Garden bonfire

We decided to make a start on 'dealing with' (burning in a bonfire) this pile of green cypress branches.

As he didn't expect them to alight very easily, at least until we had got the fire really hot, Toad's plan involved a petrol soaked rag. The results of this plan were (1) a successfully lit bonfire, (2) a fireball, (3) some unintentional facial exfoliation!! I saw him throw himself away from the fire and roll down the grass. I went for the camera and got this some moments after the, ahem, initial ignition:

Toad decided to revise his fire-lighting technique for next time.

Since this greenery burns so well (presumably turpentine in the shoots), and since we only reduced the pile by what seemed a small amount even though we kept the fire going for several hours, we are going to try using some of the remaining green shoots as fire-lighters in the stove, possibly even tonight. This is in the spirit of waste not want not. I will report back (and also stand back). 

Toad's face, though not badly scorched, did feel sore when he was near the fire so he had the job of bringing up fresh branches while I fed the fire. I suggested he put some cold cream on his face. That helped apparently, as did another application of it the following day (yesterday).