"I've told him . . .

. . . till I'm blue in the face: back off." Ruffling the feathers of a Rainbow Lorikeet near my front door.

The smoke haze has all but cleared from the skies over Batemans Bay. To our north, the big bushfires remain out of control, and weather conditions there in the next few days are expected to worsen - a return to higher temperatures and strong, hot winds. Hard times for the folk up there.