Massive bonfire and more filth, and a crow

Remember, remember, the 5th of November...'cause if you don't you'll miss the HUGE bonfire at Woodhouse Moor! WM is the park right by my house. Every year for Guy Fawkes day they have a massive fire, and set off fireworks. Of course I attended. The Pie went as well. She loves a good crowd! She was very, very happy to see the hundreds of humans gathered around.

Here you can see the fire:

By this point it had collapsed on itself a bit, so its not as big as it started out. They make it out of a large number of pallets. This year they had some real problems getting it lit, but it finally got going when they HOSED IT DOWN WITH LIGHT FLUID FROM A BACKPACK SPRAYER!

I had not intended to stay for the fireworks, but it took so long for the fire to get going that I ended up doing so. Now, apparently many dogs have firework phobia, and spend the evening hiding under beds. Tasha, it seems, has firework-philia. She didn't flinch for any of the bangs, bright flashes of light, etc. In fact she seemed happier than before, and was cruising around with her tail up, wagging happily, and generally seemed to be saying "oh jolly good, I see there are a great multitude of humans enjoying my park, how lovely, truly splendid, yes. Do come again." I didn't let her off the leash though, it was just way to busy swarming with people that she longed to go molest.

After all that several of us went back to my friend's house for a movie and ice cream.


Another newsworthy item is the "bin strike" in Leeds. The bin collectors and street cleaners have been on strike...for something like two months now. In that time there have been occasional trash pick-ups, as the council hires in freelance binmen (or something like that, lol) to harvest the stenching fruits of humanity. Its just not enough, though, and we end up with scenes like this surrounding all the public bins:

I have to admit, though, since I live in a student-y area, its usually pretty darn trashy anway. The students here are disgraceful, truly. Behold, the view behind the two student houses next door to me:

Not very attractive eh?

Now, back to the park. The fire and the masses of people who come to see it, AND the heavy machinery they use to pile up the pallets, all leave a bit of a mess in one area of the park. You can see here the fire circle, and the mud surrounding it, and in the distance the Pie, waiting for me at the edge of the mud. Also there are some crows there...

Here's a close up view of the fire-area. You can see it is CHOCK FULL of nails! From the pallets, of course. And no, I don't think they will clean it up, as it was never cleaned up last year. So, I have to keep the Pie out of there until they recede into the mud.

As promised, here's a crow.

They get quite close to me now. There is a set of three, and a pair of two, that I feed almost every day. This lucky crow has just scored half a dog treat.