On 2nd May the nursery re-opened after an Easter break. Being school holidays there was a bumper turn-out of 30 people including many children. Scones were the order of the day for shared morning tea! Some different nursery activities included weaving with cabbage tree leaves to cover the bird hide by the pond. Lots of weeding was done.
In the afternoon Malcolm McKenzie brought along his apple press and around 25 people came to press their apples into juice. It has been a great apple season – we have some huge “Monty’s Surprise” apples freshly picked (see photo). People brought freshly picked apples as well as defrosted frozen apples (where the juice is clearer and you get a lot more juice from the apples). Caleb demonstrated the lost art of tree climbing to harvest the last of our pears to make “perry” – pear juice. Apple pressing is a lot of fun and a great community event.
Posted: 7 May 2014
Limehills School attended on 15th April armed with many questions for Chris about the native plants that they were learning about in the classroom. They started with a “rap song” about photosynthesis! They enjoyed being under the tall bush and teacher Kathy commented that in 30 years of visiting bush reserves she had never heard such loud birdsong. Another activity was learning to identify different native plants and their uses. At the end of the visit in the Education Centre Chris looked at the various school garden ideas the children had drawn and the group finished with songs accompanied by the Ukelele played by teacher Kathy.
Posted: 7 May 2014
A full month of activities started with Surrey Park Early Learning Centre spending a morning in the nursery – activities included admiring the apple trees, bush walks, learning about native trees and ending with a sing-a-long and lunch in the Education Centre.
The next visit was Mark Oster from Environment Southland’s Enviroschools project holding an “Environmental leaders” workshop where five students from various Southland enviroschools came and worked through exercises in the classroom and around the property.
On 6 April a “Pest Workshop” for community groups was held by Environment Southland and Department of Conservation – groups from Otatara, Bluff, Omaui, SIT and other individuals learned about poisons and traps and shared information about their own pest control operations.
Salford preschool attended on 8th April and enjoyed a range of activities from “bug hunting” to plant bingo and seed collecting, ending with activity songs lead by Bronwyn.
Aparima Student Hayden did work experience in the Nursery for a week during April
Posted: 7 May 2014
on Sunday 23 March an afternoon of bird related activities was held as part of Bird week (including finding a rat in a trap!), along with a photographic exhibition by Glenda Rees and a children’s bird painting competition.
The winners of the childrens painting competition were Bethany Hughes for her Albatross and from Surrey Park Early Childhood Centre – Isla Baron (kiwi), Siobhan Maguire (pukeko), Aden Dogherty (morepork) and Charlie Hegarty (kereru). They were awarded prizes from Forest and Bird and Department of Conservation.
The answers to the bird quiz – part of Southland Bird Week, organised by the Southland Natural History Field Club, were:
1) right
2) Buckhams
3) Closed
4) two
5) 24
6) Two takahe
7) Butterfly
8) Kaka
9) Sulphur-crested cockatoo
Posted: 31 March 2014
At the end of February we were fortunate to have the services of the Conservation Volunteers group based in Hokitika. Lead by Ashleigh, the group of international volunteers helped out for a day and did some great work – gravelling a track under Ray’s supervision, collecting seeds, digging flaxes and potting up native plants. Thanks guys, it was a great effort. Check out more about this volunteer group at www.conservationvolunteers.co.nz
Posted: 31 March 2014
