A Merry Christmas...

[Kiwi]

to all who celebrate it, and a happy and prosperous New Year to all.

And a big thank you to LunarOrbit for providing this forum for us to enjoy and learn about Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

[gillianren]

No plans for Christmas this year, but our Yule was pleasant.  I'd asked Irene about six months ago if she liked a doll pattern, and she remembered that whole time that I was making her a doll.  So she's happy to have finally gotten it?

[Obviousman]

Xmas? Bah - humbug!

All the best to you wascaly wabble of wetwobates!

[LunarOrbit]

to all who celebrate it, and a happy and prosperous New Year to all.

And a big thank you to LunarOrbit for providing this forum for us to enjoy and learn about Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

You're welcome, Kiwi. And Merry Christmas!

Sent from my SM-T713 using Tapatalk

[bknight]

Yes Happy Holidays to all.

[LionKing]

A  belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance to all.

I hope you had a generally positive year, and a better one in 2020. As we tend to review all what happened in this year, don't forget to count even your smallest victories and be grateful for them, and view the negatives as opportunities to learn and see the good side in them.

Wishing you warm celebrations.

[Peter B]

Happy New Year from the world of 2020, you 2019ers. You're so last year! (ETA: Well, not Kiwi...!)

And stay safe, Obviousman, I can see the fires are close to you.

[molesworth]

Happy New Year!!

It's now 2020 in the land of kilts and haggis, and some drink may have been consumed this evening 

And, as I said in my FB New Year's Message, lets all try to do a little something to help sort out the world's problems this year 

[Bryanpoprobson]

Happy New year, my view of the Sydney fireworks as I’m in Australia for 5 weeks.

[Obviousman]

Happy New Year from the world of 2020, you 2019ers. You're so last year! (ETA: Well, not Kiwi...!)

And stay safe, Obviousman, I can see the fires are close to you.

There is nothing but the smell of smoke in the air, and the smoke haze is so thick I can't see the other side of the runway from my office. The base is closed off but you can still get through with your military ID pass (that's my place of work). Houses, cars, - everything! - is covered with a fine layer of ash and there are burnt leaves / twigs everywhere. It's going to take a long, hard rain to wash away all of this, and it won't be safe to swim for a couple of days after that happens.

We've been lucky at home: no fires within about 10 - 15 KM of us, and one of the two roads in / out has only been closed a few times. Still, the haze was so bad the other day that everything was bathed in an eerie orange light yet at 3pm it was so dark I had to turn on the back patio light to see out there (sunset is about 8pm right now..).

The base perimeter was on fire in some areas, even going around the threshold of runway 21. No damage to facilities with base fire services getting it under control pretty quickly. Having all the fire bombing aircraft based here helps....

[Peter B]

Happy New Year from the world of 2020, you 2019ers. You're so last year! (ETA: Well, not Kiwi...!)

And stay safe, Obviousman, I can see the fires are close to you.

There is nothing but the smell of smoke in the air, and the smoke haze is so thick I can't see the other side of the runway from my office. The base is closed off but you can still get through with your military ID pass (that's my place of work). Houses, cars, - everything! - is covered with a fine layer of ash and there are burnt leaves / twigs everywhere. It's going to take a long, hard rain to wash away all of this, and it won't be safe to swim for a couple of days after that happens.

We've been lucky at home: no fires within about 10 - 15 KM of us, and one of the two roads in / out has only been closed a few times. Still, the haze was so bad the other day that everything was bathed in an eerie orange light yet at 3pm it was so dark I had to turn on the back patio light to see out there (sunset is about 8pm right now..).

The base perimeter was on fire in some areas, even going around the threshold of runway 21. No damage to facilities with base fire services getting it under control pretty quickly. Having all the fire bombing aircraft based here helps....

I hear you.

We've had three weeks of smoke haze, of varying levels here in Canberra. It's varied from being barely noticeable to yesterday being able to see maybe 300 metres. Yesterday we apparently had the worst quality air on the planet. Today we got an email at work saying the air quality inside our <10 year old office building was rated as hazardous, but that the rating for the air outside was about five times worse.

And your mention of burnt leaves and twigs brought back an old memory. Back in 2003 when I left work one day I saw a scorched gum leaf on the ground, in the middle of Canberra, with no fires anywhere near. The following day a bushfire swept into the suburbs of Canberra, killing four people and destroying more than 500 houses. The leaf had blown from one of a couple of fires which had been burning for a couple of weeks in the mountains south of Canberra. Then came a heat wave and a change of wind direction. The fires jumped containment lines, joined up, and then literally roared into a very unprepared city.

That's why I've been nervous about a very large fire about 60 km to the west of Canberra.

So you take care too.

[LunarOrbit]

Take care, guys. The video coming from Australia looks absolutely horrific. I hope you get some relief soon.

[Bryanpoprobson]

Took this image at noon in Sydney on 29th December the obvious orange hue is down to the bush fires. It’s a real tragedy in human terms and for the wildlife.

[LionKing]

Commenting on Australian fires,the pictures we are seeing are very, very sad. A lot of huge fires lately, starting with the Amazonian fires. Here also .. the country burnt almost entirely, but the rains fell quicker than in Australia.
I hope people there are safe..please continue to update us on your safety