Heat, Esther Chiltons blog prompt

The heat from our bonfire used to toast us when we had our Bonfire night celebrations on November the 5th. To remember the story about Guy Fawkes and his attempt to blow up Parliament hundreds of years ago. But we were more interested in seeing all the colourful fireworks, Catherine wheels, jumping Jack’s, volcanoes, rockets and squibs. Then we would all go inside to eat jacket potatoes from the hot oven with lashings of butter and salt. Happy memories.

Did I really write lashings?!

Guy Fawkes night is traditional in the UK. Children try and collect money to buy fireworks by making ‘Guys’ to be burnt as effigies on top of bonfires. Nowadays the back garden bonfires are discouraged and larger organised events are the norm.

Low pressure

Just looked at my Barometer, it’s dropped to 957 millibars which is the lowest I’ve ever seen it. The pointer has dropped all the way down to “stormy”. And yet fireworks are going off all around us. It will be bonfire night, or Guy Fawkes night in the UK tomorrow. (Remember remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot). This was in the reign of James 1st when Guy Fawkes and fellow plotters tried to blow up the houses of Parliament by getting gunpowder into it’s cellars. The British people celebrated the failure of the plot by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes and letting off fireworks.

So the weather isn’t good for it tonight. I doubt there will be many bonfires because of all the rain we have been having. But the fireworks are crackling and banging all over the place, and it’s not even the 5th yet!

Boom

Tomorrow is November 5th, Bonfire night, Guy Fawkes night. He tried to blow up the houses of Parliament several centuries ago. There is a rhyme. Remember remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.

Apparently gunpowder had been stored under the Houses of Parliament and a group of people intended to blow it up, but the ringleader, Guy Fawkes was caught. Traditionally children collect money to buy fireworks by making a ‘Guy’ out of scraps and wood, and asking for a ‘penny for the Guy’. This usually happened after Halloween.

So tomorrow night I’m expecting lots of bangs and whizzes. The cats will be in. I’ll have the TV on to drown out the noise. Hopefully everything will be OK.

He’s resigning

Cartoon I drew of Boris Johnson last year as a naughty schoolboy, hearing, seeing and speaking no art. It was about the cuts in art teaching and the creative industries. But I think it sort of works for what has been happening recently. Has he ignored or forgotten reports of one of his senior government members caught in a serious case of misconduct. In fact he has apparently also been caught out in several untruths, and today, finally resigned (sort of) as leader of the Conservative party but he hasn’t stood down as Prime minister. He seems to be staying on as a caretaker for the next three months while his party decide who will replace him.

Whether you love him or hate him he certainly is a character. When he was a child he said he was going to be king of the world. At Eton he apparently was displeased by his tutors displeasure with him. He was a leader of a club of students at University who were antagonistic towards poorer students. If you look up his biography you can find all sorts of things that he was involved in that caused problems but there are too many to list. These seem to have carried on into his prime ministership. Anyway things are changing, but no one knows if it’s for better or worse?