From my old blog, 25th May 2006...
Yesterday, the 24th of May, was the old Empire Day. When I was little I never realised what cracker night was celebrating. Apparently it was Empire Day. I'm still not much the wiser. I guess it's celebrating the British Empire that was the predecessor to the British Commonwealth.
My extended family used to get together at our cousins' house, secluded in a quiet country gully behind Burnie and have a bonfire and cracker night celebration. Sometime after that (I can't remember how long ago) safety regulations made it much harder to get hold of crackers. Family cracker nights became a thing of the past.
The little town of Westbury where I live now has a population of about 1300 people. Last night I reckon 250 of them turned up at the showgrounds for a bonfire night with a fireworks display and sausage sizzle.
It was a great night and the fireworks display was beyond my expectations. My children are aged 7, 5 and 1. We all had a ball. For a small town, Westbury seems to be able to celebrate rather well.
During the day, there was an odd celebration of another kind. Quamby Bluff is a mountain just behind Westbury. There has been an arty focus on the bluff in recent months. Yesterday, someone had the idea of taking a large composite mirror up on the mountain and flashing it to a photographer circling the mountain in the helicopter. I think this was all done in the name of art.
Someone at Weegena, a good 40km away called the hikers on top of the mountain and asked them to aim the mirror that way. Another phone conversation confirmed that they had seen the flash and taken photographs. It will be interesting to see the results.
Quamby Bluff is a moderate half day walk with a little bit of rock scrambling on the way up. I've climbed it a few times before. I'll blog about that another time.
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