Christchurch City Libraries Blog

Two events are being held this week by Christchurch City Libraries to celebrate New Zealand Book Month. Why not get out of the house for a bit and enjoy some fun and some company?

• The Great NZ Quiz Night: Wednesday 23 March, 7 – 9pm,  Elevate Bar and Restaurant, 2 Colombo St, Cashmere. With MC Joe Bennett. Book now – phone 941-5148.
• Heroes and Villains, Creatures and Princesses … the sky’s the limit! Saturday 26 March, 3 – 4.30pm:  Sydenham Room, South Library.

This information has been prepared by the Department of Soil and Physical Sciences,  Lincoln University,  to answer frequently-asked questions about the tonnes of silt that appeared around Christchurch after the February 22 earthquake.

Many people have had sand and water in their gardens as a result of the liquefaction effects of the earthquake.  Often the sand will not appear to be contaminated – there is no discolouration other than grey, and no nasty smells.

• Why is the sand grey?
  1. Most of the sediment extruded by the liquefaction process ranged from fine sand to silt with very little clay present. Some deposits were more sandy than others. The sediment is typically grey in colour having resided in a waterlogged, anoxic (oxygen-free) environment.
  2. If the sand had been mixed with sewage, it will have a very strong odour; if so, appropriate health precautions need to be taken.

• I want to get back to some gardening. Can I still eat the vegetables in the ground like carrots and leeks?
  Unless the garden was sited over an old landfill the material coming up will not have any dangerous contamination other than possibly sewage.

• Do I need to cook the vegetables first or can I eat them raw?
  1. Potatoes/ parsnips/leeks cleaned of soil and boiled will be completely safe.
  2. Carrots if washed thoroughly in clean water and peeled would also be a very low risk, but boiling would remove any risk.

• What about tomatoes, herbs and salad plants?
  Herbs, tomatoes and leafy salad plants that have no soil on them are low risk, but should be washed in clean water.

• Can I dig the sand into my garden or do I have to replace it?
  1. The ejected liquefaction material is of low nutrient status (according to conventional soil tests) but benign. The only risk is if it has high salt level. In river-deposited sand this is very unlikely. In areas close to the Avon-Heathcote Estuary a risk of salinity exists. A simple electrical conductivity test could be carried out.
  2. If salinity is not an issue, the material can be incorporated into the existing soil. A depth of 4-5 cm maximum of ejected sand should be incorporated into the top 20 cm of soil.  More could be incorporated if it was dug into a greater depth.
  3. It is not a good idea to leave the material on the soil surface as more than 1 – 2 cm thick (half an inch) may limit gas exchange into the soil and therefore affect plants, especially if they are covered by this material. In situations where the layer of sand is thicker than 1 – 2 cm it should be removed or dug into the soil.  If the sand is left on the soil surface it can lead to elevated surface temperatures which may have a localised effect on low-growing plants and grass.
  4. The material may well increase readily-available water depending on its particle size characteristics and may also improve soil structure and drainage if dug into clay rich soils.
  5. Over time, this sand would make a good garden soil with additions of compost.  But as a sand it lacks structure (i.e. single grains of fine sand and silt) and will tend to pack into a tight solid with little pore space.

• My property was flooded and has a lot of sand from liquefaction.  Does the timber used in raised gardens need to be replaced?
  The timber in the raised gardens does not need to be replaced on account of it having been saturated by flood waters. Human pathogens in the flood water will not remain viable long in the wood or the soil.

More information:

• Learn more about liquefaction, geology and the human impact of earthquakes from experts on the Lincoln University website.
• Read more about liquefaction on the ECan website
• The solid facts on Christchurch liquefaction – [1.9Mb .PDF] from ECan

Sometimes silence says it all. Which is why, I suspect, Civil Defence added no commentary to this video. It is brilliantly shot, and quite moving.

Source: Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM) and licensed by MCDEM for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.

Watch it, share it, and write us a comment if you feel inclined.

When a friend asked me out for the evening to a fundraiser at the Oxford Working Men’s Club, I said yes without really listening.  By happy accident, it turned out to be an evening with international bestselling author Sarah-Kate Lynch on the first stop of a tour to launch her new book Dolci di Love.  Tickets sales along with proceeds and royalties from the evening were donated to the Red Cross Canterbury Earthquake appeal.

For me, an incurable romantic is a person blessed with a limitless supply of hope. They are not brought down to earth by the ordinariness of everyday life. Their joie de vivre is not snuffed by sadness.  They are not put off by adversity, but instead see challenge. They use escapism to recuperate. Look for beauty in pain. Seek light where there is dark. They read romance when things are tough.

Sarah-Kate  is such a woman. She talks of happy accidents, including her accidental career as a writer, and the “happy” accident that occurred when her husband “the Ginger” lost his job when the film he was working on got cancelled. They used the opportunity to tour around Italy, finding themselves in Tuscany. She thought of Tuscany as overhyped, and was  delighted to find it was a “fairytale waiting to happen”, with “hillptop medieval towns like jewels atop a crown”.

Inspired, she decided to return there to write her latest novel. With  romantic notions swirling, she arrived in a Fiat Bambino, baby blue to match her cinched-in-at-the-waist suit.  She had enrolled in an Italian language school and was ready to eat every meal with her new Italian family.

To her horror, the sun was not shining. No,  it was raining, and not just light rain, but a “biblical downpour”. Her suit was soaked and she was freezing. She drove on to the house where her lovely Italian family lived. It was in a run down part of town, with graffiti on the walls, and there was no “family” -  just one 80-year-old-lady who didn’t speak any English. Sarah-Kate is a vegetarian, and had to explain this to her host in Italian. The closest she could get was  “I don’t eat dog”.

It was cold, there was only a single blanket on the bed, no heating and … well, you get the picture.  So, being the incurable romantic, she booked herself into a nice room down the road, and started writing anyway.

So, if you’re an incurable romantic, visit one of the libraries that we have already re-opened and have a chat with one of our friendly staff for some inspring reading, or simply browse our collection of Sarah-Kate Lynch novels.

We hope to have an interview with Sarah-Kate in the next few days – in the meantime read more on her facebook page.

The National Christchurch Memorial Service will take place this Friday in North Hagley Park, from 10:30am to 3:30pm. The memorial service will take place from 12.30pm onwards. It is an opportunity to reflect on recent events and remember the loss of New Zealanders and citizens of other countries.

The service will be broadcast live on television and radio, and will go ahead rain or shine.

• Read more about the service from canterburyearthquake.org.nz
• Answers to frequently-asked-questions – getting there, parking, and more information for those planning to attend.

Strangers from all over the world, volunteers, friends, family – what would we have done without them in the past weeks? And there’s no doubt that will we be needing their continued support in the weeks ahead.

The Star and nzherald.co.nz have come up with a nice initiative for people to express their thanks to all who have helped. They have set up a message board which allows people to post their messages online – these will then be published in The Star.

This has made me think of all the people who have helped me over the last fortnight, and especially the lovely Jenni and Sarah who ”adopted” me for the first couple of hours after the quake when I was feeling lost and shell-shocked.   Thank you for your support, Jenni and Sarah - you made a horrible time bearable. And, notwithstanding the impression I may have given you that day, I really don’t usually swear!

So who would you like to thank?  We’d love you to hear from you.

And if you want to “pay it forward”, why not consider volunteering?

Here are some useful links:

• The Student Volunteer Army website
• The Christchurch Earthquake Support web page on Trade Me
• The Red Cross website
• The Salvation Army website
• The Volunteering Canterbury website
• Volunteering information from our website

Merely stretching out a hand towards certain books on my shelves can pull me back to a particular time and  place. There’s A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, the first book I read in New Zealand. And Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore takes me back to a miserable trip round the South Island with my daughter and her newly-ex boyfriend. Now I have an earthquake book: Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.

Freedom saved my life.  Not in a bullet proof vest way, but as an escape from all things earthquake. I read it by torchlight the first night and to the thrum of the generator  for days after that. I knew it was a great read from the very first pages when I wanted to write down quote after quotable quote. Like this one, which describes Patti as she tries to adapt to a new neighbourhood:

She was already the thing that was just starting to happen to the rest of the street.

Franzen makes much of the link to freedom and choice in this book, but to my mind this is a book about falling for the bad boy, marrying the good boy and then failing to grasp that lurking in every good boy is a demon lover who will become someone else’s bad boy if you are not very careful.

Another bookish event happened to me on the day of the earthquake. I finally decided to  read a graphic novel. George at Linwood went to a lot of trouble to select one for me. No sooner had the book been issued to me than the earthquake struck. I remain a graphic novel virgin. Even I can see a sign when it is writ that large.

So, what were you reading on February 22? And what have you been reading since? Do you have books that remind you of different times and places?

Recovery assitance and welfare centers are now open all across the city. If you or anyone you know is in need of help or assistance,  please pass this information on to them, or help them get to the closest centre.

The centres provide face-to-face service and are a ‘one-stop shop’ of  government, local government and non-government organisations including Work and Income, Housing NZ, Christchurch City Council, Red Cross and quake and counselling support services.

The centres will be open 8.30am – 5pm weekdays and 9am – 4pm weekends at:

• Linwood Community Link, 154 Aldwins Road, Linwood
• Wainoni Aranui Family Centre, 31 Hampshire Street, Wainoni
• Parklands Baptist Church, 180 Queenspark Drive, Parklands
• St Faiths Hall, 46 Hawke Street, New Brighton
• Nga Hau e Wha Marae, 250 Pages Road, Aranui
• Shirley Rugby Club, 25 New Brighton Road, Shirley/Dallington
• Sydenham Community Centre, 23-25 Hutcheson Street, Sydenham
• Lyttelton Recreation Centre, 25 Winchester Street, Lyttelton
• Mount Pleasant Yacht Club, Main Rd, Mount Pleasant (by Ferrymead bridge)
• Old Boys Collegian Cricket Pavillion, Hagley Oval, South Hagley Park

Source: http://canterburyearthquake.org.nz/welfare-centres/

If you are like me, now that the adrenalin-filled first few days after the earthquake are over, you may be feeling somewhat flat.  Or perhaps you are angry with Mother Earth for the way it has suddenly (and literally!) pulled the rug out from under our feet.

There is no doubt that life has changed in many ways for all of us, and it can be easy to let feelings of helplessness, frustration, sorrow  or pure numb shock overwhelm us.  As Richard’s earlier post outlined, there are many resources available to help us cope.  These resources tell us that some of the most important things we can do is support one another in the community and try to build some enjoyment in each day.

So how do we do this? Well, one way is to go out and attend events in the community. Don’t forget that while many programmes and activities have been cancelled, some are still taking place:

• a number of programmes are running at the South Learning Centre
• key Book Month events are being held as originally planned

Also keep an eye on:

• Be There, the online events calendar for Christchurch and Canterbury
• Twitter - follow @ChristchurchLib

And visit us here on the Christchurch City Libraries Blog – we’ll do our best to keep you up-to-date. Why not share your tips for getting through? We’d love to hear from you.

I attended the community briefing held in Lyttelton yesterday. The Mayor addressed the crowd as did a number of people from different agencies co-ordinating the earthquake recovery response.

Much of the information was useful – especially for the people who haven’t been able to keep up with the media reports.  There was a small window of opportunity to put questions to geotech, telecommunications, Civil Defence and health and Christchurch City Council representatives.

It was also great to catch up with neighbours, friends and colleagues, share stories, compare situations and share a hot chocolate. So if there’s a meeting in your area, head along. You may feel a lot better afterwards.

More community earthquake info briefings will be held tomorrow and Friday for some of the worst quake-affected areas in Christchurch. They will provide essential information and a limited opportunity for questions.

Tomorrow’s meetings:

More information is also available on the Christchurch City Council and ECan combined site, canterburyearthquake.org.nz.

Friday 11 March: