Global warming?

This last winter I didn't once light our kitchen wood-fired cooker (George). In late Autumn last year, I gave him his serious pre-winter cleaning, but his services were never required. I only light him either if it's very cold, or if I'm making bread or long slow-cooked casseroles.

Our sitting room wood-burning stove also had less use than usual this last winter. Not once did I light-up in the morning and keep him going all day. In fact I only lit him a couple of times in early afternoons, preferring to wait until about 4 or 5 pm before lighting. The house managed to retain much of its heat, so just a few hours fire in the early evenings was adequate. Even so, I've managed to burn over 3 cubic metres of Chestnut wood, which will need replacing. I hardly touched our Oak pile.

In general I would say that this past winter was 'bearable'; we had no snow, and very few hard frosts. Not once did I feel really cold, I suffered no illness, and my wood sawing tasks never seemed tedious. It was what I would call a 'good winter'.

Now we are well into spring, and everything is looking good. The fruit trees are already heavy with apples, pears, plums, and peaches, and at Haddock's we're already harvesting a few early vegs. In the woods the Girolles are appearing in droves.

The above two photos made up part of our yesterday's simple lunch.