Woke up to an eerie light glowing in the darkness. Took a moment to focus and realised that the world outside was … orange!!

The last time this happened was in 2003 and was from the massive bushfires in the local area … so a moment of panic until I realise that I can taste and smell – not smoke – but sand.

The sand storm that has been raging across the earstern States of Australia, originating in South Australia, had finally arrived.

Visibility was down to 200 metres and all airports in our region closed.

The sand storm, when it passed through lower/mid NSW was white.

Why did we wake up to bright orange?

Overnight it had hit outback NSW and sucked up tonnes of red earth, stripping the land bare of top soil, before raging onwards and upwards across the State.

Everything was coated, thickly, in red sand. It was hard to see and harder to breath. The winds were gale force. Miserable for sure.

By 3 p.m. however the skies were lightening and the sky peaked through. By 4 p.m. or so it had reached Queensland, to wreck havoc up there.

Pollution counts were 1500 times higher than normal. 1500!!!!

A surreal day for sure.

I enjoy reading blogs … I love to peer into other people’s lives and to live vicariously through them, to be encouraged by them, to be entranced by them, to have my heart lightened by them … these are just a couple that I enjoy.  I hope you do too.

Kathy Neudorf – photographer with wonderous vision

I can has cheezburger – cat funnies

Patti Flynn – the daily life of eco friendly soapmaker

Gardengurl – the musings of a extraordinary gardener

So my husband and I went to our little local community zoo today.  It’s a small zoo, takes maybe an hour to get around it.  But its a lovely way to spend an hour and of course supports the local community.

A surprisingly active koala,  two orphaned baby kangaroos, lots of albino wallabies, some sweet monkeys, lots of beautiful birds, small and large … an emu surprised my husband by reaching through the fence and grabbing for food when he had his attention elsewhere, laughed and laughed at that.  A cockatoo wanting a head scratch was really sweet.  Two juvenile monkeys were hysterical to watch as they ran all over the joint playing and teasing each other.  Some sweet sweet sweet baby emus although I think I may have been the attraction for them in the window – or rather the mirrors on my skirt – they all rushed over to have a look at me.

It was a lovely way to spend an hour and I thoroughly recommend supporting local zoos this way.

I just love this site … but then I admit to being a little cat crazy myself!!

I can has cheezeburger?

My own two girls who’ve been lolcatted.

I love it!

I am far from being a great gardener … but I do enjoy it when my garden is happy and healthy.  At the moment my winter blooming double camellia is so heavy in blooms that its weighing down the branches.  But its a very pretty display.

So this year has been a series of extremes in terms of the weather.

At Christmas we went west to outback NSW … where children as old as three and four had never seen rain. Everything was parched, not a drop of water to be seen in the many creeks and dams we passed on the roadway. Lagoons bone dry. And the wildlife suffering because of it. All very sad sights.

But then  June 8 rolls around and with it does a 1 in 30 year storm event that left us in quite a state, our home damaged, my husband stranded, me stoopidly driving out at the height of the storm to rescue said stranded husband, and then we were 8 weeks on partial power and being forced to have our home re-wired and part of our roof replaced.

We were lucky. We could have had it a lot worse.  People died in this storm.  A huge ore carrier was beached and for a while it was touch and go whether or not there’d be environmental strife as a result.  But we weren’t injured.  Ok, we were inconvenienced, but we discovered that our friends really cared for us and they helped us through, we are no longer at threat of having our house burn down, we have new wiring and a brand new pretty power pole in our front yard.  I want to paint it purple.

All very much an experience and definitely from one extreme to another.  Mother Nature truly at her most awesome.

Our thoughts and prayers though to others who suffered loss, damage, and loss of loved ones during the storms.  Also our thoughts to those who have struggled on for years through a harsh drought.  Let’s hope we get some respite from the extremes of the weather… and soon.