Dirty work

I noticed a little while ago that our stove, which we normally light around late October/early November and leave burning 24 hours a day until the weather starts to warm up again, was starting to smell a bit smokey and even set off the smoke alarm one night. I let it go out before we went for our week in Cornwall and when it was cold I gave it a thorough examination. One or two of the seals had broken down so today I set to to fix it. Easy enough work but very dirty as it involved thoroughly cleaning out the stove and filling the relevant places with either a fireproof mastic or a special cement. I then relit the stove and was initially a bit concerned to see smoke pouring from the top until I realised it was just the mastic heating up and curing. By the end I rather resmbled one of the chimney sweeps out of 'Oliver Twist' but it's all working well now and the room is nice and cosy again. And the picture? It's a trivet that came with the stove and sits on top; I've been known to use it for a slow-cooked casserole in the past!