MAREE’S MUSINGS

Party Lines    

By Maree Roy

 It’s coming up to election time again. To me, it doesn’t seem long since the last one. 

We’re being treated to the usual electioneering fever and all it entails: endless rounds of speechmaking, interviews, polls and so on, plus the [definitely] odd slanging match. 

With the fast pace of modern life, short and snappy slogans are all the rage. My google-delving of the word slogan revealed it comes from the 16^th century Gaelic “sluagh-ghairm,”  literally a warcry. Says it all, really! Party lines, basically slogans in sheep’s clothing, are trotted out with an interesting and occasionally bizarre selection of these catchphrases. 

The expression trotting out was first used in 1838 in reference to flash horses being put through their paces. Just seven years later it became slang for ‘produce and display for admiration’ – in other words, showing off combined with a dose of horse shit. Quite!

Hoardings and billboards, designed to let us know what the main party lines are, have been popping up like last month’s rabbits. Billboards are just noticeboards for displaying information (a bill being an alternative word for a notice), but I puzzled over hoardings. Back in history, a hourd was another name for a hyrdel: a frame used as a temporary barrier or fence, just like the modern day version: hurdle.

So it’s nothing to do with obsessive collecting which is probably a relief. Both require an eye-catching photo crying out for the usual defacing, and a slogan (ditto). … Continue Reading

How well do we know people in our community

Bill and Mavis Jones

65th Wedding Anniversary.

Bill and Mavis married on the 16^{th of} August 1958. They met in the mid-1950s. Bill was an apprentice painter and decorator by day, and a Teddy Boy by night. Mavis worked in a bank and loved to dance They jived their way to their wedding two days after Mavis’s 21^st birthday.

After honeymooning in London, they returned to live with Bill’s mother in the family home in Milton, Staffordshire.

In June 1959 Karen, their daughter, was born.  Not long after they moved to a house “around the corner” with the luxury of an indoor toilet and bathroom.

Bill continued his painting and decorating career, starting his own business in the mid-1960s. Mavis returned to banking, making it to the managerial level. 

Football was Bill’s early passion. He played for Macclesfield Town as a semi-professional. His moment of fame came when the celebrated Stanley Mathews, one of the best footballers of his time, was unable to play. Bill replaced him for the game. Golf replaced football in the late 1960s and Mavis joined him.

After Karen and Derek married in 1979 they decided there was a lot more opportunity in Australia. They emigrated to Perth. Bill and Mavis were in the process of building their dream home opposite the golf club. They celebrated their 25^th anniversary there before deciding to emigrate to Perth to join Karen and Derek in 1985. … Continue Reading

Pirinoa kids learn in “our place”

Clive Paton hosted the whole of Pirinoa School on his regenerating farm in the Aorangi Ranges. He talked to the children about the story of changing the land from forest to farm to forest again.

By Principal Richard Goodyear 

Imagine if your classroom as a child contained historic cemeteries, pa sites, lakes, wetlands, streams, rivers and forests. A lighthouse, a marae, ancient and modern gardens. Farms of all types and sizes. Dozens of fascinating people, old and young, who are experts, who have achieved great things in their lives, and with stories to tell about the places they love. And an entire mountain range with a rare climbing plant that your school is named after.

Pirinoa School sits at the centre of all this and we are leaving the school grounds more and more to explore this vibrant learning space.

To have a classroom this big, this vibrant, we need to flip the idea of what a classroom is and what a curriculum might be.

Every single site is packed with learning opportunities. We need to think ‘let’s learn about people and places instead of simply learning subjects’. Because the learning that we need to do in schools is bigger than just the subject areas. The kids need knowledge, understanding and skills that are relevant to them and are sparked by what’s around them. By their place. And when we get it right it spurs a whole lot of motivation for reading, writing and maths. What we call the foundational subjects.

This is the idea behind the ‘local curriculum’ that we are developing at Pirinoa School, and many schools are embracing all through the country. … Continue Reading

Sprouts, rhubarb save Community Garden

As many will know, the location of the Community Garden is on the damper side of Martinborough. 

This winter has provided us with the greatest challenge in our six years of operation. We have had several weeks where at least a third of the garden has been under water, and frankly, too treacherous for us to do any significant work. 

Over these weeks we have, alas, been unable to deliver fresh veggies to the Community Larder.

However, on the bright side, we had the best ever crop of brussel sprouts , and three weeks on the trot were able to deliver baskets full of them to the Larder. Rhubarb has been the only other staple over this time.

On those days when we have braved the garden, we have planted brassicas, leaks, cavello nero and fennel which, thanks to our raised planters, they have not only survived, but thrived… just need a little warmth and a FEW DRY DAYS!

We have also developed a new composting system, with the advice and good guidance of one of our newer gardeners: using our old contained compost, amalgamating it with a lot of semi decaying matter from our earth pile, and plenty of cardboard and newspaper and covering it all with weed matting and a few tyres .This is all open to the elements and contained by a few stakes and woven string. I have seen the end result in her garden and will report if ours is anything near as good.

We have also relocated some of our large planting beds to maximise sun!!!! This means that we will use the tyres just for protection in certain areas of the garden, and for bee attracting flowers if and when summer arrives.

True to say the garden does look like a bit of a bomb site at the moment. 

If you are keen to join us and make the “Community Garden Great Again” drop by on a Wednesday morning, from 10 a.m. (51 Oxford St). We’d love to see you.