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....