Remember those burning trees of a few weeks ago? Well, since I did that trick, I’ve been keeping the bit of line and pegs up so I could do this shot on a ‘dry’ day. Today is that day and tomorrow the line can come down (hurrah says DM).

It’s the 5th November today – the day when we celebrate(!?) the foiling of the attempt to blow up our Houses of Parliament by the hapless Guido Fawkes, who I believe was hung by the neck until half dead then had his genitals cut off and burned in front of him but worse was to come….while still alive his heart and bowels were ripped out and his limbs cut off. I think the Government of the day wanted to send a clear message to other potential traitors that they wouldn’t be tolerated!!! I feel he ought to have been a bit more careful with his playing with fire……

Strangely, it was illegal NOT to celebrate this event in England until 1959 when the law requiring all citizens to do so was finally repealed. How weird is that?

Guido (or Guy as he’s more commonly known) was a miner so that’s where his expertise with gunpowder came from.

Tonight, the air will be filled with the smell of bonfires and the sound and sight of fireworks (which I detest with a passion) and our dogs, hens and wabbits will be terrified by the sounds. An effigy of Guy Fawkes will be burned on the bonfires and most people who celebrate it won’t know quite why they do it I suspect.

Next year it’ll be the four hundredth anniversary of the event, which happened in 1605 for anyone who can’t work out the Maths. James 1st was our King at the time.

As school kids we learned the rhyme:

‘remember remember the 5th of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot,
we know no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot’

And for us? Well we’ll be celebrating a different form of fire tonight as we’re popping down the road for a Ruby! (Ruby Murray = curry)