Words by Yvonne Riddiford
It is quite a while since I wrote my initial blog, which in fact opened a few doors for me as a range of people came across it and made contact in consequence. From what I gather and what I have seen, our native restoration in the wetland and along the river continues to go very well. In fact today a group which included volunteers from Wellington spent the morning planting along with what will soon become a riparian walkway open to the public. Apparently more than 200 plants went in the ground this morning alongside many more trees that have been planted over the last few weeks by classes from Martinborough and Kahutara primary schools.
The morning finished up as usual with a congenial lunch in my house. Since my last blog post I have actually made it past the 100 year milestone which was a happy and well celebrated occasion. It was also one which filled me with some embarrassment because after all the only really important thing to do in reaching 100 is just to keep on breathing. However I am grateful that some of my family are very good at encouraging me to do much more than that. Notably they still trust me to make the soup for the planting mornings. It is a point of pride for me that the soup should be slightly different each time and also that I use whatever ingredients we have to hand. Currently we are eating our way through the last of the pumpkins from the ‘Carb Club’, the community veg growing scheme we have going here at Ruamāhanga Farm. Pumpkin soup is rather commonplace at this time of year so I had to vary it a bit. On this occasion a tin of chopped tomatoes along with curry and ginger gave it quite a different character and certainly there was none left over.
Last week I heard that I had been nominated for an environmental award from my old secondary school. Whilst I was honoured I was also a bit uncomfortable as I don’t really feel I have made a great environmental contribution. My daughters tell me I am suffering from imposter syndrome.
As part of receiving the award the school asked me what advice I would give to secondary school students about building a meaningful legacy? In these difficult times, I am reluctant to offer too much advice to anyone! I think it is important to be open minded, flexible and ready to respond to whatever opportunity comes along according to the best of your values. The world is changing so fast, I think it is a little soon to be planning legacies. One of the things about living so long is that I have witnessed many changes. Whilst the world seems pretty bleak right now what gives me hope is the knowledge that what goes down must come up. Fortunately I have experienced that down – up cycle several times during my lifetime.