Halloween Eve Bonfire

 Halloween rushed up on us again this year. Terry set aside three nice carving pumpkins from his harvest and put the rest here and there for decorations. It was not until last Thursday that we got around to carving them. Jane came up for the afternoon. Here’s what we ended up with.

Left to right, Jane's, my, and Terry's pumpkins

My pumpkin is in the middle. I tried to make lips, but it turned out looking more like a moustache. Jane and Terry’s pumpkins looked cute and happy. Terry deviated from tradition by cutting a hole in the back of his pumpkin instead of taking the top off. Terry said we’d done it that way last year. I looked back to last year’s picture (see post from October 27), and this does seem to be the case. I’d forgotten all about it, and Jane and I had the tops off the pumpkins before Terry joined us.

I got three votive candles from my lifetime supply, purchased at Ikea 20 years ago. This is what our pumpkins looked like lit up. Note that you can see right through the left eye of Terry's pumpkin.

Lit up

Saturday was our annual bonfire. It wasn’t the same without Pat and Hilda, but two other friends, Laura and Jan, joined us. I somehow did not get a picture of Jan.

Due to some bad storms last summer, we had an extra large pile of branches. Note that it is above Terry and Laura’s heads. Terry put some orange trail tape on branches to assess the wind direciton

Extra large burn pile

Terry started the fire like he always does—with a prodigious amount of gasoline. He was concerned that the wood had gotten wet in the two days of rain that preceded the fire.

Prepping for ignition

He needn’t have worried. The fire took right off.

Soon it was burning wood rather than gasoline.

The fire "took"

Many of the logs had mushrooms sprouting from the ends, a testament to the wetness.

Mushroom on a log next to the burn pile

Everyone took turns throwing wood on the fire. We started with branches and logs near the burn pile.

Jane prepares to throw a stick on the fire

Laura helps Nancy get a stick over the puny and oft-burned sapling by the fire ring

Finally I got a picture of someone, in this case, Terry, tossing wood onto the fire

Nancy went back into the woods and pulled branches out for the rest of us to throw on the fire.

Nancy cleaning up the woods

Then we sat around and watched it burn. As it burned down. Terry went around with a pitchfork to turn it and move everything toward the center.

Terry tends the fire

When the fire was mostly embers, we headed up to the house for supper. I made baked penne with sausage and Italian bread. I also baked my legendary pumpkin (shaped) sugar cookies (that contain no actual pumpkin). I forgot to take a picture before the guests arrived, and someone (not mentioning any names) snitched one as an hors d-oeuvre.

Pumpkin sugar cookies

We kept our jack-o-lanterns in the living room until Monday morning. I noticed fruit flies flying around them by the second day already. Where did they come from? I am beginning to believe in spontaneous generation. Anyway, two more days in the house was as much as we could stand. I moved them out by the compost bin, where they will smile happily until they collapse from freezing and decomposition. Ashes to ashes…

Pumpkins in their natural environment