Silver & Gold
A woman who has been a water person, in, on or around her whole life is discovering a different view. Once refer to by friends as Ariel, Disneys cartoon character from The Little Mermaid, Ariel is being true to her inquiring character, grown legs and is discovering a forest of trees, not kelp.
True to the french inspired building, St Roch houses a french woodfire by Cheminees Phillippe. A significant step up in efficiancy to the open fires at the beach. Not a Nectre but that is another story. It sits at the base of the chimney in the room referred to for now, as ‘the hall’. During the winter months the routine has been to re-stoke the fire of a morning before filling the neighbouring Italian kettle, from Alessi and indulging in a coffee sitting birched on the grand, to Ariel, stairs looking out to the day ahead.
The silver ash accumulated from the previous day is scooped out and placed in the well used rusty old bucket and dealt with once ‘cooled’. Ariels way of life meant she had not encountered golden coals lurking deep amongst silvery ash. They do not glow quite so brightly when smothered deeply in ash. Thinking it had been 24 hours and the rusty old bucket was not hot, the ash was emptied into the council suppled bin, stating on the lid ‘no hot ash or liquids’, an presuming one was being compliant, the bucket contents went in as the kettle began to whistle its signature mi and si tune.
The coffee could wait until the fire is reset diffusing the crisp morning air making birching with one’s coffee all that much better. Mmm, that first sip. Stretching out Ariel’s ritual with small lingering sips until the porcelain cup is empty and the next task is set upon. To do list checked and looks like a paperwork day so the fire will be kept stoked and Ariel will be locked away in the office/library until well after most people eat lunch.
Escaping from the office at last Ariel grabs another coffee but this time when she comes to the bottom of the cup she notices the smoke from the fire is a little different. In fact very different. It is coming from where the bins are located not the chimney. Moving those legs as quickly as she could down the stairs and out into the yard she is greeted with smoke billowing from the green waste bin. Sirens ringing through her head as if the years of watching the firemen in their trucks thrilling the kids at the beach, making their presents known, kicks into gear and the hose is engaged, water flowing at a trickle but enough to put the small but scary fire out. Scary not for its size and ferocity but for the realization that there were in fact golden coals lurking beneath the silvery. It had taken all morning for evidence to appear but appear it did. Thank goodness for the water and paperwork keeping Ariel on hand. A ‘what if’ moment that could have made for a spectacular story of the unwanted kind. This new environments first lesson learnt!
Ariel had no desire to place any body parts into a bucket of silvery ash in search of golden coals prior to emptying bucket contents into bin in future. Ariel’s solution was a note to self instead, ‘when reading the lid of the council bin “no hot ash or liquids”, ignore the hot and just take it as “no ash or liquids”’.
Damage is minor relative to what could have happened but bin is full so Ariel gave the bin a temporary fix enabling the contents of the bin to be emptied by the truck. Strategically placed twigs, a roll of contact and fingers crossed. A far from subtle solution visually but as those in the street welcomed Ariel to the neighbourhood on learning about the bin activity she did not feel like so much of a fish out of water. The lesson was learnt without any harm to person or property - other than one’s bin.
Ariel sat once again, perched on her grand stairs pondering on what to do with the silvery ash and those golden coals lurking deep in wait. That will be a job to add to the ‘now what do I do’ list.
And in the mean time the well used Cheminee Phillippee woodfire is to get a service.