It's bark is worse in this light

Eucalyptus saligna forms a continuous hybrid with E. pilularis

The three 50m trees in our backyard are probably slightly towards the saligna end of the spectrum as the branch forks are more open than the pronounced, upright V's of the blackbutts and the perminant bark just covers slightly more than a quarter of the main trunk. The rest of the smooth bark (an infra-red reflecting adaption to frequent fires) sheds annually.
Why the science lesson?:
Our backyard is covered in a substantial layer of bark.

These photos were taken the day after we mowed - less than 24 hrs.

Off on holls down the coast - I'll take some photos for you so you know what you are missing out on.

Any way, Merry Xmas, and a 'appy new one.

Chat next year.

Cheers

Eastern Brown

A big eastern brown has been hanging around the town house. We're in the final stages of packing house to move (settlement is on Friday) so we've been in and out in and out with boxes and crates and the kids underfoot the whole time but I'm really hesitant to shoo the kids outside with the worlds second most deadly snake sunning itself some place on our path or just off in the garden. Big bastard too - a nice fat 1.4 to 1.6 meters I'd estimate, and bloody aggressive. Sorry, no photos - The only time I saw it and had a camera at hand I was barefoot and nothing makes you feel quite so barefoot as a brown eying off your ankle. I have no shame in admitting that I ran like a girl.

Fires 09

(images nicked from The Australian and SMH)

As the headlines of the trashy newspapers proclaimed, over the weekend our state was the hottest place on the planet. Further to our south they have been putting up with the heat longer. Victoria, in the south eastern corner of the continent has been blasted by the same desert winds that torched the Australian Open for the last few weeks. The bush down there is dry, as dry as it has ever been. Predictably people have taken it upon themselves to light fires.
The result: The hospitals are overflowing with burns victims. Over 100 people have died, Whole families perished in their vehicles. Everyday homeowners incinerated in their back yards, engulfed by the fireball as they desperately tried to save their homes with garden hoses. In the bath and shower under wet blankets huddled with their children and their neighbors children whilst their homes burnt down around them or simply dead where they fell lying in the middle of the street.
I want the people who start these fires to live with the vision of a family desperately driving down a bush road having left their home to burn, perhaps clutching a few photos or favorite toy. Visibility getting worse and leaves and fire raining down from above, the road turns and suddenly the fire is all about. There is no where to go. The incredible heat not even giving them time to time to try and lie low in their car like we are taught at school. How do you save your kids from that?

As of this morning over 100 people have died.

Many hundreds of homes have been lost.

Watch the news in this story

Photos

Radio phone call

Surviver tails
more, and more

international news

Draw nearer draw nearer.

Two of the Erickson Sky Crane helicopters were operating continuously for a few hours within earshot of the Uni yesterday afternoon. Bloody hell they are impressive machines. My intestines are still throbbing from the percussive blast of the rotors massaging my innards. The little boy in me want's to be a sky cowboy and fly one of those babies.

Some of this footage (the beginning and @ around 1 min or so) is local - the rest is from SA.

Can't see the hill opposit.

Sydney
Summer
Smoke
Fire


Something local is burning fiercely. The air is thick with the smell of burning eucalyptus and fine white ash has settled on my hat.

-- update

Sentinel shows that it's still 11km away from the LCNP in the Chase - still, its not good if you live on the edge of Gargial. Its about 36 today and dry


Fires burning, fires burning

Draw nearer, draw nearer...


--
update

Its a hazard reduction burnoff.

Here be Dragons

Back in August 2007 we took the kids for a walk around the STEP track. A year later Annalise is walking better and taking more interest in the environment around her; commentating on the birds, ants, flowers and trees as we walked. The last year has been dry and this time I couldn't find any of the endangered carnivorous sundews (Drosera). There is also noticeably more fallen timber, branches and leaf litter in the Terry's Creak Valley which is going to fuel a ripper of a fire when one eventually comes through.

And we saw a dragon



(apologies for the appalling vid but I'm crap at editing this kind of stuff)
photos

I had a boy look for the fire-extinguisher

There was a fire in a bin immediately outside my window.
Smoke Billowing
Bystanders gawking
Headless of my own safety I gallantly sprang into action and ...
checked the kitchen...
checked the hallway...
asked my colleagues - 'um, where is the fire-extinguisher?"
'[giggles] Anhh, it's right beside you'. Oh, yeah, right at my knee*.
So, where were we.. Grabbing the fire-extinguisher I ran out the door and
and
.
.
.
and
.
.
.
bloody pin how do you pull it out?
.
.
.
and
.
....
and finally, heroically, blasted ash all over the place. Now my cloths stink of ash and burnt plastic.

I think we have the photos up on the internet before Security even arrive.



Yes, I know I need a hair cut.



* actually outside my office that I must have walked past hundreds of times.

I saw Shania up close

"Shania" (N720HT) the Erickson S-64 Air-Crane Helitanker came and visited the Uni yesterday taking a break from the fires to Sydney's north to put out what could have become a major fire in the Lane Cove Vally and West Pymble. It and another water bombing helicopter did about 5 trips to and from the university lake (big pond) and sucked enough water out that it no longer lapped over the spillway by about 3 feet.
The Fire was about 2 km from our house - Alex was at home and had the important papers and some kids cloths ready to go if they got evacuated.

Blue Mountains Fires - the aftermath

With fierce fires still burning in the Victorian high country, Melbourne's hottest December day on record recorded and important Koala habitat being threatened or already lost the SMH has been looking into the management and aftermath of the recent Blue Mountains brushfire.
My feeling is that we should be back burning more in the lowest risk times (winter - before or even during rain) and investing more resources into putting out fires early in the risky times.
It will be particularly sad if any or the enormous Blue Gums die after this fire. They are some of the largest living things on the planet - fire adapted and stunningly beautiful they have seen it all before and should be OK, but if the drought or some other factor prevents their recovery the world will loose one more irreplaceable corner.

The ever readable Barista provides a Melbourne perspective and Flashman has dug up the latest NASA images from space such as this one.

More smoke

Sydney, or at least my little part of it is again covered in smoke. Nothing in the news apart from this so I don't know if it is local or back burning or from the mountains or from the Hunter area or what.

-: Update :-
The smoke is probably the result of the combined effect of 67 bushfires in the state, one burning on a 30 km front!

Fires

With a return to hot windy whether today we are all hoping that the Blue Mountains fires are extinguished or contained and don't spot over. To see just how far ahead of the main fire spot fires can start have a look at the map above. you can clearly see several spot fires near Linden and Faulconbridge that are about 10km ahead of the main fire.
(original image from here)

Australia Burning

Well, my thoughts go out to Mike and others living in the mountains. The whole damn country is burning at the moment. From where I sit the column of smoke rising kilometers above the central mountains is occasionally visible through breaks in the haze and the world is bathed in an weird orange light. Eucalyptus smoke fills the air and a stiff hot wind does little to cool the 38° air and a fine gray ash rains like mercy from heaven.
I look forward to walking down in the Blue Gum Forrest when the park is opened up again, it will, I imagine be a surreal experience.

The CSIRO has an online tool, sentinel, which you can use to zoom in on hot spots anywhere in Australia. I's a little slow with all the voyeurs like me zooming in on black heath rooftops so I have captured a few screen grabs of the fire. Sydney is just to the east (right).







Reports and Pictures
SMH photos and reader photos
SMH news
ABC news

The Smell of Smoke

I can smell wet ashy bush fire smoke. Smells close. I can't see it, but I can smell it inside, outside, around.

I reported it to the local fireies who just dropped by.