I couldn’t work out where I was this morning, at first I thought it was still only Friday and that I was home in bed and had to go to work! Waving my arm around in a half-sleep I managed to hit the rough old plaster of the wall — very quickly woke me fully and brought me back to Bungendore!

It’s been around 30 °C here for a about two weeks, today is no different, nobody is doing much around the house except sitting around or moving slowly, trying to stay cool. The only excitement was when mum and dad showed us where the BMW sports-car had halted and caught fire out on the road, starting a grass fire in their paddocks. A few molten chunks of alloy are all that remain of the car…

Jo and I borrowed mum’s car and headed in to Bungendore for a look around, carefully parking in the coolest patch of shade that we could find. Up to the railway station to look at the local arts collective and their wares — laughing at all the cosy woollen caps on display in the 30 °C temperatures.

Down to the old village square and to look through the gallery of Michael Scott Lee’s photographs. Fantastic panoramic prints of Australian scenery, I’d love to have one — but which one? Alpine scenes, outback desert, forests, or nearby Lake George… Sadly, the catalogue listing all the pictures of the old alpine huts notes that about eight of them have been destroyed in the last year’s bushfires.