FIRESIDE CHAT

For the past twenty years, I've always lived in houses that had fireplaces. Now that I live in the wooded wilderness of Tennessee - in the coldest damn house ever built - I don't have a fireplace. It's one of life's pleasures that I truly miss.

In truth, however, when I did have a fireplace I seldom used it. They are a pain to keep clean, and - unless you're Paul Bunyan - it's not easy to keep firewood on hand.
Traditionally, I would always light a fire on special occasions like Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. 

The day that my mother died it was bitterly cold with a heavy snowstorm. When I came home from the hospital, I sat in the yard in the snow until long after it was dark - far too numb to think.
When I went inside, I lit the fireplace and sat by the fire - motionless - until dawn. Instinctively, my cat Scratch stayed with me on my lap all night.
I hadn't initially planned on mentioning this, but the memories are there....

I lived on the high plains of West Texas where the winters are always cold. The elevation was way over 3,500 feet (that's high for TX). One winter, during a heavy ice storm, my furnace stopped working. The repairman couldn't come for over a week and at night it got down near zero.

I was so cold that I wore three layers of clothes. If I didn't have the fireplace I would have perished. I slept by the fire every night. 

 My Texas Fireplace

It's been cold here in Tennessee. Only in the 20's during the day and it got down to 14 degrees last night (that's Fahrenheit, for those of you in Oslo).

Since I have nothing interesting to say (is that truly possible?) I'll end this with some random photos.

BTW - the first photo on this post is of my hat and boots, which I still wear (those are the boots that got ruined in the mud when I drove over the cliff in Arkansas - Over the Edge in Arkansas

 I didn't see the 'possum for several nights (it's been too cold) but he showed up yesterday afternoon. I gave him bread and a baked potato. He does have an injury on his hind quarters but seems to be doing okay.
I took this photo from the kitchen window. 

Here are some Texas photos.

 My cat Scratch keeping warm

(this was before I had Bosco and Scruffy)

 I always put lights around the fireplace during the holidays because they look festive.

 This was the fireplace in my parent's Odessa home. The white thing in the foreground is a sofa.



Gingerbread on my other blog:
http://cabinetofcurioustreasures.blogspot.com