This is a seed-grown iris at The Iris Garden, as yet unnamed.
Today is the 3rd anniversary of the Pike River Mine Disaster, and we remember the '29' who never came home. RIP.
"The Pike River Mine disaster was a coal mining accident that began on 19 November 2010 in the Pike River Mine, 46 kilometres northeast of Greymouth, in the West Coast Region of New Zealand's South Island. An explosion occurred in the mine at approximately 3:44 pm (NZDT, UTC+13). At the time of the explosion 31 miners and contractors were present in the mine. Two miners managed to walk from the mine; they were treated for moderate injuries and released from Greymouth Hospital the next day. The remaining 16 miners and 13 contractors, often referred to as the twenty-nine, were believed to be at least 1,500 metres from the mine's entrance. Following a second explosion on 24 November at 2:37 pm, the 29 remaining men were believed by police to be dead. Police Superintendent Gary Knowles, officer in command of the rescue operation (Operation Pike) said he believed that "based on that explosion, no one survived." A third explosion occurred at 3:39 pm on 26 November 2010, and a fourth explosion occurred just before 2 pm on 28 November 2010.
The 29 men ranged in age from 17 to 62. The youngest, Joseph Dunbar, was on his first shift underground after celebrating his 17th birthday the previous day. Dunbar had been due to start work at the mine on 22 November but had convinced management to allow him to start on the 19th. Out of the 29, 24 were New Zealanders, two were Scottish, two were Australian, and one was South African. One of the trapped miners, Benjamin Rockhouse, was the brother of survivor Daniel Rockhouse, one of the two men who walked clear of the mine after the initial explosion.
The Pike River Mine incident ranks as New Zealand's worst mining disaster since 43 men died at Ralph's Mine in Huntly in 1914. It also resulted in the country's worst loss of life caused by a single disaster since the 1979 crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, although this was surpassed four months later by the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake." - Wikipedia.
Beautiful iris, and a lovely shot Francoise. Thank you for being so happy for me when one of my photos gets on the PP by the way, I really do appreciate your support :))))
