Reality continues to ruin my life.

Southern brown bandicoot. Howrah bike path. December 2012.

Theme Thursday and it is bushfire season AGAIN. Every year it seems that the combination of heat, wind and a whole lot of plants that have evolved a variety of strategies to survive/ require bushfires make for a torrid time down here at the arse end of the world™.

Yes, even the plants are against us. A whole host of our native flora posses epicormic shoots or lignotubers that sprout after a fire and have developed fire-resistant or fire-triggered seeds. Thus, they don't dislike fire, they love it! Indeed, the most dominant species actively encourages fire, as eucalypts contain flammable oils in the leaves that have probably evolved as a way to eliminate competition from less fire-tolerant species.

So AGAIN we face the unenviable truth of another period of nail-biting and stressing. Here in Hobart it's been 33°C with strong winds with the forecast of 38°C tomorrow and with 45 km/h gusts spell a whole world of trouble for anyone with a patch of bush around them.

Fingers crossed that we'll escape unscathed and avoid some of the darker events of recent years...

Comments

Mrsupole said…

Yup, we know exactly what you are going through. We seem to have two seasons here in SoCal. Fire season and maybe fire season. All we can do is hope and pray as I guess all of you must do that they put any fires out as quickly as possible.

I will keep my fingers crossed that you are all kept safe during your fire season. It is not an experience anyone wants to go through again.

Have a safe and great weekend. Happy TT.

God bless.

3 January 2013 at 17:16

Roddy said…

I thought the rodent was a rat at first. It still looks like one.

3 January 2013 at 19:26

Louis la Vache said…

Kris, «Louis» thanks you, quite belatedly, for your recent visit to San Francisco Bay Daily Photo and he wishes you all the best in this New Year.

3 January 2013 at 22:29

Janice said…

I understand your concern perfectly. We're in a rainy season now, but fires are always of great concern during the summer and early fall.

4 January 2013 at 09:11

Sanjana said…

you have a beautiful blog! I love it :)

6 January 2013 at 21:58

Kris McCracken said…

Mrsupole, we've made it through at this point!

Roddy, no!

Louis, merci.

Janice, thanks.

Sanjana, my pleasure.

22 January 2013 at 10:02

Mad as hell

So there I was, arm hooked up to the machine, watching my plasma swirl away into a bag while the morning news dribbled across the screen like a bad fever dream. And what were they showing? A "riot" in Melbourne, allegedly. The sort of riot where the real thugs wear body armour, carry pepper spray and look like they just walked off the set of RoboCop. The people they were beating? A ragtag crew of teenagers and old hippies—probably fresh out of a drum circle, still smelling of patchouli. But sure, let's call it a riot. Now, here's where it really gets good. I mentioned this spectacle to a few people later, thinking maybe they'd share my outrage or, at the very least, give a damn. But no. What did I get instead? A smirk, a chuckle, and—oh, the pièce de résistance—"You should really just let it go." Let it go? Yeah, let me uncork a nice, overpriced cup of coffee, sit back with my legs crossed, and soak in the latest reality TV trash. Why bother caring when ...

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

This is the moon. Have I mentioned how much I adore the zoom on my camera? It's Theme Thursday you see, and after last week's limp effort, I have been thinking about how I might redeem myself. Then I clicked on the topic and discover that it was BUTTON. We've been hearing a lot about the moon in the past couple of weeks. Apparently some fellas went up there and played golf and what-not forty-odd years ago. The desire to get to the moon, however, was not simply about enhancing opportunities for Meg and Mog titles and skirting local planning by-laws in the construction of new and innovative golf courses. No, all of your Sputniks , "One small steps" and freeze dried ice cream was about one thing , and one thing only : MAD Now, I don't mean mad in terms of "bloke breaks record for number of scorpions he can get up his bum", no I mean MAD as in Mutual assured destruction . When I was a young man you see, there was a lot of talk about the type of m...

This will hurt me...

Search This Blog