L'hiver s'approche

Already it's early autumn and we need to be thinking about our winter heating. We have a wood burning stove which heats the whole house (more or less). To prevent freezing in some of the outlying rooms like the pantry we can install an electric radiator, set to come on if necessary.

We had some wood left over from winter. The end of winter was fairly mild, so we stopped burning wood much earlier than the year before. Still, it's good to be prepared, and while Célestine was out of the garage we decided it would be a good moment to get a firewood delivery.

Me demonstrating the height and extent of our firewood pile.

I nipped down to our woodman's one lunchtime when I saw him returning home. He knew immediately what I had come about and pointed to a pile of wood which he said he had put aside for us. He just had to cut it to size. He wasn't sure he could deliver the next day, but he would try.

Our firewood is a by-product of the lumber industry in the Fôret de Preuilly. The mature trees are felled, but the timber mills only want the trunks. The crowns are sold on to firewood merchants and private citizens who cut it up and cart it off. The wood is mostly oak (chêne), but there is a high percentage of hornbeam (charme) as well as some beech (hêtre), wild cherry (merisier) and even a bit of Cornelian Cherry (cornouiller) and Wild Service Tree (alisier).

Susan