The Christchurch Cathedral is causing huge consternation throughout New Zealand - after the announcement that the Cathedral is to be pulled down (well, actually to a height of one to two meters) and the valuables removed to a safe place until there is a new place of worship to house them, there have been structural engineering reports published and broadcast, which claim that the old Cathedral can indeed be saved. Although this could still be a debatable fact, it was ignored by the folks who went ahead and organised a 'farewell' tour through the square of Christchurch for folks to go and see the immense damage for themselves and farewell the old lady. A huge amount of land in Christchurch has been red stickered - meaning that the buildings are to be demolished as they are irreparably damaged and/or the land is not suitable for building on for the forseeable future. One particularly poignant moment was when the news team interviewed an elderly gentleman who was part of the crowd and who was visibly emotional - when asked how he was feeling, he replied that this was so hard to witness, since his great-great grandfather had carved the wooden doors for the church over a hundred years ago.
So much of the centre of Christchurch has been lost to vendors and shoppers since the land and buildings housing their businesses has been red-stickered. A huge thumbs-up for the enterprising folks who decided that shipping containers could be converted, artistically re-designed and arranged to provide a 'container mall' - here are a couple of photographs of the new look shopping available in one part of Christchurch CBD. I just love the fact that there have been planters and little islands of flowers introduced too - amazing what inventiveness mother necessity envokes!
When you rent property, you accept the condition and state of the 'grounds' as part of the deal - in some instances, the owners or managers of the property see to it's maintenance, in others it is up to the tenants to do general yard work and keep up the garden. In our case, 'keeping up the garden' was a synch - since this is what we got when we moved in. After many discussions and hopeful conversations with the managers of the property, it has become painfully obvious that the owners are not in the slightest bit interested in sorting out the garden - so the tenants (in this case, us) have lived with the situation as long as they could and then finally got fed up and did a bit of a clean up. If there were any indiginous and/or special plants lurking in the 'jungle' - sorry, the operative word is 'were' - in the past tense. We have a way to go yet - but things are looking up!
We borrowed Junè and Johann's trailer and carted this load off to the dump - the lady in the 'pay-here booth' said that if there was any flax in the load of green waste, it should not be added to the green garden waste area, rather put in the general rubbish heap. Just shows how tough flax is to get rid of and how almost impossible it is to shred. Which is why the original Maoris used it so extensively for basket and mat making. Unlike other parts of the world that we know of, in New Zealand, you pay to dump the garden refuse. And it aint cheap as chips either!!
Our neighbour behind us decided to trim the foliage on the border between the two properties - he left dead bits in the trees (to be blown into our garden at the first big wind) and let this heap of branches fall into our side. We were decidedly unimpressed, but choose to ignore the situation for now - here is the heap of 'neighbourly clean-up' required.
Loved this picture - this chap looks to me like he's thinking about his upcoming career as a world famous air guitar player! (we have actually seen guys taking part in air guitar championships - and being hysterically serious about it!) Makes you think! Dis al!
When you rent property, you accept the condition and state of the 'grounds' as part of the deal - in some instances, the owners or managers of the property see to it's maintenance, in others it is up to the tenants to do general yard work and keep up the garden. In our case, 'keeping up the garden' was a synch - since this is what we got when we moved in. After many discussions and hopeful conversations with the managers of the property, it has become painfully obvious that the owners are not in the slightest bit interested in sorting out the garden - so the tenants (in this case, us) have lived with the situation as long as they could and then finally got fed up and did a bit of a clean up. If there were any indiginous and/or special plants lurking in the 'jungle' - sorry, the operative word is 'were' - in the past tense. We have a way to go yet - but things are looking up! 
We borrowed Junè and Johann's trailer and carted this load off to the dump - the lady in the 'pay-here booth' said that if there was any flax in the load of green waste, it should not be added to the green garden waste area, rather put in the general rubbish heap. Just shows how tough flax is to get rid of and how almost impossible it is to shred. Which is why the original Maoris used it so extensively for basket and mat making. Unlike other parts of the world that we know of, in New Zealand, you pay to dump the garden refuse. And it aint cheap as chips either!!
Our neighbour behind us decided to trim the foliage on the border between the two properties - he left dead bits in the trees (to be blown into our garden at the first big wind) and let this heap of branches fall into our side. We were decidedly unimpressed, but choose to ignore the situation for now - here is the heap of 'neighbourly clean-up' required. 
Loved this picture - this chap looks to me like he's thinking about his upcoming career as a world famous air guitar player! (we have actually seen guys taking part in air guitar championships - and being hysterically serious about it!) Makes you think! Dis al!
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