Fire is Beautiful

It's weird.  I didn't really appreciate the beauty of fire until I became a Firey.  Not unless it was warming my backside in the potbelly stove at home. That doesn't mean I'm anywhere near turning into a firebug, and I'll always treat it with caution and good sense, but look at the life and colour in this:

I particularly like the last one, it looks like a waving person and reminds me of this meme:

This was one of the two bonfires I lit on Wednesday.  This was the other one:

They went up very well indeed, despite there still being quite a bit of rain around.  From now on we'll still be collecting the branches, sticks and fallen leaves, but putting them in the horse float to take to the tip for mulching.  Still, it is nice to get a bit of a headstart by doing some burning in winter.

Andy from our Brigade got this lovely pic of fire in a grass tree the other day at a controlled burn.  Grass trees burn fast and hard, but they come back amazingly well.

Controlled burns are something we do here to help lower the flammable materials in the bush so that bushfires are less likely.   Our bush is mostly adapted to handle fires, so it isn't as disastrous at is would be in, say, a conifer forest.  There are two sets of opinions about as to whether it is good for the bush to burn it too often, but while the jury is out, we'll keep doing it.  It's not like we get to the same area too often. Some reserves haven't been burned in 35 years and more. A cool burn every now and then has to be better than a raging bushfire that kills even the adapted trees, and with the climate getting drier here, we are getting worse fires every year.

This lovely shot was taken at a night burn our brigade did last week.  I'm finally feeling much more consistently myself so hopefully can go to the next one.  I feel left out.  :)

And for a change of colour, here is our little oak tree up at the block, putting out all its lovely fresh leaves and feeling springy.

I'm writing again!  Woo hoo!   114 379 words as of right now, with a bit more writing to do today if I get the chance between the chores.  It's a chorey time of year, both at home and at the Brigade, and an Equipment Officer's work is never done!