Building a Bonfire

A base of straw bale and dry pine cones

 A bonfire is the central focus of our winter festival. A nice big fire, sending sparks flying up in to the sky – there’s something magical about it that hypnotises you into staring into the flames for hours.

As a child I remember hating bonfire building. For several weeks before Guy Fawkes Night at school, we used to spend one afternoon games period a week scouring the woods for fallen branches, lugging them out along the path to the bonfire site and returning for another load. I don’t know why I hated it so, surely it was better than running around a field kicking a ball, but it was all worth it eventually  when the fire was lit and burned for hours, while we drank hot chocolate, ate parkin and watched the fireworks go up.

Our kids weren’t much more enthusiastic than I used to be about dragging logs and sticks to the fire site on Saturday afternoon, but with all of them hard at work we had a good sized bonfire in no time.

Here is the building process in pictures:

 A fine job done by the team!

The fire burning fiercely, sparks flying into the night to meet the stars.

More winter festival posts and pictures going back through the years... 2011 festival, 2010 winter holiday, 2009 festival, 2008 festival, 2007 festival, 2006 festival  for a nostalgic look at how the kids have grown and how the sparklers and lanterns stay the same!: I'll post this year's sparkler pictures in my next post.