Productive weekends are so lovely...

As the title suggests, I had a very productive weekend. Hurrah! Friday being Guy Fawkes meant that we spent the evening at my father-in-laws watching pretty fireworks. Saturday evening brought with it more fireworks, courtesy of G and Vicky. Sunday was the usual round of playing with Mel's kids, shopping, cleaning the house and cooking enough to feed us for the week, but somehow in all that I managed to find time to finish the fourth of the bridesmaids' headbands, and make a couple of new lampwork beads. I'd clearly been inspired by the season, because I chose a dark purple transparent glass for the body of the bead, and covered it with silvery trails and dots to remind myself of sparklers! I'll share pictures later, but for now - pretty sparklers to tempt you:

Guy Fawkes Night has always been one of my favourite events, partly because it's one of the few holidays that has no religious component. For those who don't know the story, in 1605 a group of Catholic dissidents planned to assassinate the Protestant King James I of England (VI of Scotland) by blowing up the Houses of Parliament. Fawkes was put in charge of the explosives because of his military experience. After the plot was exposed - via an anonymous letter sent to the 4th Baron Monteagle - Fawkes was discovered in the cellars of the House of Lords, guarding 30-something barrels of gunpowder. After a trial, the outcome of which was never in doubt, Fawkes and some of his co-conspirators were sentenced to the traditional traitors' death. On 31 January 1606, they were hanged, drawn and quartered, after which the quartered bodies were displayed at the four corners of London, to decompose and be eaten by carrion birds.

The English being a somewhat gruesome lot, we celebrate this grisly part of our history by lighting bonfires and setting off fireworks. There is some justification for this in the (now rescinded) Observance of 5th November Act 1605, but mostly it's just good fun.