What's our Charlotte up to now?

She's been on a journey over the last couple of years.
She went to London in August 2008.
While based there, she managed to get about to Dublin and Amsterdam, amongst other places.
She came home in December 2009.
More recently, a friend she met in the UK, came to visit and stay with her, joining us for Christmas.

And now, Charlotte and Gareth have decided to get married!
The what, when and how is yet to be decided, but we'll keep you posted.

Remembering Christchurch

A memorial service was held in Christchurch recently, and featured a moving film of the devastation wrought by the February 22 earthquake.
It is in 3 parts, with Part 1 below:

Or, if you prefer,

Curious Creatures & Garden Gargoyles

Our garden, in addition to being something of a wilderness, is also the home of various creatures animate, and inanimate.
Some of the inanimate ones made their way here after Mother moved from her own home and then were joined by the last ones after Mother died. A few Mother gave us in earlier years.
However they got here, they all appear to be enjoying themselves, and show no inclination to leave.
See for yourself.

Art for Desiree's sake

You see, it's like this: Desiree is taking a school-group to Vietnam later this year. It has been in the planning stages for some time now, and those involved - the kids and their families - have been running fund-raising events to help offset at least some of the costs.
The latest was an Art Auction.
There was a good selection of work for sale - some donated, some on commission, some with reserve prices, some without.
We took (some of) the family along, and then bought a number of pieces ourselves.

The centre-piece is called Cathedral Cove by Aime McCarron.

The cats are everywhere

We've had some cold weather just recently, and the cats weren't well pleased. So, of course, they had to cuddle up closely on the bed.

But then today, the weather improved, so Goldie found a spot from which she could survey the backyard. And then a visitor buzzed in to say hello and enjoy the warmth with her:

Our city of ruins

Or, if you prefer,

The best or most authoritative source for 'technical' information:

Sarah Rose was able to see how Wellington reacted to the call for 2 minutes of silence to mark one week since the earth shook.

The 'shake' took a lot of people outside of Christchurch by surprise.

Images from New Zealand's
largest Newspaper organisation, which even has a "Before and After" selection of photos.

And TV One also has a
gallery of photos.

Shaken AND Stirred!

This last week has been full of the horrors of the earthquake which devastated Christchurch, television has been near a continuous wall-to-wall coverage, while the newspapers have constant updates and galleries of searing images.
It has been frightening, on several levels, not least that we live in the Wellington region which is itself astride a very active fault system.
Needless to say it has prompted (certainly well-overdue) reviews of our emergency preparedness - largely theoretical I'm sorry to have to concede. Of course, Desiree has therefore swung into action, and we now are developing a cache of clothing, blankets, cooking & heating supplies, food, water, etc. in an accessible place. All we need now is to know that the emergency will strike while we're at home!
And then I received a lovely email from a cousin in Canada, with a lovely 'update' photo of their family. In it I was asked if there was any connection between the faultlines near us and those which caused the destruction in Christchurch. Which got me thinking: how to explain our position to someone on the other side of the world?
So have a look at these:

New Zealand lies across the margin of two major tectonic plates - the Indo-Australian (to our west) and the Pacific (to our east). The consequence is that the country is riddled by faultlines, in particular the Alpine Fault, which runs along the 'spine' of the South Island, forming the Southern Alps. It then bends and splinters in a number of smaller faults which cross what we call Cook Strait, to re-emerge in the southern North Island as a series faultlines, which stretch north and become the Volcanic Triangle around the central Plateau and Bay of Plenty.
In our part of the North Island, the major faults look like this:

And how far away are we? Wellington to Christchurch by road is a distance of 414 km (257 miles) and takes about 5 hours, after a ferry crossing of 3 hours. By air it is a 45-55 flight, or there is a scenic train trip which takes about 6 hours, after the ferry trip.
I was reminded that I had mentioned a nearby faultline, which I had shown Erin while she was visiting with us. Again, is it close? Well have a look at this map, and click on the place indicated.

There is a rise in the road, as it goes up to the Hutt Road (look at the path beside the building on the right). That is the fault scarp left after the last major movement on the Wellington Fault, in the 1850s. We used to live with 100 metres of this, although we are now several kilometres away.
There is nothing heroic about it - we just live with it, and hope that when "the big one" strikes, we'll be OK.
Oh, and we visited Christchurch for a few days last March, and had a lovely time in a lovely city. It is saddening to see the same places we remember with affection now rubble and dust.