A word to gardeners

Those popular bags of potting mix and various compost mixes can carry a very nasty air borne bug floating around in the mixture. Inhale one and you will be in considerable strife.

For around five days you will have a 24/7 splitting headache which defies the likes of Panadol, your thoughts will be addled and you won’t be able to read or eat, your blood pressure and sense of balance will be affected and you will experience wild fluctuations in temperature, feel continuously nauseous and just generally awful – and you will lose heaps of weight.

The treatment is ten days of very strong antibiotics. Mercifully these will more or less zonk you out. After five days you will slowly come right, the headaches will be the last to leave. By day nine or ten you will be able to carefully walk around, you will be very weak it will take up to three weeks to be back to more or less normal.

“But yes” I hear you think “it’s your own silly fault you should have read the warning on the pack.” But here’s the thing: yes, there is a warning on the pack, but the designers of the by far the most popular brand’s pack seem to have gone to extraordinary lengths to dissuade it being read. … Continue Reading

An essential community asset

Recently an outraged customer told me she had been told by a Martinborough resident that there was no need for a library in Martinborough as it was a “tourist destination”. Also suitably outraged, I thought it was perhaps a good time to remind everyone why libraries exist.

“Libraries and information services contribute to the sound operation of the inclusive Information Society.
They enable intellectual freedom by providing access to information, ideas and works of imagination in any medium and regardless of frontiers

They help to safeguard democratic values and universal civil rights impartially and by opposing any form censorship.
The unique role of libraries and information services is that they respond to the particular questions and needs of individuals. This … makes libraries and information services vital to a democratic and open Information Society. Libraries are essential for a well informed citizenry and transparent governance, as well as for the take-up of e-government.

They also build capacity by promoting information literacy and providing support and training for e?ective use of information resources … libraries contribute signi?cantly to addressing the digital divide and the information inequality that results from it. “
This is from Society in Action, Alexandria Manifesto on Libraries, the Information Society in Action

Now we are all suitably impressed, I will just let you know that we have a new Book Babies session on Wednesday mornings at 10, in addition to the Tuesday one at 10. This one is in Te Reo and has much more singing! Yay, you get to hear me belting out songs too – that must be a bonus!
Look forward to seeing you. Shirley

FAREWELL TO BLOOM RESTAURANT AT MURDOCH JAMES

On March 19th Bloom Restaurant had their final function, a large wedding, before closing the doors for the last time.
The beautiful restaurant renowned for its great food, fresh flowers, lovely décor and excellent service has been a big part of owner Michael Honey’s life for the past 6 years.

Overlooking the pond and river and beyond to the Tararua’s it has been a popular choice for locals and visitors alike and of course complemented Murdoch James tasting room and selection of award winning wines.

While looking forward to a well-earned break, Michael will be quietly contemplating his next move, whatever that may be as he has never been one to sit still for too long.

Michael wishes to thank his very loyal customers and staff including Chef Tennesse Liumaihetau and Donna Haupapa for their loyalty over the last 6 years and hopes to catch up with his followers in a new venture sometime in the future.

Book review

Numero Zero

Here is something completely different. Numero Zero is hard to categorise, probably best just described as a jolly good read. Author Umberto Eco is a prolific writer and philosopher who has written around twenty book divided between fiction, literary criticism and and non fiction. He has been described as ‘Master Story Teller’ which this book confirms.

The story is set in Milan in 1992 where a mysterious backer is setting up a new, and as it proves to be, seedy newspaper. The Editor has drawn together a team of reporters who are busy putting together a dummy run, hence the book’s title. A depressed aging hack, Colonna, has also been employed to record the day to day activity of setting up this paper. … Continue Reading