"You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not wait, just learn to become quiet and still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice, it will roll in extacy at your feet"

"An integral being knows without going, sees without looking and accomplishes without doing"

I don't know if it is our connection or the isp that is having a problem but connecting to the internet is almost impossible for the past couple of days which is why I haven't answered your cpmment or note. Sorry. I hope we have a better connection some time soon!

It was like the opening scene of Apocalypse Now around this gaff yesterday, in mood not literally.
the heat was thudding down in blistering wave upon wave. originally coming from the desert climes I become energised with the heat and exerted much morning energy house cleaning and gardening. After a while my resources were depleted and the old war wounds started acting up so I retreated to darkened rooms to watch and listen to the 2nd Ashes test. My new computer is having trouble coping with the heat and one fo its internal fans is already playing up so I mostly stayed off the machina.
I had the radio on in the kitchen and the television on in the lounge room. Radio commentary is so much better (entertaining) than TV. But the two are slightly out of sync.
What with the heat, the drama of the game preceded by the interminable tedium of England’s 'safe' batting tactics and the out of mesh audio commentary interspersed all too regularly with the execrable commercial breaks on the TV and the ABC Radio News on the hour (beep beep beep, "and here is the news") reporting the onslaught of bushfires, gaining momentum and threatening the destruction of everything and everyone. Imminently from the impression of the radio broadcasts.
‘You must decide if you will evacuate or stay and defend your property. You must decide now and act. If you are in a fire danger zone you must stay out of your vehicle, remain in the safety of a dwelling and do not wear any synthetic clothing. Prepare for an ember attack. Once the fire has passed patrol your property regularly in case of ember infiltration. This is a day of total fire ban. You must not light any fires, even a candle. Do not operate any machinery that produces excessive heat or sparks. Do not cut grass with a lawn mower’ and on and on it went in a controlled but alarming cadence until the cricket started again; over and over, instructions, directions, warnings and descriptions of the multitude of small infernos gathering pace and swarming together to cause a giant conflagration! Smoke was, apparently, blanketing the city from miles around, We were told not to ring the emergency number (000) any more to report smoke, ‘only ring if you actually see flames and can’t put them out yourself’.

Meanwhile on the cricket England was all out for 129. I spent the afternoon writhing in anguish over the thought of all the poor creatures consumed or hindered by fire; and cheering and marvelling as our team batted its way back from the fear of near certain loss only the day before at the Adelaide Cricket Ground in South Australia. Bad luck to the soggy isles, at least there are still three more matches to go and anything can happen! We may all be burnt to cinders by bushfire for example.
We are calling in fire fighters from America and Canada; our NewZealand brothers and sisters have already come to our aide. The heading of the journal comes from a comment in the article below made by a survivor of a previous fire.

ABC NEWS

things could be much worse as this online documentary about the Black Friday Fires of 1839 shows. ...

Although, they are now saying this could be the worst fire season ever

Crescent of smoke from the fires of Victoria (Photo from NASA)

From the Earth Observatory