Smoke

I chose a word at random from the dictionary this morning and my finger fell on the word “smoke.”
It made me think of a few things including something I am doing right now.  I am working on the back area behind our “studio” (fancy name that helps us identify one of our sheds.)  There is a self-contained fire pit there.  It is really handy to have for burning off some papers that should be burned rather than shredded.
There are so many laws about fires these days it is good to have this small portable one.
In the previous place I was, I wanted to burn off.  It was two thirds of an acre and there was a place that was needing to be burned.  I had been told there was a car buried there.  A mate suggested I should be careful as sometimes fumes or petrol in still in the tank.  I was glad for his advice.  I was standing behind a fence watering when the car exploded.
So we burn off in our self-contained fireplace.  The only time it is smoky is when there is too much in the fireplace or it is getting started.
The guy over the back loves to burn off.  We call him the pyromaniac.  He has huge fires.  He always starts them when there is no wind but invariably one comes up, and we watch ashes rain down on our place.  I am surprised there is anything left to burn off there.  Though he does like to mow and then pour petrol on the fire.    Sometimes his fire dies down and smoke billows out.  Poor Merril has a bit of asthma, so we need to shut the place up. 
There are not as many trees here now but at certain times there are a lot of leaves.  It is hard not to almost resent leaves falling onto our freshly mown grass.  We try to keep the leaves contained to certain areas which reduces the risk of fire.  We are also using the leaves as mulch.  It is early days yet with what we are doing but it seems there are enough leaves for the gardens.
I sometimes see smoke in the distance which alerts me to a fire being somewhere.  I watch a place I own fairly closely as it abuts bushland.  When there is fire near there I go down and have a look to see what is happening.
As a kid I inadvertently started a few fires and I know how quickly they can get away.  I guess it is true what they say, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”  I don’t mind really as long as it is not a wildfire.