sarren

"Turns out two native Australian birds of prey, the brown falcon and the black kite, are closet pyromaniacs, and deliberately starting bushfires even though there is a complete fire ban over summer."

So this is a thing, wow

Sitting in zebra363's lounge room, watching Person of Interest, with freshly baked peanut butter/chocolate cookies and a cup of tea, glancing out the window occasionally at the alpacas moseying about outside in the paddock.

*wavy lines* Last weekend, after much PoI viewing.

Zebra - Come up next weekend and we can watch lots more PoI and you can even watch more Supernatural if you like.
Me - Yay, it's a plan!

Email from Zebra mid week - If you get here by 4.30 we'll have enough time to get the burning done before it gets too dark.

...should have seen THAT coming.

Random photos Zebra took from her previous burning and a lovely one of her property

I do enjoy bonfires, sitting under the stars watching the flames and the sparks. Throwing all the branches on is fun too, watching the flames leap towards the sky, though this one did seem a little close to a nearby tree. Comments from Zebra last night along the lines of "I could have thought this through better" and "it'll probably be fine" and "if we do accidentally burn down the nearby shearing shed we'd be doing the neighbour a favour" added a little excitement to the evening, given Zebra's track record. Though to be fair, she's only had one other fire even mildly get out of control since then, and she did go and check on ours later last night after we'd watched an ep or two.

Zebra has certainly done her best to make my visit comfortable. Freshly baked cookies last night and this morning for breakfast, sacrificing both our environmental principles to light her first and last fire of the year to keep the house warm for me, piling FIVE blankets on my bed on top of the doona...I didn't actually use all five, since I had come prepared and am wearing two pairs of pants, two pairs of warm socks and two jumpers.

Now we're watching one more ep then we're going to go light another fire, yay.


Edit
Zebra's post with photos

Check out the video the mining industry never expected you to see


This week mining billionaire Gina Rinehart became the largest shareholder in Fairfax, having already bought a stake in Channel Ten. But this new video reveals this move is bigger than one woman’s ambition – it’s part of a coordinated and very deliberate strategy, with climate skeptic ‘Lord’ Monkton seen here advising a room full of mining executives on how the industry must gain control of Australia’s media.

Off the charts: America's year of climate extremes

Vaguely related: I am reading James Hansen's "Storms of My Grandchildren". I love this guy - he's been advising successive administrations on the urgency of climate change for decades, and then in his sixties his grandchild was born and Hansen had a bit of an epiphany - read his wiki bio, much more exciting than any official one, especially when you get to the 'allegations' and 'arrests' section.

Nothing like studying climate change and overconsumption and how fossil fuels are DOOMING US to get me back on public transport.

It was easy when I worked in the city, one bus straight in and it's not like you can park in the city anyway. Now I have a 30-40 minute drive and free parking versus 1+ hours, bus -> train -> busing it, so it's not like I can even just get comfy with a book.

Today my bus was on time. ON TIME. A brisk walk down to the train platform, stepping straight onto a train, then only a minute's wait until my next bus and I was home in 41 minutes. Couldn't have done it faster in the car at that time of day!!!

WIN!!!!

I am sitting in zebra363's lounge room wrapped in eleventybillion rugs and watching the alpacas grazing peacefully outside. Yes, I am aware it's not *quite* Arctic conditions up here, but it's a psychological thingumummy. Last night I slept with every blanket ever, two jumpers, scarf, socks and gloves. I was comfortable.

Yesterday arvo we spent three hours (until it was too dark to see anything except the giant bonfire) dragging dead branches over to the fence, throwing them over, under or through the fence and then dragging them over to the fire. Then we sat around and stared the fire for a long time.

Then we walked up to the house in pitch dark (I felt very hardcore), had dinner and watched an episode of Lewis (ie slept through).

Things to know about working with Zebra...

- When she says 'that's just about it' - it's not true.

- An hour later when she says 'that's about it, now' - it's not true.

- Some indeterminate time later, when she's an indistinct shadow among the trees emerging periodically to throw piles of sticks and the occasional log over the fence at you, and she says, 'just two more' - it's not true.


Still, nice workout and feeling of accomplishment. Have a feeling will be recreating it next week as it'll be the last weekend for burning off before the ban.