Fire

For as long as I care to remember both I and my brothers have loved playing with fire. One of my earliest memories is having a huge bonfire on our patio and it cracking because the concrete slabs expanded too rapidly.

Our father has had to put up with us burning (which generally means destroying) things since we were old enough to strike a match. It comes as no suprise that I learned to make a bonfire before I learned to ride a bike.

This counjours another memory of my eldest brother; while weilding a burning branch he inadvertantly set fire to a nextdoor neighbours' tree which promptly burnt down itself - I was about 5 at the time.

As we grew older our pyrotechnics only became more extravagent. We learned to use aerosoles as flame throwers, we discovered that passing our hand breifly through a flame didn't burn us. Eventually we grew up enough to buy fireworks, build our own Mega-bonfires and set our hands on fire using petrol... All the while being told off by both of our parents, yet never suffering any real harm.

Somewhat more recent memories consist of handheld roman candles as an introduction to the performance that was the fireworks show at my dads wedding, burning lanterns at the youth weekend away, oil barrel fires at my brothers 21st and the wood burner in the house we just moved out of.

Unfortunatley I do not have pictures of any of the above, as I didnt have my camera when they were taking place and I can't find the pictures from other people at present. The ones that are here I took fairly recently, the majority just with a lighter in my room - just to see what fire looks like with my still fairly new camera.