Cracker Night

This weekend is the King’s Birthday long weekend, which traditionally means bonfire and cracker night.  That also means the big community event down at Portland, about 50kms away.

The weather here has been cold and quite breezy, so we ummed and aaahed about going, but in the end, despite that, we rugged up and headed off for their big night.

The event is held at the old Cement Works, which always looks rather dramatic in the evening light.  We arrived just on dusk, and our first stop was coffee and a sausage sandwich.

Once fed, we made our way to the bonfire.  What a beauty it was, with humongous logs.  Look how the embers are blowing in the cold breeze.  We were glad of the warmth of the fire.

It was nice just sitting watching the flames.  We had to have a photo, wearing our Isle of Man TT beanies, as tonight is the final race of the event.  Like every race and practise for the entire fortnight, it has been delayed.  Let’s hope it goes ahead.  We are kind of glad that this was not the year that we were over there.

The main feature of the night is the fireworks display.  Howards Fireworks are one of the main companies in the country and their factory is not far from Portland, so they put on a good show.

When we were walking back from the bonfire to the building it really did look dramatic, and rather Pink Floydish.

We had a quick walk around the night markets, but no purchases were made.  We just love the old industrial building.

And, as we left, one more shot of that stunning chimney stack, this time in the dark.

I even manage to get a shot of the painted silos in the low light.  A car went past, at the right time, giving some light.

It is all very family friendly and we were home a bit after eight o’clock.  We are so pleased we decided to go down.