On this day.... February 9 2014

It was hot.

It was windy.

 It was a curtains-closed kind of day.

That's a high alert day for us.

We could see the smoke in the distance coming our way.

We gathered up Amy's little pooches, packed the cars, turned on the sprinklers and left ( with me worrying about the water bill )!
We spent the afternoon at our safe house. Thank you Callum and Elana, Merrill and Kevin.
After long hours of waiting and wondering we returned to this............

It was quite late in the afternoon by the time we were allowed back in.
Bill wanted to drive around the back but Amy and I needed to take in what had happened out the front, so we parked there.
I will always remember that strong smell of smoke and burning. 
As we drove in, we remarked on how weird it was that the plastic tubs of water that Amy had put out for the birds and animals had remained intact. You can just see one over to the left.

All the photos that follow were what we saw that evening......

I don't remember having a sense of gratitude that we were all safe and that out house was still standing.
 It was just complete disbelief that everything else was not!
Now of course, the gratitude far outweighs the disbelief. Not just for our house and garden but for everything else in our lives and more importantly, all the people in our lives.
So if you are one of those people reading this, then that's you!

Yesterday I asked Bill whether he would have done anything differently and his reply was.....
Taken the moke instead of your car!

The only thing that comes to mind for me is to leave the trees longer to recover.

 One we thought was completely dead has only just recently covered itself in beautiful new growth.

We are especially thinking of Sam and Amy today. They have processed the whole event differently and their material losses were significant.

Bill has shown immense patience waiting for his shed to be built. He has equipped himself with every tool known to man over the last few months.
He could probably build his own shed! 

Now, back to that new/old potting shed and all those gorgeous herbs.