28.09.2014 – By the Hearth.

Sunday, 28th September, 2014.

By the Hearth.

My last few blogs have let you know about my growing love for photography, and my new-found ability to make a fire. Tonight, the two combined in what turned out to be rather a creative night. I’ve told you about Hootsuite (it’s for scheduling tweets) and about how it is quite often the bane of my life. Since Gladfest, we’ve started promoting our next literary festival, Hearth. The main focus of the festival is the evening, when the cold is shut outside and everyone gathers around the fire to discuss anything and everything with four authors. It’s difficult to market a cold, wintery night on a sunny autumn day in only 140 characters. I’ve been meaning for a while to do something to ease this imperfection, and tonight was a good chance to do it.

I lit the fire (by which I mean I forgot and had to get someone from the kitchen to help me – though it turns out it wasn’t my fault after all!) and it acted like a magnet. We only have one working hearth in the Gladstone Room and suddenly the sofas and chairs closest to the fire were full. Myself and one of the other interns had already bagsied the two armchairs closest to the fire, and were each armed with a cup of tea and a good book (Sons of Thunder by Giles Kristian for me).

As the night wore on, and Viking battles waged across the sea, the fire began to quieten and so did the Gladstone Room. People started to filter off to bed, and we added an extra log to the fire. The other intern was soon deep in conversation with a very interesting guest who was a member of the clergy but used to be a librarian (if I was a dog, my ears would have pricked up). As it was, I found it pretty difficult to concentrate on Sigurd and his Wolfpack, and then my eyes lingered on the fire. I looked to the shelf I had organised earlier today, and saw the books of the authors coming to Hearth. (Look at the fire I made!)

I looked to the floor and saw my empty teacup. They best way to sell an evening by the fire is surely…with photos by the fire?

I spent the next hour or so trying to perfectly capture the cosiness of Hearth. I enlisted the help of the other intern’s slippers, my cup of tea, a glass of red wine (for the photos, not me!) and more sap-covered, crackling logs for the fire. The result was these.