Magic time away ...

We packed some of my fancy firelighters, a box of kindling and a couple of bags of firewood for our Byron Bay trip.  

There was a firepit on site, which we really appreciated!  

Nick was in charge of lighting the fire and gave my firelighters a great review.  (He lit them from both ends). 

As you can see the colour-changing flame powder was an excellent inclusion and made for superb fire gazing! We have used this or a similar product previously but these packs were extra magical - lots of colours, which continued for ages.  We were very impressed!

My initial plan had been to stay in Lismore because the focus of the trip was to view the Max Dupain exhibition at the Lismore gallery.  When looking for accommodation though, I spotted this lovely old van set-up in Byron Bay - so we booked it instead (and then discovered we were right next door to friends)!

Nick had received a leg injection earlier in the week and suffered an adverse reaction, which caused a lot of pain.  We managed a few activities but not as much walking as we'd usually do - though he very determinedly hobbled around the Lighthouse and down to the most easterly point of Australia's mainland!

Firelighter fun!

Vaughan and I made basic firelighters when we lived at Clarkefield.  They worked well, all made from materials already on hand.

Kerry and I made far more beautiful versions when I visited New Zealand in 2016.  We'd gone for a lovely ramble first, picking up little pinecones, seed pods and various other interesting dry vegetation. 

It was a wonderfully peaceful, meditative activity arranging our finds into muffin cases - held in place with melted wax.

Nick and I have booked a few nights away at the end of the month.  Our accommodation has a firepit but we'll need to take wood.  I decided I'd like to bring some special firelighters (along with sparklers and colour-changing flame powder)!

I picked up dry grasses and bark yesterday, then found pine needles and pine cones once home again.  We had dried jacaranda in the backyard.

In more recent times Kerry made larger firelighters using paper cups.  

When I checked at home, there were heaps of Christmas cups which had red chevron stripes.  Some of our old address cards had the fire motif, so I trimmed those and used some double-sided tape to cover the "Merry Christmas" wishes.  Of course, the cups will be burned so it didn't matter that they were out of season but I like the revamped version better!

The method was simple.  I broke a small commercial firelighter into the bottom of each cup.  Most had a bit of bulrush fluff as well.  Some had some scrunched honeycomb packing paper.  The dried arrangements varied but I noticed they became larger and more elaborate as I went along!  When I started to get too precious about placement, I reminded myself that they were all going to go up in smoke anyway!  

We have a lot of cake candles, so I decided to give each firelighter one of those also.  I'm liking the end result.  Cheap entertainment for sure!

I don't know if I'm wearing the same jeans as I was in 2016.  The top is different but very similar.  Obviously great options for firelighter construction!