The Fire Pit

Due to Covid restrictions we are only allowed to socialise with people outside, in a garden or a park. Only people from two households can meet, and must keep two metres apart. However, this is not very convenient at the end of November, since, even when it’s not raining, the temperature has recently dropped significantly. We had invited Tommy and Carol to pop round for a coffee on Friday, but on reflection we realised that this might be a bone-chilling experience for us all, under the grey and darkening sky. 

So on the spur of the moment on Thursday, we decided to invest in a fire pit. This consists of a large circular metal container, on short sturdy legs, with a mesh guard on top, in which you can burn logs. This provides both light and heat. An alternative would of course be to dig a hole in the garden to make a fire pit, but we’ll see how much we use this one before we think about anything more permanent. 

When Tommy and Carol arrived, James had already lit the fire and it looked very cheerful, and emanated a pleasing amount of heat. We drank coffee and ate biscuits, all wearing warm jackets and wool hats, with fleece rugs over our laps. There will definitely be days when it will be too cold or rainy to sit outside even with the fire pit, but it considerably extended the time that we felt comfortable sitting outside. We had a very pleasant chat, and Flora was very excited to see our visitors, because she likes to go round and watch them when they are in their garden. She miaowed loudly and rolled about on the rug inside the back room, no doubt wondering why we were sitting outside! We discussed how many new people have moved into the street recently; we all miss our mutual former neighbours (but still friends of course!) Alison and Hugh. 

When Tommy and Carol left, the daylight was beginning to get dimmer but it was still perfectly bright enough to see each other without any lights switched on. However, when we went indoors and switched on the lights in the back room, it instantly looked almost completely dark outside! Our eyes must have been gradually adjusting to the dwindling light.