Catching Lightning

Thursday's sheet lightning

 

Hey folks,

As many of you might know, Victoria got HOT last week. I've been simmering through five days of soaring temperatures, which bottomed out at 29 degrees during the coldest hours of the night. We had a relatively cool start on Monday, at only 36 degrees, then the mercury began to climb. It didn't cool down until Friday afternoon, when 44 degrees became 30; the cool change blew in about 6pm and we were all relieved.

Still, I actually really enjoyed the week. The scorched ground seemed so Australian, and even though we were worried about the fires springing up around us, it was a great show of humanity, with hundreds of volunteers stepping up to support the CFA and helping to protect people's homes.

Bush fires out here can be started so easily. In my opinion, the most common cause is as simple as flicking a cigarette butt out the window; even though we're on a total fire ban, people still smoke in their cars. When the grass is nothing more than hay, it only takes one spark to set the fields alight.

Another cause became apparent most nights last week; dry lightning. As dusk drew in, we started to hear distant rumbles of thunder, and we watched the clouds stumble over each other to crowd the evening sky. At first, there was only sheet lightning, staining the clouds purple and lighting up the sky. Then, over the hills, the forks lit up. The first night, we just watched and listened, and felt the thunder shake the house. But on Thursday evening, I ventured outside with my camera.

Several years ago, a flash storm in Greece struck up one night while we were eating dinner. It was the first year I'd had an SLR, and I was lucky enough to capture a Rip in the Sky, featured here. Since then, I've never had my camera on hand during lightning shows, so I've never been able to confirm whether it was talent or sheer luck that caught that image. So on Thursday, I stood outside, watching two spots in the sky for lightning.

After thirty minutes of holding up my camera, my arms were aching and I was getting pretty frustrated. I'd caught two mediocre flashes of sheet lightning - nothing to brag about - and I decided to give up and go inside. Five minutes after I sat down, however, the sky began to light up with electricity. I grabbed my camera and ran back outside.

I'm so glad I did; my second attempt proved more fruitful, if not bountiful, and I was ecstatic to capture this beautiful bolt across the big Australian sky.

Lucky Catch

I am now able to conclude that catching lightning is hard work, it hurts your arms, gets your feet wet when the heavens open and makes you paranoid about getting electrocuted!

Last week, despite the heat and the worry about bush fires, was great. I'm proud of my photo, even if it's not perfect, and it's nice that things have cooled down a little now! Victoria is exhausted and a little charred, but the CFA have worked tirelessly and quickly and saved as many people's homes as they could, so they have my heartfelt gratitude.

Stay cool, everyone, and I'll be back soon,

Em

Happy New Year

The Grange in Adelaide

I'm a bit late with this seasons greetings, but since I'm one of these travelling types now, I'm sure you can forgive me.

Happy New Year, everyone, and I hope you've all had wonderful Christmases, Hanukahs, Yules and whatever else you celebrate. It's been a busy month for me and as it always does, the time is flying. Christmas was a hot one here, and unfortunately, my uncle was working, so we had to wait for him to come home. We had a lovely day anyway, and we all spoilt each other with an excessive amount of gifts and plenty of food and love. We're still working through our Christmas stash. Slowly.

In the short period between Christmas and New Year, I managed to fit quite a lot in. My auntie and I took a trip into the city to catch the third day of the boxing day test match, and thoroughly enjoyed the cricket. I'm an Aussie supporter, as my love for cricket was only discovered four years ago in Cairns; to me, it seems natural to support the team that caught my interest.

It was another very hot day, but the atmosphere was fantastic and even though we were sticky and sweltering, we had a really great time. ALL the boys put on a great show.

 

 

After the cricket, I hopped on a plane to Adelaide to visit my lovely friend Jacquie, who before now, I haven't seen since we were both in year nine together. I spent New Years with her and her boyfriend, family and friends, and we spent the night on the Grange Beach, somewhere between a dozen sets of fireworks and the ocean. It was a beautiful warm evening, and we swam until it got dark, ate cheese and crackers, home made chicken burgers and hand picked cherries.

 

The New Year gang, minus me

As the sun went down, I grabbed my camera to get this shot.

 

The night was perfect, since I'd been worried about how I'd celebrate New Years. I'm not much of a party girl, but I don't like to sit around and ignore it. As it happens, Jacquie recently stopped drinking, so it turned out we were the perfect match!

 

While I was in Adelaide, Jacquie unfortunately had to work a fair bit, but we made up for it by spending plenty of time on the beach, eating great food and watching lots of Disney movies. Throw in a couple of hysterical games of Trivial Pursuit and you've got the perfect recipe for a great Radelaide holiday.

 

I'm back in Melbourne now, and although the weather was a bit miserable when I first got back, it's certainly heating up now and it looks like we're in for a great summer. In the last two days, we've been to Melbourne Zoo, which was awesome, and St Kilda beach for a few hours. Let's keep the review short; you'll get bored of my zoo stories otherwise.

 

I was so excited at both Adelaide and Melbourne zoos to see that they had Gila Monsters.

 

 

These are one of only two venomous lizards in the world, and also one of the first dangerous animals I ever learnt about. I've never seen one in the wild, so to see four, two at each zoo, in the space of a week was mind blowing. I love these things.

 

Melbourne Zoo also had the most gorgeous baby Asian elephant running about in the sun, three big male lions scrapping over lunch, and a lovely brown bear, to name but a few of the sights. Adelaide Zoo only topped this with their two Giant Pandas, who were magnificent, but I felt a little sorry for them (and the rest of the animals), because they never get a moment's peace!

 

Yesterday, we topped off the week with a stroll down St Kilda beach. Here in Melbourne, it's considered to be a less than perfect beach; my cousin warned us to watch out for needles in the sand, but when we got there, I thought it was lovely. It's a city beach, so yes, it is surrounded by roads, cars and industrial areas, but the water was lovely and clear, and the beach was packed, so it can't be that bad!

 

As beaches go, I rate this one pretty highly.

My auntie bought me lunch, and we sunbathed for a bit, got a little burnt, and paddled along a sand bank. It was a lovely way to spend a sunny day. Today is a bit hotter, and we're planning to spend most of it just relaxing, but we've got quite a bit planned for the next month.

I've booked my trip to Sydney for the beginning of February, my auntie and I are planning an overnight trip to Brisbane (to visit another zoo), and my friend Courtney and I are talking about heading to the Gold Coast for a few days.

Anyway, that's my adventures to date, and as always, I'll keep you updated as often as I can.

Thanks for reading, guys,

Stay cool!

Em