'm a fire expert ,not in pyromaniac terms,but pretty good at getting a fire going and keeping it going.
I should pop over and give you lessons.
Jane x
Wow! No, that's not normal, but I did have a friend who vacuumed her car EVERY DAY! I vacuum the car MAYBE once a year and Bill drives it through the carwash for me when necessary.
I cannot build fires at all. I'm impressed that you plan to do so. I loved MK's post, too. Mmmmmmmm. Reading.
I don't think it's normal either, lol! My poor car...
My husband and I heated with woodstoves for most of our 33 years of marriage. For the last 26 of those years it was mainly me (I?) who would get up in the middle of the night and get it going so we wouldn't all freeze. (The rest of the family would sleep merrily no matter what was going on.) I was so protective of my kids that they never learned how to do it! Fortunately, nobody really needs to know how anymore. But I'm glad to have that skill in my bag of tricks. ;) It is a good way to get rid of stacks of paper.
My goodness, my poor old car doesn't get washed for months at a time! we don't have real fires here but I remember my mother lighting them and in particular holding a huge sheet of newspaper over the opening to draw the flame up the chimney to get it going, and our old cat sleeping on the dead embers and smelling all singed in the morning! Hope you get the hang of it. Betty
Surely the rain washes the car? But you are two years older than me, so if you should decide that manual washing is the way to go I plan to defer to your greater wisdom and buy a pretty sponge.
Bwahaha! Just nip out and wash the car? What? Our van is disgusting. It's bad when you avoid touching the very car you're sitting in ... sigh. We don't have a good car-washing situation though, so I can't blame anybody.
I've tried reading 2 other books since finishing Forster, without success. I'm going to give away books that disappoint, I think. Your fireside sitting sounds so lovely.
Post a Comment