belated bonfire and bangers

Yes Guy Fawkes was almost 2 weeks ago now and I have been meaning to put up some pictures of the night.We still call the event Guy Fawkes, not Bonfire Night, as seems to be the common name in the UK. After reading all the Halloween posts I wanted to share a bit of our culture, as Halloween was hardly even noted when I was a kid, let alone celebrated. Nowdays the long tentacles of commercialisation have stretched over the oceans to our shores, but I refuse to be drawn in! One thing we did celebrate on the other hand was Guy Fawkes, so in the spirit of tradition we celebrated this event. I didn't go as far as getting the kids to make a Guy for the bonfire, as I feel that is a bit too macabre!!

So we had a large bonfire from a pile of garden that I'd ripped out back in June and had been sitting in the paddock since then. Topped up with broken pallets and rubbish wood that the previous owners kindly left us! The night was a bit chilly, but at least the wind that had swirled around us all day died down. Living in a forestry area (although there are fewer and fewer pine trees around these days) and the long hot summers we get means that we have to apply for a fire permit. We obtained the required permit, which stated that we were not allowed to put any more fuel on the fire after 11pm!! The kids were so excited that I had actually brought fireworks (first time for everything!) and that we were going to have a bonfire, and toast marshmallows. They had lots of fun, H got to help with letting the fireworks off (we managed to find a responsible adult!) the highlight of the evening was setting off the rockets in front of the lights of Nelson. The audience stood on our front lawn or hung off the front gate, and the pyromaniacs went over the road and down a wee hill, and let off the rockets against the backdrop of the lights. The evenings festivities were rounded off with the kids being let loose with sparklers. It was lovely - I do enjoy fireworks.