It was very cold when I got up this morning and for only the second time this winter we had to put our fire on. Our electric fire is one of my favourite frugal finds in our house. My Mum and Dad bought this Belling fire in a department store in Yorkshire in 1956 the year after they got married. When I was very little it was in our best living room we only used on Sundays so it had very little use! Then in 1967 when we moved down to Surrey and had central heating in our new house, the electric fire disappeared. I thought it had gone completely but apparently it had been put in the loft.
I left home to start nursing when I was 18 and two years later my parents moved house again. The fire went with them and was again put in the loft.
Then last year, nearly 50 years after it was first put away, my Mum and Dad who are now well in their 80's had a wasps nest in the loft. When the man who came to kill the wasps nest went up into the loft he commented on the fire which they had forgotten about. So when last winter, our central heating completely died they asked us if we would like it. Tom went into the loft to retrieve it and we carefully carried it downstairs. I couldn't believe it was still there and we were all so excited when we plugged it in and it burst into life. (You thought I was going to say flames didn't you!)
So here it is in it's full glory in our living room.
It is so cosy and nostalgic for me. I could be 5 years old again sitting eating my tea by it on a Sunday afternoon. It is such a perfect match to our old fashioned looking living room. After all these forgotten years the fire is back in the centre of a family.
