Ah, thanks for that Steve! I've always assumed that 'ash' and 'mountain ash' are related. We have neither tree in our (small) garden.
We have no gas to our village so we can choose either electricity or oil. The former is expensive so we chose oil. It works quite well.
The reason I don't much like the clouds of smoke that pour from people's wood burners here is that one is obliged to close all the windows or the house would resemble a kipper shed. And rush outside to retrieve all the washing from the line. But living in the sticks, one has to get used to this stuff.
My neighbour has just brought across a sprig of a lovely flowering shrub to identify. It's a Himalayan honeysuckle (also known as Himalayan nutmeg or granny's curls!) Most unusual. I reckon she regards me as a sort of female Alan Titchmarsh. But I secretly look them all up on the RHS website.