2020 and bushfires

Dear all,

As you probably have heard or read by now we have been having terrible bushfires over here in NSW. I think they started in November, and at Christmas it was so bad that people had to cancel travelling in certain areas, mainly because of the smoke. We have been spared but so many have lost homes and farming property. Wildlife has also suffered immensely. It is still going on even though we have had a tiny bit of rain to calm things down a bit. 27 people have also died, they recently had the funerals of two firefighters who had the fire truck over-turn. I think both were fathers of young children. It is so tragic. Ecologists at the University of Sydney estimate around 480 million creatures have been killed in the wildfires, including 8,000 koalas. Officials fear that 30 per cent of the koala colony in New South Wales had been destroyed as 10 million acres of land burnt to the ground in the state. This last bit is from the internet by the way.

On a happier note. We are now well and truly in our new house even though not at all unpacked. That's going to take a while. We had part of the Melbourne gang up for Christmas with our kids as well.

Sister in law and T and T and hubby at the Mount
Kiera outlook.

One of the after dinner activities.

We have also had friends from Grenoble visiting which was very nice. They were vegan/vegetarian so that calmed down the cooking/eating since we all joined them eating vegan then. When there is someone who has made that choice in life you don't want to sit there scarfing down a steak or something. It feels disrespectful.

More and more people seem to have taken the  decision to become vegetarian. I don't know if I am ready for it yet but I sympathise. On the other hand I do like seafood and cheese. It would be hard, bordering on impossible, to forego that.

Today is quite chilly only around +19° C but some days it has been up to almost +40°. That was the case on the day that we moved in. The removal van driven by our son together with a mate broke down and they had to sit in that heat waiting several hours for roadside assistance. This delayed the whole moving procedure. But in the end help arrived and they were pulled up on a bigger truck and taken down here and given another truck in exchange so all good.

I have to go now and unpack some more boxes. Since we lived more than two years in the previous house without unpacking stuff it is all very exciting to find things that you have not seen seen for so long. 

HAPPY 2020 dear friends