There's something beautifully elemental about setting fire to things in Autumn. Good things, that is - bonfires, fireworks, wood-burners, that kind of stuff. Tea lights, of course. As The Man said, "Black chaos comes and the fettered gods of the earth say, Let there be light." Or - as Graham Kendrick put it - "Like a candle flame, flickering small in our darkness."
It's an act of resistance - and we all need those. A statement of defiance. A clinging to the hope of new things. And, lest we forget, it's a convenient way of keeping warm and seeing where things are. So this year we're introducing our first "100 nights - 100 bonfires" season. As big as the Great Fire of London, and more risk-assessed than a council-organised conker competition. We'll keep it up till the first snowdrops, or until the pallets give out.
If recent winters are any guide, that should be round about April then?
ReplyDeleteIs there that much fuel left in the world?
Ray, as the Great Man might have said had he worked in retail distribution instead of Wessex Tales, pallet wood burns with a kingly brightness. Albeit like furze it does not last long.
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