Monday, July 19, 2010

Faces in the flames

The wood fire brings such good cheer to the bach as heavy rain drums on the roof. The walls warm up and the whole room turns toasty. When I tried photographing the flames, to my surprise, many of the photos displayed faces. I remember as a child seeing faces and dancing figures in our old open fire in Taranaki. The first story I ever published (in the school journal) was about an old woman gazing into a fire and seeing her whole life playing out there. Now I am gradually becoming the old woman, and the faces have appeared.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

This is very lovely. How wonderful to have an open fire. It is years since I sat before an open fire and stared at the flames, ever changing. It takes me back to childhood when sitting around the fire was what we did in the winter. Juliet I have just been listening to the podcast with Ruth Todd. It was wonderful to hear you talk about the seasons. More and more over the years I have had the desire to tip our calendar over to match the seasons. I will have to buy your book! It is amazing to discover someone who is in sinc with your belief.

Unknown said...

My July 15 post on my blog is in sinc with your way of seeing the seasons...and life..I think.
My 18 year old son died during Autumn 1997. Every year I have so wanted my church (Catholic) to celebrate All Souls/ All saints/ Halloween then as the leaves fall. I slowly began to not attend and to find ways of celebrating it myself. So I am so happy to find you.. and your book.

Anonymous said...

What a warm story you conjure up with your words and your photograph. I love a roaring fire. We had a wonderful, woodburning fireplace in our old house that kept us warm in so many different ways through the winter. I even cooked in it with an old tin kitchen every so often.

Beautiful writing as always, Juliet.

Marilyn & Jeff said...

I have always loved open fires, my daughter and son-in-law have one, and it's a real comfort to sit and watch - I always see wee people dancing - fire sprites I call them.