Really Not How I Like to Wake Up

We slept in a little on Sunday morning. It was very cool here overnight and it just felt great to linger under the warm blankets. But then I heard the sound of cockatoos landing on the second floor balcony - just outside our bedroom. We don't want to encourage them to hang around, so I got up and poked my head out of the door to shoo them off and...

SMOKE!  There strong smell of smoke in the air, and a bluish haze.

Stephen moved faster than I thought was humanly possible- had Laka and George in their carriers within 2 minutes while I checked the CFA website. No reports of bushfire in our area - so I stepped outside again and sniffed the air again. Definitely a lot of smoke, and you could see it in the air.

As it turned out, all of Melbourne was covered in smoke from the Gippsland fires (to our south east).

The smoke hung around for a couple of days, but it's clear today. I took a photo of the ridge opposite ours on Sunday and again today. Here's the one from today:

And here's what it looked like on Sunday: