Sunday 27 November 2016

Winter bowling

Winter ....

- the fire lit at 5pm
- a rustic pizza, baked potatoes or a tray of simple cheese rolls cooking above
 - warming raki or a glass of homegrown red
- a few granny squares to stitch together for the next 'heirloom' blanket....think crazy paving in wool
- an old greek movie in black and white, slapstick comedy or tear jerking drama ......the only kinds they seem to make
 - a football (soccor) match to cheer .....Greece is still in the Europa League
- neighbours, friends and family for round table discussions on politics, sport and how to resolve the economic crisis


The wood burning stove which heats the house and cooks our evening meals.  It is not smoking (yet) this winter.  The pipes have been cleaned.  We do not burn pine which lets off a terrific heat but gums up the pipes with resin so the smoke has no where to go but back into the living room and soot pours out of the chimney.  We burn olive wood from last year's pruning.

The log container is an old washing machine drum.  The inner bowl of a front loader.



These bowls are also from a front loading washing machine.  The glass bowl in the door can be recycled as a wonderful salad bowl and  withstands heat.  They make a great bowl for baking nicely rounded loaves of bread.  Every bowl is a different shape.  Some are shallow, some are tall, some have a pattern.  They may be indented or  dimpled.



These are all thanks to our traditional washing machine fixer-upper.  We have three or four skeleton machines in the back garden.  Anyone want one sent on to them?  I'll even pay the transport ......well, maybe not.  Pick up only.

Recycle your old washing machine. 

10 comments:

  1. Wow very clever recycling.
    I read somewhere if you throw in some aluminium cans and burn the fire hot it will clean out the flue.
    Maybe you can try it once you start to burn the pine
    I've responded to your comments on my blog xx

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  2. Aluminium cans....sounds a bit dangerous, but I'll relay the info to my other half. the flue definitely needs cleaning again altho we did it at the end of last winter. thought the fire was fine but i noticed a bit of soot outside yesterday.

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  3. How interesting about using the front glass part of a washing machine door! I've never heard of that before. I like your woodstove with its little baking section. -Jenn

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    1. The stove on top of the oven is so handy. When the fire is hot everything cooks really quickly and often I have a pot on top to slow cook

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  4. Recycling perfection; they look good too! With my woodburner I just light it very hot, this seems to keep it clean. It looks dangerous, but does the job.

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    1. Our fire was burning furiously yesterday. Maybe that's done the trick.

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  5. Great recycling LA. I have grown potatoes in the drum of an old washing machine.

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    1. Aha another use. I'll let the 'master' know!

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  6. You accumulate miniscule soot if you burn hot. It is by far the best way.

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  7. Only trouble is you use more wood. We just got a ton of olive but temps are going down to ,5o tomorrow. Boy that's cold for us!!

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