Autumn is well and truly here

We have just been away on holiday for 18 days and the difference in the garden is amazing! The very last thing I did before leaving was to cut all the grass and pick up all the leaves that had fallen, take a look at it now.

There was hardly an inch of the ( large ) front lawn that wasn't totally covered in a thick blanket o leaves, up to now I have shifted around 20 wheelbarrow loads with the same amount yet to pick up.
Of course the upside to it is that I have a huge amount o beautiful leaf mulch for the fruit garden, I am putting it in a thick layer all around the blackcurrant and raspberry bushes.

At the back of the house there are even more leaves from our huge chestnut tree, in some places it is over 6 inches thick, all of this will be going on top of my "Back to Eden" garden.

Shaken not Stirred

Although I have felt very minor bumps from earthquakes before, I have just experienced first hand ,a pretty major one measuring 7.8 magnitude.

I was in Wellington, New Zealand when the earthquake struck just after midnight on Monday the 14th of November. The epicenter was at a town called Kaikoura northeast of Christchurch on the south Island.

This was pretty big and the largest in New Zealand for 10 years as I'm writing this the whole town is cut off from landslides and there is no water or sewage in the town with supplies of water etc being bought in by helicopter.

However what I wanted to touch on was my reaction to it which on reflection surprised me.

I was in bed and had been asleep for only about 20 minutes when it started so woke up very quickly it started with a bumping movement which intensified over a period o what seemed like about a minute.

As it intensified the chandelier on the ceiling started to sway  and move back and forth quite strongly and the whole house started to shake in addition there was a lot of noise that was getting louder and louder. It sounded like rocks grinding together but in reality was just the house straining and moving.

I knew straight away that it was an earthquake but during the whole time it was happening I just lay there on the bed watching it happen.

I never once thought about getting up or trying to take cover somewhere but was just thinking, so this is what an earthquake feels like

I'm still trying to puzzle out my reaction?