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

Lost inside an adorable illusion and I cannot hide, I'm the one you're using, please don't push me aside, we could've made it cruising, yeah.

Yes it is Theme Thusday again, and today we are talking GLASS . I've three possible hooks to hang my [glass] hat on with this theme. First, the photo! Yes, it is the river again from an odd angle in an interesting light. You can just make out the bottom, which should tell you that I'm right on the shore. In some ways, the distortion of the stones below the surface reminds me of ye olde glass windows, what they call "cylinder blown sheet glass". You can still find some of this around Hobart these days. Thw second link comes from a trip I took to Venice a few years back. You're probably aware that Venice was (is?) a glass-making centre of excellence. If you have ever been there and taken the tour of the glass factories, you might be familiar with the sheer amount of coloured glass that sits at the bottom of the water there. These fragments of glass have been worn down and had their edges dulled by their time in the water, which makes them ample keepsakes for the ...

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. ...

Happy anniversary baby, got you on my mind

No it is not a webcam, but this photograph was taken a mere forty-five ago on my way in to work. Here you can see a good old fashioned Hobart autumn morning, with the rain pelting down and me getting drenched. This one was taken on the corner of Macquarie and Elizabeth, while I was waiting for the lights to change. Come on Ampelmännchen ! Today is my wedding anniversary, an apparently I need to be showering Jen with leather -related goodies. Va-va-vaVOOM! To you Jennifer, here is a poem I wrote this very morning. Anniversary I love you i love you iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou I LOVE you I love YOU iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou I LOVE YOU iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou Happy anniversary

This will hurt me...

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