Fire!

last week we had a little excitement in newbury park....the weather had been in the 70's...then, on thursday it got really dry...really windy and really hot.....and that always brings a really big fire! although, fire season usually happens in the fall, so it was a bit off kilter to have a fire in the spring....when i woke up on thursday i could hear the wind..i have plates on the wall outside my house and i could hear them clanking against the wall....and then i heard the news...a small fire in camarillo had traveled up the mountain and was on top of it...heading into dos vientos....this part of newbury park is opposite me...i'm at one end of n.p and they are the other...the cloud of smoke was unbelievable...the sky was so blue and the cloud was so black....all of dos vientos was evacuated throughout the day...it was pretty scary to hear and watch...the firefighters were great...they took so much care in trying to control the fire...during the evening, the wind shifted and the fire was pushed down sycamore canyon towards the beach...burning alot of beautiful country as it went...friday morning the wind shifted again...this time it shifted to the south..the fire headed up the canyon again and newbury park was once again in peril...although this time it was closer to my house...it was heading towards the southern part of n.p and towards hidden valley...this made me more nervous because i'm on the other side of hidden valley...we share a mountain...lucky for all of us, they contained the fire to just the end of hidden valley...whew!  and a blessing to everyone was that on saturday the weather turned a bit cooler, the winds died down...sunday was even cooler and today it's been raining...weird weather...but, we'll take it...anytime after a fire like that...thanks to all the great fire fighters that worked so hard to save our homes...

           smoky, ashy sky