A shortage of essential garden goods

[AsleepInYorkshire]

As another Fool mentioned on another board there's going to be a shortage of "essential" garden furniture this year.

And that got me thinking. Well that and a glass of brandy.

I was a cub-scout. Dib-dib-dib. We didn't need garden furniture. We didn't need gardens.

Akela had arranged for the troop to go out one evening and build its own fire and bake potatoes and sing songs. The arsonists amongst us which was really all of us were up for the gig. It was a cold dark night in early November. We followed Akela off the beaten track and on to a disused brown field area. There were plenty of old trees and branches lying around. We built a fire and lit it. We'd dragged some old timber logs up as seats and we gathered round for a little sing song. Beans boiling on the pot, potatoes baking in foil and sausages on the pan.

Without any warning the fire just blew up. We all dived for cover. Shocked and bruised we decided to build another fire. There was a distinct lack of beans but we'd rescued most of the potatoes.

The second explosion was far worse than the first. We had to dust down embers and the like. My knees were knocking by now.

Akela beat the retreat and we retired from the field defeated. As we did I walked behind him. His hood was smouldering. I tapped him on the shoulder and we retrieved a large glowing ember from inside his hood.

There's a moral to this story. Fires don't blow up.

Unless you build them on old concrete slabs.

AiY