Dad's Family

Left: Me, Helen, Grandpa Lou in their garden near Port Sorrel, Tassie

Middle: Uncle Steve, Mandy, Mattie, Ben, Kim, Uncle Keith in Bicheno (Dad's brothers and nephews) on Farm on Denison River, 6km north of Bicheno, Tasmania

Right: Me and Granny Enid

Jack's missing (Gran's guy) cos he doesn't like photos of himself..

I stayed with these guys a few days before Christmas. They have a terrible drought going on and also massive bushfires raging. There was lots of anxiety about the fires coming so close to their houses with much activity and emergency planning going on. When you really get down to it - all that really needed to be saved from the houses if there was a fire was the people, the pets, the photos and Gran's paintings. All of the junk we collect as we move through this life, the junk that brings us a sense of order and control is an illusion and it's expendable. I guess that's all that's left of us when we die too - our people, animals, photos and creations.

Luckily the wind changed, there was 8mm of rain and the fire was narrowly diverted from their property.