{"id":194,"date":"2012-04-23T17:27:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T22:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/?p=194"},"modified":"2014-09-30T21:57:17","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T02:57:17","slug":"spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/2012\/04\/23\/spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have to admit, I wasn\u2019t looking forward to writing the first blog post to follow the one memorializing my father<\/a>. But when I remember how he began each day, with enthusiasm and vigor, I realize the best way to honor his memory is to follow his example in life.\u00a0Now you may be wondering what these photos from my garden have to do with Dad’s invention – the Texas Fireframe grate<\/a>. Let me explain…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Spring always marked the end of the Texas Fireframe season – time to give the fireplace one last cleaning and be done for the year. But not anymore. Tulips and daffodils now herald a new season\u00a0of fire building as more and more homeowners are seeking the warmth and beauty of an outdoor fire. I receive calls \u00a0and e-mails from customers with freestanding outdoor chimneys which enable them to enjoy the \u201cPhysicist\u2019s Fire\u201d year-round. (A chimney cap keeps rain off the heavy-duty steel grate.) One customer in Santa Fe brings his Texas Fireframe grate outside every spring; our smallest model<\/a>, the U-17, fits perfectly in his adobe style fireplaces – both indoors and out. Other customers have classic stone outdoor chimneys that accommodate our larger models<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>For many of us, an outdoor fire evokes nostalgic memories of summer camp; I still remember joining the circle around the campfire every night\u2013 singing those familiar camp songs \u2013 everyone\u2019s faces illuminated by the dancing flames of the fire that we all pitched in to build. (I have yet to hear of anyone singing Michael Row The Boat Ashore in front of their Texas Fireframe grate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few s\u2019mores have been consumed.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If you have an outdoor chimney or you\u2019re thinking about building one, you\u2019ll be glad to know that the principles of physics that cause more radiant heat from a Texas Fireframe grate to be directed out into the room (compared to a conventional grate) are just as effective in an outdoor room as they are indoors. Feel free to call us or visit our website<\/a> if you want to know more about the Texas Fireframe grate. Check out our customers\u2019 grate reviews<\/a>\u00a0and read about their experiences from Maine to California to \u2013 of course – Texas. My dad\u2019s unique fireplace grate <\/a>has also garnered some wonderful press<\/a>, including Time, \u00a0New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens and Scientific American .<\/p>\n

On that note, I wish you a beautiful, bountiful Spring and I hope you enjoy these photos \u00a0of my lightly shaded garden in southern Connecticut – the \u201ceastern branch\u201d of the Texas Fireframe Company. (Click to enlarge photos and click again anywhere on the photo for a close-up.) Blooming right now are small-leaved rhododendrons, fragrant viburnum, kerria japonica, flowering cherry, bleeding heart \"Phlox<\/a>(Dicentra spectabilis), \u201cSherwood Purple\u201d (Phlox stolonifera), lamium, hellebore, forget-me-nots (biennial and perennial), Virginia bluebells and a variety of daffodils and tulips.\u00a0I must mention that the Phlox stolonifera is a favorite of mine. Three tiny plants spread to the purple mass at the base of an oak tree in the photo, and then seeds from the plant surprised me with another mass of bloom 30 feet downwind. But this plant is not invasive; it\u2019s easily contained, forming a lush groundcover when not in bloom. It also tolerates some shade (unlike its ubiquitous cousin, phlox subulata). Definitely worth a double-click!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If you\u2019d like an endless supply of bright blue forget-me-nots and a few weeks later, columbines of all colors, \u00a0you only need a few plants. \u00a0Let the flowers go to seed and learn to distinguish the tiny leaves of the new seedlings from weeds so you don’t pluck the desirable plants by accident. Allow these prolific biennials to flourish in your garden year after year. Biennials sprout leaves the first year and blooms the second and thereafter, though are generally not as long-lived as perennials.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Check back for more developments in the garden. Buds are swelling on the irises and peonies. As you\u2019re enjoying the outdoors again, be sure to add to your log pile \u2013 there are many opportunities for acquiring free logs <\/a>\u2013 which can burn unsplit on a Texas Firerame grate if they\u2019re 10\u201d or less in diameter. (Our log grate<\/a> handles split logs too.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I always think of Dad when I find a really great back log for the Texas Fireframe grate. Wood truly is a renewable source of energy – I renew it every day in my garden.<\/p>\n

Warmest regards,
\nNicole Cranberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to admit, I wasn\u2019t looking forward to writing the first blog post to follow the one memorializing my father. But when I remember how he began each day, with enthusiasm and vigor, I realize the best way to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,28,19,3,18,26,70,23],"tags":[72,131,133,68,69,117,71,136,66,65,67,116,11],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fire-grate","category-fire-grates","category-fireplace-accessories","category-fireplace-grate","category-fireplace-grates","category-firewood","category-log-grate","category-wood-burning-fireplace","tag-connecticut-garden","tag-fireplace-grate","tag-fireplace-grates","tag-garden","tag-gardening","tag-heavy-duty-steel-grate","tag-light-shade","tag-log-grate","tag-outdoor-fireplace","tag-outdoor-room","tag-renewable-energy","tag-steel-grate","tag-texas-fireframe-grate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":67,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":521,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texasfireframe.com\/fireplace-grate-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}