Torch Light

Posted July 10. My Dad loved what he called Tiki lights almost as much as he loved the place associated with them, Hawaii.

After all had left the Solstice party we hosted, I turned to turn out the lights. I couldn't help but be enchanted by the natural light from the torches, and how it illuminated things close by. I was feeling pretty mellow, and so was the night. Barbara had placed three additional smaller lights in the Bird Bath Garden, and three more on the serving table, plus of course the campfire.

Warm summer nights, is there anything better? Here's what I saw through my firelight lens.

When man invented fire, he didn't say, "Hey, let's cook." He said, "Great, now we can see naked bottoms in the dark." ~Steven Moffat, Coupling, "Inferno"
The most tangible of all visible mysteries - fire. ~Leigh Hunt

Each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. ~Edgar Allan Poe
Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people. ~Garrison Keillor

I walk without flinching through the burning cathedral of the summer. My bank of wild grass is majestic and full of music. It is a fire that solitude presses against my lips. ~Violette Leduc, Mad in Pursuit

“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.” ~Buddha

“Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.” ~Mark Twain

Firelight will not let you read fine stories but it's warm and you won't see the dust on the floor. ~Irish Proverb
To poke a wood fire is more solid enjoyment than almost anything else in the world. ~Charles Dudley Warner

Press close, bare-bosomed Night!

Press close, magnetic, nourishing Night!

Night of south winds! Night of the large, few stars!

Still, nodding Night! Mad, naked, Summer Night! ~Walt Whitman

Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world. ~Ada Louise Huxtable