Guy Fawkes Day

You gotta love a province that celebrates both Halloween and Bonfire Night. That to me is just perfection.
Last Monday was Guy Fawkes Day, and a classmate of Studyboy had the makings of a fire from some renovations but needed a way to transport them to Middle Cove Beach. This was a good enough excuse for us to take the truck for its monthly spin.
We very nearly hit a herd of cows on the road to the beach. Studyboy pointed out the irony of travelling to NL and only hitting a cow instead of a moose. Figuring there would be a fair amount of traffic on that stretch of road we tried to call the Constabulary, but Middle Cove is one of those divine places without cell phone service. So all subsequent arrivals to the fire had the same story of near misses but all the cows survived the night and we were left with only marshmallows to roast.
Studyboy and I, with 25 years of theatre between us didn't think to bring a flashlight for this adventure, so the process of unloading the truck and carrying armloads of nail riddled lumber down to the beach was a little treacherous. Finally though, the pile was built and as no one brought a Guy to our fire, we topped it with a box and used some charcoal to make a face.
He looks a little too happy for someone about to be torched but it was so dark, you couldn't actually see that until I used the camera flash to take a picture.
With the pile in place we had only to wait until the others showed up for the 7pm torch up time. This meant standing around for 30 minutes on a beach in November as a thick fog rolled in, wondering why we hadn't though to bring a hat and mittens.
At 7pm, with only two new arrivals to the party, and out feet going numb, we lit 'er up.
It was the biggest fire on the beach, and also the shortest. The whole pile went up quickly fueled by century old wood and a stiff wind from the ocean. Those who arrived at 7:30 missed it completely. Not ready to give a up yet, some made forays into the dark for more wood, but the beach had been cleared by all the other bonfirers, and all they could find was the waterlogged carcass of a spruce tree. It eventually burned, a little more slowly that the first, and we were all glad.