Come on baby, light my fire

There's something about a fire... especially in the fall. Spike and I went to the homeland at the beginning of the month, mostly to scout out wedding sites, but also to see the magnificent foliage. Being in the cool, crisp fall air made me want to sit by a warm, crackling fire.

We drove to the homeland on a rainy Friday, dodging the spray from the tractor trailers on the Pike along the way. As soon as we hit the tollbooths and crossed from Massachusetts into New York, the sun came out. The way it was just touching the crests of the hills, illuminating the foliage was beautiful.And the sunset wasn't half bad either.So of course, as soon as we arrived at my mom's house, I wanted to build a fire. We had picked up a pizza on the way home and I thought it would be great to have a picnic in front of the fire. Well, I'm not the best fire starter in the world, so it took it awhile to get going. It was awfully smokey, but I figured that's just part of the charm. For someone who grew up in a house with a fireplace, I seem to be pretty stupid about their workings. You see, there's this thing called a flue and making sure it's open ensures that the whole house doesn't fill up with smoke. Using it would have been helpful.

The next day, after many fun-filled hours of looking at wedding places, I decided it would be nice to have another fire. But this time, we would build it outside in the firepit, so as not to be bothered with pesky details like flues. It was wonderful sitting on the back porch, enjoying the fading sunshine and crisp air.... especially not having to gasp for breath as the smoke filled our lungs!