The Elysian Fields

Well, not really. But we did celebrate the final leaf cleanup (for the moment) by relaxing by the fire.

I needed to get the kids outside and entertain them for a while, and it was cold, and there were still some invasives, seed pods and all, to be destroyed, so I thought it might be a good idea to have a little roast.

We've used the firepit a few times, but this was the first time it was a cooking fire.

After I got things going with some pine needles Rachel and Mr. B gathered, Rachel did most of the maintenance for the first hour or two, and I sat back with Mr. B to enjoy things. Later on, aequitaslevitas came out with some hot chocolate for the younger two, some hot tea for me, and a hot cider for himself. He broke up some of the larger bits of wood and gathered more.

After a while, we let it fall back to embers and we roasted some turkey dogs. It was actually quite entertaining because by that time it was fully dark and the moon was hidden behind clouds. Made it a wee bit difficult to verify done-ness by sight.

In addition to the enjoyable evening spent around the fire, we tortured each other with some camp songs, and I also took some pictures of the fire ~ something I hadn't done before. I thought I heard others say it was difficult, but I was fairly happy with the results, which included a lot of aperture experimentation.

( More, larger, under the cut... )

Click on any picture to open it up in Flickr, to see other sizes and more of them! =)