We wandered through the orchard smelling and feeling the herbs and flowers, and watching the bumble bees. Following the signs we stopped and spotted the two kereru sitting high in the trees, the strawberries were seen and squiggly worms held. The pond track was followed and we used our sense of touch to feel the roughness of the cabbage tree bark and smoothness of the hebe trunk. Weta and slaters were looked at up close in the bug hotels, we had a break at the hut, listened to the birds and some of us spotted scaup ducklings on the pond before they hid away. Exploring the panel pictures, listening to a story about Kiri the Kereru who ate too much, and playing with the soft toy birds finished a busy morning.
Posted: 21 November 2019
Southland QEII Rep Jesse Bythell brought the QEII Board and staff from Wellington for a Covenant visit on a very cold blustery day. The visit was part of their three day meeting and the Board travels around the regions for its meetings and covenant visits. It was the second visit in so many weeks by some of the Board and staff as they had also attended the Southland Covenantors gathering here in early November. Other invited guests were Randall from ES, Christine and Tapuwa from SIT, Dallas from Pestbusters and Sheryll from ICC. How different the weather was for their two visits – scorching sun on the first, hail on the second!! It didn’t dampen enthusiasm however and after lunch in the Education Centre, and informal chats, the group accompanied Jesse and Chris around the covenant tracks including the track funded by QEII’s Stephenson Fund. A Hut inspection followed and a poke into the tall forest. There were lots of good questions, discussions and learnings before the group headed off to Bowman Bush Reserve also in Otatara.
The Rances restoration area was discussed at some length and below are some QEII Monitoring Photos taken from the same place from 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2019.
Chris
Posted: 20 November 2019
This class of learners have all signed pledges to be the kaitiaki of the scooter park area of their school, and they came to the Southland Community Nursery to learn about native plants that can be planted and how to plant. A matching activity around the plant nursery got them matching up a card to the plant and learning about how tall the species grow and what conditions they can tolerate or not – some like the shade while others like the sun! The diversity of native species was explored alongside thinking about what plants will be suitable for areas around the scooter park. Then the right way to plant a plant was demonstrated and practised – using those species that like wet feet in this wet area of the property. Planting the right way gives the plants the best chance of survival. Great helping mānuka class.
Bronwyn
Posted: 20 November 2019
Walking through the orchard different coloured items in nature were discovered – the yellow flowers and yellow possum trap, pink flowers with a bumble bee, red poppy flowers, brown soil, grey clouds above us and lots of green everywhere! We followed the signs to the education centre and then noticed all the signs around the pond track, some marking trees and others marking different tracks. There was a tadpole and bugs in the pond nets and a leaf veined slug, slaters and a weta in the bug hotel. We saw the multi-coloured fuchsia flower with blue, yellow, pinky purple and green – just beautiful. We felt the prickly, smooth, rough, and hedgehog like plants and parts of plants. We saw Donna the nursery duck with 3 fluffy ducklings – 2 black and 1 yellow – very cute! We used our sense of smell all morning – bay leaves, fennel, tarata/lemonwood, stinkwood – with some smelling nice and others not so nice! We heard birds, cabbage tree leaves rattling, the wind and each other. A run around the maze, a break for morning tea, puzzle time and some potting up of kowhai seedlings all happened before the rain hit!
Bronwyn
Posted: 18 November 2019
A class of years 1 &2s from Donovan School spent the day at the Southland Community Nursery engaging their senses in the natural world. In the orchard and edible gardens areas we used touch to feel the different textures of leaves, bark and flowers of different plants, and the icky food waste being recycled by the worms; smelling the different flowers and leaves, and the worm farm; listening to the birds, wind and fellow classmates; and seeing all that was around us.
The pest traps started questions galore and we were impressed by the curiosity communicated. In the plant nursery the number of plants produced every year was guessed very quickly and where all these plants go to was thoughtfully pondered. Both the pond and bush tracks were explored while searching for native tree leaves and flowers, and we learnt the names of many trees. Damsel fly larva and water boatmen were netted from the pond.
After refuelling with lunch and a run in the paddock maze we looked even closer at our collection of leaves and other plant parts from the ngahere, becoming botanists (scientists that study plants) drawing and writing about the plants, and potting up seedlings ready to grow. Puzzle fun and books, a look at the pests we trap for and singing “oh no Mr Possum” completed a fantastic day with a great class of learners. Donovan - you rocked!!
Bronwyn and Chris
Posted: 15 November 2019
