We snuggle up in our warm coats, scarves and wellies and head to this year’s fireworks.

Once we arrive, the music is loud, there’s a certain anticipation and festive feel in the air.

We stroll along to the burger stand and order our cheeseburgers topped with onions and ketchup. It’s pretty dark so I can’t really tell if it’s well cooked but bite into it all the same. It’s delicious. I wash it down with some mulled wine, surprisingly strong behind the warmth and spicy sweetness. We bump into a few familiar faces.

Suddenly that first firework rockets into the night sky, followed by fireworks of every colour whizzing through the air, burning brighter and louder by the minute. The children, wrapped up in woolly hats and scarves, yell with excitement at the initial boom, their bellies filled with hot dogs and lips stained red with toffee apples, their eyes glazed with expectation and wonderment.

I sip my wine and my daughter hands me some chocolate as comets hurtle through the November air. I enjoy the pink glittering tails that give way to cascading shimmers of gold-lace; cool ultraviolet tones scatter like ribbons then silently fall away like stardust. I stand back and marvel at the screamers, the brilliant white strobe effects and the patterns of the spinning Catherine wheels.

I look around for a moment and see the full moon, steady and tranquil, obscured by a fog of cloud; a sea of mesmerized faces gaze up at the night sky. I smell the air, dense with smoke. Sparks dissipate into the atmosphere leaving a trail of embers until the silent ashes fall to the ground. I wonder what people are thinking as the fireworks explode with colour, scorching and crackling through the air.

The biggest fireworks ignite, filling the sky for a sensational finale and we are bombarded with a starburst of luminous colour. It has been a wonderful community event, bringing friends and families together. We head home in jovial mood, our hair smelling of smoke and our steps crunching through drifts of fallen leaves on the cold damp grass.