keeping cosy tonight

~ haven't seen an open fire in years!or is it fake?

OOOooooooooooo Eileen I want an open Fire :O Its Gorgeous HHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuu & so COSY :D

its the real deal Arlene, yrs ago when we were getting the central heating put in i made sure the open fire stayed too

even just looking at it jacque is enough to make you feel warm

Lovely I bet its nice and cosy sitting there Is it coal you burn ?.

smokeless coal only janette lol , they are very strict about that here, tonight i just have briquettes in it

That looks really cosy Eileen, very beautiful fireplace....I have my woodburner on
tonight but am getting really sleepy now! lol

thanks Janey,, they do make you so relaxed that you would fall asleep alright lol

~ my mother in law used to light the fire in her front room at Christmas when we went up to Newcastle and it was lovely~ we used to sit and chat round the fire with a drink and mince pies!
Mind she had no heating in the bedrooms apart from electric radiators and you couldn't move from the weight of the bedding~ your nose would occasionally be cold until you warmed up!They were tougher than we are these days!

great memory Arlene, lol im glad tho i have central heating aswell as the open fire otherwise we would be all sleeping in the living room

Lovely, MMMMM Toasty toes!!

lol your not wrong there Wohlibuli

Oh Irish, theres nothing can beat it, lots of lovely warm memories, sigh..

glad you like it Dee

How come the dogs not on top of this Irish ? Great at Christmas arent they - lovely.Would photo mine but dont want to fry all the spiders and creepy crawlies !

I want a wood stove so bad...was raised with one...raised my children with one...now I want one..have a little chimmery out on my back deck...need to get into my garage and clean out so I can use that one..

aye its great at christmas, with a couple of logs burning away

are you gona get a wood stove CJ for indoors?

Do you make toast in front of it .?
There's nothing like toast made by the fire.
This photo brings back lots of memories.

Oh, remember doing that Hywel in our old house, we would sit for ages frying our faces then the toasting fork would go through the bread and toast would end up in the flames!! lol

He he Janey - then try and spread lard ( ugh ) on it !

~I remember my dad making toast with a long handled fork and the heat so intense you couldn't stand in front of it for long~ we used to be able to get lump sea coal which made a lovely fire-used to bank it up at night and it would still be alight in the morning~
When I was small my gran used to have a range with a huge open fire that fired an oven on one side and a hot water boiler on the other with a massive polished brass fender with seats at the ends- I don't know how she did it but she was a lovely cook!My grandad used to keep chickens and I remember a bath tub near the fire with tiny fluffy chickens cheeping!
Ah~haven't thought about that in years!

I would like to get a wood stove for indoors..but I cannot afford one right now...very exspensive to buy and install.

Lard, BB yeuk!....maybe dripping! We used to bath by the fire in a tin bath Arlene when it was deep Winter, you could scratch off the frost on the inside of the bedroom window! Eeh, those were the days! lol :o)

Aye Arlene I have similar memories and what my grandfather then did to those chickens !

Still can here Janey ! There must be a 2" gap under old front door no wonder frogs and toads come in to our front room !

~in those days when you worked for the NCB you got free coal but they deserved it! My grandad used to have to walk out under the sea to the coal face and came home black! All my grans family worked at the local mine.
I do recall frost on the inside but also lovely long clear icicles in a row along the gutter!

~ see what you started Eileen!

lol aye Arlene, plenty of memories from ye all.
havent toasted bread over the fire in a long long time.
i do remember havin to put duffle coats on the bed when i stayed in my grans house when i was a kid, otherwise i would have froze to death lol

Now be honest Irish, do you stand with your back to the fire and warm your bum like toast.

to be honest Ams.................. no lol the kids would soon tell me to move

Oh Irish, I love it....
I would love to come to your place with you and roast some marshmallows after a good day of sliding!

wow, this is definitely cosy Irish!

I have to toast my bum with wood heat, if there is one to stand at...I also slept with frosty bedroom windows as a child...there was a vent in the floor of my room and the wood heat from below floated up through it...by morning we were all gathered around the wood stove before breakfast...that vent was also right above the spot we put up the Christmas tree and the lights glowed onto my ceiling for a while in the winters...I loved it.

thanks guys,, newfienurse when your coming over will you bring my marbel with you lol

CJ that is a lovely memory of the wood stove

~I think Christmas was a lot more magical back then-now you get Christmas cards in September! and book your Christmas Do before they get booked up~ ie April!

Really? What is a Christmas Do?

~ a festive occasion,ie christmas party for you and your friends (usually everyone from where you work) to have a meal and drinks together~ ! can be followed by recriminations,fallings out,wildfire gossip.......

There speaks the voice of experience ho ho ho !

~ I used to work in a very large office and although not involved personally in any of the above could tell some stories! But I wouldn't!
These days myself and friends plump for somewhere that does good food!oh well....

Oh tell me I worked in the NHS for years - Christmas parties hide or go sick !

~ plead insanity or the bubonic plague! Or better still do what we did for years and decamp to relatives with the children for the two weeks and apologise profusely! Would really love to..but...

`~will everyone forgive me for being a pain this evening and going off the script`~~spent 15 hours in the local hospital with chest pains but ok and home now!!
Not had heart problems,thankfully, but will definitely lose weight!

Are you OK now, Arlene? What a horrible day you've had. Take care. Goodnight. X

~thanks Spritz
Sleep well and goodnight x!

Arlene , just seen that you were in hospital, hope you are ok now? xx

~ yes ,going to bed now Eileen~lots of lovely people at the local hospital~ grateful to them all!

good to hear your alright, sleep well Arlene night night

Oh so sorry Arlene chatting away didnt realise - you wont see this now but when you wake you ll know was thinking of you best wishes for speedy recovery x

Please do take care of your self Arlene.....please don't wait if it happens again because you think its ok or something...they can mis-diagnose. I will be keeping you in my good thoughts and best that can be for you.

~Thanks Catfinch!
~ they are going to be looking into it further for me-going to arrange a rolling road fitness test and my doc is monitoring my blood pressure-the bottom line is that I need to lose about one and a half to two stone and keep off the chocolate!

I couldn't help remeniscing too when reading the exchange of info going on, anyways all the best on your trying to lose weight Arlene, and a speedy recovery too.
Best Wishes, Linda

I don't know how much a stone weighs..I need to lose around 20 lbs...know that much...but hate to lose it now with winter coming on...LOL..I have been enjoying that extra layer of body fat all ready keeping me warm...or maybe that is hot flashes...not sure anymore.
I am glad they are doing more tests...you mind them now. The chocolate has to go? Oh my I that it was good for your heart..that is what they tell us over here....especially the dark chocolate...

Just so you know, Catfinch, a stone is 14 pounds.

Hope you're feeling better today Arlene,now no more gardening for a while!

~Thanks everyone for your best wishes and kind comments~
~Bonkersbon you made me laugh-the best therapy!
~My daughter and son-in-law took us up to Penderyn the only Welsh Distillery to have a look around and to try their products,Whisky,vodka,gin and a whisky cream like Baileys,not far away and a lovely drive as the road has wooded slopes on both sides in all their autumn colours.will put some pics on tomorrow.
Beatifully packaged and the samples tasted good
Goodnight to everyone!

Get some good rest Arlene...glad you had a relaxing day with your family.

Your fire is so beautful and cosy Eileen hot roasted chestnuts we put on fire as kids.

Lovely memories.

Sadly no tral deal firr got a real woodfirplace but elecricl coal affec tfire.

I dont have a chimmey and fireplace wall backs onto garage wall which is attached to house.

thanks Kath, glad it brought back happy memories for you too.

Wonderful ! I could use that here today. Very damp here and cool. I'm just getting over a virus. Had quite a time of it for two weeks.

aw no Mike sorry to hear that?

No wonder you've been absent from GOY, Mike. Hope you're feeling better.

Thank you ladies... I feel like a million compared to a week ago.

~ had something similar for the last three to four weeks and wouldn't wish it on anyone!~