The Warmth of the Fire.

Reading At the Good Life of Laura the Mother cat having her 6 kittens in front of the new fire I started thinking of all the uses we have for the warmth of our fire. It is not the most picturesque fire but very, very functional. It is after all a farm house - not a show home.

Over the last few nights we have wheeled in the trolley with damp walnuts on to dry them out. If you look on the ledge to the right I have my bread rising. Sometimes I dry and air clothes along the  same ledge. We can boil water, make coffee and at a pinch ( power outage ) cook on it.  During winter months because we have lots of our own firewood we keep the fire going 24 hours a day. We have to take care not to have too high a temperature inside this big room. In this picture  you can see the corner of the table on the right where I cut out and assemble quilt parts. To the right of that again is my big bench where I sew. The lounge is to the left in this picture. So it warms a large area and is multi purpose.

The bread is now cooling on the bench beside me as I sew on applique shapes - the smell of freshly baked bread is rather nice.