Today the Rayburn:
- boiled the kettle for coffee first thing in the morning (without which all other activities don’t happen)
- warmed my clothes while I was having a shower (normally it warms our towels as well – luxury – but I forgot this morning)
- made stock (over the summer I freeze the carcases of any chickens we buy and spend the autumn and winter converting them into stock once the Rayburn is back on again. See also onion marmalade)
- helped dry our socks and pants
- heated up my soup for lunch
- kept the kitchen temperature liveable all day (indeed, most of the house, we still haven’t turned on the heating)
- finished off drying the shirts and trousers (after the day went from ‘ooh sunshine’ to ‘aargh, is that rain’ in the space of the afternoon. Incidentally, the steaming of slightly damp folded clothes on top of the Rayburn is the closest anything gets to being ironed in this house)
- boiled the kettle for coffee again
- cooked beetroot for beetroot and feta salad
- is currently slowly cooking onions to make onion gravy
- will shortly cook bangers, mash and roast parsnips
- and will finish up by boiling the kettle to fill a hot water bottle for bed.
I think it was Uphilldowndale who mentioned something about ‘wringing every calorie’ of heat out of something like a Rayburn. I think we can safely say we managed that today …
O mighty Rayburn I salute thee. (I miss mine!) They are awesome. I can add another vital function – boyfriend wet through and cold grabs cushion and lies down on tiled hearth with back against Rayburn and conks out for an hour.
I bet you don’t miss the oil bills…
I forgot to add we have a little stool for sitting with your back to the Rayburn …
I was smiling right along with you, until you got to the “hot water bottle for bet” bit. Eeps.
I had quite happily forgot about that little joy of living in a draughty farmhouse in rural Nova Scotia.
I think there’s a definite Scottish theme there.
Ah a hot water bottle is a great comfort… we haven’t yet moved onto the stage of having one each yet.
Mine was a fill-it-yourself one. Anthracite, 3 bags per week, boot of car, heavy lifting – but tons of hot water during power cuts! And of course, dusty as hell.
PS when last I visited, the new owners had switched to oil. Which meant after a holiday/away on a course in winter you didn’t have to wait a fortnight for the house to heat up.
yeah our oil one keeps on going through powercuts but no longer does the hot water, unfortunately
can you email me your onion marmalade recipe… please
on it’s way
For the anyone else who’s interested – details here http://cityexile.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/three-jars-full/