Kindling and convenience
There is a beautiful oak tree in the garden and it is a favourite for the local birds and squirrels. I’ve raked up some of its leaves for leaf mould, but it also drops lots of twigs (and loads of acorns).
There is a wood-burning stove in the house, so I’ve been gathering up sticks to dry and use for kindling next year and it’s weirdly enjoyable. It feels like a task that humans have been doing for hundreds of years. I’m not sure where that feeling comes from. Growing up in Shetland, with almost no trees, picking up fallen twigs is not something I remember from childhood. But maybe it’s something I remember from fairytales – all those people wandering about in the woods with the wolves and the pixies!
I’ve been piling the twigs up under cover to dry out but making sure to leave some – I don’t want to deprive any little birds or animals of home-building material.
It made me think about convenience. Picking up sticks for a future fire is about as inconvenient a way of acquiring kindling as you can get. The local village shop sells bags of kindling. I’m sure I could order it online and have it delivered to my door.
But although it isn’t convenient, I have got a lot of pleasure from poking about under the oak tree in the dappled sunshine, picking up sticks from among the colourful leaves and the shiny acorns, spotting mushrooms, accompanied by birdsong. The yield isn’t only kindling, it’s also joy.
Your garden looks enormous, what an expanse of green! And as a side note - Shetland has almost no trees?? I know nothing about Shetland, (my excuse is that I live a long way from Shetland, in Australia) but I look forward to hearing more about a place with 'almost no trees.' And if your garden is anything to go by, Norfolk must be beautiful.
Bamboo also makes good kindling. We harvest it every year, mainly to stop it getting too tall and interfering with the overhead power lines, then dry it to use the following winter.