PollyBee

Country Girl

Monday 10 November 2008

Woodburning

I am burning the logs from three huge ash trees and haven't had the central heating on all week!

You don't even need to store or season it. It's the only wood that burns green.

Have I already put up this useful little poem?

Beechwood fires burn bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year
Store your beech for Christmastide
With new holly laid beside

Chestnut’s only good they say
If for years ‘tis stayed away
Birch and firwood burn too fast
Blaze too bright and do not last

Flames from larch will shoot up high
Dangerously the sparks will fly
But ashwood green and ashwood brown
Are fit for a Queen with a golden crown.

Oaken logs, if dry and old
Keep away the winter’s cold
Poplar gives a bitter smoke
Fills your eyes and makes you choke

Elmwood burns like churchyard mould
Even the very flames burn cold.
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread
So it is in Ireland said.

Applewood will scent the room;
Pearwood smells like a flower in bloom;
But ashwood wet and ashwood dry
A king may warm his slippers by!

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