The wind is up today and along the highway, bright red signs proscribe the lighting of any fires. Living in a national park on the driest continent in the world is a little like residing on top of the biggest tinder box known to, em, collectors of tinder boxes. But it would a mighty tinder box indeed. My point is, bushfires are a constant menace and have wreaked havoc in the Blue Mountains many times. Strong winds and higher temperatures are two of the most obvious ingredients for a conflagration to occur. Each town has its own fire-fighting service (RFS), but in the worst possible scenario, everything could go up in flames. Still, we are in better shape than those poor souls who live at the edge of an event horizon near a black hole.

On a less bleak note, my darling wife Ann passed her DKT (Driver Knowledge Test) for the state of NSW this morning with an 100% correct score. If you take a minute to think about the fact that she studied for the test in English (from a data base of 900 questions!) and sat the test in English, then you can imagine how proud of her I am. The next step is the actual driving test, planned for a few weeks from now. She has a Thai Drivers License but it can only be used in Australia for a finite period.

Most of the plums are now in bloom and the jasmine is not far behind. The air is full of birds clamouring for insects and bees are blindly intense amongst the tossing florets. Soon enough these whipping gusts will strip these fruit trees of their flowers, leaving little for the rosellas.


"I saw the sap stir in the wood,
The fire put out its leaves of flame;
Brilliant as summer flashed and fell
The rose intolerant, the flower.
The darkness stirred like dust on air,"


Rosemary Dobson, from The Fire.