Although spring had barely started when this shot was taken, the day had been hot. The kind of (thankfully dry) unrelenting heat made tolerable only by the fact that it had yet to linger for any great length of time. It's not the heat as such that gets you in summer in Sydney, it's the fact that it stays around for ages, and wears down your resistance to it.

The heat of this day allowed four major bushfires to start in western Sydney, the smoke from which gives the slightly malevolent orange tinge to the sun shown here. Some homes, vehicles and property were lost but thankfully no lives. But it's been such a dry winter that one can only wonder whether it's only a taste of things to come.