A neighbour, Bronwyn, pointed it out, the blackberries screaming back after the fire. Small areas close to us were subject to fuel reduction burns a few months back. It was always hard to see the value of these burns and a cynic might suggest that it had more to do with silencing a couple of clamouring critics than with the protecting of life and property.

However it has given blackberries the chance of a comeback, blackberries that were in real danger of being overwhelmed by resurgent native vegetation, ironically much of it sweet pittosporum which is, these days, widely regarded as an effective fire retardant.

Will the CFA or the proponents of reduction burns go back to the burnt areas and remove the blackberries and all the other emerging weeds?
Worse still, if nothing is done, will it be the same people jumping up and down in a few years complaining about a plague of rabbits and the tangles of blackberry that harbour them?

The occasion was my sister's 40th wedding anniversary, there is photographic evidence of the teenage me looking very silly in full Morning Dress but that is best left to the silverfish!

The justification for posting this photograph (Apart from the fact that I really like it) is that two of the three people pictured have visited Mallacoota. Another reason I like it, is that it is yet another nail in the coffin of The Generation Gap. Remember all that fuss! This photograph represents three (count them) three generations.

Jenny (centre) is the wife of my youngest brother Guy. Sally (right) is the youngest (by far) of my sister Wendy's children. Megan (left) is the eldest of my sister's grandchildren so Sally is her Aunt and in turn Jenny is Sally's Aunt.

I have yet to discover what was the joke!

I assume my brother Guy was the photographer.

Again click on the photo for a bigger version (121k), for those of us on dial-up it will take a little time.