Not a pretty sight.

This is Not what I wanted to see today, or smell. No! No! No! . I do not want to see smoke when I go outside. I want to see raindrops big fat wet raindrops. Smoke makes me panic and I forget how to do simple things like put my shoes on. Smoke is not good. Panic is not good either. Finally my brain begins to work again and I manage to put my shoes on . It is too hot for shoes today *groan*
Although it is very smoky, the smoke smells old, I don't really know how to describe the difference. Old smoke doesn't smell as gumleafy if you can sort of imagine what I am trying to say...This is a good sign it means that the fire isn't that close another good sign is the fact that the sun hasn't changed colour. The sun is still a comforting yellow *phew* ( A red sun means the fire is quite close)
All this is going through my mind as I am mentally going through my bushfire checklist. All the while telling myself to" stay calm kimmy"

In the 5 minutes it has taken me to get properly dressed and remove the flammables from the verandah the smoke has become very thick and I am starting to have an "oh shit" moment because I am here by myself and the house tank is nearly empty. Eeeek. After I had filled up a few buckets with water I rang the Fire services 1800 number to find out where exactly this bloody fire was. It is about 50 ks away Yay. A very big Yay indeed. I was so relieved that I went outside and took a few photos and started to mentally compose this blog..hehehe

This however has been a very handy little wake up call for me there are things I need to do now so that when a fire actually does threaten us we are prepared. We already are pretty prepared as you cannot live in the bush like we do and not be" fire aware" I need to buy myself some cotton trousers and a new pair of blunnies. I need to buy petrol for the generator and We need to check the sprinkler system is still working. ( we have 3 sprinklers on the roof) We need to make some more ' beaters' (long sticks with a piece of old woollen blanket wired to the end) We need to bring the 44 gallon drums back closer to the house. We need some rain...


Cheers I'm off to the pub now..I need to have a calming ale or three... lol.