Twisted fire starter

At the beginning of this year, I moved into my apartment. Well, it has a wood burning stove thing, not really a stove, more of a solid fuel radiator. I ended up “recycling” waste wood. I could try to defend my environmental credentials for this behaviour, but the amount of smoke probably sets the argument back a little. I also felt a bit like I was living on the edge of socially acceptable behaviour, I wondered why I didn’t just cart all my possessions around in a shopping trolley and be done with it.

So, as it gets colder I have been more prepared. The fake wood logs, cheaper at Pingo Docé than at Continente, are ideal and I have been experimenting with charcoal. The problem with wood is that it burns so quickly, unless it’s hardwood. And it just seems wrong to be burning the owner’s oak table with the justification that it last twice as long as pine. So I find myself stacking bits of charcoal onto fragments of fake wood and it burns for hours! Nice background heating and pretty flames. Oh, look into the pretty flames…