Smoke

The smell of fire with a smoke haze has arrived in our area. This is from the bushfires still burning in Victoria. We are at least 12 hours driving time away from where these fires are. Most of South Australia is experiencing the smoke now.


Taken from our back yard

Smoke haze over the hills.

Smoke covered hills. Mt Brown in the distance behind the smoke.

The haze has got thicker since taking these pictures this morning.


Tomorrow we are visiting with my parents in Kimba, and hour and a half away travelling time. I am going to visit because mum makes the most delicious tomato relish and my stock that she gave me is running very low. I will take some of our preserves and jam down and do a swap. I have yet to make any relish but have chopped and frozen our tomatoes for making some later.

The weather has been cool all week but is now starting to warm up again. I figure that any temperature under 40C now is cool compared to what we and many others have experienced lately. It reached 48.1C (118.58F) last Saturday.

It has taken me forever to try and get this post done. Blogger is having a bad day.

Take care everyone,

x Tania

Generousity of Australian's

The amount of deaths due to Victoria's bushfires is increasing every day. The total of dear souls that have passed away is now 181. Many more are expected to be found today and in the following days. The danger is not over as there are fires still burning out of control.

Arsonists have struck again last night starting more fires. Looters have also reared their ugly heads.

However in amongst this saddest, my fellow Australians have so far raised and donated 33.6 million dollars for the victims of the terrible fires. The amount is rising by the hour.


The following prayer was written by my son on Monday for inclusion in the class prayer book.

Our Heavenly Father,

Today we are sad for those who have lost their lives and belongings in the Victorian bushfires.

Please help these people deal with their sadness and help them rebuild there shattered lives.

Please give them strength and courage.

Please protect the CFS/CFA volunteers that are bravely fighting the fires and any other volunteers that are helping in any way.

Please hear our prayers for the safety of everyone.

In Jesus' name,

Amen

Bushfire crisis

The bushfires are still burning and they are still finding more people that have perished.

The toll continues to rise and it is now 173 deaths. For an update and pictures see here and here

Please keep praying.

Australian's need your prayers

Update: death toll now stands at 135 with many more expected.

Australian's are in crisis and we need your prayers for the devastating bushfires in Victoria as the death toll is still rising, 108 to date with more bodies reported to have been found. NSW is also experiencing bushfires.

We also have floods in north Queensland that have devastated that region.

Truly the saddest time for Australians as this is turning into the worst bushfire in our history. These fires have been reported as being deliberately lit.

No words needed

Outside under the verandah taken at 1.45pm.

Hottest heatwave in 101 years so far.

Daisymum did a post this morning about taking a photo of what mood we are feeling, so here is mine.

This poor geranium sums up exactly how I am feeling......shrivelled!!

I am also thinking and praying for others in the north of this country who are experiencing severe floods.

Have a safe weekend everyone.

x Tania

Where is our cool change?

This picture is of one of my daughter's foal's with his mother. They are coming along nicely.

Well surprise, surprise we had a drop in temperature today, 38C (100.4F).

Only to find out tomorrow that it is going to be 45C (113F).

Saturday is 46C (114.8F)

Saturday we are going down to Adelaide to watch Adelaide United (soccer) play again.

I am a bit worried about leaving this place when it is so hot. The animals and garden need looking after. We may decide to leave later in the day.

We have had 12 straight days over forty!! A couple more to go yet.

Sunday is going to be 32C I can't wait.

I am working tomorrow but only have one baby to care for. The weather is so muggy all I seem to do is sweat. We haven't been able to even go for a simple walk, even though we did tonight as the breeze was a bit cooler.

Sorry not much to blog about at the moment, hopefully I can get out and do something next week while it is cooler, although I will be working everyday.

Have a nice day,

x Tania

Still in the heatwave

Hello all,

Sorry for the break in blogging but as you may realise it has been extremely hot, and still is so where we are. I have just been outside to take the temperature and it is now 44C (111.2F). We have had no relief since my last post with temperatures being as follows;

Thursday 45C (113F)

Friday 45C (113F)

Saturday 43.9C (111.2F)

Sunday 44.5C (112.1F)

Today meant to be 42C but already 44C (111.2F)

Tomorrow meant to be 40C (104F)

No cool change expected here until Sunday if we are lucky.

We have not been doing much so there is not anything that I can post about. We spend a lot of time in our pool cooling down and staying in our wet clothes. This comes in handy when I have to prepare dinner in the heat.

I worked last Thursday and Friday and all day for two days were spent sitting in the lounge area with the airconditioner on high and three fans going, trying our best to stay cool. I had one six month old and a one year old in care.

Although we humans and our animals are surviving the poor plants are well and truly struggling. They are getting cooked from the heat on top of them. Sun dried vegies anyone?

Even the computer is playing up today, it insisted on posting some of my photos sideways!

Drooping and burnt silverbeet...

The capsicum that I have pulled off to reduce the stress on the plant. They were all burnt anyway.


A burnt Capsicum.... I have now covered these with an old sheet which is helping.

The cucumber vine is kaput...

The leaves on the pumpkin vine have been burnt. The good news is that it is starting to re-shoot at the base of the vine....

These zucchini's were under shade cloth but still have been extensively burnt...

I am hoping they can be resurrected after the heatwave has passed.

Grapevines have suffered as well with the vines having burnt leaves and the grapes transformed into sultanas.

Even the orange tree has sustained some damage.

Water restrictions in South Australia are going to be made tighter soon and they are saying we have only about seven months worth of water left in the Murray River. Scary thought. My daughter has linked about this on her blog.

So I will be spending the rest of this week doing as little as possible and trying to stay cool. I am really feeling it now as there has been no relief for soooooo long. My energy levels are sitting on zero.

Geez, I feel like a softy, how did our ancesters survive without airconditioning? ( not that ours is providing much relief). We only have what we call the swamp box on the roof. Luckily we haven't had any power outages yet.

Stay cool where ever you are, or warm for those that are experiencing the severe cold.

x Tania