Zambolis apartments

Zambolis apartments
For your holidays in Chania

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Home and hearth

Supermarkets are quick on the mark to cash in on our misery.


Who would have thought that 'barbecue equipment' would be coming in handy at the beginning of winter? Matchsticks are clearly making a competitive comeback, while fireplace knick-knacks such as stokes and brooms to sweep away the ashes can be bought as cheaply as €2.50 a piece.  The chairs are labelled 'near the fireplace!', which is a clear indication of how Greek people are heating their houses these days.

Keeping warm and toasty...

If you have any doubts about that, come out of your house and smell the wood smoke...

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5 comments:

  1. Hey, I live in the Rocky Mountains and LOVE my woodstove. I can't imagine living without it.
    If I ever had to move "to town" I would be hard pressed to find a place in a town where the woodstove would be permitted. My hubby loves being a "woodchuck." That's what I call him because he spends lots of time getting wood, splitting it, and stacking it. Don't you love your woodstove, too, Maria?

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    1. that's the thing about the wood smoke - towns are now filling up with it because most people have decided not to buy any heating fuel this winter due to costs, and they are resorting to wood fires instead; it's not at all uncommon to see non-ground floor apartments being installed with a wood fire heater, and once one of those things comes into the house, it never comes out, it's there forever (it weighs a ton to move it, it's connected to the wall with flue pipes, etc) - last year when we installed it, the idea was so 'new' (honestly!) that the wood heaters were being delivered without any obligation to get them into the house (my husband and a freind literally carried it into the house)
      wood smoke was not at all uncommon in the small towns of greece in the past, but this was associated with the poverty of southeast europe - when more people were able to afford more, the switch was made to liquid fuel heating - now that it's unaffordable, people are faced with the dilemma of finding an alternative - wood is the only real alternative available for most people whoi live in the country; more choices are coming up now (and prices for the heaters and the fuel are also rising - more cashing in on people;s misery by the suppliers of heating products)
      i do like having it - when i come home from work, it's almost dark, so the onus on emptying the ashes and lighting it rests on others (the kids do the former, husband the latter), and i can begin to cook a meal in it, but i recall when my husband was chopping wood in preparation for its arrival - he salvaged all the cuttings from olive trees in our field, then he chopped it all himslef, and because the last time he had to do this was almost two decades ago when he left an old rented property in the town centre to move to his new home in the country, he was out of practice and the pains in his arms and legs were so bad that he needed medication (he couldnt even drive for three weeks)

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  2. We have recently installed our wood stove we got on Ebay in England for £200. It has a back boiler, so in addition to heating a square box it also heats water. It has an 11kw output and had been so effective we have had to buy radiators. I was sat at home last last night reading in the comfort of a balmy 25degree home, shoes off, soocks off ,jumper off. Having had a steaming hot shower after working all day. We have enough wood to last approx the next 3 years (if its not eaten by then) stacked in our yard and in the lane opposite us. Whilst it doesn't have an oven to cook in I am able to put in potatoes well wrapped in foil. Happy days. x

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    1. i'm very thankful for the oven compartment - it just means that extra bit of saving; and dont you just love knowing that you dont have to pay any money on heating? we have enough wood to last us this season and poissibly some left over

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    2. If you get a dutch oven - a cast iron pot with a cover with a raised lip - you can put coals underneath and on top with your baked goods inside and it will bake with a nice even heat. That's how we baked rolls, pies, squares, etc. at the pioneer village I worked at when in a house that only had a hearth, and not a wood stove with an oven. I don't know if the modern enameled dutch ovens can handle that sort of rough treatment!

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