The inevitability of nature

There have been a few reminders over the last couple of weeks of the face of nature, and how, despite all of man's technological power, nature will win out in the end.

New Zealand has had not one, but three volcanic eruptions. The first was White Island, a highly active volcano off of the coast of Whakatane

Then Mount Tongariro, which hasn't erupted since 1897, in the middle of the North Island

And then a 25,000 raft of pumice was discovered by the navy off of the coast, leading them to suspect that Mount Monowai, an underwater volcano between New Zealand and Fiji had erupted.

All maps courtesy of Google.


Christchurch, still recovering from the earthquake, has now been hit by flooding caused by a lot of heavy rain on already sodden ground.


Man can try to shape the earth as much as he pleases, to try to bind the world to his will, but inevitably, we are brushed aside by the natural forces which control us all.

In the garden, Spring is arriving, and we have snowdrops.

Whoops!

I hadn't realised that it had been a month since I last posted - apologies! Life has, as always, been very busy. I sat the second and third exams for my professional qualification on the same day (I don't recommend taking six hours of exam in one day - my brain was absolutely fried the next day!), and have now had the results from the exam I sat in May (I passed, so am 20% of the way to the overall qualification).

Hockey has had ups and downs - we're sitting at fifth in the table, so have to work hard to make sure we are in the top four by the end of the season.

Otherwise life continues apace; we have friends coming to stay in mid August, so I'm hoping that the winter weather has started to warm by then, as it has been a tad chilly over the last few weeks; we've had some glorious days, followed by frost, and we're feeling the lack of insulation in our house. We have definite plans for double glazing for next year!