Winter warmth

A strange kind of 'flu has been going around, knocking people out for four or five days at a time. Nicole, Gabriela and I all had it over the weekend, making us feel rather sorry for ourselves, and very thankful that we could make a roaring fire in the fireplace. I have to confess that we turn into scavengers at this time of year.... taking advantage of every opportunity to add to our stock of firewood - or leña, as it's called in Spanish. So it was a nice blessing when the town council decided to cut down some straggly little trees in the park in front of our house. Ada and I headed out there this afternoon with a saw and secateurs to cut off all the leafy branches and salvage a huge pile of thicker stems for our woodpile.

We felt quite worn out after chopping trees for an hour or more, so it was a nice bonus when our neighbours then came to throw out some old broken chairs. We promptly scooped them up and added them to our plunder. A chair's not quite as easy to chop up as a bush; all you can do is unscrew the arms and then feed the rest of it into the fire a little at a time. It always looks a bit dramatic at first - and the fire gives off an incredible heat - but within an hour it has settled down into a nice blaze that keeps the thicker logs burning throughout the evening. We're enjoying our fireplace on these chilly winter evenings (but thankful that the sunny afternoons make it pleasant work for us to gather or chop wood outdoors.)