Chesnuts roasting over an open fire

I forgot to tell you all about one feature of our new house that I am very excited about… the slow combustion stove.
We had one when we were staying at Amsterdampoort in Haarlam, Nederlands. It was so lovely watching the flames crackling and the heat it produced was impressive. At the time I thought how wonderful it would be to have one in my future house. It was one of those random ‘that will never happen but it is nice to think about it’ things.
But our new house has one and apparently it still works, but it will need to be checked out before we light it. We also have a gas heater as well that is currently sitting in front of the stove as the old owners found it easier to just plug in the heater rather than light a fire – and fair enough.
We won’t use it all the time, as firewood is just too expensive, but for special occasions it is going to be so lovely.
Actually it would be nice to use it tonight as the rain sprinkles over the roof and the cold wind blows causing the roof to rattle.