Earthquake

After being jolted awake at 4.35 this morning I am barely awake at the keyboard.
The sun shone today, and all the plum blossom seems to have unfurled at once: clouds of white against the blue of the sky. The chimneys on the old house still stand. The cracks in the walls from previous earthquakes seem no greater than before this morning's quake. A cracked window is all that my heritage building seems to have sustained. Unlike the devastion of Christchurch's gracious built heritage. But unlike other earthquakes of similar magnitude - 7.1 - in populous places around the world, we have been lucky that there have been no deaths as a direct result of the earthquake. The aftershocks continue as I prepare for bed. We have been lucky here in the countryside, not so far from the City, to have stored water, a septic tank and continued power.  Elwin and I have got on with cutting up the firewood gums that he felled last weekend. So there's a bit of honest fatigue mixed in with my long day tiredness.