With Spring definitely here, we will be turning down the temperature in our central heating - thankfully, in view of the huge rise in oil prices. A neighbour has always had a double system, central heating to give a good background, then two stoves in the main living rooms, both wood-fired. It doesn't work out much cheaper, but if oil stays at its present price or even rises, it does put him in a stronger position.
And there is also something to warm the heart in the sight of logs flaming and giving out a homely feeling. Fortunately he is a hefty chap and enjoys splitting the wood he buys into smaller sizes. He likes to leave the doors of the stoves open as much as possible. He favours beech, and there is a ready supply of it, perhaps because beech, being shallow-rooted, tends to come down in exceptionally heavy winds though it is a beautifully balanced tree, so graceful as its topmost branches dance in the normal winds. Poets of many languages have sung their hymns to beauty in trees.
Here is one from the Russian of Marina Tsvetayeva: "Trees, I come to you. To save myself / From the roar of the marketplace. / How my heart breathes out / Through your flights upward / . . . . . . . . . My bareheaded ones, / My trembling ones." And you all know Cowpers "The poplars are felled, farewell to the shade / And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade."
Various versions exist of the down-to-earth evaluation of the burning qualities of the wood available for the fire. Here is one from Brian Scott of Cleaver Park, Belfast. The title is "Logs on the Fire". "Beechwood fires are bright and clear / If the logs are kept a year. / Chestnut only good they say / If for long it's laid away. / Birch and fir logs burn too fast / Blaze up bright and do not last. / It is by the Irish said, / Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread. / Elmwood burns like a churchyard mould, / E'en the very flames are cold. / Poplar gives a bitter smoke, / Fills your eyes and makes you choke. / Applewood will scent your room / With an incense like perfume. / Oak and maple, if dry and old, / Keep away the winter cold. / But ashwood - wet or dry, / A king can warm his slippers by."
Maybe a bit of exaggeration there, though the thought has been expressed here in a dogmatic way. But if you are looking to the future with some trepidation, ash do grow fast, so plant some now and don't plant them too small. But there may not be much more time before they're needed.
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