Monday, March 16, 2009

Regeneration

I wish I had taken my camera so I would have photos to accompany this post.

Over the weekend Mr Bliss and I went for a drive out through the local areas affected by the recent bush fires. It was a real eye opener, with many houses spared but the surroundings burned right to the door.

Miles of fencing is gone but the farmers are working hard to get new posts and wire up. Many paddocks were stripped to the bare earth, but are now sporting a tinge of green after the recent rains.

Always amazing are the gum trees, which sprout shoots all the way up the trunk in order to get the tree functioning again. After it finally grows a new crown, these shoots all fall off when they are no longer needed.

Along the road sides, the bracken ferns' long green tendrils are reaching for the sky.

Nature is indeed a wonderful thing.

Not so wonderful are the stories of fence posts, laid out by farmers ready for 'planting' the next day, and stolen from the paddocks. Indeed, poor character will not improve in the face of such hardship. Thieves are thieves, and stay thieves, no matter how bad things get.


3 comments:

iODyne said...

Re looting of rebuilding materials: the courts are backlogged, the gaols are full, so bring back the Public Stocks.

Robyn Rinehart Art said...

Ah yes, the stocks! I mention them regularly during the fire season, and recommend them for the match striking arsonists.

Stand them up in Marysville or King Lake and to hell with political correctness. The police could stand by to referee.

Ann ODyne said...

Andrew HighRiser has posted on the contrasts in behaviour by people going back in to Kinglake.