Feed, Feeding and Fed

I've come to this most philosophical of thoughts that anything that needs feeding is work. I'm not saying it's not good work and fulfilling work, but never the less work.

Well of course first of all is the family. Planning, shopping, preparing, cooking and the eating of food. We never get fed up of eating, even though it's so repetitious.

Then of course are our girls, they must be fed. Tuppy has a very loud appreciative purr, and Tinkerbell has the longest licking tongue when she's really had a tasty treat.

My garden, this must be fed and looked after to produce. I love to see the results of a good feeding, the soil is rich and dark.

House plants don't forget them.

Last of all which led to all this is the fire. My does that need feeding right now, to keep our house warm. We must feed it day and night, day and night. Don't forget it for too long or you will soon know with a coolness which licks it's long bony fingers around you.

We haven't turned the central heating on at all. The sitting room is warm. We have a wide archway between the sitting room and the hall, so it's open. When the heat reaches the hallway, it climbs up the stairs. We close off the door to the boys room and leave the other doors open to heat them.

Once some heat travels upstairs then it moves across the hallway to the dining room, then from there to the kitchen. I like to cook in the kitchen because then it warms up. I also like to clean the oven because that heats up the kitchen too.

The basement which used to be the warmest room in the house is now the coldest, because the hot steam is no longer running around the pipes for the central heating.

The feeding of the flames, involves several stagings of wood piles. First the stacking of wood under the oak tree, or in the tent we left up to keep it dry. From there it gets stacked again by the back door, then it is brought in the house and piled up in a very large wood laundry basket which used to be Bo's mum's. A lot of wood moving. But then you can't say it's not satisfying and rewarding to sit by a flame licking fire on a cold evening, listening to BBC Radio 4 over the internet.

I think we will make it through the winter without putting the central heating on. I like the thought of our cozy home and being thrifty. By preparing good meals for my family, looking after our girls which give us pleasure, enjoying the produce we grow in the garden, and last but not least right now, feeding the fire.

Christy