The temperature has been spring-like for a number of days but could turn colder.
We have been using our new saw bench for cutting up firewood for the log burner.
Years ago, when I worked on a farm near Cambridge, there was an old farmhand called Derek. He always used to say that you got a ‘number of warms before a fire is lit!’
Remembering this saying prompted me to write this, it doesn’t rhyme nor meter but I believe it ‘does what it says on the tin’.
I once entered it into a poetry competition, needless to say it didn’t win, but it remains one of my favourites, I hope you like it too.
I took a walk in the woods with my chainsaw
A branch lay prostrate across my path
I donned my protective clothing, helmet and gloves
To protect me from the ferocious machine bucking in my hands
The sweat ran down my face like lava
Warm number one
I split the sawn timber into cheese-shaped logs
Wielding the axe like an irate backwoodsman
I felt the sweat on my collar
Warm number two
I hurled the logs onto the trailer
The smell of fresh split wood drifted in the still air
By then my shirt was awash!
Warm number three
I unloaded the logs into the wood shed
Trundling wheelbarrow loads up the path
The sweat dripped from my nose like rain droplets
From a jungle leaf
Warm number four
The frost crept in after dark
I lit the fire in the grate
The white smoke curled out of the chimney
As I sat back to enjoy
Warm number five
© Baldock Bard
The Baldock Saturday Car Boot Sale returns on the 14th April 2012
www.u-boot.co.uk
