The Fire Continues

The fire near our home in the Okanagan Valley is raging again. Last night the Terrace Mountain fire grew to 7000 hectares; that is the equivalent of 27 square miles! I feel like weeping for the incredible loss of habitat and fear for the homes threatened. This photo was taken by Allison Beaumont at Carrs Landing mid day August 1. The smoke is billowing to the south.This is the cloud of smoke at our house about 8pm (below), the wind is actually pushing the smoke away from us, and amazingly the sun was fuschia colored through the smoke! The fire is over a ridge and across a very large lake from us, but fearsome all the same. This fire should not get to us, but, we live less than a kilometer from a tinder dry Provincial Park which is 4200+ hectares in size and so we worry. We decided to drive to the shore of Okanagan Lake at about 10 pm; a 20 minute drive to see the fire. We could see the red clouds billowing up from some distance away.
Although the photo quality is poor, you can see that the fire has crested the ridge (behind the ridge it’s a complete inferno) and is heading toward the lake and the homes there. This is a very worrying time for us as we continue to have temperatures in the high 30’sC (high 90’sF) and no rain at all. On a much lighter note, I’ve decided to have some relaxing weaving and to put a few more tea towels into inventory. I chose my new favourite pattern 8 shaft basket weave and plain weave. I just can't seem to concentrate on anything lately. Worry will do that I guess. I used 2/8 cotton in mango and lemon alternating for the body of the towel and added an orange panel on each selvedge. I am using the same orange for weft on 2 towels then will change to a different colour orange 2/22 cottolin for the rest of the towels. It’s rather odd but the orange crossing the yellows somehow has a pink cast…..really very pretty! The colour lifts my spirits and makes me think of brighter things.