Back In Black

Well just a little sooty maybe . . .

Way back when, we had a feathered visitor to the wood burning stove, subsequently dealt with by stuffing the top of the chimney pot with chicken wire.  Then in March, we had something a bit more professional fitted as part of the chimney pot replacement.

Fast forward to today, and we noticed this little one fluttering about inside the stove.  It appears the mesh round the chimney pot isn't quite as effective as we'd hoped, and blue tits at least can still squeeze their way in . . .

Bird evacuation procedures were duly instigated (basically closing the door and all the curtains and opening the french windows wide to make the escape route obvious).  

However, on opening the stove door to freedom, our slightly sooty feathered friend, wasn't that quick on the uptake . . .

. . . he managed to spend a good few minutes exploring the curtain poles, light fittings, etc. before finally exiting the building.  But at least he didn't leave us any 'gifts' along the way . . .

Will have to keep a closer eye on the stove over the winter now - and maybe just get that cowl checked again to make sure there aren't any issues.

Posts that Didn't Happen - February 2022

So here's my February retrospective - a little later than intended!

Generally this was a quiet but anxious month - still waiting for the wood burning stove to be fitted for the first couple of weeks, and rather annoyed with it all.  Without heating, and a hole still through the wall for the flue, we ended up with condensation and mould on the newly decorated walls / ceiling.

On 11 February, the fitter finally showed up to get the stove in place and sort out the chimney - not that he managed to finish that, with some extra flue pipe on order, and the flue not properly concreted in as a result.

At least the hole through the wall was mostly filled, and we were told that we could light a small fire in the interim to get some heat into the building.

With walls and ceiling cleaned, and that fire lit, on 16 February I actually 'moved in' - or should I say 'camped out' (working from a makeshift desk), but at least getting some heat into the place.

Then 24 February brought the end of the world as we know it, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine - all that domestic angst now seemed so unimportant . . . 

It all got so upsetting I started avoiding the news entirely.

The end of the month did at least bring an end to the stove saga, with the flue finally in place and concreted in.

And with some sunshine, a late afternoon walk on the prom, and a stunning exhibition from the murmurating starlings - which I can never take a good picture of, so here's a photo of 'winged Victory' atop the war memorial instead.

Posts that Didn't Happen - January 2022

 So here's my January retrospective . . . and can't say it started well:

After being super-careful not to take Covid to family for the 'Christmas' visit - it turned out they already had it, and I brought it home with me.

At least I escaped with a relatively mild experience - just felt like I was getting a cold for a couple of days, then it went away.  No real cough or aches and pains - I've had much worse from a common cold!

Took a while to test negative, but Martin never caught it - neither did my sister (the brother-in-law was patient 0 and felt pretty bad), or Mum (Dad tested positive but didn't have any symptoms).

So hopefully that's our brush with Covid done with!

On a more positive note . . . 

Phil is still around and about the place, enjoying his peanuts.

And Martin entered his half century - marked by a Chinese takeaway with family (post self-isolation!).  We'll have to plan for his proper celebration trip when the whole Covid thing allows. 

The Folly also now has decorated walls, electricity, lighting and internet, a fully fitted vinyl plank floor, and skirting boards.  In fact the builders and electricians are all done and dusted.

Which just leaves the wood burning stove, which is proving to be a bit more problematic.

Can't say we've been impressed by the fitter. 

The builders had been done for a couple of weeks before he finally turned up to lay the hearth - then he couldn't get the flue to attach to the outside wall and had to come back twice to get some struts in place to attach it to.

As it stands there is still a hole through the wall and no flue - but at least the stove is out of its box, and in the Folly awaiting further developments. 

Bird Flue

We gave the stove its summer clean-out a bit back - swept it (got a nice pan-full of black bits), hoovered it all out, cleaned the glass, etc, etc.  Decided then to put some candles inside, so that we could enjoy the cosmetic effect of firelight, without the heat.





What we hadn't quite expected, was the sight that greeted Martin earlier today.  What he thought was a 'bird-shaped' shadow in the glass, turned out to be an actual bird (sparrow I think) that had found its way down the chimney and into the stove somehow:

It appears that the candle-holder formed a handy perch!  After taking a picture or two, Martin prepared for operation 'let the bird out' by closing the curtains, and leaving the open french doors as the main source of light.  As soon as the stove door was opened the bird swiftly made its escape, so it can't have been too traumatised by the experience - although we do now have a stove full of bird-droppings!

Fire and Flood

We got off rather lightly in the so-called 'big freeze'. Although we had a good couple of inches of snow at the beginning of January (and it's stuck around pretty much ever since) we missed the worst of it. And we'd got ourselves a bag of 'grit' before the stocks ran out so we could get up and down our path / drive.

The new porch (pictured) which I never really got around to blogging about - something we had done, in addition to the roofline, guttering and some double-glazing back in September / October - has helped insulate us from the cold. In due course it will hopefully be a nice place to sit, but at present it's providing a good place for stock-piling some handy wood for the stove during the cold snap.

While awaiting Sunday's snow - which never really arrived with us, although some of the surrounding villages have been badly hit - we decided it would be a good idea to give the stove's chimney a mid-Winter sweeping. All went very smoothly this time - on the previous sweeping, back in October, we managed to dislodge the chimney cowl! So we hopefully have nothing to fear in the way of chimney fires for the rest of the winter.

Still awaiting the snow - the following day - when our neighbour called round to say they could hear running water coming from the back of our house. It wasn't so much a 'flood' as a 'fountain' as it turns out. We thought the pipe to the outside tap had burst to start with, but luckily the tap had just popped off the top, so didn't take too much replacing. Hopefully that's the last water-related drama for some time to come . . .

Home Fires Burning

Well the weather has been so miserable today we decided to light the stove. It did give off a few 'fumes' to start with, but a few hours later it seems to have cleared up.

It will certainly keep the front room nice and toasty - we even managed to just about 'boil' our big Rayburn kettle on the top, although I think we need to invest in a smaller model for the stove.

All Stoved Up!

Further to last week's post, we are now fully fitted with our new wood-burning stove.


The workmen arrived quite early and proceeded to get on with lining the chimney with the required flexible liner - here seen poking out of the top of the chimney pot.








This seemed to go relatively smoothly, although there was a little shouting down the chimney at one point . . .



The stove itself is a Harmony 23 multifuel model - we haven't lit it yet, as the sealant used needs 24 hours to 'cure', although it's dismal enough outside to merit it! If it stays wet and cool over the weekend, may fire it up then - it needs a good 'burn' to start with apparently, as the surface blacking may give off fumes when first heated through.



It looks good anyway, and hopefully will keep us nice and warm in due course!

Stoves and Stuff

Well having pretty much caught up on garden, veg and wildlife, time for something a little more topical.

With winter (have we had a summer yet?) on its way decided we needed a little more warmth in the front room than the open fire provided. We're in the process therefore of having a wood-burning stove fitted. Stage 1 involved 'exploratory' work to ascertain what was behind the existing opening and what room they had to play with. So Monday was spent making tea for workmen, and listening to the sounds of heavy drilling . . .

Fair play to them, they worked really hard, and by the end of the day they'd actually got to the point of having rendered the new opening and reconstructed the fireplace. You can see the 'before' and 'after' shots here. They also cleaned up pretty well, except for the dust, which coated every surface we hadn't put dustcloths over!

We're now just waiting for the stove to arrive, and a date for fitting (which is being mooted for next week sometime). It's all happened really quickly in the end - and now it's all underway the weather appears to be looking up (it's a lovely day here today); expect blazing hot weather from next week, just when we wouldn't have minded a cool night to give us an excuse to test it all out . . .