Wild spring weather, hardy souls and some amazing art were the subjects of an art workshop weekend held recently in Otatara. Renowned New Zealand conservation artist Jo Ogier, from Christchurch, came to give a two day art workshop at the Southland Community Nursery’s Education Centre. The workshop, entitled “Nature Journaling and Field sketching” was soon booked up by budding artists and despite inclement weather some amazing art was produced.
Jo’s easy relaxed style of teaching was inspiring to watch as she demonstrated various techniques and mediums and then encouraged everyone to have a go at the different exercises. Due to the weather, most of day one was spent inside the education centre, with a brief foray outside to collect leaf and flower specimens from around the pond and bush at Rances. Those specimens then provided the subjects for study and drawing with Jo breaking each subject down into basic shapes and giving numerous tips which everyone appreciated.
Day two involved many more excursions outside and the real “field sketching” took place – landscapes, birds, clouds, feathers, more plants and getting a real sense of closely observing and recording nature for your own journal. Most people said they would continue their journal for different purposes – recording daily events in the garden, for tramping trips, a family diary etc
One participant said “I absolutely loved it. As always Jo is a talented competent teacher and fun to be with. We all learnt a lot, even the more experienced artists among the group learnt a new technique or medium. The venue is brilliant. It is such a great asset, so comfortable, practical and with all that nature just on the doorstep!”.
Posted: 9 November 2015
On Tuesday 20th October the Windsor Brownie Group came to the Community Nursery to study for their “One with nature Badge”. They were particularly keen to learn about the nursery and its relation to conservation and how they could help. Chris started with a brief explanation of how the nursery worked and then followed up with a potting up session. Around 80 cabbage tree seedling were potted up.
Next a trip around the pond using the “sensory scavenger hunt” activity cards which encourage using your senses sight, smell, touch to look for interesting things around the pond nature walk. A report back at the end of what had been found showed that the girls had been very actively looking for interesting natural features. The sensory scavenger hunt cards and other activity sheets can be found on the Education section of the website. http://www.southlandcommunitynursery.org.nz/education-centre/activities/
Posted: 28 October 2015
On Monday 19th October Limehills Schoolchildren with teacher Kathy Turnbull braved some terrible weather to undertake nature studies at the Education Centre. Luckily we had Mark Oster to encourage them outside, while Chris and Bronwyn lead the potting up activities undercover in the Education Centre.
But first the children made a model of their school nature area – including live trees, tracks, buildings, and birds, insects, lizards, so they could explain to Chris exactly what their school area was like and Chris could then recommend the right native plants for their situation.
The children were also interested in the “community” aspect of the nursery as they had been studying “communities” – when asked what a community was one student said “good people make good communities”. Chris also introduced the idea of “volunteers” and “bartering” time in exchange for plants and one of the jobs for the class was potting up cabbage trees in exchange for taking plants from the nursery back to school to plant in the nature area.
Our grateful thanks to Mark Oster for making a trip into the gale force winds an “enjoyable” experience for students (and meaning that Bronwyn and I didn’t have to go outside the building!).
Posted: 22 October 2015
The weather was atrocious so we cancelled the evening. But…..what to do with all the foragables we had prepared? They didn’t go to waste! A wonderful wild salad made by Linda, dandelion coffee, nettle pesto made by Chris and Maggies pakora’s just had to be eaten!
Posted: 21 October 2015
Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) focuses on Kereru at Otatara - 26th September 2015
KCC is a children’s conservation club and Bronwyn Graham has just joined John Carter from Te Anau in coordinating some exciting local activities.
We started our celebration of Kereru (and the great NZ Kereru Count) by visiting Bush Haven for morning feeding time. The Kereru that have been rehabilitated and released often sit for an hour on powerlines nearby waiting for the scrumptious mix of fruit, veges and seeds. It was wonderful to get so close to kereru – the children were captivated. Russell explained the main reason Kereru end up at Bush Haven is window strike, how they go about rehabilitating those birds they are able to save, and what we can do to help conserve Kereru. It was great to hear that because of pest busting efforts in Otatara there has been an increase in Kereru in the wild. Tui and bellbirds (in addition to the kereru) flitted around us feasting in this rural haven for birds. We then viewed numerous Australian and NZ native birds including kakariki, Antipodes parrots, three Kereru getting close to release, and kaka. So special to get up and close to these NZ birds. We were also privileged to see three three-day old kaka chicks, with one egg still to hatch. Russell and May do a fantastic job and we thank them for hosting us. Perhaps kakariki are next to be increasing in numbers in the wild?
The Southland Community Nursery then became our base as we created window protectors and adorned the education centre tree with Kereru (including origami versions). Testing the depth of water in Rance’s stream using a flax claddy, noticing newly planted natives and feeding the ducks at the wetland pond followed a walk through kahikatia swamp forest where we checked out a weta motel (there were three in residence), spotted pest trapping underway, and breathed in the forest. And we counted two kereru flying. Thanks to Chris and Brian Rance for the use of their wonderful venue and surrounds, sharing their knowledge and helping out. Thanks also to F&B member Edith supporting us on the day.
With a new coordinator based in Invercargill it is hoped that KCC will grow. With 5 families, and 10 children today it was a great start to building KCC numbers around Invercargill.
Already those that were here today were talking about wanting to go back and see the kaka as they grow, and suggested other KCC outings – so watch this space! To find out more about kcc or to join and receive the “Wild Things” magazines visit www.kcc.org.nz or phone Bronwyn.
Bronwyn Graham (2130017)
Posted: 11 October 2015
