Ashes to Ashes

Taking advantage of dry, calm weather today to burn some old financial documents. Too many to put through the shredder, and burning them ensures total destruction.
But what to burn them in? We used a garden incinerator when clearing out the in-laws house five years ago, but I think we left it there when we’d finished as it was fairly well trashed by the time we’d finished.
One thing we did discover whilst clearing that house was this old shell case which we had brought home with a view to polishing it up. I reasoned that if it could withstand the forces of firing a shell, then it could easily cope with burning a few old bank statements.
I hadn’t really paid much attention to the shell case when we found it, but noticed markings on the base which identified as German, dating from October 1916. Measuring 21cm in diameter, it would have been used in a heavy howitzer/mortar to shell the Allied trenches. I don’t know whether it was brought back as a souvenir by Mrs C’s grandfather, who fought on the Western Front, or if it was something her antiques dealer father picked up along the way. As there were some 7 million of these shells fired during the war, it’s not exactly a rarity! I definitely wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of it though - it could fire a 114kg shell almost two miles!
And just to make sure the documents were completely destroyed, I mixed the ashes with water and then dug the resulting mulch into the flowerbed. Good luck to anyone trying to resurrect that paperwork!!