That is the question of the day . . . can one's thumb be too green? I hope not, because I'm having a blast in mega-green thumb land . . . now, if only I could get some straw bales.
The reason I'm musing about the levels of thumb-greenness is that my greenhouse is full. Truly, bursting at the beams . . . last year, it seemed huge, with only 2 cucumber plants growing in it. I had heating and watering issues, so nothing really grew. Guess that's what happens when you live 10+km away from your garden and greenhouse, eh?
Anyhow, since my husband built me some stands for the plants (Mother's Day present), not only have I managed to organize the greenhouse much better, but it seems that this organization - and living only 10m away from said horticultural enterprises - has enabled the plants to live. To survive. Okay, okay . . . thrive!! As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, I have planted several varieties of tomatoes and cucumbers, as well the peppers and the broccoli. Just experimenting at this stage to see what grows best . . . I thought for sure I'd kill at least half the plants. Not so. Ooops. So now, its over-flowing.
Last week, I planted out 3 of my tomato plants into the garden (the Sub-Arctic variety). I also put out some lettuce (still have 3 in the greenhouse, just for kicks), and the beans I had started early. All have survived. Can't say whether those are thriving or not, because it rained for 5 or 6 days in a row. So now the weeds have grown as well, but I'm not going to moan about those today! Yesterday, I planted out the 2 Romaine lettuce which survived the greenhouse (had a small heat issue with the seedlings), the 4 Buttercrunch lettuce, one Diva cucumber, 2 Straight 8's and 2 Spacemaster's - all except the Diva, I started myself from seed in the dining room! So, there is a little bit more room in the greenhouse, but the remaining plants are only going to get bigger.
I have to repot the Sub-Arctic tomatoes which are staying in the greenhouse . . . hope I can do this successfully, now that there are little green tomatoes on the plants! I need to though, because they need watering 2x a day, when it's not hot, or else they're drooping.
Repotted the broccoli the other day, when it rained - they were seriously root-bound. My Dad says they should be in the garden, not the greenhouse, because of the nature of their roots. Spreading wide and all that. But since the growing season seems to be long, from what I've read - and based on the lack of success I had last year - I've got 'em in pots. Maybe next year, I'll put some out in the garden.
But I suppose you're all wondering just what I'm on about, with the need for straw bales. Well, way back in 1987 a bunch of us went out to Trish's bach at Rakaia (Bernice and Jo, you'll remember this day, I think) - on the way home, we stopped in at our Chemistry teacher's house (I don't remember why) and he was working on his garden . . . he was using straw bales as mulch. Kept the weeds down and the roots cool. My first year of gardening, I tried hay bales. Worked like a charm - the beans were out of the dirt, the leaves stayed clean and the weeds were kept to a minimum. Except for the weeds brought into the garden via the hay bales themselves.
I'm still trying to eradicate those!
So, with a lack of straw, I'm trying peat moss. In the fall, I'll just rototill it into the garden and will be improving the soil - also hopefully lowering the PH in the potato patch, because I have a problem with scab, which would be solved with a lower PH. I put down peat moss around the "early" plants yesterday, and it seems to be doing the trick. As far as keeping the leaves off the dirt - had a thunderstorm last night, and when I went to check this morning, everything looked good.
In the rest of the garden, everything seems to be doing well - all my spuds are up, both Russet Norkota and Sangre. Peas, lettuce, beets, onions and carrots have all sprouted . . . the beans, I've had to restart (in the dining room this time) because the pesky robins dug them all up whilst looking for worms. Kind of a pain, but I do have the other 3 bean plants already growing in the garden (that I started early), to tide us over.
Since it's raining again, there won't be any weeding for me today, bummer. Time to catch up on the laundry, so my kids have clothes to wear, and perhaps a little more greenhouse work. Or, I could just go and play with the new puppy . . . he doesn't seem to mind the rain!!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
My Green Thumb is alive and well!!
Yes, my green thumb is thriving . . . I was a little concerned, given my previous lack of success in the greenhouse, in the past 2 years, but this year, I think I can safely say, I've put all that behind me. And after only three weeks of use!
I started my seeds as usual, in the dining room and my little mini-greenhouse/seed propagator, and they grew. However, this time, after testing out the heater in the greenhouse and finding that it did, indeed, do the trick, I moved my biggest tomato plants out to their new home, on Mother's Day. Since then, I've had to re-pot them twice, because they've out grown their pots. To date, the tomatoes have at least 3 bunches (please excuse my incorrect tomato terminology, I'm still new at this!) of flowers growing on each plant. I have 9 plants. This was before I fed them any Miracle Grow, so it seems I'm off to a roaring start.
My other veges are growing extremely well also - some are ready to go out into the garden, if it would stop raining long enough for me to finish weeding and get my potatoes planted, before I plant anything else!! This weekend, hopefully.
I have green peppers, one red pepper plant, cucumbers, broccoli, beans, lettuce, peas and a variety of flowers (these are destined for outdoor pots) in there at the moment, and it is full!! Which is great - it's never had this many plants in it, ever! I just re-potted my 6 broccoli plants yesterday - moved them up from 4 inch pots to 6 inch (or one gallon?) pots. They were seriously root bound. I've put 3 of my lettuce plants in a window box - the other three are going in the garden, plus I have some tiny ones I started from seed myself, which will eventually replace these bigger ones.
All my beans and peas are destined for the garden - I started them early just to see how well they'd do - horticultural experiment #3, I think we'll call that one! The plan is to put a select number of tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden also, and see how they do - if the weather is nice enough for long enough for them to produce a decent crop . . . and to see if all the vege predators will leave them alone!
Aside from the weeds, which once I get ahead of them, are fairly easy to control (the problem is getting rid of them before I plant!), we have a variety of vege predators in the garden. There are the birds, which eat the raspberries - but that's okay, because I have lots - we also have chipmunks and squirrels, which eat my peas and my beans. This would actually also be okay, because again, I have lots, but they only eat half of a bean or a pea pod, and move on to eat another. So, I end up with a lot of half-eaten, and thus useless veges. Oh, and one of those little buggers (don't know which critter, because I didn't catch him in the act) actually dug up some of my potatoes last year and ate part of a couple of them!! Again, I have lots - we're still eating the potatoes I grew last year - but I still had to throw away a few, because they turned green, thanks to the digging critters!
Oh the joys of gardening in the country, eh? Haha, actually, it's a lot of fun . . . and I really don't mind sharing, I would mind even less, if they would let me catch them in the act and pose for my camera. How cool would that be??
The weather this weekend is supposed to be nice, warm and sunny, so I should be able to get all my veges planted out, and the seeds planted too. First, continued weed removal; second, building plant supports (peas and raspberries); and then planting!! As usual, I'm a week late, but it hasn't seemed to make a difference in previous years - this is my fourth year of vege gardening, so although I'm still a novice, I think I'm getting the hang of it!
Now, if only I could find some small, square straw bales, I could launch another experiment!!
I started my seeds as usual, in the dining room and my little mini-greenhouse/seed propagator, and they grew. However, this time, after testing out the heater in the greenhouse and finding that it did, indeed, do the trick, I moved my biggest tomato plants out to their new home, on Mother's Day. Since then, I've had to re-pot them twice, because they've out grown their pots. To date, the tomatoes have at least 3 bunches (please excuse my incorrect tomato terminology, I'm still new at this!) of flowers growing on each plant. I have 9 plants. This was before I fed them any Miracle Grow, so it seems I'm off to a roaring start.
My other veges are growing extremely well also - some are ready to go out into the garden, if it would stop raining long enough for me to finish weeding and get my potatoes planted, before I plant anything else!! This weekend, hopefully.
I have green peppers, one red pepper plant, cucumbers, broccoli, beans, lettuce, peas and a variety of flowers (these are destined for outdoor pots) in there at the moment, and it is full!! Which is great - it's never had this many plants in it, ever! I just re-potted my 6 broccoli plants yesterday - moved them up from 4 inch pots to 6 inch (or one gallon?) pots. They were seriously root bound. I've put 3 of my lettuce plants in a window box - the other three are going in the garden, plus I have some tiny ones I started from seed myself, which will eventually replace these bigger ones.
All my beans and peas are destined for the garden - I started them early just to see how well they'd do - horticultural experiment #3, I think we'll call that one! The plan is to put a select number of tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden also, and see how they do - if the weather is nice enough for long enough for them to produce a decent crop . . . and to see if all the vege predators will leave them alone!
Aside from the weeds, which once I get ahead of them, are fairly easy to control (the problem is getting rid of them before I plant!), we have a variety of vege predators in the garden. There are the birds, which eat the raspberries - but that's okay, because I have lots - we also have chipmunks and squirrels, which eat my peas and my beans. This would actually also be okay, because again, I have lots, but they only eat half of a bean or a pea pod, and move on to eat another. So, I end up with a lot of half-eaten, and thus useless veges. Oh, and one of those little buggers (don't know which critter, because I didn't catch him in the act) actually dug up some of my potatoes last year and ate part of a couple of them!! Again, I have lots - we're still eating the potatoes I grew last year - but I still had to throw away a few, because they turned green, thanks to the digging critters!
Oh the joys of gardening in the country, eh? Haha, actually, it's a lot of fun . . . and I really don't mind sharing, I would mind even less, if they would let me catch them in the act and pose for my camera. How cool would that be??
The weather this weekend is supposed to be nice, warm and sunny, so I should be able to get all my veges planted out, and the seeds planted too. First, continued weed removal; second, building plant supports (peas and raspberries); and then planting!! As usual, I'm a week late, but it hasn't seemed to make a difference in previous years - this is my fourth year of vege gardening, so although I'm still a novice, I think I'm getting the hang of it!
Now, if only I could find some small, square straw bales, I could launch another experiment!!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Who's YOUR Farmer?
I saw this bumper sticker yesterday, in the middle of tailgate of a Ford pickup. Who's your farmer? I am my farmer!! Now that spring is actually here -- not that season which, according to the calendar is spring, but since there's still several feet of snow on the ground, it's really winter -- the snow has melted, so I can finally seriously start thinking about my garden. Okay, I have been doing a lot of thinking already, but now I can put those thoughts into action. And get my tomato plants off the hearth in the living room, and out into the greenhouse!
Although we live on a farm, and I have been known to "whisper" the hay into growing taller than our kids, I'm not really a farmer. I'd say, more of a wife-whose-husband-owns-the-farm-his-grandparents-homesteaded-on-back-in-the-1930s kind of horticulturalist. In short, I don't farm, I garden. In the garden and the greenhouse. Or rather, I attempt to grow stuff in the greenhouse. I've had a few issues with that in the past couple of years.
However, 2011 is going to be different! I hope.
Last year, I managed to successfully grow cucumbers in the greenhouse - much to the surprise of one of the ladies at our local garden centre. How did you tie them up, she asked. I used a tomato cage. The sticks and string apparatus wasn't working, so since my tomatoes were clearly stunted and not going to need the cages, I just popped them around the cucumbers and tied them up with survey tape. Fabulous. Until the frost got them in September.
This year, now that we finally live on the farm, within sight of the greenhouse, things are going to be different. For Mother's Day, my husband built a two-tiered growing bench for the greenhouse, so now I have 16 feet of growing space (in a 10 foot long greenhouse), and last night, we hooked up a heater and tested it to see how warm it would keep the greenhouse overnight. It went down to 2C last night and there was a frost. But the greenhouse, at 5:30 a.m. was 8C, with no frost. Excellent. Just have to goose the heat up a wee bit, to make it 10C overnight, and my tomatoes can move off the hearth and into their proper home.
I'm not totally sure if this is what one is supposed to use a greenhouse for, but I'm also giving my other garden plants a head start. I have planted lettuce, cucumbers, beans and peas in little peat pots and they have all sprouted in the past 10 days. My intention is to grow them in the greenhouse until the end of May, when one can finally put stuff out in the garden without too much worry of frost. In theory, this will give me a head-start on the veges, which usually come ripe all at once, and I have a heck of time getting them all harvested, eaten or preserved at once.
I'm also going to kick-start my "deer resistant" perennials this way. I have several peonies, ferns, bleeding hearts and irises ready to plant, which I would love to plant in the garden in early June as actively growing plants, not tubers. Especially since their garden is not quite ready yet.
Who am I kidding? It's not ready at all!! I have two big rocks and two big piles of topsoil (one of which is in the wrong location) and a general idea of how big I want to make the garden. It will, when completed, provide an awesome view from our living room windows, with the native bush behind as a backdrop for the pink, blue and white blooms I've chosen.
Provided, of course, that these plants really are deer-resistant, and Madame Deer and her baby leave them alone. Boris the moose appears only interested in eating the leaves off trees, especially willow trees, so theoretically, she won't eat them. Yes, I know, Boris is a boy name, but the kids thought that would be an excellent name for our resident moose - who, when the house was being built, thought the garage made an excellent moose shelter! She has no antlers, therefore she is a girl moose. I believe her middle name is Princess though, hahaha.
So, today begins Tomato-growing-in-the-greenhouse experiment #3. Experiments #1 & 2 were dismal failures. I actually grew the tomatoes better in the dining room in the past 2 years, than I did in the greenhouse. More on that in my next post.
Thanks for reading - and happy gardening!!
Although we live on a farm, and I have been known to "whisper" the hay into growing taller than our kids, I'm not really a farmer. I'd say, more of a wife-whose-husband-owns-the-farm-his-grandparents-homesteaded-on-back-in-the-1930s kind of horticulturalist. In short, I don't farm, I garden. In the garden and the greenhouse. Or rather, I attempt to grow stuff in the greenhouse. I've had a few issues with that in the past couple of years.
However, 2011 is going to be different! I hope.
Last year, I managed to successfully grow cucumbers in the greenhouse - much to the surprise of one of the ladies at our local garden centre. How did you tie them up, she asked. I used a tomato cage. The sticks and string apparatus wasn't working, so since my tomatoes were clearly stunted and not going to need the cages, I just popped them around the cucumbers and tied them up with survey tape. Fabulous. Until the frost got them in September.
This year, now that we finally live on the farm, within sight of the greenhouse, things are going to be different. For Mother's Day, my husband built a two-tiered growing bench for the greenhouse, so now I have 16 feet of growing space (in a 10 foot long greenhouse), and last night, we hooked up a heater and tested it to see how warm it would keep the greenhouse overnight. It went down to 2C last night and there was a frost. But the greenhouse, at 5:30 a.m. was 8C, with no frost. Excellent. Just have to goose the heat up a wee bit, to make it 10C overnight, and my tomatoes can move off the hearth and into their proper home.
I'm not totally sure if this is what one is supposed to use a greenhouse for, but I'm also giving my other garden plants a head start. I have planted lettuce, cucumbers, beans and peas in little peat pots and they have all sprouted in the past 10 days. My intention is to grow them in the greenhouse until the end of May, when one can finally put stuff out in the garden without too much worry of frost. In theory, this will give me a head-start on the veges, which usually come ripe all at once, and I have a heck of time getting them all harvested, eaten or preserved at once.
I'm also going to kick-start my "deer resistant" perennials this way. I have several peonies, ferns, bleeding hearts and irises ready to plant, which I would love to plant in the garden in early June as actively growing plants, not tubers. Especially since their garden is not quite ready yet.
Who am I kidding? It's not ready at all!! I have two big rocks and two big piles of topsoil (one of which is in the wrong location) and a general idea of how big I want to make the garden. It will, when completed, provide an awesome view from our living room windows, with the native bush behind as a backdrop for the pink, blue and white blooms I've chosen.
Provided, of course, that these plants really are deer-resistant, and Madame Deer and her baby leave them alone. Boris the moose appears only interested in eating the leaves off trees, especially willow trees, so theoretically, she won't eat them. Yes, I know, Boris is a boy name, but the kids thought that would be an excellent name for our resident moose - who, when the house was being built, thought the garage made an excellent moose shelter! She has no antlers, therefore she is a girl moose. I believe her middle name is Princess though, hahaha.
So, today begins Tomato-growing-in-the-greenhouse experiment #3. Experiments #1 & 2 were dismal failures. I actually grew the tomatoes better in the dining room in the past 2 years, than I did in the greenhouse. More on that in my next post.
Thanks for reading - and happy gardening!!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Dr. Evil for PM??
Is it just me, or is anyone else totally disillusioned with the Federal Election this year? Normally, I follow the election coverage, watch the debates etc., in order to vote with an informed opinion. Of course, I always voted for Jay Hill, but it pays to be informed, stay abreast of the issues, keep current. This election, just seems like a total waste of time.
Maybe its the whole fourth election in 7 years thing? Or maybe its because Harper is doing an okay job, and the alternative of Michael Ignatieff is not really appealing. I read somewhere, that he is considered quite charismatic, especially to the ladies . . . this lady just finds him arrogant and creepy. Seriously, he looks evil. And who wants Dr. Evil for a Prime Minister. Although, if it was Austin Powers version of Dr. Evil, Canadians might really have an interesting time of it.
So disillusioned am I, with this whole election business, that for once I didn't even bother to watch the English debate the other day. Of course, I also refused to watch it on principle. They had four party leaders debating, but only three national parties were represented. The Green Party, our fourth legitimate national party, was not allowed to participate.
Why? Because they have no elected members. Yet the Bloc Quebecois, which is neither a national party, nor a party which has the best interests of Canada and Canadians at its core, was allowed to take part.
The Bloc has always been the party of separatism. And separatists wish to destroy Canada as we know it. Vive le Quebec, they cry . . . not Oh Canada! The people responsible for organising the leaders' debate either don't know, or don't care what the Bloc is all about.
This election is about Canada, and the Bloc is not and never has been, about Canada.
It's not that I begrudge Quebec the right to have a voice in parliament, that wouldn't be democratic of me, now would it? What I object to, is a province or group of people who advocate the destruction of our country as we know it, being two-faced about it. Electing members to parliament, the body which governs Canada as a whole, and has the needs of the entire country at its core, when said group of people doesn't really care about Canada, the country (only Quebec, the imaginary country).
Now that I've got my anti-separatism rant out of the way, I'd just like to add that I wish Ignatieff hadn't orchestrated the whole non-confidence motion last month. It's really too soon for another election - we're supposed to have one every 3 or 4 years, not 4 in 7 years!
If you think about it, what could Ignatieff, the history professor, really bring to the table, that Harper, with his degree in economics, hasn't? It wasn't knowledge of medieval history which got our country through the world economic crisis. It wasn't the lessons learned from the Revolutionary War which got us through it, kept our heads above water, when other countries, most notably our neighbour to the south, were sinking into an abyss of debt, unemployment and looming financial collapse.
No, it was knowledge of economies and aversion to large debt loads that saved us. Not Michael Ignatieff.
Maybe its the whole fourth election in 7 years thing? Or maybe its because Harper is doing an okay job, and the alternative of Michael Ignatieff is not really appealing. I read somewhere, that he is considered quite charismatic, especially to the ladies . . . this lady just finds him arrogant and creepy. Seriously, he looks evil. And who wants Dr. Evil for a Prime Minister. Although, if it was Austin Powers version of Dr. Evil, Canadians might really have an interesting time of it.
So disillusioned am I, with this whole election business, that for once I didn't even bother to watch the English debate the other day. Of course, I also refused to watch it on principle. They had four party leaders debating, but only three national parties were represented. The Green Party, our fourth legitimate national party, was not allowed to participate.
Why? Because they have no elected members. Yet the Bloc Quebecois, which is neither a national party, nor a party which has the best interests of Canada and Canadians at its core, was allowed to take part.
The Bloc has always been the party of separatism. And separatists wish to destroy Canada as we know it. Vive le Quebec, they cry . . . not Oh Canada! The people responsible for organising the leaders' debate either don't know, or don't care what the Bloc is all about.
This election is about Canada, and the Bloc is not and never has been, about Canada.
It's not that I begrudge Quebec the right to have a voice in parliament, that wouldn't be democratic of me, now would it? What I object to, is a province or group of people who advocate the destruction of our country as we know it, being two-faced about it. Electing members to parliament, the body which governs Canada as a whole, and has the needs of the entire country at its core, when said group of people doesn't really care about Canada, the country (only Quebec, the imaginary country).
Now that I've got my anti-separatism rant out of the way, I'd just like to add that I wish Ignatieff hadn't orchestrated the whole non-confidence motion last month. It's really too soon for another election - we're supposed to have one every 3 or 4 years, not 4 in 7 years!
If you think about it, what could Ignatieff, the history professor, really bring to the table, that Harper, with his degree in economics, hasn't? It wasn't knowledge of medieval history which got our country through the world economic crisis. It wasn't the lessons learned from the Revolutionary War which got us through it, kept our heads above water, when other countries, most notably our neighbour to the south, were sinking into an abyss of debt, unemployment and looming financial collapse.
No, it was knowledge of economies and aversion to large debt loads that saved us. Not Michael Ignatieff.
Monday, February 28, 2011
CBC, CTV . . . you suck!!
Why do they suck, you ask? It's simple - they're an insenstive bunch of jerks.
When the 7.1 earthquake struck Haiti last year, these news agencies were "on the ground", as they put it, for weeks and we got reports hourly for weeks on end of how the recovery effort was going, how many people died and generally how tragic it was.
And certainly it was tragic. It's still tragic that there are so many people still living in tents and unsanitary conditions. The news media have not allowed us to forget the people of Haiti.
Christchurch, New Zealand, however, seems to be a whole different kettle of fish.
Last Tuesday's earthquake, the second huge quake in less than six months, has received next to no coverage from the Canadian news media. They certainly don't have anyone "on the ground" there. Is it because New Zealand is a civilized Western nation, and thus deemed perfectly capable of helping themselves? Or was all the Haiti coverage simply a result of the fact that our then-Governor General, happened to be a Haitian refugee?
NZ's former Prime Minister, Helen Clark was reported as saying that Christchurch's tragedy was on a par with Haiti's. If that's the case, where is Christchurch's coverage? Where is Christchurch's world aid. Why are Cantabrians treated as yesterday's news?
It does seem as though it's yesterday's news. There has been no coverage since Saturday, six days after the quake. I had to watch CTVNewsnet for an hour yesterday, before I finally saw a blurb on the ticker, about the death toll. Otherwise, nada.
Yes, okay, Lybia is big thing right now. A huge thing. But the tragedy is Christchurch is no less a tragedy, just because that lunatic Gadhafi is running around inciting civil war. But honestly, the past couple of days, you wouldn't think anything had happened in New Zealand a week ago.
Except this morning. When I woke up, the MooseFM news at 6 a.m., and a brief mention of the earthquake and the death toll. Stands at 148, he said. But perhaps, it was only mentioned because a couple from Grande Prairie, AB had narrowly escaped being crushed by the falling Cathedral spire? I'm glad they escaped. At least 20 other people were not so lucky.
Reading the NZ Herald website (www.nzherald.co.nz), there are a million stories of bravery, self-sacrifice, and of Kiwis banding together to help the people of Christchurch. Yes, there are also more stories of tragedy, of family members missing or killed by the quake. But overall, Cantabrians are getting on with the task of rescue, clean-up and putting their beloved city back together.
Does the world news media care? I think not. Except, perhaps, for the BBC.
Take the University of Canterbury (my alma mater) - for example. The students put up a website, looking for a few volunteers to help clean up the liquefaction . . . the UC Student Army, now has 18,000 students throughout the city, cleaning up the mess.
Does this not warrant recognition? They'd probably say they're just doing what needs to be done - but I think it's fabulous.
Come on Canada, pull your head out of your ass and take a look at the things that are going on in Christchurch. The tragic and the positive. Surely a fellow Commonwealth country deserves news coverage just as much as a raving Lybian lunatic does?
If you take a look on the NZ Herald website, there are links for international donations to help the victims of the quake, as well as a plethora of stories about the quake.
And at 4:51 p.m. MST, I urge my fellow Canadians and Kiwis abroad to take 2 mins, to stand in silence, to remember the victims of Tuesday's earthquake in Christchurch.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Adendum to We'll Soldier On
Looking back at my earlier post today, I have to just add this:
I'm such a fake - I was trying to be all upbeat and positive about the future of Christchurch after the quake on Tuesday (and all the aftershocks which followed), but you know what?? I'm not really feeling upbeat at all.
Don't get me wrong - it is awesome that the clean-up has started already, and that the people of Christchurch are banding together. My aunt told me that her boss asked for a few volunteers to help clean up their factory (she works for Independent Fisheries in Woolston), and he got 120. Amazing. I've seen the photos of the Canterbury University students out there, digging up the liquefaction . . . totally amazing. And such a contrast from Haiti's tragedy a year ago (don't take offense, this is my PERSONAL opinion, okay), where they had help pouring in from all over the world, yet a year later, it hardly looks any different.
But still, in spite of all this progress towards cleaning up and soldiering on, I am totally bummed. Obviously, not on the scale of those who live in Christchurch and experienced the quake first hand, but I am truly devastated by the destruction of my most favourite city in the world. Technically, many might think I have no right to grieve, my family and friends are all alive and well. Houses can be replaced, yards can be cleaned up. But people cannot be replaced, and I haven't lost anybody.
Yet everytime I see the pictures on the news, the wasteland of what was Columbo Street, for example, I just want to cry. I can talk about it now, without my voice breaking, but holy crap, what a bloody disaster! I've only seen pictures and video, but I lived there for 8 years and I know what it's supposed to look like. For the rest of the world, yeah, its tragic and the destruction is horrible, but for me, and for others who call Christchurch home, it is just devastating.
And it breaks my heart.
I love Fort St. John too, in its own way, its a pretty special city - and my husband and children are here, but somehow, Christchurch - in spite of my reluctance to move there in 1985 - is closer to my heart. It is where my family is from, where my grandparents and mother are buried, it is full of beautiful gardens, architecture, steeped in history, and I have wished every day since this happened that it was all just a bad dream.
Unfortunately, its not a dream, and I'm hanging out here on the outer edge of this nightmare, wishing I could do something, grieving and feeling a bit like a doofus for doing so. After-all, I'm safe, my family and friends are all alive and uninjured . . . but I'm sitting up here, in the Frozen North, blubbering every time I see pictures of the rubble.
I'm totally bummed, but she'll be right. Eventually.
I'm such a fake - I was trying to be all upbeat and positive about the future of Christchurch after the quake on Tuesday (and all the aftershocks which followed), but you know what?? I'm not really feeling upbeat at all.
Don't get me wrong - it is awesome that the clean-up has started already, and that the people of Christchurch are banding together. My aunt told me that her boss asked for a few volunteers to help clean up their factory (she works for Independent Fisheries in Woolston), and he got 120. Amazing. I've seen the photos of the Canterbury University students out there, digging up the liquefaction . . . totally amazing. And such a contrast from Haiti's tragedy a year ago (don't take offense, this is my PERSONAL opinion, okay), where they had help pouring in from all over the world, yet a year later, it hardly looks any different.
But still, in spite of all this progress towards cleaning up and soldiering on, I am totally bummed. Obviously, not on the scale of those who live in Christchurch and experienced the quake first hand, but I am truly devastated by the destruction of my most favourite city in the world. Technically, many might think I have no right to grieve, my family and friends are all alive and well. Houses can be replaced, yards can be cleaned up. But people cannot be replaced, and I haven't lost anybody.
Yet everytime I see the pictures on the news, the wasteland of what was Columbo Street, for example, I just want to cry. I can talk about it now, without my voice breaking, but holy crap, what a bloody disaster! I've only seen pictures and video, but I lived there for 8 years and I know what it's supposed to look like. For the rest of the world, yeah, its tragic and the destruction is horrible, but for me, and for others who call Christchurch home, it is just devastating.
And it breaks my heart.
I love Fort St. John too, in its own way, its a pretty special city - and my husband and children are here, but somehow, Christchurch - in spite of my reluctance to move there in 1985 - is closer to my heart. It is where my family is from, where my grandparents and mother are buried, it is full of beautiful gardens, architecture, steeped in history, and I have wished every day since this happened that it was all just a bad dream.
Unfortunately, its not a dream, and I'm hanging out here on the outer edge of this nightmare, wishing I could do something, grieving and feeling a bit like a doofus for doing so. After-all, I'm safe, my family and friends are all alive and uninjured . . . but I'm sitting up here, in the Frozen North, blubbering every time I see pictures of the rubble.
I'm totally bummed, but she'll be right. Eventually.
Christchurch: We'll soldier on
My beloved ancestral home is in ruins this week, following Tuesday's 6.3 magnitude earthquake. The 7.1 in September was bad enough - it ruined a lot of homes and caused much stress for family and friends. But this one, although smaller in magnitude was literally a kick in the teeth to Christchurch, which was still picking up the pieces from September's quake.
I say ancestral home, because although I don't live there now, much of my family does and my mother traced our history back to the First Four Ships, which landed in Lytellton Harbour in 1850. My ancestor, Charles Bourn, came over on the Randolph. There's a plaque in Cathedral Square with the names of the passengers on it - no doubt covered in rubble now. For 160 years, Christchurch has grown and endured everything that Mother Nature has thrown at it, including several other strong earthquakes. It's architecture, beautiful gardens and temperate climate have beckoned people from around the world, to visit, and to settle in the Garden City.
I've spent many an afternoon, walking in the Botantic Gardens, surveying the city from the balconies atop the Cathedral's spire; many evenings with friends, just hanging out in various spots around the city, never thinking for a moment, that in February 2011, it would be in ruins.
Today, the spire of the Cathedral lies in the square. A pile of 130-year old bricks. Underneath, the bodies of visitors to the Cathedral wait to be recovered. It is nothing less than a resounding kick in the teeth to the people of Christchurch and Canterbury. Homes and other historic buildings throughout the city are ruined. Liquefaction oozing out of foundations, up from sinkholes in the roads, and in the middle of school playing fields. The Central Business District (CBD) is an utter shambles.Many are still without water or power, on this, the fourth day following the quake.
But in spite of this devastation, in spite of the 113 confirmed dead, and the 200 people still missing, Christchurch is not sitting on it's laurels, bemoaning what they have lost. Not even close. In the words of my aunt, "We'll soldier on." In the minds of Cantabrians, there's no other course of action. They pick up the pieces and carry on. Houses can be rebuilt. Yes, families have been tragically shattered, there's no bringing them back, but like the living, the dead would no doubt be saying, We'll soldier on.
Much of the CBD will have to be torn down and rebuilt. Christchurch will never look the same. But it like it's people will soldier on. They will rebuild - in fact, I read in the NZ Herald yesterday that they are already planning to rebuild the Cathedral, and the NZ Historic Places Trust is looking at repairing many of the damaged historic buildings in the city.
All is not lost. It's a kick in the teeth, to be sure. And I, like many, many others, am grieving for all that has been destroyed this week. One day, a day that will come much sooner than anyone thinks perhaps, I believe that Christchurch residents will no longer say We'll soldier on - they won't need to, because Christchurch will rise again from its ruins. We'll be able to look at the progress we've made and say, She'll be right, mate.
And she will.
I say ancestral home, because although I don't live there now, much of my family does and my mother traced our history back to the First Four Ships, which landed in Lytellton Harbour in 1850. My ancestor, Charles Bourn, came over on the Randolph. There's a plaque in Cathedral Square with the names of the passengers on it - no doubt covered in rubble now. For 160 years, Christchurch has grown and endured everything that Mother Nature has thrown at it, including several other strong earthquakes. It's architecture, beautiful gardens and temperate climate have beckoned people from around the world, to visit, and to settle in the Garden City.
I've spent many an afternoon, walking in the Botantic Gardens, surveying the city from the balconies atop the Cathedral's spire; many evenings with friends, just hanging out in various spots around the city, never thinking for a moment, that in February 2011, it would be in ruins.
Today, the spire of the Cathedral lies in the square. A pile of 130-year old bricks. Underneath, the bodies of visitors to the Cathedral wait to be recovered. It is nothing less than a resounding kick in the teeth to the people of Christchurch and Canterbury. Homes and other historic buildings throughout the city are ruined. Liquefaction oozing out of foundations, up from sinkholes in the roads, and in the middle of school playing fields. The Central Business District (CBD) is an utter shambles.Many are still without water or power, on this, the fourth day following the quake.
Much of the CBD will have to be torn down and rebuilt. Christchurch will never look the same. But it like it's people will soldier on. They will rebuild - in fact, I read in the NZ Herald yesterday that they are already planning to rebuild the Cathedral, and the NZ Historic Places Trust is looking at repairing many of the damaged historic buildings in the city.
All is not lost. It's a kick in the teeth, to be sure. And I, like many, many others, am grieving for all that has been destroyed this week. One day, a day that will come much sooner than anyone thinks perhaps, I believe that Christchurch residents will no longer say We'll soldier on - they won't need to, because Christchurch will rise again from its ruins. We'll be able to look at the progress we've made and say, She'll be right, mate.
And she will.
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