#weekendcoffeeshare by Part Time Monster
If we were having coffee it would be a leisurely affair – no coffee on the go this week.
It’s been a week of photo blogging with WordPress’s Photo 101 course. I’ve enjoyed interacting with other bloggers in The Commons and posted every day. The post I most enjoyed writing was A Lullaby for my Senses, where the assignment was to play around with a photo’s orientation using the theme of Water.
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If we were having coffee I’d tell you about the Cape Peninsula fires that have devastated a large part of one of the most scenic parts of the Cape. In January I was taken on a drive from Kalk Bay, past Noordhoek half-way up Chapman’s Peak. We stopped in the middle and looked over at Hout Bay. The photo below shows the view to Hout Bay from Chapman’s Peak a month ago.
This is what the area looks like now – click on the image or here for one of the many stories and photos.
So that blaze was controlled but more have sprung up. It’s exceptionally hot and dry in the Cape Peninsula – and thunderstorms have not helped quench the fires but have started new ones.
Firefighters, professional and volunteer, have worked many long hours, heroically. The communities have helped with keeping them sustained with food and drink. Sadly, a helicopter pilot was killed this morning when his chopper crashed while extinguishing a fire in Cape Point.
If we were having coffee I’d say that while fires happen every year, this year it’s been particularly devastating.
I feel for you. I live in Tucson, where wild fire is one of our greatest dangers. We have been lucky for a couple of years, but it can be devastating when it gets out of control. So sorry this beautiful place has been so damaged.
It’s such a pity and will take a while to get back to its former glory. I feel for the animals that have died or been misplaced, no matter how small.
Wildfires are so devastating. We don’t know, not even the experts know, what is going to happen, where the fire will go and for how long it will burn. I live near the forest below Mt. Hood in Oregon. We often have wild forest fires up a ways from me. It’s very unnerving because, while the experts say they will let it burn because it’s no danger to human life, what happens when the wind changes and it becomes a threat to human life? Will they be able to stop the fire in time? It’s a scary thing.
That’s right, the wind can change everything, it can become unpredictable. One hopes that the experts are right.