Rangiora Leaves

While walking in the Botanic Gardens with my children, we love to stop and explore, admire, or wonder about various plants. It is beautiful to hear children's theories about what is happening with plants, why they look the way they do, how they grow, etc. As is the current understanding of best practice, we encourage children to think logically and pursue their own theories using the information and experiences they have, but our goal is not to arrive at any kind of "correct" answer. This results in wonderful discussions, which I love. With careful thought and consideration of learning goals, we do suggest ideas or share knowledge as appropriate, of course, as learning is done in community.

One day, we walked past this plant, and a parent who had joined us for the day told us that it was called Bushman's Friend. When the children asked why, she showed us the white, smooth back of the leaf and explained that people used to use it for toilet paper when they were in the bush. I thought that was interesting and looked it up. I learned that in addition to its use by settlers as toilet paper, Māori had used it to wrap food, to swaddle babies, and as a medicinal poultice. 

Not long after, when I went for a walk with J, he told me that people used to send leaves as postcards, but they're not allowed to anymore, as it doesn't work well in the machines. This really got me thinking, and since then, my children and I have been collecting these leaves (when we find them on the ground, as we never hurt living things) and using them to paint on instead of paper. I am always trying to find ways to teach children about conservation, and my most recent focus has been on protecting trees by recycling and reusing paper, so this fit perfectly, and it's been delightful! I have also collected several dead Rangiora plants (which can grow taller than me), which I've brought to work, so we can hang our painted leaves on it.

When doing a bit more research, I found that there was an even more popular postcard plant, called Muttonbird Scrub. It's leaves are not as impressively big as the Rangiora, but they were more leathery and stayed flat when posted (unlike Rangiora which I have experienced curling up if I don't press it carefully).

Here is a picture I found of a Muttonbird Scrub leaf that was sent as a postcard. Unfortunately, in addition to now being banned from the postal service, Muttonbird Scrub is only found in the lower South Island and on Rakiura (Stewart Island), so I won't be using it much with my children. But I'm quite happy with Rangiora, which is prolific here and works just fine for painting.

General Update

Sorry about not posting last weekend - I had it in my head that that was my weekend to skip, but it wasn't. Oops.

I thought that for this week, I'd give you a general update on what's going on with us, rather than focusing on one specific event.

Work:
~  J's job is going well. He is a Biosecurity Response Senior Advisor, and over the last year has worked on a disease in cows, another disease in rabbits that causes hemorrhage, dog flu, and most recently, a disease in potatoes. He feels good about the contribution he makes to the team, and the impact of his work on the general wellbeing of New Zealand. He continues to be interested in management, as he finds that he can help a team of people to work together positively and efficiently.
~  I'm still teaching at Victoria University of Wellington (which will likely soon drop the "Victoria" and just be the University of Wellington), in Whare Kea, the preschool room. Work is very busy at the moment, because we have our annual Art Exhibition in a few weeks, and so we're getting all our projects finished and curated so that our families can join us in celebrating their children's creativity and skills with various media. I continue to focus on learning and speaking te reo Māori (Māori language) and am making quite good progress, although there is still a very long way to go.
~  Side note: I wanted to share my cultural experience of growing up celebrating Halloween in the States with my children, so I invited them all to dress up this week, and I dressed up as Elsa. It was a very fun day.

Bonus: Here is one of the pictures I shared with my children to demonstrate American Halloween. This one is of me and my sister Patty when I was around 3. (It is an amazing concept to my children that I was ever 3, so that was fun as well.) 

Leisure:

~  Snowboarding season is over for this year, and we didn't get up the mountain as many times as we would have liked, but we had a lot of fun when we did go.

~  We've found some places downtown that has lots of really fun and alternative shows most weekends, and we're having fun going out on Friday or Saturday evenings and taking advantage of the wonderful quirky vibe of this city.

~  I'm lucky enough to get to spend time with our good friends Christophe and Anaïs' 19-month-old son Marty on a regular basis, and he is a complete delight (as are they, actually). A few times a month, when I finish work early, I get to pick him up from child care and spend the afternoon with him, and it's wonderful.

~  Our friends Sorenne and Amy in Australia opened our eyes to the delights of Minecraft (the video game), and we've been having lots of fun playing that. I'm not usually into video games, but this one is very creative, innovative, and can be very social, so I can get into that.

~  Now that it is spring again, and we have a fabulous back yard, I am spending every moment I can reading outside in the sunshine. I'm still enjoying my French and English book clubs, and despite reading 6-8 novels per month, my book list never gets any shorter.

Health:

~  We are hoping to reach new levels of good health in our new warmer, dryer home, and I think we might be starting to get there. 

~  My shoulder injury from my bike crash in August is finally healing, although I'll be excited when I can spend a bit less time on physiotherapy every day. My wrist and knee injuries are continuing to be painful and unresolved. I had an MRI of my wrist this week (while dressed as Elsa) and hope to get some helpful results from that, although the initial report is not encouraging.

~  We are doing more cooking in our nicer kitchen, and are making sure to continue to eat healthy foods, which we're finding satisfying. (I am eating Sour Skittles as I type this, but you need to have treats every so often, right?)

~  I am continuing to stay fit by biking to and from work, and J does home workouts and is considering learning a martial art to support his physical fitness.

Dragons:

~  Kazul and Roxim are doing fabulously and getting to go outside again now that it is warmer. Did you know that Guinea pigs are never supposed to be in environments below 16C (61F) or above 25C (77F)? Neither did we until we got them, and we're doing our best to be obliging, but it does mean that they didn't get much outside time over the winter.

~  They turned 1 year old on Friday, and we gave them a present of a Guinea pig-style hammock. So far, they haven't quite figured out how to use it, but I have faith in them.

~  When J got me a GoPro for my birthday, I was excited to use it for snowboarding, but I definitely used it first to record the dragons going about their dragon business. You can watch the first video I took here.

~  Almost every night, we watch one of our shows (we're currently into The Good Place and Brooklyn 99) and cuddle Kazul and Roxim, and it's a lovely evening routine. They are so delightful and cuddly, and it's quite therapeutic. 

~  We will never buy such a thing, but I felt that I should share that the pet store sells Guinea pig harnesses. As if any Guinea pig ever has ever wanted to go for a walk on a lead.

Miscellaneous:

~  Our new house, like our old house, has a generous helping of black-headed jumping spiders, and while we will sometimes escort them outside, we're actually rather fond of them. They are fascinated by quick movements, and when they hang out in J's office, they'll often come out and watch him type, seeming mesmerized by his hands. This one has been hanging out in the bathroom for several days, getting braver as she realizes that we're friendly, and this is her newest spot (right in the middle of the mirror above the sink). 

~  We both voted in the Kansas elections, and were delighted (and surprised, given the issues with voting at the moment) to find that it was a quick and easy process and that the people who helped us were friendly and very intent on making voting a pleasant process for us. Which it was. How refreshing.

~  I continue to love sunrises and sunsets, and here is a pretty one I saw from work, looking out over the harbour.