Monday, September 7

A Sooty Sweep Visits

As my thoughts turn to the joys of autumn and cooler days this morning my lovely chimney sweep arrived to did what chimney sweeps do.

Photo: Mr Firkins with his 'gear'
With rising fuel prices I plan to use the wood burner as my primary heat source. We are lucky that Nigel can pick up old pallets for free – so in affect free wood to supplement our logs but pine makes a lot of tarry soot so it’s especially important to get the chimney swept.

Photo:Action shot

6 comments:

  1. You have galvanised me into action, I must call our sweep immediately... ours is chatty and very very black from soot. Yours looks friendly albeit a bit dubious about having his photo taken!

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  2. mr firkins...what a pose!
    you've made me think we should get ours done. we lit it for the first time on saturday and it was so lovely and cosy. all free fuel for us too. we seem to be forever burning our neighbours' donated wood various (fence panels etc...we are the local dump!) and since our eucalyptus tree had a major haircut last year all that hard wood will be ready now and perfect for keeping us warm this autumn. (although i keep being told we are due a heatwave this week...and i'm not best pleased!) Xx

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  3. We had the sweep today - he wore a sort of space invader helmet and frightened the dogs!

    Pomona x

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  4. I haven't seen a chimmney sweep in years. I used to love it when my mum and dad their chimmney cleaned, I was always fascinated by him.
    x

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  5. We have a metal plate on the wall outside for sweeping but we rarely get it done.
    Worried now.
    I thought 'The London Area' was a smokeless area?

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  6. All we have is a log burner to heat out home and it works really well. You can also buy heat transfer systems which, once the temperature in the living area reaches a certain point, the remainder of the heat will then be transferred through a system in the ceiling, into the bedrooms. Sadly because of our slopping cottage ceilings, we can't have it installed but it works a treat. Since being here I've also got used to sleeping in a cooler room and piling on the eiderdowns.

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