leaving the stove on

It should be all right to leave the stove on if I'm going to just step out into the front yard to pick some basil, probably all right to not even turn the burner to low, because it's a matter of seven long strides (if that) to the corner of the yard, where, in daytime, the basil grows, and logic and experience dictates that it will still be there even in night, even though my eyes are not adjusting that fast to the thick, thick darkness that's gotten everywhere. I can just about see the birch...