Cutting firewood

Dear Aisha, Brioni and Calista,                                                        

This is another letter from your Uncle Roger. I hope you liked my last letter about butterflies and caterpillars. This time I want to tell you about getting the firewood to keep the fire burning in my home to keep it nice and warm. I usually bring the firewood in every second day because it's very cold now and I need to keep the fire going all the time. As you can see from the photos I have sent you, I use my wheelbarrow to carry the firewood home. But first I must split the large pieces of wood with the axe to make them the right size to fit into the stove. A load of firewood on the wheelbarrow lasts about 2 days. 

Also, if you look carefully at the pictures you will see that I am getting some little sticks ready which I split with a little axe called a – TOMAHAWK. - This is a smaller sized axe and very useful for splitting sticks which we call – KINDLING.

The word – KINDLING – just means little sticks suitable for starting a fire.

This time of the year is Winter, which starts at the beginning of June and it can be very cold and frosty here in New South Wales, so I'm glad I prepared for the cold weather and got a good supply of firewood ready.

My garden is still growing nicely and my fresh spinach has recovered and I have not found anymore caterpillars on the leaves.  I've sent you a photo to show you.

If you look in the background of that photo, you will see  little seedlings coming up of my Silver Beet. This is a green vegetable like spinach but not quite the same. In the foreground you will see my garlic shooting up, coming along nicely. 

Most mornings after I've had my breakfast, I go for a walk out in the bush for about an hour. As I go, I listen to the music on the Shaker MP3 player which your Daddy and Mummy sent to me in the big parcel. Would you tell them that Uncle Roger is very pleased with the Shaker, and tell them I use it every day.

What have you been doing lately? – Are you still reading books and learning new words? – Brioni, are you still practising your writing? - I’m very pleased to hear that you can write your name now. 

This is the end of my letter now, but I will write to you all again sometime.

Remember - I love you all very, very much.

Uncle Roger