Flameproof Lyme

Fire making is a very important part of living in our house. Without it, we are cold and so is the water that comes out of the hot tap. It takes a lot of ignition to get a lyme log to burn, you have to mix them in with the more amenable woods, like alder and sycamore. Good thing we have plenty of overgrown hedges to scavenge through. It's hard work, but these are satisfying steps to take.

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The art of fire making is in the ignition

Raising the heat from a spark in spindled bundles

Sustaining the flame to burn sizeable fuel

Cut from the dense hedges

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From the mass, single branches

Are shaken out. The brittle skinny ends

Broken off, bunched and fixed with twine

From the bulky twine roll

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This is the satisfying old fashioned skill

Of faggot making. Each one represents

A future fire lit, as nights draw in and frost

Thinks of appearing in daylight

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Twigs thicken to sticks, snapped

In even lengths, until we need the saw

For small logs, and start a second stack

Next year’s fire fodder, left to season out

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It’s quick work, cracking twigs

And wrapping string, we pick through

The tumble of wood, swiftly, neatly

Reassemble it in order of mass

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Larger logs lay out in irregular rows

We learn each type of bark and grain

The sycamore will burn quite green

But the lyme is almost flameproof

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The first barrow load careens

Back up the path. Dog follows, she has

Picked out a stick, and carries it

Prodding legs on passing

418

I daydream of other lives

Just for comparison, this one

I find is constructed from purpose

Accident, experiment, attitude

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All lives are combinations

Intended steps and the slips

Which depend on character

For the choice of interpretation

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We prepare our woodshed contents

For what is expected, the usual pattern

Of seasonal shift. There is always variance

But nothing entirely unrecognisable yet