Shaken and Stirred!

Well we have been having an interesting time here in New Zealand over the last few days: EARTHQUAKES!!!!

Since last Friday there has been a flurry of them including a 6.5 and several others over 5 on the Richter scale.  They were (are still ..) centered in Cook Strait close to the area where I grew up which also means quite close to Wellington, our capital city, which this morning is pretty much shut down while safety checks are carried out.

We managed to be on an elevated part of the Wellington motorway en route to the airport when the 6.5 one struck, quite close to areas where damage has been reported.  Whew!!

And this on the first weekend I have visited Wellington in about 15 years!!! AND just after my darling daughter and her fiance, Christchurch Earthquake survivors, moved back to Wellington from Australia :-(

There has been damage here in Blenheim and the surrounding district, but I arrived home to find my lovely friend Charmaine and her husband Nigel feeding the cats and checking my house! How lovely! I understand they had some minor damage - fallen pictures etc - but I have yet to find anything broken here, praise the Lord! One of the cats is taking drop cover and hold very seriously and sitting under the furniture, poor wee furbaby.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8946666/Twenty-seconds-of-terror-leaves-city-in-chaos

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10901363

Super Soup

1 onion - I used a large one
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp mild chilli powder
3 tsp vege stock
3 medium bayleaves
4 cloves crushed garlic
1 thumb ginger sliced
2 medium carrots
1 large Kumara (sweet potato)
3 small turnips
3 sticks of celery
500 gm pumpkin
10 small mushrooms
1 medium parsnip
1 cup red lentils
10 leaves spinach

YUMMY

The Great Garden Project (2)

Before:

One of several wildly overgrown coleonemas: don't believe anyone who says they don't grow big.  They do!

The main reason for the chop: this tree was dying and rotting.

After: the tree and the Diosmas are gone!

How the coleonemas were removed...

connecting...

going...

going...

gone!

And away.

Another ex-coleonema

Potential for development

and an amazing improvement.

Plants for my Great Garden Project

Some pictures of potential plants for replanting my garden after we remove some wildly overgrown shrubs. 

Love the colour of these Heucheras! By the way, I bought the little white dianthus up there: I put it down to take the picture and didn't realise it was in the shot.

Hen and Chicken Ferns

Golden Thyme

Parahebe - for reference.

This is gorgeous, but 6 - 8 metres? I think not.

Nice shaped pots

Love this colour!

Couple of little weeping maples

Foreigner, but with potential?

I couldn't resist the colour of these, but not for the garden project!

Baby agapanthus

Woohoo, wiggy bush!  Can we find a place for one?

Like the light on these leaves

Hebes

Poor old tree!

Pot colours: the greeny shade is a truer shade of the  pots below.

Like both these, but especially the greeny one

Nice reddish shade.

This lime green is interesting.

another view of the blue and green pots: round this time instead of squared off.

Flower carpets for the rose garden by: the drive: Coral

White

Apple blossom

Coral

Gold

Red

Coral again