Kick up the fire!

So this is the time we Brits brave the uncomfortable November weather to come together and light up the black sky.

Hot food, warming tipples and jolly neighbours to help fight off the cold.

I'm still grateful to have this to come home to.



please excuse dirty hearth.



Kick up the fire, and let the flames break loose

To drive the shadows back;

Prolong the talk on this or that excuse,

Till the night comes to rest

While some high bell is beating two o'clock.

Yet when the guest

Has stepped in to the windy street, and gone,

Who can confront

The instantaneous grief of being alone?

Or watch the sad increase

Across the mind of this prolific plant,

Dumb idleness?

Philip Larkin