Dressups for Chch kindies?
The war on slugs continues. Last night I harvested some kale to go in the bolognaise sauce and found many many big fat slugs were living on it. So tonight I added a fourth container of beer to collect drowned drunk slugs in, this one underneath the largest kale plant. Results from the containers in the punga raised bed have been excellent so far.
Brighid's kindy are asking past, present and future families of our kindy to donate a gold coin towards new play equipment for Christchurch kindies. They kicked their campaign off with a lovely photo of all the kids and teachers with their "We love Christchurch" banner on the front page of our local newspaper. This got me thinking about dress ups. I know money is the main thing needed, but I do want to gift something more personally meaningful. So I'm intent upon making some dressups - wrap around ballet skirts and capes - to send over and I'm hopeful I can get others to make some as well (or donate fabric or cut out the pieces) so that we can send lots.
Fionn's school held a mufti day on Friday for the earthquake and raised lots of money to send over. I'm glad we can do something and that the children have an opportunity and the encouragement to do something for Christchurch.
I've been reading Ruth's Reflections, a blog of a woman living in inner city Christchurch. I've read Ruth's blog before and often wanted her to write longer pieces - it seemed she stopped just as I was getting very interested quite often. She is indeed writing longer pieces on life since the earthquake. She notes the rising readership stats on her blog since the earthquake and laments that it took such a terrible thing to increase her readership. I remember having the same thoughts in the days after the Pike River tragedy.
Today was the first day of Art in the Park and the children and I spent the afternoon there. It's a fabulous event and I think that maybe by the time I ever manage to get a good look at the art (it just doesn't work with small children), it will be so many years down the track I might even have some money to buy some. Even so, I'd love to look without my wallet open right now. In addition to all the art for display and sale, there are lots of fund raising groups selling food and also an awesome children's art activities tent. One fund raising stall was from Runanga School. Alongside the prices and food list was an explanation of who the money was going to. It is going to Shirley Intermediate and Shirley Boys High School, who helped them in their time of need and now Runanga (home of the rugby league champions, unions and a staunch mining culture) is helping right back. There is not a lot of money in Runanga, but there is a lot of love and my eyes were welling as I gave Fionn some money to hand over as a donation. How come it is so soon after our vigil for the Pike River miners that we are standing in silence again for even more dead New Zealanders? Like a child, I want to stamp my foot and proclaim it isn't fair, but if there is anything these experiences are telling me, it is that the age of innocence has gone - I have to be a grown up.
Tomorrow is another lovely day for us though. We are off to a fourth birthday party and when I've finished writing this post, I'll sew up a swim bag for M and pop the bouncy ball with dinosaurs on it, which the kids chose for him, inside. In the morning they can wrap it up and attach the card they made today.
I'm still reading The Culture of Sewing. It's a fabulous book, though I have much to say about obfuscating language and sentence construction and the 'othering' of non-academic cultures, particularly those of working class women. Yeah yeah, that sentence could qualify, though it is mild and totally transparent and accessible compared to some of what I'm reading. I'm waiting until I've read the entire book before writing my thoughts up properly here.
Brighid's kindy are asking past, present and future families of our kindy to donate a gold coin towards new play equipment for Christchurch kindies. They kicked their campaign off with a lovely photo of all the kids and teachers with their "We love Christchurch" banner on the front page of our local newspaper. This got me thinking about dress ups. I know money is the main thing needed, but I do want to gift something more personally meaningful. So I'm intent upon making some dressups - wrap around ballet skirts and capes - to send over and I'm hopeful I can get others to make some as well (or donate fabric or cut out the pieces) so that we can send lots.
Fionn's school held a mufti day on Friday for the earthquake and raised lots of money to send over. I'm glad we can do something and that the children have an opportunity and the encouragement to do something for Christchurch.
I've been reading Ruth's Reflections, a blog of a woman living in inner city Christchurch. I've read Ruth's blog before and often wanted her to write longer pieces - it seemed she stopped just as I was getting very interested quite often. She is indeed writing longer pieces on life since the earthquake. She notes the rising readership stats on her blog since the earthquake and laments that it took such a terrible thing to increase her readership. I remember having the same thoughts in the days after the Pike River tragedy.
Today was the first day of Art in the Park and the children and I spent the afternoon there. It's a fabulous event and I think that maybe by the time I ever manage to get a good look at the art (it just doesn't work with small children), it will be so many years down the track I might even have some money to buy some. Even so, I'd love to look without my wallet open right now. In addition to all the art for display and sale, there are lots of fund raising groups selling food and also an awesome children's art activities tent. One fund raising stall was from Runanga School. Alongside the prices and food list was an explanation of who the money was going to. It is going to Shirley Intermediate and Shirley Boys High School, who helped them in their time of need and now Runanga (home of the rugby league champions, unions and a staunch mining culture) is helping right back. There is not a lot of money in Runanga, but there is a lot of love and my eyes were welling as I gave Fionn some money to hand over as a donation. How come it is so soon after our vigil for the Pike River miners that we are standing in silence again for even more dead New Zealanders? Like a child, I want to stamp my foot and proclaim it isn't fair, but if there is anything these experiences are telling me, it is that the age of innocence has gone - I have to be a grown up.
Tomorrow is another lovely day for us though. We are off to a fourth birthday party and when I've finished writing this post, I'll sew up a swim bag for M and pop the bouncy ball with dinosaurs on it, which the kids chose for him, inside. In the morning they can wrap it up and attach the card they made today.
I'm still reading The Culture of Sewing. It's a fabulous book, though I have much to say about obfuscating language and sentence construction and the 'othering' of non-academic cultures, particularly those of working class women. Yeah yeah, that sentence could qualify, though it is mild and totally transparent and accessible compared to some of what I'm reading. I'm waiting until I've read the entire book before writing my thoughts up properly here.
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