The Parlor and Fireplace With the Candle

The Turkish rug came back from the rug repair shop. The new hourglass-shaped rattan thing is now a table between the two chairs. The furniture has been moved around and pillows stacked on the old love seat, and BZ's Nigerian snake skin hassock has been restuffed with a new round of crumpled newspapers, and the various other thingamabobs brought back from travels abroad re-arranged. The parlor is now done, sort of, for awhile, maybe.





Things will change again, of course, especially if Plot and Duck ever get back to Peru so they can go to Ayacucho and find that amazing tejido artist who does those modernist wall hangings. Or somewhere else. For now, probably for the first time since Plot and Duck have lived in this house, the parlor is a really comfortable room to sit in, the way it was in the old days. The only problem is that Plot and Duck feel like their great great grandparents when they sit and read in the parlor. But, hey.



Note the candle in the fireplace. The first thing Plot and Duck did when they bought the house in 1993 was to get the flue repaired so they could use the fireplace for nice, vibey wood fires. But the firebox is so small it renders the fireplace basically useless, because to get the bricks hot enough to create the draw that allows smoke to rise and go out the chimney, you first have to burn so much wood the entire house is engulfed in smoke.

Then, the city wrote an ordinance the makes it illegal to have wood fires within the city of Saint Plotniko. Plottie wants his money back. Ha ha ha, money back! Right!