A Touch of Frost...

Another merit of living up a hill that I somehow missed, is the ability of cold air to congregate at the bottom of the hill. This is beautifully illustrated by the fact that I've seen two frosts so far this year, but didn't get to experience my first until I was walking through the botanic gardens on my way to work. And from the deck, I can see the frost line running across the hill on the other side. Unfortunately, there was also the reverse merit two Sundays ago, when the hail that had fallen over night was still lying on the ground up the hill but not down...

It's also a little illustrative, in that the bottom of the valley is a bit like a scale model of Christchurch, except with less gang members and more culture. Oh no wait, in that the cold air moves to the bottom of the valley (or in the case of The Garden Cityit slides down the planes and off the Port Hills, people light there fires, and then some warm air puts a lid on it, and the community is left to stew in its own smog.

This weird property of cold air, also explains why viticulturalists like to grow their grapes on at least a slight incline, as the cold air will just slide away, hopefully avoiding frosts...