Filling empty lorries & Wood to burn...

I've just been listening to a programme on Radio 4 on 'You and Yours' (www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours) which had two interesting items:
(You can listen again to these by going to
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/listenagain/wednesday.shtml)

The first was a neat website aimed at filling lorries with loads on return journeys. People can negotiate/bid for space for otherwise empty space. What a great idea. I wonder if they transport boats and boat bits.....

The second was an article on Firewood to use in wood-burning stoves. This poem was read out:

LOGS TO BURN

Logs to burn, logs to burn,
Logs to save the coal a turn
Here's a word to make you wise,
When you hear the woodman's cries.
Never heed his usual tale,
That he has good logs for sale,
But read these lines and really learn,
the proper kind of logs to burn.

OAK logs will warm you well,
If they're old and dry.
LARCH logs of pine wood smell,
But the sparks will fly.
BEECH logs for Christmas time,
YEW logs heat well.
SCOTCH logs it is a crime,
For anyone to sell.

BIRCH logs will burn too fast,
CHESTNUT scarce at all
HAWTHORN logs are good to last,
If you cut them in the fall
HOLLY logs will burn like wax
You should burn them green
ELM logs like smouldering flax
No flame to be seen

PEAR logs and APPLE logs,
they will scent your room.
CHERRY logs across the dogs,
Smell like flowers in bloom
But ASH logs, all smooth and grey,
burn them green or old;
Buy up all that come your way,
They're worth their weight in gold.

(I can't find an Author to attribute this to - sorry. It can be found in E. M. Hull’s Poem Book of the Gael:)


Note that all woods burn better when seasoned and some burn better when split rather than as whole logs. In general the better woods for burning that you are most likely to come by (including non-native species) are:

Apple and pear – burning slowly and steadily with little flame but good heat. The scent is also pleasing.

Ash – the best burning wood providing plenty of heat (will also burn green but you should not need to do this!)

Beech and hornbeam – good when well seasoned

Birch – good heat and a bright flame – burns quickly.

Blackthorn and hawthorn – very good – burn slowly but with good heat

Cherry – also burns slowly with good heat and a pleasant scent.

Cypress – burns well but fast when seasoned, and may spit

Hazel – good, but hazel has so many other uses hopefully you won’t have to burn it!

Holly – good when well seasoned

Horse Chestnut – good flame and heating power but spits a lot.

Larch – fairly good for heat but crackles and spits

Maple – good.

Oak – very old dry seasoned oak is excellent, burning slowly with a good heat

Pine – burns well with a bright flame but crackles and spits

Poplar – avoid all poplar wood – it burns very slowly with little heat – which is why poplar is used to make matchsticks.

Willow – very good – in fact there is growing interest in biomass production of coppiced willow as a fuel.

Another poem:

Logs to burn
Oaken logs if dry and old
Keep away the winter cold;
Poplar gives a bitter smoke
Fills your eyes and makes you choke;
Elm wood burns like graveyard mould,
Even the very flames are cold;
Apple wood will scent the room
Pear wood smells as flowers in bloom;
But Ash wood wet and Ash wood dry
A King to warm his slippers by.

Beech wood fires burn bright and clear
If the logs are kept for a year;
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for years, 'tis stored away.
Birch and firwoods burn too fast
Blaze too bright, and do not last;
But Ash wood green and Ash wood brown
Are fit for a Queen with a golden crown.

Printed in the Emmerdale Farm book of Country Lore (Hamlyn, out of print)


Season's Greetings to all!

Bits and pieces

Its been a busy time.

I have just retired from doing committee work. My choice - its simply the right time for me to move on. Leaving the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) had some poignant moments - I've been a committee member for 22 years. No doubt next November will feel very strange when I would normally be getting revved up for my meetings. My fellow committee members were lovely to me, so I leave with a full and warm heart.

One of my life-coaching clients, who came to me suffering from a fear of flying phobia, has just successfully completed her first return flight for many years, so that's great cause for celebration!

I've been working on a new website, so that has taken up many of my spare computer moments. This blog will be transferred to that, so be prepared to change your bookmarks soon.

I've been meeting with some colleagues about forming an association of relationship counsellors - a kind of one stop shop for those whose relationships could do with a boost, or in the case of breakdown, those who need to sort out the end of the relationship (for themselves and maybe their children) and then move on. We've all found that people's needs can be so various at such a tough time. We are all professionals who, if we think we cannot meet our clients needs will refer them onto other specialists. Yet we only pass on people to those we trust. By forming a professional association and setting ourselves standards to meet, we think we can provide a broader service by learning and trusting those whose standards match our own, but in slightly different specialities - facilitation, counseling, life coaching, mediation, psychotherapy, child support, bereavement. Watch this space!