Matthew Lloyd drops by...

No, seriously...

Matthew Lloyd, captain of the Essendon football club, dropped by the blog (this blog) to leave a comment here. How cool is that?

Also very cool is the dedication of all proceeds from last night's pre-season match between the Bombers and the Western Bulldogs to the victorian bushfire appeal: they have made at least $1.2 million. And the Bombers won by a point! Yay!!!

This morning I heard that $91,000,000 had been donated to the Red Cross. Which is fantastic. And probably not enough. Thinking about making a donation? there are various calls, at various time, from various places, for specific things, ranging from new underwear to garden/fencing tools, but if in doubt, cash can never go astray. So go here to make a donation. Every little bit will help.

Sad, yesterday, to read of the several staff and students of my University who lost their lives in the fires.

And gruesome, last night, to fly in from Perth and smell the smoke that's hung around the city all day. At 11.00 am. this morning, the light in the garden looked like the golden light of dawn. This — and our garden, ruined by hot wind and heat a week ago — represent a tiny fraction of the trauma. Here's another tiny fraction of it, from Marysville. Again, as everyone keeps saying, at one minute there was no fire; the next there were sheets of fire in the sky above. No chance for anything, in those conditions.