In Labrador, the fireplace is the center of the house. For centuries, village inhabitants were counted by hearth: a smoky roof, a more or less extended family. That's how censuses were taken. So many homes, so many people. Fire control was humanity's first technological revolution. In the Cadí mountain range, there are houses with centuries-old, unbroken fireplaces: Cal Guardia de la Vansa, Cal Ribó de Artedó, Cal Vilanova de Vilanova de Banat... With lots of embers and ashes. Albert Villaró notes it in Cadí [a biography] (Simbol Editors), a curious and tender book that awakens the rural ancestry within us all.