"Ooo - a lovely open fire. You can't beat it".

What is it about a log fire that warms us far deeper than the raised temperature of our skin?

Why is the smell of wood burning and the sight of the flickering flames so attractive?

Why doesn't an oil fired radiator do it for us?

Well, it might just be that millions of years ago, when our ancestors first created fire it probably provided the springboard for humankind to accelarate away from all the other creatures.

It provided warmth of course, but it also transformed the night; from a time of dark and nightmares to a time of sitting and day-dreaming in the glow of a fire. Fire kept the predators at bay too!

But it was probably that early man was able to look into the flames and imagine that provided the breakthrough in human development. Maybe all the new ideas came from looking into the fire? I think a few still do.

This ability to imagine coupled with the ability and the time to communicate, allowed the sharing of complex ideas. "How best to trap prey", "Where to find them", "Which weapons could be used".

In simple terms it allowed the question "What if?" to be asked and the answers to be shared.