Pic by Gemma Wiseman
~
Like Paradise Found,
I too have been wondering how to write a post about
the blackest day in Victorian history.
The day began with the heatwave on Saturday 7th February, 2009
and is still evolving.
It is a little like
the longest day in the longest night.
BUSHFIRE!
The very word tolls like a forlorn bell!
~
TV channels spill out horror story after horror story.
In Yea, people are living in tents waiting for the next stage,
whatever that is.
(Many slept in a car till tents became available.)
Communities like Narbethong, Marysville, Strathewan and Kinglake
have been totally erased from existance.
But the fire burns on still.
One survivor commented that the sky seemed to be raining fire.
As I write, the news says 131 people have perished
and the number is still climbing.
For details of this surreal legacy of Saturday's heatwave,
see The Age newspaper media reports directly from Melbourne, Australia.
Even a popular newsreader from Channel 9 ~
Brian Naylor ~
perished with his wife at Kinglake.
We all have some sensitive connections with someone affected by the fires!
~
And so, this post is reaching out
to all those still fighting to survive.
We are with you!
We hope with you!
~
Not all reds are fires
Not all reds are danger zones
Somewhere sleeps the rose
~
AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes
I love a sunburnt country / A land of sweeping plains / Of ragged mountain ranges / Of droughts and flooding rains / I love her far horizons / I love her jewel-sea / Her beauty and her terror / The wide brown land for me / ~ Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968)
Monday, February 9, 2009
A Special Post ~ Bushfire in My Victoria, Australia
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Tasmania
A place of beauty in the Western Tiers
Tasmania
View near Blackwood Park Cottages, Mole Creek
New Landscapes
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The Inner Light of the Spirit
The Spirit of Inner Light
Lady Gemma
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14 comments:
A beautiful tribute, Gemma. My thoughts are with my fellow Aussies tonight.
You have captured the awful times. May they soon be over.
it is so so difficult to believe that a forest fire can wipe out a whole community in a place so civilised, so orderly, so friendly, full of people whose bronzed faces always carry a welcoming smile, such as that of australia - i wish it to end as son as it can
I've been following the news on this horrendous fire. It's so hard to believe this can happen today. My thoughts and hopes are with you all.
what a touching post gemma.. i know how deeply this has hurt you,, and i am hoping that the worst is over and people are able to go on.. what a devastation... i will be thinking of all of you...
I was thinking about you all weekend and wondering if you lived nearby. Now I know.
Your words are beautiful and I got goosebumps reading them.
Such a sad and unnecessary event!
You've been in my thoughts and my heart goes out to everyone affected as I watch the news of Australian wildfires in horror ... remembering the devastating fires not so long ago burning all over Southern California.
Hugs and blessings,
I hope it'll end soon. My sympathy to Australians who lost love ones and homes.
So sad to see the devistation, my heart goes out to my Brothers and Sisters in Australia. We too in the states have the devistating fires in our Southern California nearly every summer...a devistating fire in our Yellowstone Nation Forest and now a doom hangs over Alaska with a volcano ready to erupt, with thousands of people in Anchorage living in it's shadow.
Our overpopulation has left a giant footprint on our planet, as we deplete our natural resources and carve out populations where natural fires would occur regularly.
In California, homes planted on hillsides covered in dry scrub, homes built in heavily forested woodlands too near the treelines and and like us in the Mississippi River bottoms, altering the natural course of the river to suit our needs and living too close to her regularly flooded banks, disrupts Nature's natural course. We have doomed ourselves to these destructions by our overpopulations and uncaring urban sprawl.
It is sad however to see human and animal suffering during these tragedies...our thoughts and prayers our with you and yours friend!
Hugs...s
PS...I think those orbs are Chinese paper lights...cool!
Greetings Gemma... How sobering, the fires and devastation. My thoughts are with those who suffer. How beautiful your closing words:
"Not all reds are fires
Not all reds are danger zones
Somewhere sleeps the rose"
You are always welcome to stop by Image & Verse to visit, or just to say hello.
...rob
Somehow given what has happened the poem at the end is sad.
Hi Gemma, I introduced my students to your haiku this afternoon. :)
Beautifully simple and poignant. My heart aches for Victoria and its people.
We are all Aussies today, and for the duration. Our hearts ache for you! Aloha from Hawaii
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