Superstition

We've only had two decent rains since before Christmas. The forest around us grows drier every day, it seems. The forecast for the next few days calls for hot and sunny. I'm just hoping we don't get "windy" to go with it.

According to the CFA (Country Fire Authority) website, there are three big bushfires still out of control in the state. The biggest is in the Baw Baw district to our east (quite a ways off). It's burned over 82,000 hectares. I found an online calculator to convert hectares to square miles, trying to get some idea of what that means. The calculator told me that 82,000 hectares works out to 316 square miles!

My car is covered in dust - a normal condition during summer when our dirt road is a factory producing fine powdery dust which flies all around when you drive on it. The last time I washed it was the day before our first good rainstorm this year. Coincidence? Of course! But yesterday I decided to hook up the hose to our rain tank and rinse it off, and for good measure I gave all my potted plants a good soak, too. After all - you wash your car and it rains, right?

The effect? We woke up to find a thick cloud laying on the mountain, but no rain. So much for superstition.