If Lockdown has proved anything it's that we've been really missing our family and friends. Now we can all look forward to meeting up with them again. Many of us though will naturally be reluctant to mingle with the crowds in the beer gardens, cafes and restaurants – even if we could get in. Instead we'll settle for our gardens, patios and back yards for our grand reunions. Settle? You can't help thinking it's a bit like sending kids to their bedrooms as punishment, it's no longer the hardship it once was – and so it is with our own outdoor spaces.
It's brilliantly different and just what every stylish garden or patio needs. Those clever Danes at Hwam have done it again with their beautifully designed and co-ordinated outdoor stoves, fire pits, modular log stores and planters which have all been constructed from premium corten steel sheet. That's the trendy metal that looks like it's already weathered bright orange with rust, but in actual fact isn't.
The Stove Industry Alliance (SIA), the trade organisation which represents most of the stove brands and related products and services in the UK and Ireland, and which The Stove Yard are proud to be founding members, has just published an informative guide to wood burning and multi fuel stoves for local authorities which you can download here.
At the end of March and in the midst of shutdown we were delighted to see our vacant showroom in Kiltonga have a spark of life back in it. Our Friends from Hellbent tackled the opportunity to use our showroom kitchen to film and photograph some of their wonderful new products.
In many ways the new normal could be better than the old one.
Even though we'll all be trying hard to get back to normal many of us will probably play it safe and avoid the crowds. Instead we'll be looking forward to rubbing shoulders with friends and family at home. How we've missed them. Entertaining in the garden when the weather's better is therefore set to become the new normal.
With the longer, warmer days finally on their way, at last it's time to dust down that rusty old barbie and head for the great outdoors to enjoy food as nature intended – al fresco, relaxed and informal. For lots of us this time of year also means an annual trip to buy a new barbecue because the old one just hasn't gone the distance.
