No Smoke without Fire

James and I were tucked up in bed last night when we noticed a smell of wood smoke wafting in the window (luckily for our marriage, James and I are like minded in our preference for having the window open while we sleep, even when it’s quite cold outside.) We wondered if it was someone’s wood burning stove – this is a topical subject for us because we have recently ordered a new fireplace. However, Alasdair then appeared in the doorway to tell us that there was a fire engine outside our neighbours’ house! Further investigation (peering out of all the windows!) revealed that there was indeed a fire – but luckily not in any of the houses; it was the boundary fence between two of the neighbours’ gardens just next to us. How strange – the weather was really wet and horrible so I can’t imagine how a fire could have started let alone taken hold. There were firemen in the garden checking that everything was extinguished. This morning I was chatting to Tina on the way to school (I have been giving her a lift since her foot surgery) and she said that she had slept through the whole thing! But her Mum and Dad had been out in the garden with the firemen; the cause of the fire so far remains a mystery.