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Autumn has been setting in to New England even if it has remained warm enough to keep our air conditioning on some days.

I decided to stop wrestling with the Chilean Ministry of Heath website and go to our friend Tom’s chili cook off and trade one Chile for another chili.

Traffic was bad as many others were on the road looking at the pretty leaves.

But we still were the first to arrive other than the hosts.

Tom was working on getting the fire going so I helped him with that.

My wife climbed into the tree house as it was less crowded there.

Folks did start to show up. Tom’s wife estimated 50 or so folks showed up if you include the kids.

There was the chili cook off. My wife did not enter this year. She and I voted for the same one (#4), but it came in 3rd, so maybe no one else voted for it.
The one with marshmallow in it did not do we’ll.

As the sun moved to the horizon the remaining food items were dealt with.

My wife decided to clear up some of the yard so we wouldn’t be doing fire on fallen leaves.

Normally I only show highlights of the show. But, this is the last show of our 19th year as Phoenix Swords and it was at one of our friend and member’s home. So, I’m going to make sure you see at least some of everything we did.

About 1/2 hour after the sun went down, we started our show with the woman of glass’ LED lights.

Then, I give the safety speech telling folks to behave.

Then, Tom, Ian and Casey light parts of their bodies on fire.

Next, Tom and Casey eat fire.

Then, we light Tom’s head on fire. His day job is as a bank manager and some of the folks who work for him were allowed to come up on stage and light his head on fire. One of those two women seemed REALLY happy to do that…

The the woman of glass did a fire dance.

Then Casey goes out with the fire fans. I work safety and he always make sure I get a good view of what he’s doing.

Then Tom lights up a second set of fans while Casey is still out there.

Then the have a fire dance off, 80’s music video style. (As I write this my computer has randomly decided to play Pat Benatar’s "Love is a Battlefield" that does have folks aggressively dancing at people in the video. I told you, I get a soundtrack…)

But, swing too much and they do go out…

Then Ian comes on with his first fire staff. Throwing it in the air while spinning it makes a bit fire ball everyone likes.

Then, Tom and his fire whip…
It’s loud. It shoots off fire balls when he cracks it. It takes up the whole stage. It sets the lawn on fire. He kept dropping it when he tried to throw it in the air.
But, the crowds like it. And, it was his backyard…

It might not be clear how dark it was between fire tricks, but it was night…

Then, Casey and his flaming orbs. These ones are tricky as they are open cages the size of his head. So, the only way to put them out if something goes wrong is with the fire extinguishers. And, I hate using them. But, nothing went wrong last night.

Then, Ian with his second staff. This one he spins on his arms, down his back, down his front and over his head. This is one I don’t think I could ever do. I might be able to spin it down my back, but not catch it and roll it back up…

Then Tom with his big fire sticks.

My wife had told me she wasn’t going to do her meteors, so I was surprised when she fueled them up and came out with them. They’re two fist size balls with a rope between them.

Then, Casey and his juggling sticks. He’s been juggling these since before I met him, and I’ve known him more than 20 years.

I just want to say this is a messy bit of the show. Those are flaming drops of fuel he spins off to either side, setting the lawn on fire.

But, the safety team stomps them out. My wife in this case…

And, he is very good with them.

I’m not saying he never drops them, but it’s hard in the dark…

Then, Tom and I do the fire swords. I’m using our oldest fire sword made in 2002. Tom is using our newest made in 2007. So, neither is new. We’ve had 7 in the last 19 years of the troupe and these are the only two left. I’m very worried they’ll break. We broke the second newest one in Tom’s back yard a few years ago, so it does happen.
But, they lived to make it into year 20!
Mine did get hot, burning my hand even through my gloves (not badly) so you’ll notice the longer we go the farther down the hilt I hold it until I’m at the very end…

Yeah, he really does kick me. Not hard…

But, funny, his sword always goes out first… Like it’s all planned… (Actually it’s fairly difficult to make that happen, but we’ve had lots of practice.)

Then the fire breaths. Casey and Tom trade off doing different types. Casey once blew himself up doing this with the group before Phoenix Swords. I like to think we’re safer, but I do worry over this trick. And, they do spit the fuel. So the drops you see coming off of it are a mixture of fuel and spit. We all try and avoid it…
It is also very hard to photograph.

Then, we cleaned up, went inside for desert and went home.
As we got into the car I took a photo of the sky so you can see just how well my phone does with night photos…