Night at Day

It wasn't not only incredibly HOT yesterday, but thanks to arsonists, it became one of the most terrible fires we ever encountered here. My husband is born here and never saw something like this. We have almost every year bushfires here around, but yesterday was so terrible that we all here are shaken.

Whole communities are wiped out. We were in fear for the house of our Uncle and Aunt, everybody knows someone who had to be evacuated. Our favorite walking area got burned down, lots of houses lost, most likely at least one dead, may be more. All around their are estimated 40 people dead. 26 are confirmed. No clue how much people lost their homes, their belongings - their animals. At the shopping center - before things turned really ugly, I met a woman who was terrified for her horses. The houses, the cattle, the wildlife. I'm not a really weak person, but while I'm writing this, tears are standing in my eyes.

And I wonder, how in heaven can an arsonist live with something like that? Obviously they don't care about the loss of precious possessions, the loss of homes, safety, the loss of things that can't be replaced. The life of animals they don't care much about either. But how in heaven can you live with the knowledge you killed people? I don't think an "oopsie" will do. Boy I hope they get them and put them for long long years to come in jail.

We are safe here, be it that our oldest daughter wasn't able to come home. The highway is closed down, so are most of the other roads out of town, trains don't run either. And everything is filthy with black soot.

Picture taken in the afternoon. It should have been still sunny. A moment before it was, then the sun went away and the light turned more and more orange. This picture shows pretty well the correct color of what we saw



20 Minutes later it was dark. While there should be normal daylight still




The next morning

What concerns stitching, I finished page 5 of "Coming to Life. 11 more pages to go. I also finished a biscornu that I started while being with my Dad in hospital. But I can't show a picture of that. It's for an exchange.

My father is doing better but my parents are looking forward to go home next week. With him being out of breath so easy, we can't do much. There is no German tv, they don't speak a word English and they just want to get home - back to their normal lives. Which is understandable.