Weekly Wrap-Up: The Fiery One

Last weekend our beautiful mountains caught fire. The winds fanned the fires and the fires grew and grew and spread far and wide. Helicopters flew for days trying to bomb the fires. 

(Photographer Reon Rich)

Fire fighters came from up country to help our crews here. There were evacuations at night, some homes lost too. Communities pulled together and donated food, drinks and medical supplies to those fighting the fires.

(Photographer Reon Rich)

We were thankful that my Dad's home was safe despite being so very close to the fires. 

The devastation of our beautiful fynbos and forests is unbelievable. One cannot begin to imagine the loss of wildlife too. 

(Photographer Reon Rich)

We were not affected as we don't live close enough to the mountains. Just the smell of smoke hung in the air and fine ash was scattered in our garden. On top of the fires, we had the hottest recorded temperature in 100 years this week! 

 (Photo M. Barnard)

As a city we salute all those men and women who fought bravely against these fires all week. Crews remain out there monitoring the situation in case of flare ups. 

Despite the chaos of the fires, we had a good work week with school. Zak finished off the table he has been working on at technology class. Hubby just needs to help him with the sanding this week.  Midweek I treated him to milkshake when I did my shopping at Food Lovers. He now wants his own Food Lovers card so he can enjoy a milkshake as often as he likes...pity he has to wait until he is 18. Nice for the two of us go get out together though and great to have a willing helper in the shop.

There were visits from friends and time spent swimming and he tried his hand at mosaics too.

He really enjoyed it!

As usual Keren applied herself diligently to her work. Art taking up much of her time when she is not working on her books. She had her monthly book club, fit club classes and also started as a volunteer with a Christian Union at a local high school this week. She was responsible for last night's youth meeting too so it was an extra busy week for her. 

Working on mosaics while Keren works on her art.

I had a fair amount of work with mosaics this week. The beauty of it is that I can fit the work in around the kid's schedules and can work in the evenings too. 

This weekend hubby is attending his 30th school reunion and otherwise it's all about relaxing and enjoying time with friends and family. Hope your week was good too!