For regular updates on Blue Mountains bushfires visit Blue Mountains Rural Fire Service web site, although they are probably too busy fighting fires today to keep it up to date.

Read about the Christmas Day fires in The Sydney Morning Herald.

We only have 6 weeks to finish the house as Julian and Belinda will be back in Glenbrook in the 3rd week of January. This is certainly a challenge as the builder will be off for 2 weeks over Christmas.

Perhaps a tent in the garden...?

When things had calmed down I rescued the tin - most of it is bent, scratched and torn to the point of being unusable. The winds also bent tin already attached to the roof.

Down the highway at Warrimoo a large tree limb had dropped straight onto power lines. The SES have closed one lane of the highway as a result.

Here at Glenbrook the children thought it was a twister and ran out, to be ordered back in by Cathy. We were without power for hours, and had tea by candlelight, cooked on the camping gas stove.

I originally had more pictures, but somehow blew my page away. I'll have to rewrite it.

2 June 2001. Cameron and Brendan's birthday. Brendan says winning today's soccer match was 'The best birthday present ever'. They are playing for Blue Mountains Soccer Club in Glenbrook this year. Here's the match report:

U9-10: BM 1 v Blaxland 0. Stephen scored his second goal for the season. Sott Neil, Scott Newton, Aden and Benjamin played excellently up front with many good attacking runs. Celia, Rachael and Cameron gave great midfield support. Mitchell played a key role in defence with Tom and Daniel stopping many great attacks. Brendan and Alec played well in the field and brilliantly in goals.