As the colder weather comes, most of my work moves indoors, and the hearth fire becomes all the more important. Our wood burning stove powers the central heating for the whole house in winter, and getting enough fuel to keep it going is a year-long quest. However, not all wood is equal, and some is hardly worth the effort of storing and burning, as the old rhyme tells us:
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 fires burn bright and clear,
Hornbeam blazes too,
If the logs are kept a year
To season through and through.
Oak logs will warm you well,
That are old and dry
Logs of pine will sweetly smell
But the sparks will fly
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 may burn them green,
Elm logs like to smouldering flax
No flame to be seen.
Beech logs for the winter time
Yew logs as well,
Green elder logs it is a crime
For any man to sell.
Pear logs and apple logs
They will scent your room,
Cherry logs across the dogs
Smell like flower of broom.
Ash logs, smooth and grey
Burn them green or old,
Buy up all that come your way
They’re worth their weight in gold! [1]
Pine Cone Firelighters
I collect fallen pine cones in the park to make into firelighters. Dipped in melted wax, they are excellent for starting the fire.
[1] Attributed to Honor Goodhart, printed in Punch, 27 October, 1920.
Hearth Witchery 