Continuing

Kia ora! I hope you all are doing well. Thanks for checking in on what is going on in my life in NZ. 🙂

It’s a gorgeous Sunday afternoon as I write this. We have more sun today after several days of rain, though the mountains are hidden by clouds. I’m looking forward to spending some time reading in my beloved chair this arvo until I begin tea prep with Lisa Bond. We’re going to have the iconic kiwi dinner with many classic kiwi dishes, including Pavlova!

This week was the first one with a full load of classes – God and Nature with Andrew Shamy. I had the honor of sitting in on their final class of the week where they presented creative reflections on all that they learning. What an opportunity to witness their journeys. I also got to see the students settle into the rhythm of morning class, lunch, post lunch activity, homework, tea, and class again. We certainly have full days around here!

As the RA this week, I was on a fluid schedule with a focus on food supply, organization, laundry, tidying, and moral support. I spent time on grocery lists, shopping, bread-making, granola-making, recipe organizing, prep for the next week of class, etc. One thing I didn’t get to this week that I’m eagerly anticipating is the chance to do some garden work around the house. I have been (mostly) keeping seeds I started several weeks ago alive. Now it’s time to sow some more in containers around the backyard until the older babies are ready to transplant.

In other garden news, I visited a local community garden in the hopes that we can build a relationship with the land, creatures, and people there. It looks like there will be plenty of opportunities to weed, mulch, plant, compost, and build beds. Yay! I’m so excited to learn some of the methods of building soil and raising life that they do around here. It’s an incredibly exciting to be able build upon what I’ve learned about gardening in TX and NC to this context.

The week ended with a quick trip to Christchurch. I drove down early yesterday to drop Andrew off for his flight and pick up Susan Felch. I had a chance to walk around Hagley park and the botanic gardens before meeting up with her. She will teaching Environmental Literature for the next two weeks. Susan taught my sister, Liz, in college and now I get to be her TA! Susan was with us when Covid hit and the two of us traveled back to the States in early April, 2020. It feels full circle to be back together in NZ.