Shaking Still

Oh yes, the earth is still moving from time to time around here. One of the largest quakes was caused by me dancing for joy after hearing that I wouldn't need to go back to school until next Monday. Overnight we had several whoppers- 5.4 on the Richter Scale. We slept through one of them!!!!! Naturally everyone in Christchurch seems to be very jittery, especially when the "experts" keep saying we could have some bigger aftershocks. The epicentre of the quake has been revised to be between Rolleston and Burnham, which is considerably closer to here than originally thought.

Here we go again- Miss Dog is barking in horror, and cowering at my feet. Poor lady has had enough. She has been keeping really close to me. We seem to get lots of aftershocks at night. I don't know why, but is is extremely unnerving.

I thought you might like to see the sand volcanoes- something I had never heard of before. They are caused by ground water being forced up, bringing sand and silt with them. Some parts of town have deep layers of silt and water all over the gardens and streets.

These ones are at least a metre across.

Here's my poor old piano in my exceedingly grotty, but perfectly intact classroom. No piano should suffer such an indignity. It was the most significant movement in the entire school. I bet it made an enormous crash. Glad my home one stayed up.

Today I spend quite a while gardening in the front yard.

Here is another of my lovely pots.

Hope we have a quiet night!