They're back!!!

Norway's loss is our gain. David, Louise and little Adam arrived a couple of weeks ago. They now have a house and car and David's back at Uni - so they are already in full swing. Little Adam is totally gorgeous (a completely objective and unbiased view). I spent a few days down at the Taj Ma Briedis and the others came over. Adam and Freiya laid waste to any semblance of order. We went to Luna Park, ate a lot and generally had a good time.

David and Louise (pronounced Louisa.... with a Nordic accent - the 'sa' is like the 'sser' in 'kisser') down at St Kilda pier on the way to Luna Park and appallingly unhealthy chocolate cakes at the Village Belle (now more usually just called Atkins street).


Louise and Adam at Luna Park (just for fun!)


David and Adam playing with a yellow balloon


Adam on the kitchen floor - an Alna floor of course!

Snow
(there's snow business like snow business......) (sorry....)

No snow on the house - just on the hills all around. Nice to see. There had been fairly heavy snow for a few days but with very heavy mist we couldn't see it. Finally some sun.

Snow on Mt Mary - Adam's cottage in the foreground, plus water tank and shed.


Snow above the house


Mt Buffalo from the road just down from the house.

Grapevine

The last of the autumn leaves on the grapevine.

Nice news (for those in Oz, but not in Norway)
David, Louise and baby Adam arrived back in Melbourne from Norway yesterday.

Louise, David & Adam


Baby Adam looking horrified at seeing Melbourne weather for the first time.

Hot bran mash!
To keep then laying with the cold weather they get this daily treat - which they LOVE.

The four browns (minus Doris who is otherwise engaged) with their plate of hot bran mash.


The six blacks with their plate. The browns are still too bossy to share theirs. The blacks (being simple chooks) haven't figured it out yet that they are just as big as the brown chooks and more numerous - they still defer to the browns.


Doris laying an egg - tormented by the smell of hot bran mash.

Jack the Wombat-dog.
Cute but ridiculously spoiled (it's Julia's fault).

Asleep


He realises it's a setup.

Chook bedtime
Taken with flash in the pitch dark. They didn't like it at all.

The young black chooks


The brown chooks - Daisy, on the left rules the roost. Bosses the blacks into place and when everyone is in their right spot, then settles down herself.

We're back!!
By popular demand!!
....well actually because I've received death threats if I didn't update the blog.
I've been totally slack.
Mind you, after fires and comets.... it's a hard act to follow. But of course there's only one thing that can possibly beat such dramatic events.....
A BABY!!

More to follow soon!

Here's little Adam at 9 months:


And Louise, Adam and David

The comet

McNaught's Comet has been across over the sky over the last couple of weeks. We missed it at it's brightest, but last week spent an evening sitting out next to the road watching it. We couldn't see it from our place - the mountains were in the road, so all we could see was the tail. So we drove down to the vineyards to watch, with Jack running around chasing things in the dark.

It was hard to see until the sun had set, but then got brighter as the evening got darker. There was a moon unfortunately, but no matter. Once it got dark, we were astonished at how long the tail was - millions of miles I suppose.

The comet just after the sun had set


Later on, with just the last glow of the sun over the horizon.

Eggs!!

I know I know, we're starting (starting?) to sound like the couple out of The Good Life - but to find these very first eggs this morning was ridiculously satisfying. So the chooks are finally starting to earn their keep.

The eggs - only little ones so far.... from little chooks.


The eggs in a little egg basket in which Julia's grandma used to collect her eggs.

It's Freiya's first birthday!!

This is our little birthday card to Freiya

New Years Day

Well last night we had over 5mm of rain!!!!!! That mightn't sound much, but it more than doubled the entire rainfall for December - and took it out of the 'lowest on record for December' bracket. And just in time - it fell before midnight so it could be counted in December's total. Much heavier rain fell further into the mountains and it seems it has really doused a lot of the fires this time. There are still various fires going, but they are well contained. And the Buckland River is running properly again. So this is absolutely and positively the last 'fire report' on the blog for the time being.

I spend a few nice days in Melbourne over Xmas and here's some pics to prove it.

My ridiculously gorgeous bunch of nieces. Elizabeth, Luciana, Dahli with baby Freiya (known as 'the bundle') and Crystal from Canberra. Isabella, Luces' twin, is up in Byron Bay. This is the annual 'Lemon Tree Photo' - taken in front of the same lemon tree on Xmas day for the last 15 years or so.


My sister Hassanah with Freiya, Dahli and Hussien.


Dahli sews and glues leather soles on Freiya's little shoes. We don't have such an award but if we did, she'd get 'Mum of the Year'.


Freiya dancing outside.


Huss at Mission Control (the computer).

New Year's Eve

It's gently raining! What a treat. It'll only be a mm or two, but the grass is wet and there's mist over the mountains instead of smoke. Great! Whatever we end up getting it's got to boost the miserable 4.4mms rain for December. So what a nice thing to herald in the new year.

Speaking of the new year - we're all geared up for the new year's celebrations Buckland style..... a nice cuppa and cake on the verandah. Ha ha. Should be a very quiet affair.

Tomorrow I'll post some pics from Xmas to celebrate the new year.

Happy New Year all you bloggers - and all the nice folk who have followed this blog over the last month.

Still smoky

Xmas has come and gone - the time in Melbourne with family was extra good. It rained (remember that stuff??), it was cold (remember that feeling??) and there was no smoke. I had a lovely time.

Back home. Still no rain. Still smoky. There are still numerous fires burning, but the only one close to us is the Buffalo fire, burning on both east and west sides and the top. Most of the smoke in the pic is from backburning, generated by helicopter incendary drops - intended to meet up with the fire further up the mountain. The weather's been calm so all's fine. Our road (from where the pic is taken) is still closed - quite nice - like a huge private driveway.

This is definitely the last 'fire' pic for a while.

Xmas

The wind has moved to the south at last bringing some coolness. The fire situation won't be over till we get proper rain, but it's certainly eased dramatically. I'm off down to Melbourne to have Xmas with the Briedis Gang, so no blog updates for a few days.

Thanks to all the people who phoned and rang and sent nice words of encouragement during the last few weeks. It's been tougher than we thought it was going to be, and all those nice vibes really helped. Made us feel not so far away. And it was really great to have such enthusiastic feedback about the blog - it's made it all the more fun to do.

Here's the last of the 'fire' pics for a while. Some more babies next I think.....

A bit of the spotfire burn just up the lane a couple of days ago.


Burnt bark


Tanker tracks

Well....

Well I'd like to say that it rained all night and that all the fires are gone and normal life can be resumed...... but I can't. We had only about 2mm here (a little more in some other areas), so the grass is wet, but the ground is still nearly bone dry, there's still smoke in the air and columns of smoke still rising in various directions. Very frustrating.

Certainly it has dampened things and it will slow the fires down, but also make backburning more difficult, so it's a mixed blessing. Certainly however it should reduce the danger of spot fires (especially since there's no wind again - even though it's supposed to be blowing a gale??!), so that's a really good thing. The Buffalo fires are still burning strongly on two sides and so the Buckland Road is still closed to traffic. Just as I was writing this 5 firetrucks rumbled past, so........ so we need more rain!

Nonetheless, we'll unpack the emergency trailer today as a gesture of optimism - and put back the welcome doormat. However the elegant roof sprinkler will stay.

Yesterday


The day before yesterday

We can see clouds!

This mightn't sound much, but we realised this morning that we haven't seen them for nearly a month - just smoke. So clouds are looking pretty good. Especially since they just might be bringing some rain tonight. We had about 12 drops this morning just as a teaser.

We had a nasty large spot fire only 100mtrs away yesterday. Burnt out several hectares and a heavily wooded gully. Burnt right down to the firebreak around our place but luckily didn't cross it. We were lucky once again to have very little wind, even though it was predicted to be gusty. Even more fortunately, within minutes, five (FIVE!!) firetrucks and several support vehicles magically appeared and held it at bay, even using foam in places on burning tree trunks. So we can't totally relax yet. Still hanging out for rain tonight.

Am having problems uploading images at the moment. I'll post some when it's fixed.

Smoke anyone?

We have plenty to spare. Given the right wind we will even deliver it to your door (and open window).

Tuesday night

Southerly has continued bringing thick smoke. Hoping for a northerly change tonight to take some of it away. Driving today was like in thick fog with headlights. We now only have one fire to worry about - that burning across Buffalo which will come this way with a north wind. We'll just have to wait and see. A northerly is predicted for tomorrow and thursday. Other than that all is blissfully calm with lovely twinkling lights all over the mountains from the countless little fires burning. Very Xmas. This Xmassy feeling is tempered by the crash of a falling tree in the burnt forest every few minutes - the vibrations of some of them can be felt through the ground. I watched one of them fall this arvo close by - first a huge CRACK and then it dropped, shaking the ground under my feet.


The fires moving away to the nth/east towards Wandiligong and Bright.


Our own version of Xmas fairy lights on the western slopes above us.

Tuesday morning 11am

CFA trucks have arrived to monitor the containment lines. We're feeling so relaxed we're going to go to Yackandandah for lunch! Even if only to go somewhere that's not smoky!!

Tuesday morning

Worst is over - we hope. The fire finally arrived above us and the cfa backburned into it as is came down to the containment line (sorry - they're not called firebreaks any more - they're containment lines). This morning the smoke is horribly thick, but there's no fires anywhere close, it's all burnt (still smoldering and burning in patches of course, as it will be for a week or two). The dangerous patch along the road has burnt right along between the river and the road and shouldn't present any more problems. The entire mountain above us to the east has burnt, as have the slopes above us to the west, and Mt Mary to the south. So there's generally a feeling of relief all round that even if we do get bad weather we're fairly well protected now. There's still the problem of spotting in high winds and that'll go on for a week or two, but that feeling of impending danger seems to have passed for our immediate area. And a good thing too!

4am. The fire finally reaches the containment line about 100mtrs above the house. You can just see the CFA truck against the flames.


A detail from the latest map. We're at the end of the little blue arrow.

2am

Fire at road still raging - but well attended. Fire above quietly burning. Air outside dense smoke.
Nothing more to do.... go to bed (boots beside the bed).

1am

Fire down at the road seems to be under control now. Fire above house burning strongly, but without wind is moving only very slowly our way - is now about 200mtres from house. Should reach the firebreak just above the house sometime during the night. Don't expect embers to be a problem. Smoke thick so can't see much else.

Earlier this afternoon facing towards the road - before the wind moved back from the south and thick smoke obscured everything once again. That's the house bottom right.


The fire down at the road a short while ago.


The fire to the west finally shows itself just above the house after threatening for more than a week.


The fire above the house close up - I wasn't there for long!

Monday night

Big fire on the hill to the east, coming down to the road about 500mtrs away and burning along the river. Another to the south about 1km away. The fire above us to the west is only about 500 mtrs away now. They are attempting a big backburn tonight just up from us, to try to finally stop this one which has been threatening for a week. To the north a new blaze around the bridge is about 4kms away and cut the access road to Porepunkah today - but we don't think this one will threaten us. The fire that's burning all round Mt Buffalo a few kms to the north is still causing continual problems. The next two days will be hot and winds will increase, so the more backburning that happens tonight the better. It's anticipated that the next two days will be difficult. Hopefully Thursday night will bring some rain.

Sorry no photos - too much smoke to see anything.

The hills are alive....

Didn't get a chance to report yesterday. Had a big fire down at the road a few hundred metres away last night between the river and the road to the east. It's still going strongly. The fire above us to the west is finally getting close and has been spotting into the fields to the south during the day. The fire a short way up Dumphy's creek to the nth/west is going steadily but isn't threatening at the moment. Another bad outbreak has started about 4 kms to the north near the bridge and seems out of control at the moment. We definitely are feeling a bit besieged.

We can now see fire over the road directly below us. I'm going check it out.

Smoky but calm

We slept about 12 hours last night. The CFA were around all night. Backburning is going on at various places up on the ridges. The fires are all burning quietly in calm weather along the ridges and slopes above us south, east and nth/west and west. Until we get rain (none forecast) they'll just keep going and we have to keep on alert which is staggeringly boring. But for the moment, the smoke is not too thick (even some stars last night!) and we're moving out of emergency mode. A nice cuppa in Bright scheduled for this morning.

A small section of the satellite map from last night. The orange line is the firefront (burning steadily but quietly) and the blue arrow points to us - somewhat surrounded.


CFA trucks coming back from the Mt Mary firefront last night


The Mt Mary fire above us. That's our little house (in the busy metropolis of Buckland) just visible below the fire.

All's still calm...

The CFA mob have returned to continue containment lines. Comforting. Julia's taken Adam to Albury to get the train (going away for a couple of weeks) and will return tonight.

A little bit of the satellite map from last night.

All's calm again....sort of...

We had about .5mm of rain last night - not enough to put douse the fires, but certainly enough to slow them down, despite the strong southerly wind which came up early this morning. Within 15 minutes af the gentle rain starting last night, the whole firefront on the ridge to the south subsided. I was very surprised, so maybe the rain was heavier there. With such variable terrain here, every valley and mountain seems to have it's own micro-climate.

But one way or another, things calmed down dramatically and all the tankers and CFA personnel vanished into the night. Even thicker smoke blanketed the valley. I walked down to the road to see what I could see - which was nothing - not even my hand in front of my face. Only a short time earlier, I could walk outside easily without a torch. So I returned and a bit nervously went to bed.

This morning, the southerly is blowing quite strongly, and the smoke is thick, but there's no sign of active fire - and no CFA crews, which under the circumstances has got to be a good thing. Even though the fires are all still burning quietly a short distance away, I'm hoping for a quiet, uneventful day (apart from the cricket which I expect will be very eventful!).

Rain! - well a tiny bit....

11.30pm. It's just started raining very gently. Probably won't go on for long, but it sounds awful nice on the roof. Even if it dampens the ground a little bit that will help a lot. The predicted violent wind change hasn't happened - all is calm with the fires burning slowly up on the ridges. I can maybe feel some sleep coming on.....

A sleepless night ahead

This is what they've been hoping wouldn't happen. The fire's broken away from the Mt Mary fire and jumped the river, heading up the escarpment towards Wandiligong and Harrietville. To the right of this, and above the house it looks similar, so the impending sth/west change isn't looking good. As one CFA guy said as I went back to the house, 'it's going to be a sleepless night...'

The CFA encampment down at the road, with the fire on the ridge above, about 2kms away.

Some of the troops...

A comforting sight - some of the CFA troops down at the road. No helicopters, but hey....