Today’s expedition was to a new place for us. A farm shop or more accurately a nursery. I’ve driven past it 100s of times and never turned in. For the first time this year we had the discussion about turning the heating on but as it’s only September and we are Northern obviously that’s not happening. (The UK North South divide is real) The alternative is to put the fire on. If only for an hour and warm the ‘sitting room’ (lounge) just to take the chill off.

Sot the quest for logs to burn was this mornings task. I spent yesterday sorting books in the historic Athenaeum library after a film crew left it in disarray. Eight person hours. Four columns…twelve to go. It’s hard graft. The plan today is do as little as possible. We went for firewood. Not just your supermarket grab a bad but a range, a selection. Softwood, hard wood in three grades and kindling. We chose some hardwood and a few pieces of eucalyptus to see if it smells just as good when burnt.

The fire is on now. The room has already lost it’s chill after just five minutes. I do t even think we news a second log. Yes, I know air poll and all that but until we get fully funded solar panels I’m afraid we will have to continue burning something.