Monday, February 09, 2009

world on fire...

all the news here is about the fires in victoria and its hard to not have that put things in perspective. bells has already written most eloquently on the subject. it does however make me think about all sorts of things, about white settlement of a land mass that regularly sets itself on fire to regenerate, and our complete and utter refusal to accept that fact. about our modern capitalist insistence on being individually comfortable, in cars, with air conditioning, no matter the cost. and it reminds me of a book i read recently, cormac mccarthy's the road, (about to be a movie) which is the scariest thing i have read in a long time, the most utterly distressing and compelling book ive ever come across, about a world destroyed by fire and what happens to humanity in the aftermath. its a very telling tale, but its a lesson i fear we we will never learn.

despite the southerly that came last night i woke up in a sweat and got up to turn fans on. i looked outside and could see the peats ridge fire buring in the distance.

its a good 60kms north of us but it has been burning all weekend and the smoke has smeared the horizon:
while the smell of burning eucalyptus fills the air. its a strange sensation, and its one i associate entirely with summer in australia. so why are we never prepared?

anyway, we spent most of the weekend in our luxurious pool thanking our lucky stars that we have a pool. trent and the dogs slept a bit:

yesterday evening we cooked chicken on the bbq and sat looking over our yard and the miles of bushland only a hundred metres away and talked about what to do when the fire comes our way, as it inevitably will. dogs. laptop. run. oh, and ring the insurance company and check our coverage.

it has been so hot i have not managed to get much knitting done. when i am tired i find knitting acts like a soporific so its been slow going this week. another repeat on myrtle. approaching the toe on monkey number two:

and back to work already. i have one more week of working two part time jobs, before starting the new one full time officially next monday. my first week is a full on writing workshop. good lord, what have i done?!

k xx

8 comments:

amy said...

Your post reminds me about the marine & coastal law course I took in college, in which the professor began by telling us as far back as the Bible you could find the instructions not to build your house on sand, and thousands of years later people still haven't learned. It's sort of the same thing. Nature is going to do what Nature is going to do. And yet people still build their houses right on the beach.

Still. You hope they don't die because of it in the end, though.

DrK said...

oh god no, its a complete nightmare and watching people suffering is just horrendous. they were talking about 'rebuilding'in the same place this morning, im not sure i would have that strength!

Bells said...

Wonderful post Kylie (and I love the Trent and the dogs photo!).

When I imagine losing everything, I start to feel all zen about things and feel that if we have nothing, we lose nothing. But of course it really doesn't work that way.

Sean mentioned yesterday that your area is prime fire location. That scares me.

Bells said...

ps monkey looks gorgeous!!

Rose Red said...

Oh, a full on writing course - sounds fabulous. I just did a 1.5 hour session on grammar and I loved it (another session tomorrow).

You probably need a "grab bag" - passports, insurance papers, photos/negatives, valuables and of course special yarn and sticks. I don't have any of that stuff together and really think I should, even though it is unlikely I'd ever need it.

Michelle said...

My parents-in-law are in Bendigo and their suburb was hit in the fires. We currently can't contact them and we are very, very worried.

And my parents lost their eaves with all the rain they received in Cairns over the weekend.

It's even more of a disaster when you are waiting for a phone call, and worrying yourself sick over people who matter to you.

DrK said...

oh how could i forget the yarn! thanks for the reminder RR :)

Bishop Stone said...

One of the reasons we love our home is because of the closeness of the bush and all its beauty. But luckily we have not needed to contend with a fire.My heart goes out to all those affected. And to all those animals lost, injured and helpless I ray for their safety.