Warmth of Fire and of Heart

There is almost nothing better than a nice warm fire rumbling away in the fireplace. Wood heat has the most inviting look, feel, smell and sound. When I was growing up we always had wood heat and I remember laying in front of the fire on the living room floor reading a book or drinking a mug of tea. One of my favorite memories is when Dad had finished building a nice hot fire he would sometimes stretch out on the floor and watch it for a while. Somehow it always made me feel safe when I heard the squeak of the hinges on the fireplace door in the middle of the night and I knew Dad was up adding wood to the fire. One of the first nights after Tim and I got our woodstove last fall I woke to that sound and I thought I was at home (The house I lived in before we got married) and Dad was adding a log to the fire, it wasn't till Tim crawled back in bed that I realized I was not 18 and time had not stood still.