I was going to write something whinging about how I broke the Mystical Garden (picture above, and lesson number one: don't move them around, or the fluffy crystal stuff falls right off).

But perspective is an interesting thing.

Just as dusk was disappearing, the sound of fire sirens and ambulances pulled me out of the book I was reading and I went outside to see what was happening. I mean, just this afternoon I'd been talking with friends about the impending bushfire season.

Across the valley, there was a huge plume of smoke going up. I dashed up the road and there was more smoke and embers flying up into the air in a wooded area. Horror...

I went up to a neighbour's house and she called me up onto the balcony to see things better. That's when I realised it wasn't a forest fire, but a house fire. The fire teams got it under control relatively quickly, but with how intense the flames were I don't think the house would have survived.

Hopefully there wasn't anyone killed or seriously injured in it.