a boring but thankfully safe day today

Penny has been outside a few times in the hope of some human activity but I'm sitting inside away from the smoke that has blown over metropolitan Melbourne today. By some trick of the wind, we didn't get a lot of smoke from the dreadful fires of last weekend.
Of course, everyone's nervous, so the Country Fire Authority (CFA) site has a reassuring message that most of the smoke seen today is from burns that are intended to deprive the fires of fuel.

Smoke Information
Metropolitan Melbourne
The fires around Melbourne are generating a large amount of smoke. Residents in metropolitan Melbourne are advised that due to extent of bushfires around Victoria in the past week, they may be experiencing increased smoke from both going fires and fire suppression activities being undertaken by DSE and CFA fire crews.

Winds from either the north or east are likely to bring smoke into Melbourne. The smoke may be more noticeable at night or early morning when overnight inversions trap the smoke near ground level.

All day the light has been yellow, but Penny doesn't care. She wants to go somewhere.



She doesn't know how lucky she is to be bored. I was listening to the radio yesterday, which was broadcast from Warburton, a town waiting to know if the fires would swing around - they haven't, thank God - and the interviewer wished each person a boring day the next day. That's today, and so far, it's been quiet.

Not quiet, of course, for the people sitting by the bedsides of burn victims, or preparing funeral services, or sifting through the ashes of their homes.

I know how lucky we are. And I think constantly of those who will need help in the short term and in the long term.