Trees for Canterbury

There was a bare patch of ground in front of the native landscaping on our street frontage. We put a bit of time into studying what would best go there.
After we'd made up our minds and went looking to buy we found Trees for Canterbury had by far the best stock. And their prices were half that of anywhere else.
The plants in the pic are, from left rear, Libertia grandiflora (NZ Iris), Hebe anomala and Carmichaelia stevensonii (Weeping Broom).
I planted a group of the Libertias and also put in some Arthropodiam cirratum (Rengaranga - rock lily) .
The established native landscaping was a big attraction for us when we bought the place last November. We're really going to enjoy developing it further where we can.

Public parks - or theme malls

On Sunday afternoon we took a walk in the Botanic Gardens. The weather was miserable, cold and wet. But we weren't the only ones enjoying the park regardless. There were even people out on the river.
We mainly went to look at plants in the New Zealand native section. We're gathering ideas on what will go best in our own small garden.
Later on we came upon a large new shop which has been built right in the middle of the park. It sells books, calendars, souvenir tea towels and coasters, etc.
There were two staff but they had no customers. I wondered why they were there. I thought if people wanted to buy things they would prefer to go to a mall - warm and dry in winter, air conditioned in summer and trollies to carry things to their car.
I don't know how a shop like that in the gardens could pay for itself. Maybe they're not paying the full price for the ground rental.
Sometimes public property is rated by the accountants as worthless rather than priceless.
I saw this article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian with much more eloquent comment on the commercialising of public parks.

Oh, and yes, wandering around the gardens was a great way to spend the afternoon. Only I didn't take my camera with me so I've nothing to show for it.

Snow in Christchurch!

It was strangely quiet at 7.00 am - it sounded more like Sunday than Monday morning. Even the birds were silent.
Biking to work was more than the usual adventure. Traffic was light but I was wary of being sprayed by snowy slush from passing cars. In the residential streets I could see many cars hadn't ventured out. But one street had three sets of cycle tracks ahead of mine. We're a hardy breed.
More flurries of snow continued through the day but temperatures were just above zero so it didn't settle on the ground.
I love it when nature comes to town.