Campfires are just brilliant. Very little beats sitting round a fire chatting, passing round beers and just watching the flames flicker.
I love The Future is Unwritten, the recent Julien Temple film about Joe Strummer and the way he put campfires as the central theme of the film as a tribute to Joe's advocacy of them as an art form to rival his music:
"For Joe Strummer, the idea of a “campfire” - any loose assembly of people bonded by the rising flames and the advancing dawn - became an art form in itself. The campfire was the melting pot, the wisdom stone, the HolyGrail; the essential outdoor forum for constantly evolving ideas and conversations. First perfected backstage at Glastonbury Festival - where the nightly assembly was first dubbed ‘Strummerville‘ - Joe took his campfires, and his circle of friendships and voices, all around the world, and finally back home to Somerset, where a Stone Circle now commemorates the campfire" (Julien Temple interviewed by Craig Erpelding).
So almost the very first thing on our list of 'things to do when we finally move house' is to find the right spot in the woods for a fire area, cut some logs for seating, make a fire area, get some friends around and start passing the beers. And now we have all the tools we need for a full on campfire eating experience as well. Mrs sense of place came up with the perfect birthday gift in the form of a Danish mobile bonfire kitchen complete with tripod, hanging cook pot, bbq pan, long handle tools, fireproof gloves and the chains to hang it all from. I'm particularly taken with the 1.3m handled pancake pan. Campfire pancakes. Thanks Jacky.
The makers have thoughtfully provided a little youtube snippet to get potential buyers in the camp cooking mood. Personally I didn't find that the chosen soundtrack got me in the mood quite as much as say Revolution Rock by The Clash might have done. And clearly in Denmark they have a more tolerant attitude to people wandering down the local park to start a fire whilst patiently waiting for the current benchsitters to vacate it and free up a handy supply of firewood. But anyway. Its still encouragement to follow Strummer's rallying cry and keep perfecting the fire as art form.
