I really have

to get off this earthquake blather but it's so all encompassing and the more people I meet and talk with the more I wonder how we will get back to normal.

Mind you I had to laugh this morning after waking up early, feeding the lambs, going back to bed, falling into the deadest sleep only to be woken at 9.22am by a 4.3 earthquake. I laughed because I automatically thought it must be time to get up.

A friend who lived in San Francisco when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit said they called these morning earthquakes snooze quakes cause they operate like the snooze button on your alarm clock.

In the Chch Press today one of the front page stories was of the more than 1011 aftershocks averaging a 28 minute gap between them (that's earthquakes divided by time since the original 7.1 earthquake not real time) and the longest we have been been earthquakes was 12 hours and 28 minutes - these are the aftershocks that are getting smaller and further apart you understand.

They are getting smaller cause of the 1011 plus I notice about 1 a day. The Canadin and I have noticed that when you are standing you are less likely to feel them than when you are sitting or lying. We suspect our butts are too big and the contact area of our butts to seat/floor/bed means an increased likelihood of feeling the shakes. That's our theory and we would like to have that disproved.

Meanwhile in the non-earthquake world, we are having stupendous* gales. Warm gales which is nice but having caught up with some farmers south of the Rakaia they have trees coming down all over the place. Most likely weakened by the earthquake and then blown about just too much. The Bosses farm has been deforested (using that term loosely) to put centre pivots in and now the few trees remaining are revolting by getting blow over. He is down to 4 very large gum trees and not much else.

Maybe we need to create a new normal.... any ideas?

Just thought I'd pop this little bit of nature normal... my raspberry canes were pruned on the Saturday after the earthquake (no power means get all the garden jobs you have been avoiding done) and now they are all go and I look forward to big, fat juicy raspberries for dessert (if they make it inside that is)

* does stupendous mean a big, good thing or just a massive thing???