Bright Wings

Snow!

A sense of adventure sent us out for a Sunday drive in the swirling snow, along Upper Plain Road in Masterton, and into the foothills of the Tararua Ranges.

Ratepayer apathy challenged

The Wairarapa Times-Age reports Councillor Jeff Workman is on a mission to improve communication between the Masterton District Council and ratepayers.

This is a real challenge.  As a former staff member for a metropolitan local authority I understand his frustration.  Local authorities spend a small fortune telling their ratepayers what they're planning to do (consultation) and seeking feedback.  And getting almost none.

Much of the essential work of a local authority is around infrastructure; boring, uninteresting things like replacing sewers, sealing roads. Even putting in a new sewage treatment facility.  

Residents may grizzle when their rates rise to cover the cost of some essential infrastructure service, but few put pen to paper, or attend public meetings.  

The Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) is an expensive and time-consuming exercise local authorities must undertake to ensure that they are thinking and planning ahead in a way that will meet present and future needs of their community.  It is my experience that it is terribly difficult to interest the public, despite a council's best efforts.

People will react much more strongly to something where there is an emotional attachment.  The saga of the Greytown Town Hall, where locals fought tooth and nail to retain the building as a town hall - even though it was so run down that it was only used a couple of times a year, is a case in point.

The Masterton District Council website is worthy, but boring. A branding exercise for Masterton District Council, with new logo and style guide - and a makeover for the website - would help.  Carterton District Council is leading the way here with a smart logo and impressive, modern website.

Summer memory for a winter day

I photographed this lovely rose a few months ago at the Victoria Esplanade Gardens, Palmerston North.

These gardens are a great example of an accessible, drive-through gardens, where there are excellent facilities for children and the very elderly, interesting walking opportunities and a very popular cafe.  

Vigilantes not the answer

Many will be disquieted by news reports of a "sheriff" and an armed, vigilante group patrolling Martinborough at night.  Following an incident in which shots were fired, the Police ordered the vigilantes off the street.

I strongly support nighttime patrol groups - I have seen them in action in other Wairarapa towns and there is no doubt they help reduce burglaries and act as eyes and ears for the Police.   These groups typically phone the Police if they see anything suspicious, but do not get involved.

It seems the group in Martinborough - fuelled no doubt by growing frustration at the apparent inability of the Police to stem the tide of burglaries - have decided to take the law into their own hands.  Or maybe it is one or two hotheads within an otherwise sensible group.

The Police receive training in preventing confrontational situations arising.  Self-appointed vigilantes, on a mission to rid the town of crime, do not have such training and the shots fired the other evening may well have been a manifestation of this.

Tanya Katterns reports today that the vigilante group is back on the streets, minus the two men involved in the confrontation the other evening, and that there are mixed feelings in Martinborough about the group.

Martinborough is not just wineries and elegant Wellingtonians sipping chardonnay and gracing kerbside tables.  A few years ago I had to work at night fixing a database in Martinborough; gangs of young men wandering through the otherwise deserted town, looking for trouble, made me feel very uneasy.   

The large number of unoccupied "weekender" houses in the town compounds the problem.

Maybe the South Wairarapa District Council - and local business people - could look at fitting CCTV cameras on all the roads leading out of Martinborough.  Yes, there are a lot of roads out of Martinborough, but if every vehicle movement in and out of Martinborough was recorded it may stem the tide of burglaries and pay for itself in a few months.  This has been done at other holiday resorts with success.

Time for tea

Over the last 30 years tea drinking in New Zealand has moved from a standard, gumboot brew you could stand a spoon up in, to being a treat for connoisseurs.

I've recently discovered the t leaf T range of teas and infusions - and their wonderful shop - on a visit to Wellington.  You may have come across a small selection of their teas at some Wairarapa cafes.

There is a mind-boggling selection to choose from (about 120), under the following categories:

• Black tea blends - Assam, Ceylon, Sri Lankan, Darjeeling varieties
• Flavoured black teas - includes Chai, China Rose (China black tea, flavoured with rose), Earl Grey Excelsior (I've tried this - it's outstanding)
• Chinese black teas
• Chinese oolong teas 
• Formosa oolong teas  
• Green teas 
• Flavoured green teas - I've tried Tokyo Lime and Fabulous Feijoa.  The latter, which has rose petals and tiny, freeze-dried pieces of feijoa in it - is my current favourite. 
• Japanese green teas 
• White teas - haven't tried these yet but, the fact sheet points to health-giving properties
• Blooming teas - jasmine, carnation 
• Fruit tisanes (all caffeine free)  
• Yerba mate 
• Herbal tisanes (caffeine free) - a wide variety, including Kawakawa Fire (kawakawa blended with lemongrass and ginger.  I've tried Restful - peach flavoured blend of chamomile, lavender, vervain and rose buds. 
• Rooibos, a South African tea with health-giving properties  

If you're visiting Wellington, the t leaf T shop is in the Midland Park complex in Lambton Quay (adjoining Astoria), or order online from their website, t leaf T 

They have various sampler packs available for you to try and make a great, thoughtful gift. 

No Masterton Weather

Those of you who checked the Met Service site to see just how much rain/wind/plagues of locusts, etc, we were experiencing over the weekend may have noticed a large red exclamation mark and no weather information.

The Met Service told me that the automatic weather station at East Taratahi, which normally provides hour by hour readings, is broken and they are unsure when it will be fixed.

Those of you in the rural heartland who have rain gauges will be much better informed. 

Sunday afternoon at Aratoi

Lunch at Entice Cafe, followed by a wander round Aratoi, is a great way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon.

Current exhibitions include:

• Peonies - by Stella Warren. These are stunning; with winter upon us rather suddenly this year we need reminding that spring is only a few months away.  Pictured above is Companion of Serenity.    


• The Future of Food.  This is a fascinating, interactive exhibition that makes you really stop and think about what we eat now, what we should be eating for optimal health and what food in the future will be like.

  Amazing touchscreen exhibitions are fun to try out, and illuminating. Take the family or grandchildren.  Lots more interesting information on the MORST (Ministry of Research, Science and Technology) Website




• Imaging New Guinea.  This different and thought-provoking exhibition, from the National Gallery of Australia shows how Papua Niuginian artists have responded to use of pen, woodcuts and screenprints in the contemporary world. 

  Images linked from www.aratoi.org.nz

Chelsea Flower Show delights

Forget the endless, freezing southerly and visit the Chelsea Flower Show.

Courtesy of clever technology you can go on a 360^o tour of each garden from the comfort of your living room, without having to cope with crowds and sore feet.  

Among the more unusual designs was James May's Paradise in Plasticine. In describing the design, he notes:

Ever since William Harbutt, a teacher, invented Plasticine in the late 19th century, it has been endlessly used to model something like little penguins in a bow tie, or an unconvincing two-inch-high Eiffel Tower. It’s high time the full expressive breadth of this modelling medium was revealed.

The photograph is from my Rangitumau Garden Tour series.

Deserted park

Queen Elizabeth Park, Masterton, deserted on a freezing Wairarapa day.

A minute after this photo was taken, the heavens opened and I had to complete my circuit of the lake very quickly to avoid getting completely soaked.

Fighting fund for Bouzaid and Ballaben staff

The Wairarapa Times-Age reports a fighting fund has been set up to help the former workers of Bouzaid and Ballaben in Greytown and Pahiatua. These workers were made redundant last week following the receivership of Lane Walker Rudkin.

Contributions can be made at any branch of the Bank of New Zealand:

• Account:  National Distribution Union Fighting Fund
• Account number:  02-0192-0491501-000  

Apple Crumble time

Desserts are a rare treat for us these days, but last night was so cold and miserable I gathered some windfall Granny Smith apples, knocked off the tree by the wind, and made a delicious apple crumble.

Crumble

The crumble recipe I use is loosely based on an old Alison Holst recipe, as follows:

1/2 cup flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tablespoons whole almonds

75 g cold butter, cut into cubes.

Throw all these ingredients in the food processor and process until the mixture is finely ground.

Fruit

There are endless possibilities for the fruit part of the crumble:

• Apples make a great crumble.  Peel, quarter, and then cut into thin slices about four large apples.  
• Use a mixture of feijoas and apples
• Drain a can of peaches, apricots, etc
• Add some frozen berry fruit (zap briefly in microwave and drain off resulting juice first)  

Julie Buiso has some great crumble ideas on her website, although I prefer to add oats to the recipe as I think it's a healthier option.  (Note: the crumble topping recipe is with the recipe for Apple and boysenberry crumble)
 

Employees driving unsafe commercial vehicles

 

The Department of Labour should prosecute employers who make workers use unsafe vehicles, says the Dog & Lemon Guide  . 

Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson says: 

“The law is quite clear: employers are required to provide a safe workplace and can be prosecuted if they don’t."  

"Legally, a motor vehicle is a workplace, yet the Department of Labour appears to be taking no action against employers who put their workers at risk by making them drive unsafe vehicles.”

“It’s not merely the current users of these vehicles who would benefit if they were safe. Today’s commercial van may be tomorrow’s cheap transport for a family in South Auckland.”

Matthew-Wilson asserts that the Police, at the forefront of road safety, are still driving Mitsubishi L300 vans, despite compelling evidence that these are deathtraps.

Too many Wairarapa road accidents

The Wairarapa's high road accident rate, the highest in the Wellington Region, is concerning the Police.

The Wairarapa Times-Age reports

Wairarapa has been labelled as having the worst crash rate in the Wellington district, with Carterton's adult drivers turning up high  but still legal  breath alcohol readings in a recent district-wide drink driving blitz.

Operation WIRM (Wairarapa's Impaired Rural Motorists) ran from Wednesday, May 6, through to the early hours of Sunday, May 10, and yielded "surprisingly high" alcohol readings, according to Wellington District Road Policing manager inspector Peter Baird.

"These are local people, leaving rural hotels. Intoxicated motorists are a danger to a community that are reliant on the white centre-line to keep them safe," Mr Baird said.

A cavalier, she'll-be-right attitude to drinking and driving still prevails in the Wairarapa.  The problem is compounded by winding, narrow, dark country roads and a lack of public transport options for those who have had a skinful.  

While pubs are not allowed to sell alcohol to intoxicated persons, they also have a moral responsibility to restrict supply to people they know are going to jump in the ute and head for the hills.  Or offer to put them up for the night or run them home.

Maternity upgrade

Discussions on the $103 million upgrade to maternity services on Checkpoint - and Homepaddock - included the suggestion that better use is made of the old concept of "lying-in homes,"  where mothers with new babies spent a couple of weeks getting breastfeeding established, gaining confidence in managing the baby and - most importantly - having a bit of a rest.

Greater contact with the mother - both during pregnancy and after delivery might also give lead carers and GPs an opportunity to spot any family dysfunction that might need to be addressed, particularly with unplanned teenage pregnancies where the young parent(s) are unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with a young baby.  It might even prevent some cases of abuse of young children.

The picture is of a 1950s bed jacket, typically knitted for young mothers to wear while they were in the maternity home.

Pig Welfare Contradiction

While roundly condemning cruel pig farming practices last night on TV One News and Close Up, TV One then ran How the other half lives at 9.30 on hunting, seemingly in contradiction of their earlier stand on animal welfare.

We saw pig hunters and their dogs chasing, bailing up and sticking a large Captain Cooker pig, although Marc Ellis delicately turned the other way to avoid the awkward bit when the pig was dispensed.

Pig dogs have strong jaws which allow them to hold onto a pig until the hunter can get close enough to put the knife in.  As anyone who has ever been bitten knows, dog bites are extremely painful. To die this way must be agonising and terrifying. 

We appear to have contradictory attitudes to pig welfare.  We hail pig hunters as heroes, while condemning local farmers for intensive farming practices, and continue to support imports of cheap, intensively farmed Canadian pork.

I don't agree with pigs being confined - either in crates or concrete pens - and I think the current media campaign has given the industry a big wake-up call.  And let the public know that if it wants piggies gambolling in the meadow - and, as Claire Browning notes, pork for the Sunday roast - they're going to have to pay a bit more. 

As a country that pushes the grass-fed angle when marketing lamb and beef, we have up till now ignored the plight of pigs.

Headlights on?

Mindful of the positive public reaction to road safety campaigner, Clive Matthew-Wilson's suggestion that headlights be kept on at all times, I've been keeping my headlights on, even though I get strange looks from motorists on a bright, sunny day.

I decided to conduct an informal survey during a trip to Wellington when it was pouring with rain and visibility was very poor.

  

I was pleasantly surprised at the number of cars that did have their headlights on. It seemed everyone had watched the recent Close Up item where Clive suggested this was something practical everyone could do Right Now, without a single legislative change.

It was only when I drove into a rather dark underground carpark in Wellington that I realised I'd driven the entire 100kms in the gloom and rain with my headlights off.

Monet exhibition closes

The wonderful Monet exhibition at Te Papa closed yesterday.  Stuff reports that the queue for the Monet exhibition stretched from the Museum out to Taranaki Street.

When I visited it on a Thursday afternoon there was a 35 minute wait in the queue, but it was well worth it.  You could study the brush strokes of an individual painting close up, and then stand back and admire from afar Monet's use of light and colour, and the almost 3-D effect of some paintings.

In the 1980s I queued for the Monet exhibition which visited Auckland.  I recall standing in the street for seemingly hours, and viewers were moved fairly smartly through the exhibition once you got inside.  By contrast, the exhibition at Te Papa was spacious and allowed viewers to go round the exhibition in their own time. Audio "phones" provided background commentary.

An experience I won't forget.

Sunshine after the storm

Autumn

Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,

With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,

Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,

And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!

Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand

Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,

Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!

Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended

So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;

Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;

Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;

And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,

Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves! 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

After gale force wind and rain Sunday was warm and sunny, although the norwester was still strong. Ideal for a walk.

The brilliant Wairarapa autumn colours, coupled with the softer light, makes for wonderful photography. And raking all those leaves keeps one fit.

Greytown Violin Showcase

Acclaimed violinist Ronald Woodcock, accompanied by Colleen Rae-Gerrard,  will be performing in Greytown as part of Ed and Juliet Cooke's Greytown Music Group 2009 series.

The programme includes works by Mozart, Berlioz, Villa-Lobos, Chevalier St Georges, Eugene Ysaye and Sarasate.

The concert is on Sunday, 31 May 2009, at 57 Wood Street, Greytown.

Full information is available on the Greytown Music Group Wiki

Award for Tora Coastal Walk

Rural Women New Zealand have named Jenny Bargh, Kiri Elworthy and Kath Elworthy, who run Tora Coastal Walk, as one of three initial winners of the RWNZ Enterprising Rural Women Award.

The Tora Coastal Walk partners also received $1500 in prize money and the opportunity to attend a BNZ Women in Agribusiness course.

In congratulating Jenny Bargh and Kiri and Kath Elworthy, Rural Women National President Margaret Chapman said the passion shown by the women for their business, their economic success and their inputs into the rural community were deciding factors in their win.  

“The business has been running for 14 years, but the women’s enthusiasm is still strong.  They live in a very special part of the country and love to share it with others.  They make a special effort to bridge the urban-rural divide, talking to their guests about what’s happening on the farm and making it a total rural experience,” says Ms Chapman.  “Attention to detail and personal touches are an important part of the Tora Coastal Walk and its success.”

Great for the Tora Tour trio and great for Wairarapa tourism.