Christmas sparkle

A bit more Christmas sparkle

One of the major down sides with having solid fuel stoves, has to be the amount of ash they spread around the home and certainly with anthracite, it isn’t a super fine dust. Oh no! Ash particles in our house can range from salt grain size to chunks the size of Lego bricks which are really uncomfortable under foot.

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Mud, the stove and more famous last word

Saturday was a pretty busy day, all things considered. First job was to take the Mudlets to get new school shoes which is never an easy job especially when it comes to Middle Mudlet and her tomboy tendencies. Simply put, she doesn’t like pretty girlie shoes, preferring to find a plainer more modern style. Her little sister, on the other hand, loves all things girlie and it is always a struggle to persuade her that shoes containing make-up in their heel are not, in the obviously antiquated opinion of her parents, suitable for little girls her age at any time, never mind in school shoes. So trips to the shoe shop are generally a family affair, with Mud dealing with the tomboy which leaves me to handle the fairy.

Just over an hour later we were home with the 6 year old proudly wearing her new buckle strap shoes – we’ve given up on the velcro type straps for her, as she seems to be able to wear out the stickiness of the velcro in record time. She has a very dainty pair of proper little girls shoes but with a quite heavy duty looking sole which is just as well considering the amount of wear they will no doubt get at Little Mudlets hands (or feet).

The Rayburn resigned

The only problem with having a stove that does all your cooking, heating and hot water is that when it breaks, you’re scuppered.

Our Rayburn had been in situ when we bought the cottage and we had believed, at that point, that it was only 7 or 8 years old and had centuries of life left in it. Over the years we’ve replaced the firebricks, bought a new riddle assembly and gone through 2 ash pans but this year the Rayburn gave up the ghost and resigned without notice.