It has been a testing summer. 

We are now into the worst drought since the droughts of the late 19th, early 20th century.  I can only take a little water from Tony's dam as it is
likely now that he will need it himself.  The garden is in a sorry
state and I have had to let the more easily replaceable plants die.  At
the moment there are no fires on New England, but it will only need a
lightning strike or a cigarette butt and the tinder-dry countryside
will burn very rapidly.  We are continuing our fire precautions, but as
you may have seen from the pictures of the houses in Canberra, when it is very hot, very dry and with a strong wind, the burning sticks and
leaves come down out of the sky like rain for many kilometres ahead of the main fire front.  With the strong wind, the embers are blown under
roof tiles and into crevices in the wood work of the house, where they
start fires.  Many people who stayed on their roofs with hoses found
they just could not keep up with the rate at which fires were starting
under the roof and on the walls as the embers rained down on them. 
They had to come down off their roofs and escape in their car as the
suburb burnt around them.

So we just have to hope that we do not get a fire on a day of high
winds, because we know we would not be able to save the house,
regardless of how good the fire breaks are around the house.

Heimskringla           Hugen