Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | May 13, 2010

look after our elders!

A story on the Stuff website has irked me today.

One a day when I am a day older myself (happy birthday to me!) I find it absolutely abhorrent that some of our elderly are getting treated like second class citizens (third or fourth class in fact).

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/3689448/Ailing-elderly-couple-left-to-fend-for-themselves

This story is about a couple in their 80s – he has been battling inoperable prostate cancer for three years. The worst symptom is incontinence. His wife fell and seriously damaged her shoulder a few years ago. After repeated trips to orthopaedic surgeons she was told nothing more could be done and she was told to avoid scrubbing, sweeping and vacuuming. But now their one-hour-a-week home help provided through the Capital & Coast District Health Board was canned after being reassessed over the phone. They were told they no longer met the criteria. How could they not?!

They deserve it! They have paid taxes all their lives and deserve to be looked after now! One hour a week for goodness sake!

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family, Social themes | Tags: ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | May 11, 2010

Want to win $100,000?

Want to win $100,000 worth of prizes? There are seven young farmers around the country who are studying to improve their chances for that awesome prize package (and the rather sexy title that goes with it – wouldn’t you like to be the Young Farmer of the Year?!)

Part of yesterday’s workload here at the land of rivettingkatetaylor was putting together a summary of the seven grand finalists for the National Bank Young Farmer Contest (being held in Gore in July).

And what a lineup. Some of NZ’s finest right there. But which one will step up to become the champion? Which one will earn the right to call himself the Young Farmer of the Year 2010? (and we won’t even try to answer Jamie Mackay’s question to me a few weeks ago on The Farming Show about why there aren’t any women in there).

In good sponsorship fashion, I will mention that six of the seven guys went to Lincoln University, one of the long-time supporters of the show (they probably all have Hondas too and use Ravensdown fertiliser and bank at the National Bank, drive Hyundai Santa Fes and wear Swanndris to work…..)

There’s one guy in particular that I hope does well. He will put his heart and soul into winning that’s for sure, but does he have the right stuff? Angus Brown has been “fighting” with his twin brother Duncan for years to make the top four of the East Coast Regional Finals.  Duncan has perhaps made the ultimate sacrifice and stepped up to the organising plate several times to let his brother have a whack, particularly at this stage of their Young Farmers lives, as they get kicked out in just a couple of years when they suddenly turn into Old Farmers. (See the link to the Young Country magazine’s Family Ties article I did on these two under published work tab at the top of the page.)

Another who will be trying hard will be Northern’s James Donaldson. He’s from the region that has never had a winner. In 43 years, a Northern Young Farmer has never had the Cloak of Knowledge draped around his shoulders (unless it was at the ball afterwards, and even then, it wouldn’t be for long, for some reason it’s quite precious to the winner….)

James was a finalist in 2008, Taranaki/Manawatu’s Chris Will was a finalist last year and Tasman’s Grant McNaughton (for some reason known to his mates as Marmite) was a finalist in 2007. He missed out on a grand final spot last year after being tied with eventual winner Tim O’Sullivan in the Aorangi Regional Final (Tim won on a countback to practical scores). Grant was in no mind to let the same thing happen this year – winning his regional final by about 60 points.

Andrew Scott is representing Aorangi this year (he’s from the same club and district as Tim O’Sullivan – no pressure lol) and the Otago/Southland representative, competing just down the road from his own farm, is Pete Gardyne. The Gardyne’s will be a force to reckon with over the next few years. One of Pete’s younger brothers won the inaugural TeenAg competition while the two youngest siblings were in the winning AgriKids team in that region this year.

AgriKids is awesome. It promotes agricultural skills to those aged Year 7 and 8 (form one and two) and the kids have a ball.  One of my good friends had her boy at the national AgriKids final in Palmerston North last year (in the same team as a cousin of mine too – hurray Heriot). The next step up for that now is TeenAg, aimed, obviously, at teenagers, who hopefully then go on to the adult version, our Young Farmer Contest.

I can’t wait for July. The Young Farmers (and ex Young Farmers) that put this show together are a great bunch and there are hundreds and hundreds of volunteer hours that go into putting in together – from district to regional to grand final (and they have a pretty good media liaison officer too, if I do say so myself…)

To get to know the magnificient seven a bit better, tune in to TV6 in June and July to see coverage of each regional final and profiles on each winner at their home and work – East Coast on May 25, followed by Northern on June 1,  Waikato/Bay of Plenty on June 8, Taranaki/Manawatu on June 15, Otago/Southland on June 22, Aorangi on June 29 and Tasman on July 6.

On Grand Final night, Country Calendar at 7pm on TVNZ will be a Contest special, followed by a live screening of the Grand Final on TVNZ 6.

Don’t miss it!

1 Comment

Posted in Family | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | May 10, 2010

another Monday

No great pearls of wisdom from me this morning.

It’s Monday morning and I’m not really awake yet. Off to see an Angus breeder in half an hour though – Mt Mable Angus at Norsewood – for a feature in the Dominion Post at the end of the month.

This time next week I will be sharpening my golf clubs – I have been asked to play in my first inter-club competition (holy crap!) It’s the Ashcott Cup against Waipawa at Takapau and our club captain is going to caddy for me so I don’t fall apart at the seams. Arggggggh. I’m on a 34 handicap but still can’t break that elusive 100. I got closest last year, 104, on Wednesday May the 6th and then bust my finger on Saturday May 9th and didnt play again for three months. Drive you crazy wouldn’t it?

Maybe this week. No pressure.

Right, off to fit another coffee in before I go.

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | May 5, 2010

Robert Louis Stevenson – I’m a fan

A parcel arrived today from the UK containing my own little “Child’s Garden of Verses” by Robert Louis Stevenson.

During the recent visit of my mother-in-law’s sister, Great Aunty Pam, I was delighted to see the two of them reciting some poems they remembered from their childhood growing up in Swaffam, Norfolk, England.

Ali has a valuable first edition of this book (1885) so I was being very cagey around my piece of cake and cup of coffee (read: real blimmin nervous!)  even though they are both fans of books being read, no matter how old!

The two of them would recite, either on their own or in unison (occasionally pausing to debate one word or another) with the odd prompt from me for the next verse. It was delightful.

I don’t remember any great verses like these in my childhood.  We would occasionally get Sam Hunt thrust down our throats at secondary school, but nothing has ever tickled my poetic fancy like some of these do!

Anyway, Great Aunty Pam (called so because she’s great, not to mention the children’s great aunt) found me a new Penguin paperback of this gorgeous book. And I am devouring it all over again.

 Here’s “The Swing”

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it is the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

 Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

Rivers and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside –

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown –

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

 Can’t you just imagine the swing – can’t you just imagine your hair blowing in the breeze as you swing?!

One of my favourite things about taking my kids to a playground is getting to play on the swings myself (although I’m too chicken to go as high as I used to!)

2 Comments

Posted in Entertainment, Family | Tags: , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | May 4, 2010

Off the beaten track…. again

Any chance to “go for a wander” is always received gratefully by yours truly whether it be on foot or driving.

There are a number of my blogs that talk about turning down a road you’ve never taken before or taking the time to stop at places you’ve always just driven past.

Yesterday, instead of sitting on my backside reading my book while the kids were at piano practice in Waipawa, I decided a walk was in order – a walk down a stop bank next to a river I have driven over hundreds of times.

So that’s what I did.

And it was lovely.

It took me 15 minutes there and 15 back along the stopbank of the Waipawa River and down a little cutting past an old shed to the river. 

I could have gone further but Lachlan wanted to go for a walk too. So 15 minutes there and 15 back again.

And it was lovely.

I think I’ll turn left onto the stopbank instead of right next week.

A path down to the river

 

 

1 Comment

Posted in Family | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | April 29, 2010

Icon could become pest

Did you know kiwifruit could become a weed?

Obviously not in orchards, but the wild ones that grow from seed (or reject fruit from orchards and packhouses).

Farmers have expressed interest in these reject kiwifruit as stock feed, but are being reminded of the risks – wild kiwifruit spreading into native bush has been likened to fellow-smotherer Old Man’s Beard.

With each fruit containing 1100 seeds, apparently, there is huge potential for birds to spread them far and wide.

I wonder if I will soon see them growing in my pig paddock? Like the wild tomato and courgette plants that turned up all over my vege garden after I used pig manure in it!

You never know – look at what happened the pretty gorse our ancestors brought over here in our early history.  And agapanthas – now on the national controlled plant register (I can’t remember the exact name for it, but you’re not allowed to buy them or move them into another region).

Plants have different effects in different environments. Rhododendron grows in our gardens in New Zealand but is considered a pest in parts of the UK, where gorse is the opposite – a pest here but not there.  Pohutakawa is considered a New Zealand icon, where it is a rampant threat in South Africa.

New Zealand has more than 2500 plant species that people should be concerned about, but the difficulty is that half of them are growing in our gardens.

Imagine in 30 years time what could be a huge problem choking the Kawekas, Ruahines, Te Ureweras or Southern Alps. Often we don’t know something is a threat until it is too late. Something might be fine at sea level but go mad when taken into the hills. Climate change could play a part in that too – who knows what changes in average temperatures or the flood-drought scenario will do to certain plants.

Something to ponder as the sun continues to shine on Hawke’s Bay (we didn’t even get  five minutes of the rain that Southland and Fiordland have been whacked with). The good news for me there though, is that my family no longer  has a crib on the foreshore of Lake Wakatipu. The good old 1999 (I think) flood put paid to that one – we’re now up the hill, out of harm’s way!

1 Comment

Posted in Environmental, general | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | April 26, 2010

Another Anzac Day

Lest We Forget.

Someone admitted to me yesterday they hadn’t taken their kids to an Anzac Day service for a few years. Shame on you. We all need reminding how horrible war is, how many New Zealanders and others were killed in war and their sacrifice and how the nation felt about it should never be forgotten, or we might end up having to go through it again.

Hats off to the Takapau and Districts RSA and Andy Kells for another good turnout at Takapau. On a lighter note, they should warn people with babies when the guns are going to be fired. It was almost comical when it should have been sombre… Bang. Silence. Half a dozen crying babies scattered throughout the crowd.

And a brickbat too. If you’re not going to attend an Anzac Day service that is your choice. JUST DON’T DRIVE PAST A SERVICE BEING HELD ON THE ROADSIDE! It is so rude and disrespectful, not to mention noisy and distracting. In Takapau’s case, there were alternative routes that would have only taken an extra two minutes of people’s time. 

Coverage of Gallipoli looked very emotional on TV. I hope I get there one day. Being at Anzac Cove or Chunuk Bair – anywhere on the peninsula – on Anzac Day would be like standing on the fields of Culloden for those of Scottish descent. It is such a huge part of the nation of NZ today – we must make sure all those moving into Godzone are told of the importance of days like Anzac Day.

Lest We Forget.

Condolences to the families of the three Airforce personnel killed in the Iroquois accident near Wellington. So young.

1 Comment

Posted in Family, Social themes | Tags: , , , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | April 22, 2010

Thumbs down to Farmers Markets

A huge thumbs down for Farmers Markets planning to open on Sunday morning.

It is ANZAC Day. 

It is ANZAC Day.

It is ANZAC Day.

If you don’t understand what I mean, go to Paper Plus and buy the little book about the Poppies. It brought tears to my eyes.

We have our freedom as we know it today because of the sacrifices made in our past.

My friend SM’s words, whose uncle is on the 80c commemorative stamp: “Thanks to him & my Pop the world is a safer place for me to live in and I hope we or our families never have to see conflict like that again.”

Amen to that.

And go to a service on April 25. It’s the least our generation can do. Lest We Forget.

4 Comments

Posted in Social themes | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | April 19, 2010

Pat on the back NZ

Doom and gloom can be everywhere if you let it, so here’s a nice happy start to a Monday morning – the kids have gone back to school!

No, just joking (although it is peaceful).

I want to deliver some bouquets this morning.

Firstly to the good Samaritan who helped the little girl on the train near Wellington yesterday.

The stuff.co.nz website says a little seven year old was trapped on a train after her mother was still helping other younger siblings get off. Another mother travelling with her own family, left her three kids with her husband and accompanied the traumatised little girl back to her mum in a taxi, but left without leaving any contact details. Well done you. I would hope someone would do the same for my two and that I would do the same for someone else, in fact, Im sure I would.

Secondly, the group of young guys who foiled a sexual attack in Christchurch on Saturday night.

Again, the stuff website says “The woman was returning home at 2am when a man grabbed her (one has to ask how silly it was of her to be in that situation anyway….) as she walked along Stanmore Rd in Linwood, dragging her into a reserve. Police said the woman fell backwards and was struggling underneath her attacker when the group of men came to her rescue, shouting at the attacker, who fled the scene. The group of men waited with the woman until her friends arrived and took her home.”

And the third one is for the families in Auckland who put up their hands to billet people stuck in Auckland due to the airline/flight issues.

Well done all of you.

Now, in order to be proud of me, I need to go do some work.  Ciao.

Leave a Comment

Posted in Social themes | Tags: , , , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | April 16, 2010

the next Jamie Oliver

Children learning to bake and cook is a very cool thing.

Nana came up with a recipe book at Christmas time and it’s great – tells the kids what they need by ways of tools and ingredients and then instructs them in a very basic way. I’m not the best cook around – but Lachlan and I made “mountains of macaroni” last night and “chooky chow mein” a few weeks ago (he’s not allowed to use the stove so I had to help!)

But baking appears to be where his passion lies. The same recipe book has chocolate bombs, oaty scout cookies (Anzac biscuits) and thumbprint cookies, which were made in the first week of these holidays and coconut macaroons were attempted earlier this week.

But yesterday he decided to write his own chocolate cake recipe. My question – how much should you guide them and how much should you let them make their own mistakes (or discoveries – depending on the success!)

Yesterday was a mistake. Today was closer to a discovery.

No butter, no milk and rolled oats in a chocolate cake left a brown rock somewhat in need of moisture (and height – after he mixed the baking powder with a tablespoon of boiling water, like what can be done with baking soda….) “Mmm. A wee bit not nice,” he said.

So he rewrote the recipe adding butter, milk and brown sugar and replaced the oats with wholemeal flour. It still had a slightly chewy bran feel but at least it rose and wouldn’t be considered a weapon if it was thrown at you. In fact, it tasted ok!

I wonder what’s next?!

2 Comments

Posted in Family | Tags: , , , , ,

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »

Categories