Hi Susie.  Thanks for your comment re: the bushfires here.  I haven't been down to the 3 sisters yet, but I know that there was a spotfire not far from there.  I was amazed yesterday when I went for a walk and found that the fire had stopped just 3 large houseblocks from our place.  I hadn't realised that they were so close because I got home after the real danger had passed.  But as long as the fires don't hurt anyone or do too much damage to property, we have to live with them.  Fires are part of Australia.  Infact, many of the trees and bushes don't survive without fire, they need it to germinate their seeds, or to make them open their seed pods.  And the trees are amazing, within no time at all they have green shoots all over them, in contrast to the introduced species of trees which just die in a bushfire.  What I hate, though, is when the fires are deliberately lit.  There is a rumour that this last fire up here was lit by someone, I'm not sure whether they deliberately started a bushfire or whether it was accidental, but since it was a total fire ban day (do you get those, where you're not allowed to light fires in the open air because of extreme weather conditions?) lighting a fire for any reason would have been stupid.

Eh, I'll stop rambling on now.  Chris.