Yet another attempt to get a fire going in the Fire Trough with smokeless coals. It was more successful this time - I think you just have to accept you're going to need a bit of kindling, and that is inevitably going to briefly give off some smoke...

Some potatoes on the fire.

I dragged the apple tree away from the wall a bit to make room for wassailing around it.

This arrived today - the book that introduced the idea of ley lines. I wanted to see for myself if there was any substance to it.

As it got dark I added some candles around the tree in preparation for wassail.

...and then followed by the traditional slices of bread dipped in cider.

I thought it looked rather nice, in a crazy eccentric sort of way.

Some more shots with a bit of extra artificial light from the neighbour's house.

...and back into the gloom again.

Me in amongst the wassail setup.

Erika charitably came out to join me for a bit.

I decided dinner would be cooked entirely outdoors today. After baking the potatoes I put on a couple of billy cans with baked beans and a bit of pasta (which doesn't really go with baked potatoes of course, but I wanted to make use of the double ring on the fire trough).

Erika still keeping me and the apple tree company out in the garden.

Details.