WOW

Besides the fact that today is Wear Orange Wednesday...we have another WOW surprise coming up...I will keep you posted!

WOW

Cookathon

November is turning out to be quite a 

cook-a-thon.

For Little Miss Six and my niece (who turned fifteen)I baked a rainbow cake which they shared...

For our Second Son I baked the now  traditional Black Forest Brownie cake. He turns forty next week but we had a group celebration last Sunday.

I tried my hand at making macarons...a big fail...but hey, I mis-read the recipe (which I'd studied for a whole week prior), and it's a miracle that they turned out as well as they did. I will attempt again sometime in the future I guess. I would have to admit though...I'm not a macaron fan and don't really understand what the fuss is all about.  But our son is and I thought I'd make some for him.  He said they tasted quite good...even though they got a big fail for appearance.

I also made boeuf bourguignon (beef burgundy) for our group celebration and vanilla ice cream just because and because I've fallen in love with home made ice cream. 

Have you ever tried avocado, raw cacao powder and maple syrup all mashed together and served as a dip?  Delicious.

Somewhere in amongst all that we had an engagement party...did I mention?

Well, it was last month actually...our Youngest Son proposed to the love of his life and she said YES.

 It was a Halloween themed party and everyone was encouraged to come fancy dress or to wear orange.

Our family being of Dutch decent...seemed to opt for the orange option!

Mr Honey Pie's talented niece made the cake for the engagement as well as for a double 

Baptism!  Yes, Little Miss Six and another of my nieces (Little Miss Seven) were baptised last Sunday.  The priest that baptised them, by sheer coincidence also baptised our Youngest Son twenty six years ago...Father Paul was flabbergasted when we told him.  He is quite new to our parish and our family was overjoyed at him being able to celebrate a second (or is that a third?)baptism with us. 

And...do you know what?

I'm secretly dreaming of a really, really boring week or two ahead...

My Favourite Things

Yesterday, we started unpacking the car after we self evacuated because of the fires.

I'm not sure if we're a bit ahead of ourselves because the fires, although 'contained' are still burning.  The forecast for today is another hot day with total fire bans.

Before the big fires of October, someone advised me that it's a good idea to take photographs of everything in the house in case of an insurance claim.  Of course you then have to make sure you take the camera with you or transfer the photos to 'the cloud'. 

Stories are already hitting the press about how some insurance claimants are being told to list every item (e.g. toys) when putting in claims for contents, even though everything was destroyed.

I remember my parents having to do exactly that same thing some thirty odd years ago after a major house fire.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, they were under-insured and received a full payout for their contents.  The building insurance claim, though was a completely different story and the payout received was a pittance.  But that's another story.

Going back to the days before our self evacuation last month, the items I was most anxious about facing the prospect of losing were my African violets.

Yes...I know...but all I could think about was the time I had invested in these little living things...we humans are strange creatures.  I wasn't even worried about all the quilting paraphernalia I was leaving behind, even though I did pack a quilt or three.  Strangely, even though I've made many, many, quilts, I only own three or four and these were great for packing around fragile items. 

I couldn't pack the violets because it just wasn't practical.  At one point I was going to give them away to a little coffee shop in town to hand out to customers who had already lost their homes but I just didn't have the time to do this.  

Happily, everything survived, including my African violets.

After this experience, I realised time has changed my perspective on material goods and my obsession to list every item in every collection we own has passed.

After all...if we were to lose every vinyl record in our LP collection would we replace every single one? In fact would we even bother to replace any? 

I know that once upon a time I would have.

But not anymore.

 Above is about a third of my African violet collection.

On the top shelf of our display cabinet stand some little sailing ships. Three of them were hand carved and assembled by my Dad.  In my opinion they are irreplaceable.

People in the community are now talking about 'stuff'... "it's just 'stuff'" is now a common phrase overheard in the street...spoken, written...

More stuff...some sentimental...the magnifying glass belonged to Mr Honey Pie's parents.

A newer collection of stuff - and still growing.

Stuff is replaceable, lives are not.

As a community I know we are thankful that during this recent disaster, no lives were lost.  It could have been so much worse.

Halloween

This is how my day panned out today:

0700 hours wake to an aching body and an episode of vertigo even before lifting my head off the pillow. Drag myself out of bed and drink a glass of water with the teeniest pinch of Celtic sea salt to counteract the vertigo.

0715 hours yoga nidra 

0745 hours load up the washing machine with another lot of what seems to be never ending dirty laundry which, I remind myself, will have to be pegged up indoors to avoid it smelling smokey.

0800 hours turn the sprinkler on the thirsty herb and vegetable patch because, despite a sprinkle of rain in the past 24 hours, my plants seem forever needy for water in this climate of low humidity, high wind and high temperatures. 

0845 hours make myself an affogato...sort of entree breakfast.  Follow this with half a fresh pineapple and freshly picked blue berries. Turn off water sprinkler.

0900 hours call my Grand daughter's school to see if they will accept a box of thirty copies of my sister's self published children's book: Ursula The Flying Unicorn. 

 I'm informed that they have been inundated with donations and I would  be better off taking them to the Baptist Church in Springwood.  The Salvation Army has agreed to host a toy drive initiated by an out of the area school and will be delivered to the church tomorrow.

0930 hours Shower

1000 hours Move carved Jack O'Lantern pumpkins outdoors in preparation for tonight's Halloween Trick or Treat.  Poor pumpkins are melting before my eyes after being carved out by Mr Honey Pie for a party last Saturday. They are quickly approaching their use by date. Into the car, I load books and  funnel web spider (discovered on driveway last Sunday by Mr Honey Pie).  

Lock up house and head off to Baptist Church to drop off books to be donated.  Meet some lovely people at the church working their little hearts out to help anyone affected by the recent fires.

1130 hours Arrive at Mum's house to meet up with mystery person which Mum had informed me about at 2145 hours last night when she phoned to asks if I can be there when they call this morning.  Meet Mum, she still doesn't know who is calling in this morning...thinks it's someone from Sydney Water.

1205 hours Man arrives at Mum's house.  It turns out he is a property developer who is looking at buying up land affected by the North West Growth Centre. Not quite what I expected but quite helpful all the same.  Although bad news is that Department of Roads and Maritime Services are cutting up Mum's land so badly that the developer is not interested.

1245 hours lunch with Mum at a cute cafe (a church-to-cafe conversion) not far from Mum's house.

1330 hours drive to Windsor to drop off above mentioned funnel web spider, 

drive up the mountain, quickly shop for individually wrapped chocolates and lollies, rush home, invite Daughter and Grand Daughter to dinner.  Eat cake while I make up twenty trick or treat lolly bags for expected trick and treaters later on in the evening.

Happy to report...some little neighbours arrive, attempt to scare us out of our wits, collect some treats and leave happy, with little Miss Six joining in her very first Halloween Trick or Treat Adventure.

Happy Birthday Gorgeous Girl

Little Miss Five Turns Six....and a return to some sense of normalcy...by celebrating with a crazy tea set.

Linking to 

Superheros

Little Miss Five, who turns six tomorrow, returned to school today - her first day back since being evacuated because of the fire on Thursday 17 October.

I was on school pick-up duty today.

So, for me it was the first time I've seen the devastation.

It is going to be a long emotional journey for so many.

Over two hundred homes destroyed, over one hundred damaged and in such a small pocket of our community.

Fifteen families at the school lost their homes, two of my Grand Daughter's classmates' families included.

We can be thankful that no lives have been lost.

The realisation of just how close the fire approached the school is beginning to dawn on some of us .

Hugs are free flowing in the main street of our little village.

Everybody knows someone who has lost a home.

Back at the school the car park is still littered with blackened leaves.

The fire approached the school from the school's entrance preventing the children and staff from walking out the main gate.  They walked away from the fire toward the back of the school and exited along a side street which later saw homes attacked by the fire.

Little Miss Five, almost six, has told us repeatedly that she saw 'the scribbly gum was burning'. It seems there was more than one gum tree burning.

Our community has a  new sense of what it means to be a Superhero. 

As of 17 October 2013 - if you live in the Springwood, Winmalee and surrounding area our Superheros don't wear capes, or masks or fly or perform superhuman feats.

Our Superheros wear  hi-viz protective clothing, our Superheros drive trucks and fly air-cranes and helicopters.

Our Superheros hold children's hands, walk or drive through smoke and flying embers.

Our Superheros are Mums and Dads, Brothers and Sisters, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Neighbours and Friends and Teachers.

Our Superheros rescue pets, feed the hungry, clothe the ruined, comfort the traumatized, accommodate the homeless.

Because of our Superheros, our community will be buoyed, sustained, strengthened, carried, propped and cushioned through the days, weeks and months ahead.

A big enough 'thank you' cannot be expressed to our newest Superheros.  

  

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.