The browning of the grass

A typical Friday in the inpatient unit. Staff spend time and mental energy on identifying who can be discharged or perhaps manage in respite care so that there are beds available to admit into over the next three days. Almost as soon as that meeting begins, the admissions co-ordinator receives calls from community based staff wanting to admit someone; they know that beds are most likely to be available between 0900 and 1200 on a Friday.

I say it was typical; not really. It was more marked than usual. So that by midday the coordinator was needing to quiz referrers very closely, so that she could prioritise the requests.

It was also atypical in that my registrar is on leave and I had a couple of off site meetings.

After one of them I decided I needed to sit under the trees in Pukekawa, and allow the unfiltered sinlight produce some Vitamin D in my system. On the far side of half of the playing fields is a knoll covered by trees. The knoll is a remnant of the cone of the original Auckland Domain volcano.

My book describes this volcano as having "a simple castle and moat layout, with a small central scoria cone inside a large shallow explosion crater with surrounding tuff ring". 

Where I was sitting was the inner slope of the western part of the tuff ring. Directly in front are the playing fields, set upon a peat covered lava lake. Opposite where I sat, the remnant of the old scoria cone is covered with trees. Over the other side, more playing fields lie on top of another peat covered lava lake. Further East is the other side of the tuff ring, on which is built the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

The geology is fascinating