The first lot of wood arrived at our new home yesterday. A full trailer load of holm oak, birch and acacia it seemed a daunting task to stack it all away. In fact it was a lot easier than it seemed and, thanks to Sandra’s organisational skills all was stored safely in our wood shed in an afternoon.

We have two items which use the wood as a source of fuel. In our living room there is a cast-iron stove and in the kitchen there’s the ‘cucina economica’, the italian equivalent of an aga, which produces both warmth for the ground floor and excellent slow cooking.

I don’t know how much wood-burning contributes towards global warming. Clearly wild-fires, especially those started deliberately, have a serious impact on the environment but what about domestic, controlled use of wood burning? Fortunately we live in a densely forested but not very densely populated area and there are few regulations limiting our use of wood as a fuel. But for how long will we be able to live like this in this woodland wonderland?