Bonfire Night

It's Guy Fawkes Day in the UK and I fondly remember that day while in IOM. The children were excited about it, but not in that over the top Hallowe'en way that North American kids demonstrate. I was invited to go to a bonfire night potluck at a place just outside of Douglas, the largest city in IOM. The wind was blowing fiercely (like it often did on that unprotected isle in the Irish Sea) and we'd had a pretty dry fall for the UK. I don't think anyone from the prairies would ever have contemplated starting a bonfire in these conditions. However, one was lit and no damage done. The other thing that really struck me about that night was the total blackness of it - away from the bonfire absolutely nothing was visible. So what does this picture have to do with Guy Fawkes? Well, I took this picture last week and I named it a horticultural apparition which made me think of effigies, Guy Fawkes, etc. This one is a pretty useful apparition, I must say, and here it is doing the last till of the garden for 2007. We're ready for winter, we think!