Fun in the Hills

Had a great night last night up in the Hills at a tiny village called Mylor. Each year the primary school there puts on a fantastic family fireworks night, with a huge bonfire, homemade soup for sale, music, and best of all, a wonderful fireworks display.

As a kid growing up in England, we always celebrated Guy Fawkes Night - us kids used to make a guy, build a big bonfire in the woods to burn him on, and all the families in the street used to get together to drink mulled wine, or whisky (the adults, obviously) and eat baked potatoes in their jackets with lots of butter, whilst pooling our fireworks stocks, which one of the brave dads would set off for our "oohs" and "aahs"!

Later, we took our own kids, well wrapped up in scarves, hats, gloves coats and wellies, to a local Essex Village - Woodham Mortimer - every year on 5th November, where they had hot soup for sale, a big fire, and a fireworks display! It's one of those things that you remember well into adulthood, and something that most born and bred aussies have never even heard of. Oh, there are fireworks on New Years Eve and a few on Christmas Eve that you hear, and occasional displays at the end of an open air concert, but as these things tend to happen in Summer, there's always the thought at the back of your mind that it's kind of irresponsible in the middle of such a dry country at its driest time...

The Mylor display is perfect, it's cold(ish! the hills always feel colder and damper in the winter than the other suburbs), slightly muddy, dark, so the gloves, hats and scarves can all come out. There was mulled wine for sale (we took our own, non alcoholic version in a flask so the kids could have some too - with a hip flask of rum to add to the adults' cups!), pumpkin soup, the ubiquitous sausage sizzle, a roaring fire (firies on hand just in case....), and a big field for the kids to run around in. Everyone up there is so incredibly friendly - this is our third year there so we knew to take our own marshmallows for toasting in the fire, but the first year we went we didn't have any and people who did have were so kind - letting our kids have some of theirs, offering use of their "toasting sticks", and just generally chatty and happy. There is a great mix of young and old - everything from the smallest toddlers, through groups of teenagers with their friends, parents, groups of friends, grandparents... To prove what a small place Adelaide is, we even bumped into a friend of my daughter's from her old Adelaide City soccer playing days!

The fireworks themselves managed to go on for just the right length of time, not too long so you start getting blase, and not too short so you feel slightly disappointed! Everyone "ooh-ed" and "aah-ed" dead on cue, there was plenty of noise, loads of rockets, the occasional Catherine wheel and golden fountain - I loved it! Definitely one for the diary to look out for around this time next year - it's a little bit of a drive up the freeway, but well, well worth it!

My recipe for alcohol free mulled wine: Buy a bottle of "alcohol-removed" Shiraz from your local supermarket. Pour into a saucepan. Add a generous pouring of orange juice, a cup or so of water, couple of spoonfuls of sugar, and some cinnamon sticks. Take a large orange, slice thickly and stud the slices with cloves. Add these to the saucepan. Heat until almost boiling, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat, allow to cool slightly, and pour into glasses, removing any stray lumpy bits like bits of cinnamon stick or escaped cloves. Wrap hands round glass and sip slowly, preferably in the open air, whilst warming your behind at a large bonfire! For added buzz - and adults only, add nip of brandy or dark rum, either at the heating stage, or straight into the wine in the glass before drinking!