jcoyle wrote: > > Ah Bob, the delights of an open fire! > makes me think of two things: > A friend of mine in England many years ago bought an 18th. century house in > a village in Shropshire and started to renovate it. In both the main living > room and the dining room, which were next to each other, there was a > Victorian fireplace, of no great merit. So he decided to remove them, and > lo and behold! The fireplaces were in fact one huge one, designed to heat > both rooms at the same time. So he fixed it up and thereafter had this > glorious, huge, roaring fire in winter, heating both rooms and forcing > people to sit at least six feet away from it to avoid getting roasted alive! > Second thought: in this part of Australia, very few houses have fireplaces > (it's just too warm most of the time), but _everyone_ has a barbecue. Just > watch the old primitive instincts come out when Aussie blokes fire up the > barbie - we all stand around drinking beer and yakking, while the women are > in the kitchen making the salads and chatting!
Heck, John, sounds just like Southern California, to me! My house, most of the late Spring, Summer and early Fall. Beer and wine and coolers of all kinds flow. If you're ever in the area, stop by and I'll put another couple on the barbie for you! (You can dig your own beer out of the ice chest, I'm sure!) <grin> keith > John Coyle > Brisbane, Australia
