Bonfire Afternoon.

Although it has been a dry day for which I am grateful it is a shame there wasn't any sun to light up the yellows and oranges of the trees all along the Rheidol valley which was the location for this afternoon's walk.

 

I say walk but apart from a steep climb up the side of the valley to S's home and then back down at the end we spent the afternoon helping S (who lives alone on 12 acres) burn up all the hedge and tree trimmings that she had collected over the year. The hot summer had meant that any burning was out of the question not to mention the fact that the previous year the wildfires had almost reached S's house after burning a large section of the hillside.

On our way up to S's land we stopped to admire some alpacas in a field.

A bit further on even the gloomy day could not diminish the blaze of colour from a mature acer in a garden that is obviously maintained by somebody who loves plants.

The lower of S's fields has a bridleway along the edge (where some of the group are standing admiring the view) which I have ridden along on one of the long rides I been on.

There we built the first bonfire, not a very large one and yes it did include a woodwormy old cupboard but when the flames had died down in went potatoes in foil to be eaten later on.

We (or at least some of us) moved to another field where there were piles of branches, 6ft and longer, stretching at least 30ft up the hill. It's hard to show the size of the fire and this was when nearly everything had been burnt as I had been helping drag wood to the fire. I was a bit surprised that some people preferred to sit by the house and drink cups of tea or stood watching the fire but we did eventually get it all on the fire. By the time we went all that was left for S to do was to rake in the last branches and make sure the fires were safely out.

The baked potatoes were very welcome but as I'm making progress with my diet (only 2lbs to go) I ate mine as it was without butter and cheese. After all I would still be having supper at home.

Driving back the setting sun turned the clouds in front of me a deep pink. Hopefully that means we'll have another nice day tomorrow.