WOW for the animals

A few years ago our older son gave me this replica road sign, so I photographed it with one of my Aussie native grevilleas. The bees love that shrub - they didn't take kindly to being disturbed for a photo shoot! Signs like this warning of wombats - kangaroos - emus and other wildlife are common along Australian roads. Our native animals regard the road as their territory as much as the bush is. Today's WOW is for them.

In the Victorian fires of the last few days 126 people have died and people are still missing. Nearly 800 homes, to say nothing of businesses, farms, government buildings, schools, have gone. Two small towns don't exist any more. Many fires are still burning; it could be a long time before they are all finally out as some of the country is hilly and inaccessible. My heart goes out to all the families affected. There have also been countless animals lost, native animals (I know a wildlife rescue/carer in Victoria, thankfully she is nowhere near the fires this time), farm animals, domestic pets. A woman who does amazing machine embroidery, Lynne Stone, has lost her house and RV - look at the embroidery photos on her website - we saw some of her wonderful work at an exhibition a couple of years ago and could not believe that her flowers and plants weren't real.

Thank you to the folk who left comments after my last post, people all over Australia were in shock last night, we were both in tears watching the news.

On a slightly happier note - yesterday I started to pin the lining into my new bag and it didn't fit; although I had measured at least three times and cut once, somewhere I had made a mistake. Too small. The heat had fried my brain and I was working with less brain cells than usual. I could have taken it apart and tried to salvage it which would have been tricky as the corners had been boxed and cut off, or I could buy more fabric. Guess what I did.

Jennifer