So here we are again after the long summer break raring to go with a load of topics to discuss. Yet what a place to begin. With the possibility of 300 or more people dead in the worst bush-fires Australia has seen hanging over us it’s hard to restart the blog with anything positive.
That we’d suffered a national tragedy is without question a truism. Despite the deaths being limited to a relatively small area, there are few of us who don’t have some personal knowledge or links to those who died, even if there are two or three degrees of separation.
For my part there are people on the Australian Opinion forum who have friends and colleagues missing, and the company the wife is employed by has people still missing. Sadly, the term ‘missing’ is somewhat of a euphemism since all on the list are almost certainly dead. True there may be minor miracles such as Dorothy Barker’s who somehow survived her house burning down by managing to crawl under her stairs into a tiny space just before roof collapsed, but for most… there was no safe place.
One of the worst aspects is that some of the dead may *never* be identified because there is nothing of them left to be found. The fires were so intense they were effectively cremated. If their remains included jewellery etc then circumstantial evidence may be used as identification, but others will have simple disappeared.
Clearly there is far more to write on this subject, but this initial post is simply to say we’re back and writing again.
Before you ask, I live outside Sydney and whilst at one end of the country floods have ravaged and killed, and at the others fires have ravaged and killed… here we are an island of calm. Yes it was hot for a day or two but we’ve had sufficient rain locally to negate any possibility of bush-fires… for now. The trees are lush, the lawns green and there is wildlife everywhere. Sometimes it’s hard to believe we’re in the same country.
Naturally it look better in real life, and in a larger photo come to that, but I hope this gives you an idea anyway.
I commented on the price to a friend and said we only paid 68c a litre when we arrived here. She told me back in 1971 she could fill her car for 17c a litre!! She recalled filling the tank of her Honda 90 for 20c!! 
… the distant rumble gets closer then stones fall of the church and the entire gathering is enveloped in a cloud of dust as the earthquake hits and buildings topple around them.
It’s a little fuzzy because she shot it though a window quickly to catch it before it flew away, but it’s clear what it is anyway.
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