More advent-ures in .... zzzzzzzzz ...

[blamebrampton]

Oh god it is so hot here I can barely function ... which is no help to those of you with two or three feet of snow, sorry!

A large part of NSW and Victoria is currently underwater, including half my mum's cousin's farm. Happily they have high territory, too, and lots of warning, so the goats and ponies are all dry. This is more than can be said for the livelihoods of many cereal farmers and the homes of many locals, which are all underwater, the poor buggers. Thankfully few lives lost as yet.

The one upside of floods is no fire (yet. If the water goes away and things grow quickly and then dry out before the hot season passes, March could be grim.) This is more than can be said for Israel. tsosh , news reports here say that the international effort combined with rain has seen the fires finally extinguished, is this true? So much devastation ... it's just awful.

If anyone knows of a good forest care group in Israel, I would like to send some of my Christmas money that way (says the atheist, look, it's ecumenical here!). A group that encourages natural regeneration rather than plants trees would be ideal, as the Carmel area says nature, not rows of pines.

Sorry for being such a craptastic commenter of late, I have melted. Monster and I spent yesterday competing for Sluggiest Mammal in the House, then Mr B came home and showed us how things were done.

Comments

[meredyth-13.livejournal.com]

I applaud quality slug-dom.

We have the muggiest muggy of muggydom here - fortunately the heat has mostly gone out of it because I've been crying and watching my rock salt lamp melting in my living room. (have i mentioned this already?)

Frankly, it's one kind of environmental mess or another everywhere on the planet at the moment. I can't begin to deal with the people (read - my butcher, for example) who believe that the fact that it's rained here means global warming a) never happened, b) a greenie myth, or c) just normal cycles that we're obviously finished with.

They also seem to think that one lot of half decent rain in a short period of time is enough to make up for YEARS of drought, and aquifers thousands of years old that have been sucked dry over the last couple of decades from criminal levels of bore pumping and irrigation will just fill back up overnight.

I'm very glad the goats and ponies are ok.

*sends you a cool breeze and a tall drink*

[brissygirl.livejournal.com]

We've been pretty water logged for the last month or so. Yesterday was our first day without rain for weeks. Today was just muggy and horrible, which means there is probably more on the way. The good thing is that our dams are all full!!!

[quatrefoil.livejournal.com]

I was highly amused to see that the BOM listed today's fire danger level for Canberra as 'moderate'. I assume 'moderate' equates to 'you could probably light a fire if you poured a can of petrol on a woodpile and then used a flamethrower', but the reality is you'd have to dive for the can of petrol in the first place.

[auntpurl.livejournal.com]

Poor you. Stay cool, my sweet!

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

The New Israel Fund is collecting donations to disburse to grassroots groups on the ground, which will give some attention to Arab and Druse as well as Jewish victims of the fires. See their British site here and their US site here. I don't know how environmentally responsible they are, but after Hurricane Katrina, I like the idea of funding grassroots groups for relief.

Another possibility is the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (which always makes me think of a popular Hebrew song from when I was a kid--found a remix which isn't quite the same but I figured I have to satisfy your curiosity if I mention it!)

[tsosh.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear about the floods, but glad at least the goats and ponies are OK.
Feels like the end of the world, doesn't it? Everywhere on the planet the weather has gone crazy. Now again, after having almost no rain, we're expecting floods on the weekend...

The fire is over, after 77 hours of burning.

For donations, I suggest The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (as linked above), or Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael. From reading on their Hebrew website, the Keren Kayemeth encourages natural regeneration, but I couldn't find the English version of this particular article.

I hope it helps!