One Week Since Evacuation

Are we over the worse?

If there's one thing I've learned since we moved into the Blue Mountains twenty five years ago, is that major bush fires are never extinguished quickly.  I'd say the average length of time it takes for a crisis to be over is fourteen days.  This is just my own estimation.

My first experience of a Blue Mountains bush fire was in 1994 when a fire originating in Mount Wilson reached Faulconbridge three days later. At the last minute, a wind change saw the fire devastate Winmalee and Hawkesbury Heights.

Another memorable fire began on Christmas Eve 2001.  That fire was extinguished two weeks later. 

All I can say is that we are over the worse for the moment.

Temperatures are predicted to be much lower over the next few days.

I have returned home.

Last night Mr Honey Pie and I had dinner at the Gilroy Hotel at St Leonards and when the chef heard we had come from the Blue Mountains showered us with extra treats.

This morning I treated myself to a solo breakfast on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour.

I haven't posted photos over the past few days...simply because it  hasn't been practical for me to do so.

Tonight I downloaded photos off the point and shoot camera only to see that most of the shots are of photos taken of our home contents...a reminder should we need to make an insurance claim. 

Thankfully,it hasn't come to that.

I have spent the past two days in Tony Abbott country. 

Yesterday, Little Miss Five, my Daughter & myself enjoyed the yarnbombing at the Kirribilli Neighbourhood Centre.

It's a little worse for wear from being exposed to the weather for some months now but still able to capture a five year old's imagination.

I just love this knitted caterpillar creeping up a yarnbombed lamppost.

I should mention that this year celebrates the fortieth birthday of the Sydney Opera House.

Ironically on the 20th October, while many fire fighters tackled fires all over New South Wales,  Sydney's public sang happy birthday and cut a birthday cake for the Sydney Opera House's fortieth birthday.

By pure co-incidence, this morning, while I ate breakfast with the view of the Opera House before me, my sister called me on my mobile phone for an update.

When I told her where I was, she told me that at that very moment, Princess Mary of Denmark was touring the Opera House.

Well...I was a little too far away to see the royal party...but here is a photograph anyway.

On my return home this evening...the ambiance of the lower mountains had certainly taken a turn for the better.  The eeriness I felt earlier in the week was no longer evident.

The skies were as beautiful as what you can see above and the temperature so low that extra layers of clothing are needed, but the plumes of smoke are still plainly visible.

The most evident reminder of just how close the fires still are, though, would have to be the helicopters and air-cranes that continue to buzz the bush land nearby.