Shaking a bit

Yesterday back home in NZ there was a rather large earthquake, followed by several aftershocks  All our friends and family back there are all OK.

I was going to write about Sissinghurst, but first I wanted to share this.

The magnitude-6.5 earthquake released energy equivalent to 100 nuclear bombs and was bigger than the devastating February 22 quake, GNS Science says. The 20-second quake, which struck at 5.09pm, was centred 20km east of Seddon at a depth of 17km. GNS Science seismologist Stephen Bannister said it was deeper than the February 22 quake and located 50km away from Wellington but was larger in size. It released energy equivalent to 100 nuclear bombs of the size that devastated Hiroshima, he said. "If it had been under the city, we would have been looking at equal damage or close to what happened in Christchurch." By comparison, the February 22 quake was shallower and closer to that city's centre - 5km deep and just 10km southeast of Christchurch.

Now for Sissinghurst.

A sixteenth century tower, and other buildings, with the most famous twentieth century garden in England. Sissinghurst garden is a prime example of the Arts and Crafts style. The garden was made on the site of a medieval manor and some structures survive. Harold Nicolson, a diplomat and author, laid down the main lines of the Sissinghurst design in the 1930s. Vita Sackville-West, a poet, a garden writer and Harold's wife, took responsibility for the planting at Sissinghurst garden. She worked as an 'artist-gardener'. Her planting design was brilliant. The historical importance of Sissinghurst Castle Garden comes from its role in transmitting Gertrude Jekyll's design philosophy to a host of visitors. The most famous and influential feature of Sissinghurst is the White Garden. It exemplified and popularised Jekyll's idea of using colour themes in planting design.

“It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.”
― Vita Sackville-West