Well, well, well, this time last week I was recounting at my Monday morning Pilates class about the horrendous heatwave that we had endured on the Saturday causing our farmer to lose 7 cows, 2 bulls and one heifer and entire bat colonies to drop dead out of trees. About 45ºC of the sort of heat that shrivels your eyeballs when you go outside. Our poor chooks were very unhappy and we loaded their drinking water with ice every few hours to try and keep their core body temperature down a bit . They had their little mouths open panting and with their wings half out to try and cool themselves down. No fatalities here but sadly lots of others weren’t so lucky.
Since then we have had about three months worth of rain in 3 days and what a deluge it was. As usual in this great wide land of ours it’s a feast or a famine with floods often following fires. It’s all too much, too quickly and the hard dry cracked soil couldn’t really absorb the gallons of water and lots of it has run off and caused massive erosion. Trees already half dead from the fires have fallen and there are landslides galore. Add into the mix massive gusts of winds akin to a category 1 cyclone and we really have copped just about every weather element there is in the past few weeks. Life has a way of carrying on though and we are already seeing the regeneration in the bush and it will no doubt go gangbusters after this huge fall of rain. It is amazing to see the bush grow back almost before your eyes, the new growth so very bright – almost neon – against the charred black tree trunks.
Maree Clout, a local photographer captured these beautiful shots of local wildlife discovering the food that dedicated volunteers have been distributing in the hope of staving off almost certain death as the few “lucky” survivors all search madly for non existent food. It has been so heart warming to read about so many wonderful people giving up their time and money to help establish water and feeding stations, rehouse bees and get injured animals the help they need. I would like to have done more but I don’t have the knowledge or equipment needed to venture into the forest to set them up. I do however applaud those that have and there are quite a few funds set up to help them implement the measures that are needed quickly and without the red tape of some of the bigger organisations. I have read some great stories from BlazeAid, where people who need new fences for instance are put in touch with manufacturers and labourers who can donate and install what they need. Sometimes it’s easier for these folk to ask for something tangible like fencing rather than the general cry for ‘help’ which most of them will never do, always thinking there are others more deserving.
In happy news I spent a lovely day on Saturday celebrating a rather special ‘Hen’ when Liv and her bridal party organised a beautiful long lunch at North Bondi Fish in Sydney. The fact that it was bang in the middle of the huge storms, high seas and torrential rain was unfortunate but it didn’t stop us all enjoying a beautiful afternoon together. The theme of an Italian Fiesta putting some much needed colour into the day….
So with six weeks left until the wedding things are ramping up a bit with plans being finalised and overseas people flying in in the next few weeks to partake in the festivities. Of course it is at this very time that Corona Virus has decided to show up to spoil the party. I am really hoping that with all the travel bans it will not escalate to the point that flying is not safe and that they manage to curtail it as much as possible in the next couple of weeks. It really couldn’t have happened at a worse time with The Lunar New Year meaning literally hundreds of thousands of people were on the move around the globe making it VERY hard to isolate and track. I really don’t want my 83 year old Mum being exposed to ANY yukky germs on her long flight from London or my daughter and granddaughter coming from Vietnam. Fingers crossed it will be safe for them all to come….
Next week we celebrate the 1st birthday of this gorgeous little chap, I really can’t believe how very fast this year has gone and babies are living proof of it! Every week brings new achievements and changes and it is a pure delight to see him growing up into such a happy, inquisitive and loving little boy. Happy Birthday Cooper – we love you!!
Ain’t this the truth!!
My Move To The Meadow 