• What a year of rural living. Three high floods, a haystack explosion 100 meters from us, and a mouse plague. lol, It is ALL cleaned up inside and even the renovations from the damage fixed up and we are now in a lovely position to enjoy the benefits instead of the yucky bits of rural living, :-). We saw a dozen Emu in the paddocks today, black swans nesting, I can begin walks instead of just cleaning for exercise tomorrow :-
  

The haystack explosion was caused by the farmer harvesting the hay while it was still damp.  It composted in the centre and generated so much heat it exploded outward, burst into flame as soon as it came in contact with air. It was like a fire ball forking outward. 
I thought it was a lightening bolt. There was a boom over our heads and a flash like lightening went into three of my neighbours homes, We were protected by the big maple tree in front of the house, it hit the tree and sent the foliage flying, it crashed branches out of the maple trees and sent them flying everywhere. Then the haystack was on fire. It had exploded from inside apparently. It was very dramatic. I had never seen a haystack explode before. I heard they could do this.
It gave me an idea for a scene I could use in my Australian novel.

I illustrated this post with a gift card of Mirinatwa Gap,  Grampians Victoria, created from the original oil painting by myself, Kathy Shell.  Art & Art Print Gifts can be viewed & purchased from :-Kathy Shell