Necessity: The Mother of Invention

Mrs The Millbrooker is an inventive soul.

Our new wood burner is a marvellous piece of kit, and we have taken to spending evenings with our tootsies pointed in its direction and feeding it with morsels of off-cuts of timbers from local construction sites (the stuff would only go to landfill if someone didn't make other use of it and the builders are only too glad to get rid of it without having to pay for a skip or for transport costs).

Apart from being free, the fuel-from-building-sites idea has only a couple of drawbacks. Firstly, the timber is tanalised and, as such, is not supposed to be burnt.

The other drawback is that it's usually a bit on the damp side. This is where Mrs The Millbrooker's inventiveness comes in. We need dry fuel, our fuel supplies are damp, the oven is on and we have a small spare wine rack. Hey presto...