Logs to burn! Logs to burn!
Logs to save the coal a turn!
Here's a word to make you wise
When you hear the woodman's cries.
Beechwood fire burn bright and clear;
Hornbeam blazes too,
If logs are kept a year
And seasoned through and through.
Oak logs will warm you well
If they're old and dry,
Larch logs of pinewood smell
But the sparks will fly.
Pine is good and so is yew
For warmth through winter days
But poplar and willow, too
Take long to dry and blaze.
Birch logs will burn too fast,
Alder scarce at all.
Chestnut logs are good to last
If cut in the fall.
Holly logs will burn like wax,
You should burn them green,
Elm logs like smoldering flax,
No flame is seen.
Pear logs and apple logs,
They will scent your room.
Cherry logs across the dogs
Smell like flowers in bloom.
But ash logs, all smooth and grey,
Burn them green or old,
Buy up all that come your way,
They're worth their weight in gold.
I've been relaxing in front of this log fire while staying at a friend's. It makes the room feel so cosy and warms it up in no time.
I can light a fire - no problem. My mum taught me. We always had a fire when I was young. At first an open one, burning coal, the only source of heat in the house before central heating. The importance of the fire, and the skill of lighting it and keep it going, was therefore something hammered home by my parents. In a later house we had a stove, burning coke, with a back boiler that heated the water and later the central heating. Woe betide if you let the fire go out!
There were no fire lighters needed in those days. My mum taught me to take a sheet of the Telegraph and Argus newspaper (broadsheet always better of course than tabloid for the purposes of fire-lighting), fold it corner-wise, then roll it up tight, into a long sausage. With flick of the wrist the sausage is then tied and the ends tucked in, to make it compact. A few of these are laid in the grate, then small kindling sticks arranged above and around them, leaving plenty of space for the air the get through. Light the paper, and once the kindling has caught, more sticks can be delicately added, if required. At the right moment (knowing when is an instinctual thing) small pieces of coal can be added and gradually more as the fire builds.
To aid the 'drawing' of the fire, a small shovel (with a wooden handle!) is balanced in front of the fire and another sheet of newspaper place against it, covering the whole grate. Immediately the fire starts to draw and eventually to roar. Skill is needed to determine how long to wait so that the fire in the grate is properly burning, (but without the 'drawing' sheet bursting into flames!)
Another helpful trick, taught to me by my Nanna, is to throw a handful of sugar on to the fire (but this is not to be advised unless desperate).Nanna also had an open fire and I would sit on her knee some afternoons just watching the fire burn. She would say, "Oh look, there's a dog's head, " or "Can you see that witch's face?", then invite me to stare into the coals and tell her what I saw.
Sometimes the back boiler at home would heat the water in the upstairs tank so much that it would start to boil and emit a thunderous roar. We all jumped up and rushed to turn on the taps until it calmed down and the roaring stopped. All this a long way now from this warm, peaceful, soporific North Yorkshire living room.
Writing prompt:
- Write about a skill learnt from a member of your family.
- What do you remember about how your home was heated when you were a child? Write about it.
- Take a phrase from the poem (eg. 'sparks will fly', 'smell like flowers in bloom', 'worth their weight in gold') and use it as a prompt for further writing.
