Ups and downs

Gosh, where to start. Australia continues to basically burn down - there are fires just 20 km to the south of us now that are giving spectacular sunsets, an eerie night glow and thick orange smoke today. We don't smell it anymore but people coming back from holidays are horrified. I went down to the beach with number two son on the weekend which was wonderful beach time but the most horrific drive. Basically there is an hour's driving from the top of the hill down to the sea that used to be beautiful and wooded and is now incinerated. And it just goes on and on - as far as the eye can see - burnt sticks and dirt.

Not a great photo because number two was taking them out of a moving car, but you get the idea. It is terrifying how close it got to our beach village. The trees are several times taller than the houses and they are torched. It would have been awful ... we meant to go down on Thursday night but fires closed the road again, so we went down Friday. 

The smoke was still thick. There was no power until Friday evening which was fine; we knew the power was off but decided to go anyway and basically camp! Quite fun, although it was nice when it came back on. Apparently the town is still powering off a massive generator somewhere ... it is amazing how quickly they have re-done the infrastructure and the roads. New signs, safety rails, markings - some have been left and they are basically just melted lumps.



The lack of power meant we had to go out for dinner, and in the end we had a lovely beach couple of days; surfing, eating, reading and laying about. It was much needed by both of us - me because of the conference and him because he had just had three weeks in California! Can you believe it, so lucky. It was a tour of about fifty kids that spent half the time with host families in Sacramento, and the rest doing such educational things as Disneyland, Monterey Aquarium, Universal Studios, Alcatraz..... He had a wonderful time and they just packed each day full of things. Including a bit of shopping which he loved.

Chained and pacified

I had a UB40 earworm when sewing the binding on this quilt so it's called Chained and Pacified - largely because I googled the lyrics to King for the first time, and suddenly it all made so much sense to me! But it also made it stick in my head much more, which is bad. The quilt itself is another medallion quilt, in slightly unexpected colours for me. I took these photos a couple of weeks ago when there was still smoke but haven't had a chance to post them yet, what with the conference and all.



The centre fabric is about a half-metre that I picked up at the de-stash sale in the middle of the year for $2. It is very cute, with owls, so I built the quilt around it. The colours are not my normal bright clear colours at all - bluey-pink, grey, beige and purple - but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Classier than the normal yellow!



It's allover quilted in a swirly thing, and there's a few dyed fabrics in there too, where I had exactly the right purply-pink shade. The colours aren't quite right in the photo because of the weird orange light. You can see in the photo below that although the quilt is clear, the trees over the road are hazy, and you couldn't see the hills behind at all. It was horrible, but clearer now, and we even had some rain ... accompanied by a horrific hail storm, which is a story of its own for another day....

The conference is OVER

After six months of work our forum is finally over - four days of talking and meeting and eating and so many photos ... and it all went fabulously. Other the things I had no control over of course - and if anyone knows a way to get 300 politicians from 29 countries to stick with the program let me know. I don't think it's possible.

So that is why no blogging, or quilting, or anything either than getting up at five, racing around like a crazy woman, collapsing at night and then doing it again. I did 28 kilometres over three days wearing a suit and heels, which kind of sums it up ... this weekend I am sleeping and sitting quietly. Very very quietly.

And even worse

The NYE fires were bad, but last Saturday was worse - Canberra's hottest day ever at 44 degrees, and wild winds all over the south-east. Our town at the coast made it through but everyone was evacuated again - our neighbour went to Malua Bay, which had already been burnt so was safer - and I don't think they've had power for days. Basically disasters up and down the coast; we sat in Canberra and sweltered and watched the news and waited for the cool change at about midnight, which brought the smoke .... which has been unbelievable.

We went to IKEA on Sunday because our house leaks like a sieve and was very smoky so we wanted something indoors. Most of the museums and galleries had closed, so we spent actually quite a pleasant couple of hours looking at storage and having meatballs for lunch. The sky really was that colour. We all have coughs and red eyes - it's better today but the fires are still burning so another flare up will send the smoke back. My husband's work is closed so he's still at home and getting a bit antsy! Here's a picture of our backyard a few days ago - that's pretty much what all the bush / forests are like, except drier, which is why the burning....

Twenty twenty

And here we are on the new day of a new year .... I did mean to do some more posts after Christmas and wrapping up the year - but I didn't. Christmas was lovely and quiet with just the four of us opening our presents and eating scallops and cheese. It has been crazy hot and horribly smoky for the past three weeks, so not much outdoor activity. I've been at work most days to organise this conference that is coming up very rapidly, and the boys and my husband have socialised, or gone to the movies, or generally flopped about. Hotly.

I didn't see in the New Year last night - I might have gone to see the fireworks but that was cancelled a few days ago as part of the total fire ban, and then they cancelled the concert as well because of the poor air quality. Apparently anything over 200 is hazardous and we're well above 3000 today! I can't see any further than the neighbour's house and everything is brown.



This is the beach on Saturday - the road down to the coast has been closed for more than a week because a fire went through - they reckon it will take at least a month for it to re-open. The road isn't structurally safe any more and because it's forested there's a strong chance that trees will come down. Brad and I decided we needed some salt water and went down the long way (four and a half hours, too long really) just for two nights. It was lovely to swim, although a lot of smoke haze. The black on the beach is all ash, mostly quite fine but with some burnt leaves still intact.

The drive was long, but pretty - we had forgotten about a couple of the little historic towns like Cobargo ... but the forests were so dry! And then that road was closed too, and yesterday the fires came through pretty much everywhere, including Cobargo.

Our little town was evacuated to the beach, and the fire came to the back of the town before the southerly came through and pushed it away. Mogo, just inland, wasn't so lucky and has been close to razed. We got through to our neighbour yesterday afternoon after the evacuation and heard that it was OK, which was great, but they will have no telecommunications at all for the next few days, and no power for a while as well. All a bit stressful - but we got off lightly compared to some other towns along the coastline.  They say nearly four million hectares has burnt - about the size of Switzerland according to google - so no wonder we have so much smoke, given it's all within a few hours drive of here.  We have a strong urge to go back down and check it out, and help, but it's the last thing they need and we couldn't get there anyway as it's completely cut off, and will be for some time I think.

Anyway here is a more cheerful photo of number two son and the amazing pavlova he made for Christmas dessert. It was very well baked and we enjoyed it very much!

Graduations one and two

Two afternoons spent in two hot school gyms - at least number one son's gym had air conditioning - watching hundreds of lovely teenagers try to co-ordinate walking and shaking hands and taking their folders while trying not to smile too much.



The college graduation was excellent; such clever children. It's a public (state) school but is very strong academically and really encourages the smart ones. The boy who was dux had an incredible list of what he'd achieved and the kids just applauded him to the skies - both my husband and I said afterwards that at our state schools in the 1980s it would not have been such a rousing chorus of approval for academic achievement.

Number one son got a really good end of year result and cleared the score he needed to trigger his conditional offer for engineering at university, which is exactly what he wanted! We are so proud of him because he set his mind on a goal and worked incredibly hard.



I held it together mostly, except he sat next to and walked up next to Thomas, who was his best friend from ages 4 - 10, largely because their surnames start with the same letter and on the first day of school they sat next to each other! And here they were, nearly 13 years later, alphabetised again. Thomas went to a different high school so they're no longer best friends, but happy to chat and share a laugh. It really did hit me with a hammer blow just how much time has passed.



Number two's graduation from high school was way more relaxed - no future careers depending on grades for this lot! He did very well too, his marks were good, and he did receive one individual award - for Personal Achievement in International Cuisine!!!! He really did love that class, it would surprise no-one to hear. But, as he pointed out, he did four years of high school in three years, which makes him super smart by anyone's calculation, and he certainly had a crackingly good time.

Trip around the world baby

Sadly not "It's a trip around the world, baby!" as an early christmas present, but a scrappy trip around the world baby quilt for a pregnant lady here at work. It is made entirely from leftovers from other projects, which is suitable, as she is very good at recycling and sustainability.

Held up by  number two son inside, because it has been obscenely hot and smokey. There are a lot of big fires to the east, and when we get an easterly the smoke rolls in. The air quality is officially 'hazardous' and Australia had its hottest ever day this week. Roads to the coast are closed and likely to be so for some weeks off and on due to active fires and trees on the road ... all a bit depressing. Luckily I have so much work to do that I'll be in the office pretty much every day until the end of January, so at least I'll get airconditioning.

This quilt turned out very pretty and cheerful. And won't show the stains!!! Babies, hahahaha....