*contented sigh* It's good to be home. ^__^

Not a great deal changes around here, and those changes that do occur are more often negative than positive. Yes, since I've been gone, the upper valley has managed to secure many more wind turbines to provide clean power, and members of this small community are banding together to keep their amenities running. But those amenities were the same ones deprived of council funding not too long ago, and would have fallen into disrepair had locals not stepped up to the mark, and those wind turbines would never have come had we all banded together to assure private firms that our bored teenagers wouldn't decide to set wildfires on the mountain slopes.

Speaking of fires, I would like to hark back in time to the Easter holiday of 2004. On the morning of Easter Sunday, a young G-Shep woke up to see a horrific sight through the mist; the whole hillside was ablaze. Most homes situated just up the valley had been promptly evacuated, and our own home was given a warning that an evacuation order could come at any time. For the day or so that the fire raged, there stood a very real risk that my home would go up in smoke. The fire was, thankfully, put out by the local fire service, and the scorched mountainside was left abandoned and barren. Jumping forward 10 years, to late June 2014, a rather older G-Shep shared a photo on this website showing the condition of the hillside a decade on, with the dead tree trunks still standing, the grass yellowed, and a clear division between the part of the valley wall that had burned, and that which hadn't. What I referred to at the time as "a blot on an otherwise beautiful landscape" (see for yourself here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13819088/ ).

I hope you will agree with me that this change is most certainly a positive one! While the scorched trunks remain, the ground has taken on a much greener colour, new trees and bushes are springing up through the parched soil, and although the division between old and new remains, each passing day sees the return of life to what was once lost. Aside from this picture, which I hope you enjoy, I also hope that you take away a positive message of future well being; that no matter what is thrown at her Mother Nature carries on, and that what may seem like utter disaster on one day may reveal itself to be a blessing the next, or on any of the days following. Good with always come to those who to good, and may good things come your way very soon. :)