Fires

The glow of the bush fires taken from the farm

The fires around Australia continue to burn strongly with no sign of rain on the horizon.  Jules and Tom headed up to the farm on Thursday to clean the gutters, roof and clear the surroundings.  They were due to stay up until Saturday evening but made an emergency dash home on Friday evening when they heard the only open road through the Blue Mountains was being shut due to bush fires.  They made it through with only 5 minutes to spare.  There is a fantastic "fires near me" app which we are monitoring by the hour to see the advance of the fire.  The photo below was taken on Sunday 22 - once the fire creeps along the green ridge line our farm (the binoculars symbol) is in very real danger of being destroyed along with the bikes, quad bike etc.  However, we're lucky that it's just a hobby farm - there are lots of people who's homes and livelihoods are being threatened.  

Tess arrived back from Cambodia.  She had an amazing time - I think she surprised herself by how much she enjoyed it.  She brought back some great presents including these Christmas shirts for Jules and Tom.  

I had a great week tennis-wise winning my Tuesday ladies competition with my partner, Sally, and the Friday round robin.  

It was very festive down at Nippers on Sunday morning with Jules and I on bbq duty all morning, wearing Christmas hats with music blaring.  Santa arrived on a boat and Tom and his mates helped handing out lollies and drinks to the younger kids.