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Posts Tagged ‘fire’

Cheerful Chimney Sweep

Posted in Fun, Vicarage, tagged , , , , , , , , on 11 January, 2012| 4 Comments »

The Vicar bought some chimney brushes last year. We’ve found it a very cost-effective way of  ensuring that we don’t fill the living room with smoke too much. I think the set cost about £30, which is already less than we’d pay to get a sweep in. Our chimneys are quite easy to sweep as everything is contained in the woodburning stove box when it descends, although the house is three storeys, so we had to get extra rods to reach the top. Everything keeps clean as long as black bin liners are judiciously applied. Here’s the happy Vicar in his sweeping kit, displaying some of the soot, which shows up very nicely on his peely-wally Scottish hands:

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Lighting the Fire: Autumn in the Vicarage

Posted in Vicarage, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 22 September, 2010| 8 Comments »

The Vicar's Wife likes to have warm ankles

So it’s been getting a bit chilly here and we’ve fired up the wood-burning stove 3 or 4 times in the last week. So today I’m sharing a few thoughts about surviving Vicarage cold…

Slippers

We have new slippers in the Vicarage, both me and the Vicar. Warm feet make a huge difference to happiness in a cold house. The slippers of happiness are made by The North Face. Mine are of the bootie variety, and the Vicar has mules.

Warmwear

Let's hope these are long enough...

I am also seriously considering investing in some Marks and Spencer Warmwear. M&S claim that these ‘layering pieces’…’generate heat’ and ‘act as insulation’. I’m a wee bit concerned that they might be a bit short and not tuck into my low rise jeans, thus ensuring  that I have cold kidneys and monumentally failing to keep me properly warm. Too-short t-shirts are the bane of my life in cold weather. I will try them, however, and report back. Unless any of you have tried them already…? I’m 5’10” btw, so my back is quite long. [HT Cassie]

Scarves

Scarves are essential for warmth and I’m especially pleased with the gorgeous Black Ruffled Skinny one that Icklesis bought me for my birthday this year. Don’t be without one. But you knew that, anyway, didn’t you?

Cats

And finally… work out where the cat is and join her. She knows the warmest place in the house for certain. As you can see, it’s usually in front of the fire.

Ahhh. Toasty.

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Lighting the Vicarage fires

Posted in Vicarage, tagged , , , , , , , on 1 February, 2010| 4 Comments »

We are very stingy ecofriendly here in the Vicarage don’cha know. We use our paper shreddings as firelighters. In fact we shred every piece of A4 paper we can, because we’ve found that strip shredded paper is a brilliant base layer for getting the logburners roaring quickly. It burns easily and creates lots of air space to encourage the fire.

Recently I’ve been trying to get on top of some paperwork which hasn’t exactly been properly filed. Piled up in the utility room would be a better description. And I was getting rather fed up of interrupting the Vicar in his study in order to shred.

But happily all has now been solved by the purchase of this excellent shredder from our local Lidl for a mere £8.99. Not only was it cheaper than nearly every one we’d looked at online, but it also sits neatly on top of the shredding basket next to the woodburning stove, thanks to its cunning telescopic arm.

Just wanted to share the joy. You know. They might even have one left at your local Lidl. If you’re lucky.

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