Dust Storm!!

Toowoomba awoke to a distinctly hazy day this morning, as the leading edge of a huge dust storm began to roll in. When I first arrived at work, this was the view from the door of my office in two directions ...

This is looking out to the west and usually, we have a lovely clear view of the Bunya Mountains, but not today!


This is looking south to the end of our Village and usually is a view of rolling hills and cow pastures. Now ... these next photos were taken about an hour later when the dust storm was at its worst ...


This is the same view in the first photo - definitely not seeing mountains today!!


And this is the same view in the second photo. The dust was so thick that you could smell it in the air and the sunlight turned to an eerie orange, 'end-of-the-world' kind of glow.

About an hour after I took these photos, it was back to the intensity of the first two, but stayed that way right through the day, until this afternoon, the setting sun looked like this ...


And this ...

Very freaky!!

Apparently, the super dust storm was caused by a few things - we've had the driest winter on record, the hottest August on record and gale force winds started in South Australia and just kept blowing all that dust eastwards!! The weather man is telling us it will be clearer but still hazy for the next couple of days and asthmatics like me aren't going to be moving very far without Ventolin in our pockets. And I don't even want to THINK about how much of that dust has come into the house under windows and doors - I think there's enough dirt in the hallway to plant a vege patch! OK, maybe not, but it sure isn't fun to walk barefoot at the moment. SIGH! I guess that means the weekend will be spent spring cleaning - RATS!

The only upside of today's weird weather was that it kept me inside and I spent the afternoon in the sewing room putting some finishing touches on my Hug Swap items. I drew the lovely swap-mamma Jenny as my partner, so I can't show you any sneaky peeks or I'll spoil Jenny's surprise, but I promise to show you the mug mat and mug hug once they've arrived in Jenny's mailbox. Two things crossed off my "To Do" list, which is nice ... and two things ADDED to my OPAM finishes list! YAY!! Don't forget to update your sidebar lists, all you OPAM Challenge gals! Or if you're able to send me an email of you finish tally, that would be great too - it's my turn to do the end of month round up and prize draw, so I guess I'll have square eyes this time next week! :0)

And now ... I'm off to have a cup of tea to wash the dust out of my throat, I think! So, unless the dust storm is actually just a cover for aliens to invade, I'll catch up with you all again soon! Til next time,

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS