Candle in the breeze

After I'd struck the match to light this candle, I put it down on a piece of paper while I tried to get a good shot...

Seconds later, I picked up the now blazing paper, dropped it rather quickly, and stamped on it. My left pointer finger has taken the brunt of the heat, but the cabin is all right. Thank goodness.

The candle stick came from Alan Gaff's pottery.in the West Highlands. Alan was killed in a road accident several years ago, so it's good to still have something of his legacy. We were bear neighbours with the Gaffs in the 1970 s after Mr G. Had run off to England to start a new life with Mrs M from the same village. The abandoned Mr M. Remarried, but was widowed a few years ago.
Two years ago, he and my mother got engaged, and they married last year, in the same village. As far as I know, the eloping couple lived happily ever after, and the former Mrs G us still with us. It was highly shocking in the 1970s, less so now.

Several of the lads that we used to hang about with in the West Highlands in the 70s have since been killed in road or mountain climbing accidents. This candle could serve as a memorial to them, particularly David McLennan, with whom I once spent a happy summer evening in Barcaldine having a shoe-throwing contest.