between car accidents and rushing sisters to the ER with kidney stones, it hasn't left much time for making pictures! thank goodness everyone is ok, and i have a back log of bunting madness! this is a new addiction i have discovered, and now am going flag crazy. thinking of setting up a wee online store to off load some - until then, i have been filling my apartment with gay little flags all around!
kent and i went on a sunshiney road trip around regional victoria, and stopped in bush fire ravaged
Marysville. since the catastrophic bush fires in february 2009, the town has been slowly rebuilding. i had never been there before, but what was once an apparently beautiful and quaint tourist strip, is now empty. aside from 2 cafes and a new supermarket, the rest is empty blocks of land and a comforting amount of construction sites. so devastating, yet an element of positivity hangs in the air.
the landscape is truly bizarre, and strangely beautiful. as all the trees are now mere scorched trunks, the regrowth is remarkable, and now the forest looks like some fantastical other-world. all the leaves are growing back like giant wooly coats, as if to protect what's left of the trees. it is so melancholy, but also so wonderful to see the new life emerging from this area. if you're wondering what to do with your day - go and take a drive, and support one of the local towns by going and having some lunch and doing some tourist shopping! (mmm - ham sandwiches!)
