Well the threat of fire has eased but is still there depending on what the weather brings. Luckily we have had mild weather for the last week which has helped the fire fighters contain most of the fires but still a couple have the option to flare up if the wind picks up, so our bags are still packed ready to get out if we have to.

The death toll is now at 200, but still expected to rise as they still have about 80 people unaccounted for!

Where we are in the Yarra Valley there is a command centre for the CFA just down the road from our town where the water bombing helicopters are stationed, two big orange ones and a New Zealand helicopter arrived to help the other day...

Samantha thinks they are great, they fly over all the time and we went down and actually saw them take off the other day, she was petrified but excited at the same time.

We have fire fighters from all over Australia, New Zealand and the USA here fighting these massive fires at the moment, god bless them all!!!

Australians have raised about 100million dollars for the bushfire victims which I think is totally amazing!!! Thank you to all those who have given money, clothes, food or the time and services to these people, you are all angels xxx

Why????

I am fighting back tears as I write this post. Our state is in turmoil. Fire rages across much of it leaving a trail of destruction that is unbelievable!!!











So far 108 people are dead, 750 houses have been burnt to the ground and 31 fires still burn, 10 still out of control!!!! They are expecting the death toll to reach nearly 200, if not more. Complete towns have been wiped from the map!!!! And what really hurts is that many of these fires were deliberately lit!!!! How the hell some one could do that, cause this much pain for so many people and then live with themselves is beyond my comprehension!!!!


I should add these photos are not taken any where near us. We are safe for now but are told by the CFA (local fire fighters) to be prepared to leave at a moments notice, so we have photos, documents and clothes packed just in case.
I was going to put some photos of Davids car covered in ash and our packed bags on here, but they seem meaningless and silly now after everything else and what other people are going through!!!
Please keep those who have lost loved ones and all they own in your prayers and hearts.

Hottest Day On Record

Well we thought last week was bad...today Victoria had it's hottest ever day on record....46.4 degrees Celsius!!!!!! It has been sweltering!!! What makes it even worse is that there are dozens of bushfire's roaring around the state. We have had gusting northerly winds which is just fuelling the fires and as we are in the middle of a major drought things are tinder dry!!!! We don't have any bush fires close to us, well not close enough to worry about...YET!!! But today we have had scorched leaves and ash falling on us and smoke in the air, which makes you worry a bit I have to admit. I took some photos to show you....

Normally at around 6pm, when I took these photos there is blue sky and it is very light, but today this is what was outside and it was dark!Then we noticed this plume, which we are not sure if it was smoke or cloud, but it looked amazing, and kept growing like a volcano eruption!!!!And this is what our white outside furniture looked like...Covered in ash!!!!

The good news, yes there is some, is that for the following week the temperature shouldn't get above 30!!!! THANK GOODNESS!!!!I will keep you up to date with developments.

Heat Wave From Hell!!!!

Hi all, yes I am still alive... JUST!!! Last week was the week from hell!!! We had a massive heat wave here! Normally in summer we get the odd 40+Degree Celsius day which is tolerable, but last week we had 4 days of over 40 in a row!!!!!!! It was horrible. We don't have an air conditioner in our house...SILLY US!!!!! Fans just blow the air around more, so we had windows and curtains shut all day trying, with no success, to keep the heat out. By the time David got home from work at around 3pm we were all ready to cool down in a big way!!!! We would head down to the river and stay there for hours!!!! It didn't really cool down at night time which makes it even more hard to handle. A couple of times I just cried and said I wanted to back to New Zealand, you get nothing even close to that heat over there. But we managed to get through it and are now looking at air conditioners!!! They say it was a 1 in 100 year event, having that many in row, but we want to be prepared next time!!!! Our poor garden was looking lush and green two weeks ago, this is what it looks like now...








Everything is wilted and burnt!!! As we are on tight water restrictions we haven't watered anything and they are truly begging for water! Hopefully we will get rain soon!!!!

Any way, my wight loss effort is working, I lost just under 3kg in my first week and I'm exercising more and more every day. I haven't been tempted by all the chocolate in the fridge that my family keep bringing home!!!! Eating lots of good fruit and veg and actually enjoying it!!!