Yes we still have some - we are sitting in front of about 200 acres of bush which is still mainly green, it's hard to believe. The first night here I was frightened, so the best thing I could think of doing was to walk around singing very loudly: 'all day, all night, angels watching over me my lord' thanks Lisa and the choir, I felt you behind us in the struggle. Then from the veranda I heard a bass joining in and Kerrin and I sang a resounding duet to the bush and the flames and the smoke and most of all the angels. I think they heard.
The Taggerty Progress Association met last night to discuss what needs to happen here. Some people were still under threat from the pine plantation that is burning. It's being watched carefully and no lives are threatened although a number of houses are. We'll hear some time this morning how things went. The fire is still to the north east of us so no danger.
It's very still this morning so the smoke is settled thickly around us and we can't see much, but we are part of the Taggerty Heights group (named with tongue in cheek of course) which I believe ABC radio announced were the best organized group. Our street all have walkie talkies and are in pretty constant contact through the day. We sleep with it on through the night, but there were no messages either from our group or from the firies who are looking after us last night. No news is good news and we had a reasonable sleep.
They lifted the road block into Alex last night so Alex fire threat must have calmed down too. We'll turn the local ABC on soon as they have pretty good updates. So Kerrin will go in and get some supplies today. We've decided to start a new cuisine up here: Taggerty Smoked products: olives, grapes, trout smoked even before you catch them - the local ladies had a good laugh over that one then fell silent as we thought about the dead trout and other suffering wild life.
Yesterday we walked over some of the blackened ground and felt sad to see fresh kangaroo dung sitting on the black. We saw a female with a large joey in her pouch last night, struggling to hop away with a sore back leg. The local wildlife crew are great - hope she can be helped. A sense of humour is always there, Georgina who is our local wildlife contact, says we'll be seeing more echidnas standing in the middle of the roads looking a bit confused and saying: 'where are the ants?' I hope a few come visiting here as all the local ants are currently demolishing what is left of my hopeful crop of singed sweet corn :)
Enough from me, there are many who are suffering. I know that some who read this have been through the fires too, and some have been through floods. I hope your loved ones and homes are safe and that you are being nurtured through this time.
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