Today Graham and I are going to spend some time together, going to a bird land reserve so I can play with my new camera and then to lunch somewhere in the country. You can see examples of my photos at Kathie’s Photos.

These past couple of weeks have been horrendous in our state. We had a series of fires breaking out and then a massive one only a week ago, which has now been dubbed ‘Black Saturday’.  The loss of homes and lives has not been fully counted yet and everyone in our state is affected. The whole country is reeling and it’s the biggest natural disaster we’ve experienced.  I wonder about the ‘natural’ bit – some of those fires were natural but others were deliberately started and I can’t understand how people can do this.  I’ve been blogging about some of it at my Much About Melbourne blog.

So back to Valentine’s Day.  Every day with my husband is a gift.  Having lost our daughter last year, and gone through emotional struggles ever since, I count every day I get to spend with him as something really special.  I don’t take him for granted – not sure that I ever did, but somehow the intensity of my feelings for him and being in his company has increased considerably.

If you have a loved one, don’t ever forget to let them know that you love them and appreciate them.  Don’t assume they know. Make sure you tell them every single day.  There are so many who have lost spouses and/or children in the fires in this past week, so many mourning. And then there are the stories of husbands and wives reunited after thinking they’d lost the other when fleeing from the fires.  Perhaps our own recent loss has increased our ability to understand how others are feeling and what they are mourning.  But whatever it is, today we will just enjoy being in the company of one another doing simple things and just being.