This time the fire danger had been moved to Severe (which is in the middle of the scale). Fortunately, I was at home, so we would have had a car had we needed to leave in a hurry. Equally fortunately, there was no need for a rapid evacuation. We could see a fire in the afternoon, but it was All The Way Over There - and would have had to have got through Ballarat before it got to us. This seemed unlikely so we didn't worry about it. And also fortunately, the wind wasn't too bad around us.
I got up in the middle of the night because the dogs were barking. Not only that, they were growling. They, and I, went out to see what was what. I couldn't see anything at all, but they were clearly exercised about something. I think it might have been a fox. There are foxes around and we have seen fox droppings. I was more interested in the wind. If it had been blowing like that before (the poor, pathetic excuse for) a cool change had arrived on Friday evening, I wouldn't have waited for an alert, or signs of smoke. I would have put the dogs, Jim and the important things (document dossier, passports, electronic devices, Farley - and Bernard, Sleepy and Chickpea who are visiting until Freyja and Simon get back in September) and gone to Melbourne or Ballarat.
By Saturday all was calm on the weather front. I can't say that it was significantly cooler but at least the fire danger had dropped and I wasn't getting Extreme Heat alerts on my emergency app. Mind you, it's amazing what you get used to. As long as it isn't humid or very windy, I don't usually notice the heat much - unless I have to be particularly active.
On Sunday Lindsey and I took off nice and early. We called at the flat, where were staying our cousins Ruth and Andy from the UK. We moseyed on down to the Mornington Peninsula and up Arthur's Seat. This time it wasn't raining. It was, in fact, a nice day. The city was covered in haze but at least you could see the beaches around the bay. And then we went to Stella and Tony's place, armed with enough food for Sunday lunch for an army. Ian and Jim came down with Rupert and Hugo. Wendy was already there. Simon came with Jacob and Noodle. And Matthew, Belinda, Sage and William (but not their dogs) were also there. It was a lovely afternoon. Noisy, bibulous, festive. Ian, Lindsey, Ruth and Andy took Rupert and Hugo for a walk down towards the beach. I think all the excitement wore them out (the dogs, that is, not the humans). Jim and I took them back to Mount Helen in Lindsey's car. I looked around at one point and they were both sound asleep, wrapped around each other. Lindsey, Ian, Ruth and Andy went back to the flat, then Lindsey and Ian came up to Mount Helen in a complicated shuffling of cars. Ruth and Andy have the Honda. They've gone down the Great Ocean Road this week.
Lindsey is on holiday this week. Thus she wasn't working last evening. Before she started working on Tuesday evenings, she, Ian, Simon and his children would meet at The Fox for dinner. It's a pub about a 2k walk from the flat. So yesterday evening, Lindsey, Ian and I walked the nearly 2k to The Fox and met Bethan and Jacob. Simon wasn't available. I had steak and chips. And very nice it was too. We should go more often. The lady waiting at our table recognised us (although not me, I would imagine :-) ) and asked where we had all been. Simon obviously does go in from time to time - she asked if he was joining us, and called him by his name!!
My breakfast view this morning:
And a bit later:
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