First Snow

Part of the Torlesse Range this morning. This is the first visible fall of snow on the mountains this year. Sometimes they are dusted in January and February.



This afternoon my daughter went home. I was sad to see her go. Like thousands of Christchurch people she faces an uncertain future.

Day after day while she was here we watched extended news coverage of the earthquake, countless images of the ruined city. I lived in Christchurch for thirty years, but I now realise that I'm no longer a Christchurch person. While I was upset to see the lovely old buildings fallen, for my daughter it was different. The city was her home, she knew it intimately. Almost every building had associations for her. There was her favourite cafe, or bar. The store where she bought this or that. The office where one friend or another worked, or where she herself had worked. Places where people she knew died.

There are so many people she knows, or knew in the past, so many associations.

While my daughter was here she kept in touch with her friends by txt, email and social networking sites. She was aware of their difficulties in different parts of the city. One is living within the cordon of the CBD. Information is continually circulating and being updated. My daughter knows of things before they are made public, and things that have not been made public.

There is this great mass of people, suddenly thrust into primitive conditions, albeit with modern communications, doing their best for their families and communities, holding it all together, while several aftershocks each day, some of them nasty, continue to shake them. What does the future hold for them?