I’ve had quite a busy weekend for me, but looking back two things I’ve done have left me feeling impressed with myself!

Last Tuesday was November 5th, Guy Fawkes. As I grew up Guy Fawkes was always a big event, we hardly noticed the passing of Halloween and very rarely ever dressed up. My parents didn’t like the idea of trick or treating so we never participated in that and I have to say nether did most of the kids around us either. But on the closest Saturday to the 5th we would pool all our fireworks with those of our cousins’s and have a big party, either in our garden or their’s. In the early years we always had a bonfire too with a hapless guy perched on top, but later years saw our parents becoming more proud of their garden and so the bonfires stopped. Or maybe they just had second thoughts about the idea of burning an effigy of Mr. Fawkes in our garden! They were great times though, wrapped up tight against the cold, twirling sparklers in the air, making glowing pictures that hung magically in front of your eyes, before fading away in time for you to replace them with more swirly designs.

Over the years health and safety has stepped in, and my children were taken to safe, organised displays instead. I think some of the magic has disappeared with this much safer alternative, or maybe it’s just me getting old! And so on Friday night we visited a local pub, who had organised a massive bonfire and a great firework display in a field next to their car park. It had rained all day so the bonfire was fairly wet and took a bit of getting going. Once it was burning well they set off the fireworks which unfortunately were positioned beyond the fire and so the smaller ones were obscured by the smoke billowing from the damp burning wood. I took out my Iphone and started to photograph the first few fireworks, but then deciding this was probably silly as they surely wouldn’t come out on my phone stopped and just enjoyed the spectacle.

Smoky Bonfire

Later when home in the warm, I looked at the pictures I’d taken and was very impressed at the results! The effect of the fireworks behind the smoke cloud produced some amazing pictures.

There are more on Pinterest if your interested!

The second thing I did that left me feeling very impressed with myself happened on Sunday morning. Once a month my archery club organises a field shoot. We are lucky enough to have the use of a spinney and stretch of abandoned railway line. We have some very enthusiastic members who have devised some interesting and very difficult targets. One of the hardest to hit has to be done by shooting your arrow from around 15 yards away down a very narrow tube set in the centre of a target, so that it then flies out the end and hits another target set up behind. I have never seen it done and only a few of our archers have actually achieved it.

Impossible Shot!

So when I stood lining myself up for this shot on Sunday morning, I was already resigned to the fact I wasn’t going to be scoring on this particular target. Maybe because I wasn’t trying ‘too’ hard or maybe through shear fluke my arrow sailed clean down the tube and embedded itself in the target behind. I spent the rest of the morning in a state of shock I can tell you.

So all in all an impressive weekend! I hope you all had fun this weekend too. 😀