last february 7 it was 47 degrees with a hellish fury of a wind and the first news of the bushfires was trickling in. it was clear that the fires were bad (we had been saying all day that it was terrible bushfire weather) but it wasn't clear for a couple of days just how bad.february 7 2010 it's 34 degrees and it's strangely calm. even for someone who lives safely in the city the 40 degree, north wind days we had in november were gut churningly frightening. god knows what they were like for the people who survived black saturday. of all the media this weekend one of the "best" (and i hesitate to use that word - no one person's story is better than another's) was by gary hughes - a journalist for the australian who survived the bushfires at st andrew's. read his story here
in october we went to lake mountain which is just above marysville - right in the heart of the fire. seven months after black saturday the bush still looked stunned - there were no birds, just eerie silence and remnants of snow.
with just the beginnings of life stirring. 
2 comments:
i've been in the Canadian Rockies where there have been fires--it's frightening and humbling to see the damage, but heartening to see the green dusting small areas
Where I am from we have vast amounts of Lodgepole Pines. They have cones that only release their seeds when a wildfire comes through the area. They can take awhile to germinate, but once the seed has sprouted, they are a fast growing tree. So do not despair, nature did not get us this far in the cycle of the earth without knowing how to regenerate herself fully.
Now if only we humans could be as resilient after storm and damage as my forests are. Ah, what a world it would be. Full of trees and happy, productive people.
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