When I was young my mother used to say “Cold hands, warm heart”. An old saying indicating that though a person might have a cold, unfeeling exterior, it often concealed a warm-hearted nature.
Of course, that saying was very useful when as children we were rubbing our hands together trying to warm them during cold winters in badly insulated homes with only open fires for heating. It made us feel that even though we were chilly, life wasn’t so bad if we were warm-hearted people.
The thought of a log fire in an open hearth often makes people nostalgic but most of us only remember the good things and try to forget the bad. An open fire in a draughty room often meant that we were huddling close to the fire while farther corners of the room remained chilly. Fire wood had to be bought or collected and chopped, and the fire grate had to be cleaned out every day – a dirty job!
But let’s remember the good parts of an open fire: the dancing flames, the radiant heat and the real sense of family closeness. All these can be easily achieved with a gas or electric fire which can make your whole room cosy, efficiently and economically, without any mess or fuss.
Enjoy all the benefits of a realistic log or coal-effect fire with instant heat and instead of the old saying, you’ll have “warm hands, warm heart”!
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