An Ode To Chopping Wood, by Liberty Nimmo

Liberty's dog Hatt looking terribly noble as her guards her impressive pile of chopped wood.

'Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.’  So said the great Taoist thinker Lao Tzu.  I don’t know where I sit on the enlightenment scale, but I have taken his advice and recently found myself chopping a lot of wood.

Now – dear readers from the big metropolises - bear with me.  To give you a potted history of my relationship with firewood; previously I have never had to consider wood as a resource.  Instead I have always unthinkingly had access to large amounts of dried, split wood from the farms where I’ve lived or, when not hunkering down in the countryside for the winter, it simply hasn’t presented itself as a ‘requirement’ other than ad hoc deliveries of small quantities so that it can be neatly stacked by the fire and used in an atmospheric accoutrement to an evening, rather than out of necessity.  Here, however, in my new home, I have come to realise that sourcing, processing, stacking, drying and then the act of burning one’s own firewood is not only a form of liberation from the dreaded fossil fuels but it also is a way of rooting oneself within the seasonal calendar as well as creating a stacked and very satisfying looking wood pile of great beauty. In these past few weeks, for me it has very quickly become a fundamental and important part of making a home for the winter and has been a wonderful precursor for the approaching darker and colder days.

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