Winter Blessings: Fireplace Blaze

On a cold foggy morning, it gives me great satisfaction to build a roaring fire in the wood stove and with a cup of hot coffee gaze for a very long time at the bouncing flames.  It probably takes me less than 5 minutes to build a fire but I remember the morning it took me two days to actually start one. It began when I was in a hurry to get the house warm before leaving for an appointment.

A blazing fire and curing wood: winter blessings

Opening the glass door to scoop out the ashes I heard a light tapping on the cold stove pipe. My first thought was a squirrel had come through the perforated fire arrestor. Great. I closed the door, told the squirrel to get its tail back up the pipe and went to my appointment.  Late afternoon, I returned to a chilly house and thumped on the pipe. It thumped back.