Back in the beginning of autumn I took this photo
from the car park up above the motorway into town.
The autumn colour was just starting to show.
This is what the same area (taken from a
different angle) looks like at present.
Last week we had fire sweep through and as if that
wasn't enough there were also gale force winds.
This is just a little bit of the damage.
Behind the treeline there are houses but
fortunately no homes were affected
although a lot of outbuildings were destroyed.
About thirty homes were evacuated
and more in the vicinity were on standby.
You can just see one of the homes
through the trees in the top left of this picture.
The cattery where Leo goes on holiday
(my friend's cat) is up this road
and had to be evacuated as well.
It's just on the edge of the trees.
The road on the left is the motorway
so the fire came quite close.
My youngest daughter lives about 500 metres
up the road from here, their suburb was cut off
with road closures at both ends.
Something I found quite amazing was this
blossom tree with everything around it
burnt black and yet it wasn't touched.
The crews watching for further outbreaks
have just been stood down today
and we are expecting rain so that
will be a relief for everyone concerned.
I think a lot of people are counting their blessings this week.
