Fireplace story

Once upon a time there was a godfather who thought he could design a perfect fireplace, and so it was built in his friend's house as well as his own. The houses were identical. The other family moved in their house on the day their grandson was born, and the godfather was asked to be his godfather. The grandson was Mr. K.

His grandparents tried to make a fire in their perfect fireplace, but all they got was smoke in the house. So the fireplace became a landing place for things. When we moved in almost 30 years ago, we started our own collection of things, like copper basins with dried roses, big vases too big for cupboards, jars for coins, beautiful things, important papers, sports trophies, small paintings and nice books. A very bulky narrow shelf, if I may say so.

You can see how the attempts to keep a fire have blackened the red bricks. Last winter was a very cold one for several weeks, and we began to think how nice it would be to sit in front of a fire and to have a warm house, and to save on oil.

So we looked at brochures and chose a fireplace, but first the old one had to go:

Half way gone!

It's all gone!

The new fireplace is being built.

And there it is, with a gaping hole around it to be fixed in one way or another. We need to wait for some weeks before making a fire so the mortar can dry. The plastic on the wall will go, too. Sorry godfather, your fireplace was no good! I miss the shelf though.

Today Mr. K was making me a raised vegetable bed and took our "self made soil" from the leaves compost for it. He called me and asked to bring the camera so we could have a picture of a blindworm. They are very rare nowadays. It is not a snake but a legless lizard, the brazen serpent. This was a big one, and about as thick as my little finger.

While I was out, I also took a picture of the lilies of the valley. In German they are called Maiglöckchen, little May bells, but up here they don't always come before June.

The fireplace project has been taking over our living room so I could not do much hand sewing there, but I hope things will change for the better. Unless the floor man comes and everything must be cleared away ...