Sunday, November 9, 2008

First one of the season

Tonight when evening fell, it was chilly in the house. There was cloud cover coming in over the mountains, and it gave us a beautiful sunset.

We lit the first fire of the season this evening. We had firewood delivered late in the winter last year, in February, after we'd burned our stash down to the last logs. The spring was warm, so we held a lot of firewood over the summer. Our firewood seller is a local woman who calls each year to see when we need a new load.

I'm good at starting fires in the fireplace. My dad taught me how to lay the logs on the grate just so, and how to light wadded newspaper beneath them to get a fast, hot fire that draws through the stacked logs.

This is the third house I've had my name on - the first was my tiny bachelorette cottage; the second was the Just-Had-a-Baby house, and this is our Recruited-to-LA house. It's the first house with a fireplace.
I like to sit on the raised slate hearth and warm my back in front of the fire. The first fire in the fireplace marks the beginning of winter for me.

6 comments:

Woman in a Window said...

Nice. We've had fires going for a few weeks now, on and off. But today we saw our first snow. Real stick to the ground snow, at least for a half hour or so when the sun came back out.

That Crazy Ajumma said...

What a beautiful sunset!
Lately we have had some really nice ones ourselves.
Also,Thank you sooo much for the 'get well' wishes.I hope to get over this soon!

Nancy said...

It looks so cozy - I can almost hear the logs crackling! I have a wonderful gas heater and the barely audible hiss is so soothing to me. As ME would say "Be warm inside and out"! Hugs, Nancy

JCK said...

I love having a fireplace, too. Your's looks lovely!

Isn't this real Fall weather wonderful!

shrink on the couch said...

Ahh.. love a crackling fire. We've got a fireplace and I just LOVE it. Nothing like it. Warmth, smell, visuals.

Anonymous said...

There's someone in the neighborhood here with a fireplace that I love to smell, but I must admit I'm enough of a crank that I'm glad I don't have one that would just then need cleaning.