Halloween and Bonfire Night

We were semi-prepared for Halloween this year.  Fiona bought a pumpkin and carved a brilliant Jack O'Lantern.  We spoke about buying candy for the kids and agreed I would pick it up on the way back from work on Monday evening.  Problem was, by the time I got home with the chocolate, several groups of kids had already been by.  We didn't have the masses of kids that I remember from my youth, but we had several large groups totalling maybe 20.  A great many of them had jokes prepared, or little songs to sing.  They also seemed comfortable enough to request their own choice of candy from our bowl, or to politely ask for more.

We also went out to Banchory last night to attend our first Bonfire Night.  We kind of hemmed and hawed during the day, as we were quite tired, but stuck with it and drove out to see what it was all about. The large park in the centre of Banchory was split in two, with one half fenced off for the fireworks display.  The other half was dominated by a gigantic pile of wood, straw and brush, with a small mannequin perched on the very top.  The pile must have been 20 feet in diameter and at least as high.  It seemed well engineered and we spoke to one of the attendants to get the full story.  They used cranes to place the brush on the top of the pile and maintained 'trenches' through the pile to ensure an adequate air supply (my sister would be proud!).  They mixed up sawdust and diesel for the fuse, which circled the pile and entered in at various points.

At 6:30 they lit it up and the whole pile was quickly engulfed.  For those right on the barrier, like us, the temperature must have flipped 50 degrees in a couple of seconds.  The fire climbed up the stack and soon put a quick end to the effigy of Mr. Fawkes.  It was cool to see the smouldering ash being lifted hundreds of metres into the air on the updraft.

We soon left our hot spot and moved closer to the fence where the fireworks would be.  Fiona had brought her photo equipment to try and experiment with shooting fireworks - no easy task.  We had a little of the hot chocolate we had brought with us and were all set up for 7pm when the first of the fireworks went up.  For a relatively small town, Banchory did themselves well proud with this display.  The variety of fireworks was amazing and the sheer number impressive.  But as the park sits in a small valley in the centre of town, the most impressive part was the noise.  The booms and bangs echoed off the surrounding trees and houses to great effect.

Fiona was highly successful in catching some of the magic of the show on her camera, as you can see.

After the show we stopped off at the remains of the bonfire to warm up a little before going home for a little more hot chocolate (with Baileys this time) and a good night's sleep.

We had thought of spending a little more time outside with our new telescope, but a thick fog of gunpowder smoke was hanging over the city.  We did get a really good look at the moon the night before, though.  I've included a picture Fiona took through the eyepiece with her iPhone.  We've ordered a camera attachment for the scope so hopefully there will be some more astrophotography in the coming months.