Reality Check

Yesterday, I complained to Sean about  our wilting garden. I even took photos to write a whiny blogpost about it. The heatwave has really knocked the veggies around and I've done a lot of sitting around, sweating and wishing it could be otherwise.



I didn't even plant this spinach. It's growing in the rubble of what use to be a big, ugly brick barbecue. Even my rhubarb is giving up the fight.



But if all I've got to complain about is a lack of sleep (due to it being still being 30 degrees Celsius (or 86 F) at midnight), feeling lethargic and irritable and suffering a bit of damage in the garden, then I am most fortunate.

Why? Because I have not lost my home. I have not lost my community. I have not lost any friends or family. I am still alive.

Eighty four people (at last count) are no longer alive and many, many more have lost homes and communities today in the most horrific bushfires (some of them apparently deliberately lit) that have raged across south eastern Australia. A long way from us, thankfully, but too close for many. Far too close.

Photo from Sydney Morning Herald.

Surely the fires can't keep burning for much longer? It's got to stop soon. Those of who have lived through this, as Canberrans did in January 2003, find watching this stuff just that bit more eerie, I think. 

Details for how to make donations to the relief can be found here.