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17 May 2010Coastline Our mural and the story of its creation is well known now. It’s no longer unique, with Hammer Hardware’s north wall sporting another masterpiece from Spanish-Alex and Vanessa and a display on the inside of Te Hikoi painted up to look like a war-time trench. Despite the competition, we feel that our mural, with its swirling colour and vegetative theme, is a winner. We will enter the mural in the Resene mural competition and hope to win back the cost of the paints at least. The Spanish Muralistas are still about the town and have other art works planned, though not in the town, but further a field or wherever their patrons require. To add to the glamour of our shop front, Adam and I applied the 6 metre long lettering strip that reads, “Environment Centre”, got it straight and well stuck and are well pleased with our work. Our ‘public face’ looks very attractive now, matching those of our volunteers behind the counter. What a place to visit, is the South Coast Environment Centre! Once inside of the shop, customers immediately notice how well filled the shelves are, with both food and non-food items, almost all first time visitors comment on the lovely atmosphere or are appreciative of all the information and products we provide. South Coast Environment Centre News Need even Things are going busily but smoothly at the Centre with our 5 paid workers focusing on their area of strength for 3-5 hours a week each and all doing extra voluntary work on top to help us out further. Here is the updated list:
We are however getting busier and busier -there is really much more we could be doing if we had more paid hours! There are some funding agencies we can apply to next month so we will throw our names in to the hat and cross our fingers. More volunteers needed now Now is the time to come and see us and offer an hour or two of your time to staff the Counter or just help out behind the scenes with your skills and passions. Robyn who voluntarily fills the gaps in the roster needs some more time out over the winter when the Orchard workshops and projects are most time consuming. It is a great way to meet people, share you skills, learn new ones and have fun- full training and support provided. Contact Robyn at the Centre for further information. Our AGM is on the 20th of July please come along and join our committee- we are a great team - our meetings are brief proactive and fun. As we have 14 on our committee it means you are not committed to come to every single meeting and it gives decision making to a bigger more diverse group. If you can;t make it please let us know so you can be nominated. We can change to meeting night if it suits new people. We look forward to your input. 2010/11 Subscriptions are due now- please indicate on your sub form if you want the Coastline link emailed to you or if you would prefer a printed copy to keep and share. $15 individual , $20 family $30 for a business. You can also borrow books from our library and we know to let you know if something exciting is coming up. (note if you paid already this year you don't have to pay again until 2011 - unless of course you want to support us further! Big apple Raffle We have a huge red wooden apple to raffle from the recent apple art exhibition- see it in the Centre now and you could take it home to grace your home or business. 100 tickets only @ $5 to odds are pretty good and a good percentage of the proceeds go to the Centre. Thank you to Wayne Hill for making such a treasure and sharing the proceeds with us. New 'old' computer We are delighted to have an older computer in the Centre itself for us to share with the public that can be used to show off our website, do research for them and more. It has always been awkward having to bring the public into our office as it isn't always appropriate. Already it has had a lot of use and enables us to follow queries on the spot, for example an elderly gentlemen brought in some fungi to be identified - it turns out they were 'star of the earth fungi' not poisonous but also too tough to be eaten! He was delighted to watch the process and very appreciative. This computer was a donation from the 'Community Trust of Southland' who are incidentally our main 'funders' and we are so grateful for their continued support. New Walkways/cycleways explored around Riverton After the Riverton Concept Plan meeting late last year the most popular next step in the public consultation was for more walkways and cycleways around Riverton both for travellers and locals. The good men and women of the walking and cycling track steering group have ventured out on three occasions to explore possible tracks through and around the town, with a view to putting forward a proposal to the agencies that could help to make the tracks a reality. We are very excited by the potential and the ease with which much of the trail could be made, adapted or claimed. So far, our wanderings have taken us from Thames Street, along the railway reserve to the road bridge, behind the museum, Environment centre, carrying firms and all the way to Te Wai Korari Wetland and walking on those already developed walkways. Last weekend we looked at possible routes from the flax mill along the seaside paper road back to the town The group will explore the next available weekend, from the Cemetery through the racecourse and out toward the flax mill, eventually making our way back alongside of the beach, on a paper road that exists there, to the town. You are very welcome to join us in our peregrinations by contacting Sally Bullen or the Environment Centre. Estuary Care group set to grow - new enthusiastic members welcomed With activity around the wetland reserve alongside of the estuary intensifying, the group recognises that it’s time to get active once again, and would welcome enthusiastic new members. Fruit and vegetable box scheme Anna is trialling a box scheme for Southland - gathering the produce from organic growers and redistributing it in mixed boxes to those who would like some. You would get a mix of the seasonal produce available in Southland and initially this will be topped up by other South Island organic growers.As the scheme develops it will be all Southland produce. She puts out a weekly newsletter with the box full of hints and recipes and is delivering to Invercargill initially for a limited number of households before launching it fully in spring. Mail orders of general organic food are also a possibility. If you are interested in supplying or buying organic food email office@sces.org.nz 'attention Anna'. Soup Nights @ the Centre We've got it down to a fine art now - subdued lighting, background music
not-too-loud, fire throwing out plenty of warmth, a variety of soups
plain, spicy or imaginatively new and constantly ebbing and flowing
conversations between really interesting people - the Friday night soup
night (calling it 'soop' would be much more fun imho New music inside the shop Following a great evening with Don McGlashan at the Art Centre, where we were amazed and delighted by his one-man, many songs show and able to buy several cds that Don had been part of creating while a member of Blam Blam Blam, Front Lawn and the Muttonbirds, we have them playing, when the mood takes us, at the Centre. You'll likely hear him the next time you are in. Eat local, and listen local, that's what we now say! We are now Southland's Trade Aid agents! The Invercargill shop closed some time ago so those of you who are missing it come and see us. Our window features goods produced by the members of the Trade Aid network, all under the fair trade banner and lovely things they are too - colourful felted rugs, painted wood toys, instruments, ornaments, bags ... you know the kinds of things Trade Aid shops sell. Curiously, the display in the window has provoked a buying explosion, not of the products I listed, but of chocolate bars and drinking chocolate which we have been stocking for some years! It may be that it's simply a phenomenon of early winter, who knows. If you would like some product and it is not in stock we can order it and your choices be here the following week. Chris Cole is our co-ordinator for this and you can check out the Trade Aid website http://www.tradeaid.org.nz/index.php/page/shop (the link is also on the front page of our website 'about us')) but rather than ordering from that site, order through us freight free and support the Centres fund-raising at the same time. Heritage orchard Home for a few years Our Harvest Festival resulted in us meeting some very interesting people as they came through the hall for a look at the displays, or attended the workshops over the 'harvest' weekend and also gave us some wider exposure through the Southland Times article which advertised the event in a full page feature (for which we are very grateful!). In that article; a mix of interview and research by Michael Fallow we made mention of our hope to discover a some land that we could use for our orchard research bank for our Southland heritage apples and have them grow for a few years while we complete our research. We received such an offer of a site from Jeff Genge at Marshwood Gardens, which is in West Plains. Jeff has developed a very interesting and well established arboretum on his property and has space for us to plant our trees, which he willingly offered. We paced it out, rubbed the soil between our fingers, checked with a wetted finger for the direction of the prevailing winds and pronounced it perfect! We are very grateful to Jeff for the offer and will be seeing more of him over the next couple of months as we transfer our young trees from Riverton to Marshwood, planting them out and pruning them in readiness for their first growing season off-site (we feel like parents, waving good by to our children, off too see the world!). We will need help with the planting. If you want to have a closer look at the project, which is going from strength to strength, give us a call at the Centre and we'll line you up for the first working bee, shifting the special research 'orchard'. We also have a lovely sheltered permanent spot to plant and care for 30 heritage apple trees from the Otautau area at the Arboretum out there- another set a working bees (remember we always reimburse your travelling costs if you come and help out at working bee) Other orchard News Fruit trees and berries will be available again in Spring. This year they are $23.50 each or 4 for $90 The list will be up soon on the website- check the what's new page, these can be pre ordered. The list will be up soon on our website Upcoming Courses in Riverton
There will be 2 held in Riverton- you can also book one for your area if you have 8 people $10pp (2 hours) but need a good range of fruit trees and berries to work with. For more information and bookings phone the south Coast Environment Centre (03)2348717 or email us info@sces.org.nz If you would like a course let Carolyn know- likewise if you have a skills or knowledge you would like to share as a tutor. Our Second Fun Recycling Night Thursday 10th June 7 pm Time to clean out your wardrobe and bring down the clothes you are sick off and any other household items, unwanted gifts etc- then swap them for someone else's treasures. It is heaps of fun- we provide mirrors and drinks but if you could bring a plate for supper! See you there! Movie Nights We've a brace of fantastic and thought provoking films waiting for our eco documentary nights. We can turn on the 'home' theatre and break out the jaffas. If you are interested let the Centre know the best nights of the week for you. We are starting in June so let us know now! Woops! Robyn and I drove through drifting banks of fog, thick and thin, to get to Gore on May 13th to speak to the most hospitable Gore Garden Club about companion planting and planting by the moon. I somehow mistook the illuminated face of the town clock for the full moon and put them all wrong on the moon’s phase, getting through the whole talk before realising what a dill I’d been (gardening pun there). I was able to smooth over the glitch with some dodging and weaving, so there was no mass walk-out, but I’ll take greater care next time. The group was running a pumpkin growing competition and had the fruits all lined up for judging on the night and many of the growers had dressed in theme, and so looked both orange and ridiculous. We shared a lot of gardening tricks and ploys and all sorts of yummy things made from pumpkin. I especially liked the jam. Radar Show After a day an a half of filming and a 6 month wait we were finally on the last Radar show last night (Sunday 23rd). The 5 minutes of exposure was well done and portrayed our Centre, seed saving, our food forest and orchard project in good light - but all too brief. If you missed it we will get a copy of the tape and add it to our Centres archives. This is the link to TV On Demand- we are after an add and the possom fur article! http://tvnz.co.nz/radars-patch/2010-e8-video-3563200 |
is cranking!
Bringing the sofa closer to the fire has been the selling point for those
of us who like to cruise and snooze and just listen to the to-ing and
fro-ing of ideas. You are all very welcome to come and join us for the evening.
We generally begin dishing out soup and slicing bread at around 6.30pm, every
Friday evening come rain, hail, sleet or snow. It's sooper!