Not a huge lot to report here... the day has been pretty quiet and bizzarely normal despite knowing all that's going on only a short distance away, at places we visit pretty routinely. At 3pm we got an alert on the CFA website that the Bunyip Ridge fire was extending a warning to people who lived in the areas of East Beenak Rd to Pack Track in Gembrook that while the fire was not currently posing a threat there was an increase of fire activity in the area which had the potential to impact directly. Both areas are 9-10kms from us by road, a bit closer as the crow flies. There's also been 3 grassfires in Gembrook, mostly having 2 units respond and currently safe status.

The Bunyip Ridge warning hasn't been raised to a full alert thankfully, at least as of the last update at 7:30pm, so I can only assume that they either are having success maintaining the line at this point. All day we've been able to see and hear the big helicopters buzzing back and forth overhead though and the fire is still going strongly in it's 6th day.

The idea of our home being threatened by these fires is really getting to me at the moment. Mostly the sense of 'will it, won't it, maybe, probably not' hanging over our heads and this being our first major threat making it that much more 'real'. I'd like to think it won't turn into anything, hey this house has been here since 1911 right? So I'm trying to stick with the practical preparations but I can't help but wish this bushfire was a tornado. Those I grew up with and feel a lot more confident about judging and coping with.

I'm so grateful that we're unaffected and have been so much luckier than so many by far - so many have lost their lives, their family or homes and everything they've had. The selfish bit of me would still rather this was all far, far away and there was nothing more dire to think of than dog-training, baby stuff and what sort of bread I feel like making for toast tomorrow. It seems surreal that instead of that normal stuff there could be a big fire like others have faced that takes everything at any time. It's even more damned creepy to think we could go to sleep and the winds could suddenly bring the fire to our doorstep, larger than life. I keep trying to sleep and having this horrid image of us sleeping through it which I know is paranoid and undoubtedly ampliefied by whacked out pregnancy hormones that a safety alert that's not even a full warning has me being so morbid... but it's still creepy to think about as a real thing that could happen really to us.