Suburban bliss

Household fires were part of our childhood, on both sides. MIL even had a maid to light her's in her childhood, to the point where she got into trouble for not knowing how when she joined up. Whereas I did all kinds of incendiary things as a child and knew all about fires, domestic and otherwise. I dare say I could still light a decent fire, even now.

Then, as a married couple we went through various phases. Burning logs in the grate from our landlord's trees. Burning coal in the grate of my childhood. Burning anthracite nuts in an enclosed stove - a handsome foreign stove which cost more in nuts than the rest of the house cost in gas and electricity.

And now we have settled down to the convenience of a gas powered fake fire. No coal, no mess, a modest amount of heat (the same as a one bar electric fire of old) and a remote control. The business end of the control can be seen peeping out of the bottom of the grate. All very comforting & comfortable to read at when convalescing from the flu.

Particularly since, outside this afternoon, we had a sharp cloud burst lasting perhaps half an hour and involving a modest amount of sleet or hail. During which it was very pleasant to be inside, in front of the fire, fake or otherwise.

PS: BH is still rearranging the fake coal lumps from time to time. And when we get tired of that, we can change the lump style to logs. Or even pebbles, but I am not sure about that one.