Good luck in the Chimney!

Modern houses in the UK tend to be built without chimneys, and I know of many older houses which have had their fireplaces bricked up or their chimneys capped. So our house is very unusual in having nine, yes nine, fireplaces - and because of that we have four huge chimney stacks. One of them was rebuilt over the winter because it was starting to collapse, and bees have set up home in another one for the past two summers. Some of the bees swarmed the other day and the noise was deafening, almost as loud as the vuvuzelas at the World Cup football...

Chimneys which are used regularly need to be swept regularly, so this week we had a visit from R.Fisher & Son, our wonderful chimney sweep. The family are well known in our area and have swept our chimneys for years, but this week I learned something completely new - apparently it's good luck to see the brush sticking out of the chimney pot. I'd never bothered to look before, but it looked so cute I took a photo, and here it is. You never know, it might pass on a bit of good luck to you too!