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Thanks Heavenly
The smoke has been pretty dreadful and a bit sick making (headaches and nausea sometimes). Yesterday turned out to be a lot less intense than predicted, heat wise, and then a nice southerly (our cooler winds) came through so that was a relief to us. Not much relief for the fighters to the north of us tho’. While it relieves us of the smoke, it also pushes the huge fire in a northerly direction into more inacessible wilderness. It’s grown to over 120000ha now. Full on. One of my sisters lives in a place further north again that is currently between 2 huge active fire zones... needless to say she is not there right now!I have an air-conditioned space so have been able to shelter from the smoke on the worst days.
But wait there’s more!
Serioulsly tho,
There is a big old almost dead tree here which, while it is super beautiful, is right next to the driveway and has been looking like dropping for sometime. It’s big enough we can’t reach each others hands around it. These big old nearly dead trees will stand for a long time looking like they will come down and ‘never’ do, until they do. The last few months we’ve noticed a visual shift and it has been audibly cracking here n there, quite loudly at times.
Two days ago it came down - what a f’ken sound! Amazingly, it hit nothing. It just tipped the edge of the carport (without really damaging it) landed accros the drive way and in amongst its branches my large birdbath was unscathed, as was the native Blueberry Ash that we planted the year we moved in, in the centre of the driveway turning circle.
At the moment it happened the lovely other and I were sitting quietly talking, having just shared some DDa mixed w Bubba Hash. When we heard the first 2 cracks we met eyes and it was like we both knew exactly what was happening and bolted to our pre-designated ‘safe spots’ while the huge thing came crashing down.
It is such a huge relief! We’ve had it assessed by arborists and it was beyond being able to be climbed and brought down, and we would have had to clear half the block to get a cherry picker in here to do it. Not to mention it would have cost about $1000 dollars and even if we’d had that money they were dubious about it due to it’s size and oldness.
So we’re feeling both besieged and blessed. That big old thing was a source of anxiety every time someone stood under it or insisted on leaving their car under it ...we’d say - “don’t park there, that tree could come down or drop limbs any minute”, and folks would be all like... “oh I’m sure it’ll be fine!” Thankfully it always was
It completely blocked the driveway on both sides so we - well the lovely other actually - had to do some work with the “ladies chainsaw” (small electrc one
) to clear us an exit point... because... fires...
general stress in the air is pretty thickYes it does! I believe it protected the White WIdow in the 10gallon pot really well last season and it’s doing the same for these. I even have some brown paper I clip to the front of teh very tiny pots. It’s to stop teh sun from beating on the black plastic. Stuff still gets warm but it doesn’t get burn-y.
What you describe is pretty much how I approach it - the small pot, then transplant in to the raised bed. Last year i used 1 gallons and this year I’m using half gallons for the regulars because they won’t get as long to veg. The one gallons took too long for me last year - i want, ideally, about 4 weeks in teh pots to establish them and then into to ground. Next year I’ll do all Fems and that schedule should go more smoothly.
WIth the small pots i like to fit them all in the milk crate and press them right up to each other. That way they shade each other in the heat and keep each other warm on early season cold nights. It also means the sack is around the crate and not the pots so there is still lots of airflow - plus it’s super easy to move them around
Update addendum...
I ended up pulling the pics off the SLR this morning. Most I ditched because, well, the moment has passed, but there are one or 2 I’m fond of so...
Lilly and PCK have come along quite a lot since this one, but I love how it shows Lilly really getting into it! Lilly, on the left, came up a day later thn PCK, on the right.
And just a couple of intimate looks...
SP x WX
Purple Satellite
And to reinstate an actual critter, for the week... These are a rare sighting and there are 2 of them around all day at the moment: a scarlet honeyeater. Maybe they’re fire refugees from up north, or maybe they’re just here because the wetlands have dried up and we still have water! The birds are all sharing the bird baths much more than usual and without the usual fights. You’ll notice in this photo there is also a grey fantail right there (to the right of the honeyeater and a bit out of focus). They were all just hanging out together
I recorded the Pipe Masters finals day from Hawai’i last night. Time to make coffee, pack a bowl and enjoy the surfing!
Thanks for the good vibes 
Glad to have you along for the ride.
As I’m writing them i can tell how much they must invoke that - but it’s only reflective of events, not our mood. We are both really chilled out about it all and we’re actually so happy about the tree and that it hadn’t hit anything. 
Just gotta ride the waves, right! 
what brand did you get out of interest. Ours is the Bosch one, bought about 5 years ago and it’s been fairly temperamental TBH. Was supposed to be the better one at the time. It seems good ATM tho and worked when we needed it yesterday so that’s good!
I like the sound too - seems more "civilised", wot?
Still got all my digits and important appendages, too. Go figure. Dunno. It's probably a good thing that I didn't have kids, huh?
This picture is as smooth as I got it.