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!