Another fantastic day! OH THE HUMANITY!

Yes.. another fantastic day IN THE WORKPLACE!

Today we had one of my favourite authors at the sanctuary for the day working with classes of students from our region.
Interestingly this is another one of those things I envisioned and saw in my mind with me participating in way back when I first started this job in Jan.
Andrew Crowe is an author who has a similar attitude to learning that I do.
Learning is living.
Liek me he is interested in everything and often has many interests on the go at once. He will hear about something and become interested and want to find out more, he will then do a range of research and find out more and more then he will think.. hmmm, what book would have been really useful to me when I was doing my research.. hmm.. then he will write that book.
Most of his books are identification guides for NZ native plants, insects, birds - he also has one for spiders and seashells (as well as a book about the Dalai Lama, edible NZ plants that resulted form when he was lost int eh bush and then after he was not lost anymore he wanted to find out how he could survive if that every happened again and there resulted his first book!)
This is the way I originally found out about Andrew. Through my new job I used one of his books to teach myself about some of our native plants and it was SUCH a good book and so easy to use and practical and amazing I wanted to find out about the author. So I researched! I knew from my research that I wanted to meet him and that he would love our project.
Meeting him was just as I imagined. He was very supportive of our project and donated LOTS of copies of his different books. He talked to me and we shared some information and it was GREAT.

I am getting used to meeting my heroes!!! (I will tell you about some of my other experiences meeting my heroes that have occurred since I started in my job, in another blog soon! - you might have to remind me I said that).

My job is fantasic!
When Andrew was finished I got to talk to three groups of students and parents today about the sanctuary and I could tell I excited them and engaged them. About 100 people all together in just one day! (my throat is a tad on the raw side and staying up until 230 am AGAIN last night certainly has not helped).

My next challenge is to work on the talks I give and the programmes I deliver to foster a sense of stewardship for our environment through continued connection with the sanctuary project and other projects in their more immediate community/street/school.



After this I went to a meeting of for "Education for Enterprise" which is an organisation which links schools with industry through contextual programmes that have real meaning in the real world. I came away form this with a positive feeling - the schools were delighted to have a resource (the sanctuary) that has so much potential for environmentally linked programmes of real value. It is great for us because being a community funded programme, all of our workforce, supplies, funds etc all come from donations of time and money. Having students turn some of our wants and needs into projects is wonderful! One of the projects I have on the go right now is a bird feeder. A metal or wooden platform where a number of birds can gather to feed and people passing through the sanctuary can sit and watch them in their natural environment. (supplemental feeding helps to keep the birds in good condition while the forest is regenerating and also due to pests such as wasps which cannot be kept out with the fence and heavily deplete the nectar sources).
I have another young man who has taken on one of my dream projects... a hydro powered webcam to position at a nest box or a bird feeder. One of our goals is to be as sustainable in our energy use as we can be both for our carbon footprint and as a model to our community.
After this meeting I had to go to our trust meeting. The sanctuary is run by a trust. It has twelve members from diverse business/interest background. These people make decisions on the direction and processes of the sanctuary.
I report to them every month. The reporting process has been interesting. My more creative nature as expressed through my board reports, was not entirely understood by all trust members so it has been modified somewhat, LOL. I have to be careful not to loose the charms that gained me the job in the first place though!
The meeting was splendid (even though the tiredness was starting to show with the bleary eyes and the relaxed and casual demeanor! People are impressed by the amount of work I have been doing as reflected by my reports.
also we began planning a SECRET special winter event which involves something so amazing special and wondifious that I grin with glee! Even doing the most ridiculously wretched and tedious of jobs would be BLISS for me to be involved with this event. i can't tell you ab out it now... but stay TUNED!


You might think I am lucky and sometimes I feel lucky too - but to be fair to myself, I have worked hard for this in many ways and also in many ways this job provides the challenges I am ready to meet and I RELISH it!

BRING IT ON, LIFE!
(oh and thanks too, for the lot, the good, the bad and the ugly!)