When we moved out here from California, I thought we’d gotten away from brushfires. But last night, someone set the field behind us on fire. Now it’s an alfalfa field, so there’s not a lot to burn. But it’d been recently harvested and plowed over, and with our near-zero humidity, the plants were drying out. So it caught fire and burned pretty good for about an hour and then smoldered for another ten. It closed one of only two exits for us out of our subdivision and the lack of a breeze last night caused the smoke to hang over us like dirty fog. This morning our garage smelled like someone had a campfire in it.
So today I’m out front putting new plants in the planter when I hear the fire trucks. They get closer. I hear them come up the street behind us where the field is. I figure last night’s fire has flared back up, so I go upstairs to the playroom to look out.
There are flames directly behind our house. I’m not overly worried. We have a landscaped yard and a tile roof. These flames are only a couple of feet high, nothing like the twenty-foot monsters in Southern California that create their own deadly weather by sucking oxygen out of the air.
The fire department got this one put out quickly. Unlike in Southern California, there are a lot of people on our street that stay home during the day. Our neighbor had seen the flames and called 911. He talked to the police and firemen. Apparently, they’re investigating it as arson. And there’s still more stuff out there to burn. So you can bet I’ll be checking back there every so often to see if someone’s going to go for a third time.
Funny thing. The book I’m supposed to be working on right now, the second in the series, is about, you guessed it, a fireman. You know, I’m all for research, but this might be a little too close to home.
And, Michelle, see, there are trees in Arizona. :)
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9 comments:
If there weren't trees in Arizona, I'd have a lot less to do at work!
yikes! campfire, good. brush fire in the backyard, not so good.
Double Yikes! The fire part sounds dreadful. But the fireman does look kinda cute, so, you know, there's always that.
I do love the smell of campfires, but maybe not in my garage.
Phil walked by and said, "Well that's California or the desert."
He just always knows everything.
Now you need to take pictures of Phoenix landscaping for me so I get an idea of what's out there! (or maybe I just need to visit?)
The funny thing about the campfire smell is that I was actually looking for a candle that would remind me of that for this book. I usually burn a scented candle when I'm writing to signal my brain that it's time to write. The closest I got was Tahitian Vanilla which smells like marshmallows. Anyhow, maybe I should try to capture this smell somehow. Just don't think the potential buyers would appreciate it.
And Michelle, your Phil does know everything. :) You can come visit anytime. And later this week I'll post the pictures of the landscape conceptual drawings the landscaper (the not dead one) did for our new house. They're so pretty.
Jenny's Phil: so is that a good thing or a bad thing?
. . .
You need to know that I had a soy campfire candle. (I burned it down to nothing before we put in our woodburning stove.)
Let me try and find it for you.
Are you asking my Phil because he knows everything, too? (I think it goes with the name)
Michelle, it doesn't mater what the pictures look like--you have to come out here to appreciate it. Hint, hint!
Anyway, candles burning--good smell.
Fields burning behind your house--stinky smell.
Hope you've got stock in FaBreeze:-)
Abundant blessings,
Jenny Cary
Drat! Just missed Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story!
I googled and found the candle Michelle was talking about. You can even choose what color what you want! And it doesn't look like it'll break the bank. Here's the link.
http://www.caterpillarscandles.com/campfire_smoke_scented_candles.htm
Did you go talk to the fireman? Sounds like fun research to me. ;-)
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