Second-Hand Smoke
Yesterday I took Cindy for a walk in the evening. It had been a lovely day, sunny but not too hot and on this summer evening there were still lots of people at the beach. There were kids playing in the creek, families out riding bikes together while others played table tennis in their gardens. In our street, some kids were having a game of street cricket with wheelie bins for wickets. In other words typical Aussie summer holiday activities.
Late that night when I let Cindy out for the last time I noticed that it was very smoky outside and this morning it was even worse. There are a couple of fires going locally but when I checked the local Facebook pages I learned that these fires had been downgraded. The smoke was not coming from them. This smoke is apparently blanketing the whole northwest coast of Tasmania and it is either coming from a big bushfire in eastern Tasmania or it is drifting across from the mainland where I am sure that you all know there are horrendous fires.
Friday afternoon on our deck 
Saturday morning on the deck.
Here you can see the difference. I took the first photo on Friday afternoon while I was sitting outside for a while. The second one was this morning. The photo doesn’t show the smoke that well, it’s like cloud cover. It doesn’t look as bad here as it did around Geeveston last summer but it is already affecting the air quality here. The photos cannot give you an idea of how bad it smells out there. I was only outside for a few minutes before I had to come back indoors to get away from the smell. I was already finding the air hard to breathe. The effects of these fires carry a long way.
The fires in NSW and Victoria are by no means under control and in fact, the experts say that today will be a worse day than New Year’s Eve was. There are fires in South Australia, Western Australia and here in Tasmania. Smoke may be with us for a long time.
Our Other Blog: Two Sisters and Two Points of View 
From the pictures we’ve been getting here, it looks like the entire east coast of Australia in on fire. Not that long ago, our entire west coast, as well as a good deal of the middle, was on fire. We’ve been lucky to NOT be on fire.
It is warmer than it should be for this time of year and much wetter than it has ever been — and last August was the hottest month ever recorded in New England. There is so much flooding all across this continent, it seems desperately unfair we can’t send all that spare water where it is needed.
I’m glad you aren’t immediately on fire, but I fear for your country, your ocean. And our world.
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Pretty much the whol eastern coast of Victoria and southern NSW is on fire and there are other fires elsewhere. The vast majority of Australians live in along the coastal strip and of course it is holiday time here, school holidays till the end of January. They were talking about needing to get about 100,000 people out of the affected areas. I am safe but I don’t forget that this area is surrounded by a national park too and it’s dry. It could easily be me standing on the beach waiting for a boat.
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What a horrible thing is that smoke. Wishing the fires gone and pure sweet air to cover your part of the world.
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We are getting a wind change this afternoon which should blow some of it away but the poor people on the mainland will be dealing with it for weeks.
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Smoke can make for beautiful sunrise/sunsets but oh so dangerous to breathe. Stay safe 😀
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No fires where I am Cee but summer will never feel safe any more.
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