Christmas plans. The weather finally settles. The busy season is here with events crowding into the end of the year. Last year Jim Mary Peter and others volunteered their time to provide Christmas lunch at Te Aranga Marae. It was fun but also quite hard work. This year we will contribute and co-ordinate any donated goods through the Baptist Church Flaxmere with Jo and Andrew Reyngoud.
Christmas hampers and gifts will be distributed. Food, gifts for the children are much appreciated. So are toothbrushes and toothpaste for the children.
Gary, our contractor gardener, hopes to have enough potatoes to give away at Christmas. Unfortunately, despite signage etc, these are being picked too early - perhaps uprooted to be resown in someone's back yard. Our Kumara seedlings are also being picked too early. Frustrated, we decide to lock the gate in the evening. People are welcome to access the garden but maybe this will send a message.
Our plan is to design and install a waharoa and pou for the garden. Unison kindly look to provide the hardwood power poles to carve. My late husband Jono would have loved to have been involved with this project. Jono, a sculptor, was involved with many community projects over the years. His larger pieces, the rock carvings at Whakamoenga Point Lake Taupo, is one of the most visited tourist attractions and another piece at the entrance to Huka Lodge. These pieces for our garden may act as a guardian and deter bad behaviour. Our firewood has been taken, firewood we have stored for winter for the marae, tin is taken from our pile where we have removed it from the fence. We know it's a small minority that are doing this damage but we can't help but feel let down at times.
Anyway, there are so many positive things to focus on. Our calendar launch is planned. We just meet the deadline for our printers as someone notices the wrong student from one of the schools is in one of the photos. We also welcome Directions Youth Health Service to Flaxmere. Directions will be delivering its clinical services one day a week from the Totara Health General Practice Flaxmere site. Our first clinic is booked out. Free and confidential, accessible for Flaxmere's young people.
