For tens of thousands of years, we sat around fires enjoying the heat, the fact that wild animals were kept at bay, and that we had the means of cooking the food that we caught a few hours before. I’m sure this sits deeply somewhere in DNA. Today we had our allotment annual bonfire which basically burns up all the wood, rotten or otherwise, that is not required. We include pallets, weeds, anything that people don’t want to take to the dump and even the odd plastic bottle.

There is something about sitting in the warmth of a fire which is totally different from sitting in front of a radiator which may give precisely the same temperature The heat is different with a real fire, more comforting and more nurturing. I think if everyone contacted nature on a more regular basis, there would be far fewer admissions to psychiatric hospitals, far fewer dependency on so-called antidepressants which actually have addictive side-effects.

The body manufactures up to 2200 chemicals which can sustain us fully in our attempt to live a full life and why we need to rely upon pharmaceuticals when nature can supply everything we need is a mystery to me. I enclose a few photographs of our famous bonfire on our allotment and can only state in writing the joy and pleasure that half a dozen of us got out of creating the bonfire and nurturing it. As one person said, I haven’t done this since I was a child.

3pm at start (above)  27 minutes later (below)

16.21 (above)   16:25 (below)The morning after. 100% burn. Only bits of metal left.There were six or seven of us and it was a real time of fellowship. I’m convinced that this is the best way of getting people to relax, enjoy themselves and communicate.