Horty Kim

OK so I have been a busy bee since my last post and am delighted to say that we have got another lot of students safely thru their training and out of the nest.Many are going onto jobs in the horticulture and arboriculture industry or they will be returning to do more training with us next year.Over the next few weeks I will be contacting former students who have done well for themselves and put their training to good use.In fact a former arb student who now works for the Orokonui Sanctuary agreed to let us profile him and here is a wee vid for ya!

We will use these profiles to give prospective students a feel for where their qualification could take them if they study with Natural Resources at Otago Polytechnic.

Otago Polytechnic is presently hosting EXCITE where “Behind the scenes at Otago Polytechnic creative, thoughtful and visionary minds have been quietly turning their hands to ideas that may one day change your life. This week the doors will be flung open, and Dunedin will be invited in for a peek.
EXCITE, Otago Polytechnic’s annual student showcase is likely the city’s largest exhibition; it’s certainly the best opportunity to see fresh-thinking in action.”

As part of the showcase,on November 17, Otago Polytechnic’ Charity House Auction took place and it was a huge success! Many local companys donated goodies to deck out the house which warmed many hearts.We hosted a plant sale to coincide with the auction so I was there for the exciting bit.The temporary garden display created by Natural Resources to enhance the presentation of the well crafted home built by the carpentry students and staff was appreciated.In fact we have been asked to participate in next year’s projects as well!

Ok so I have been uploading all sorts of stuff onto blip.tv and I sTarted this post when I got home from work over % hrs ago so I think I will call it a night and continue tomorrow before mi mac turns pumpkin... ovahandout

I just read my last blogged and I seemed to do a lot of tweaking that day.Today i am working from home and I will be looking for resources on the innernet.I found some really good stuff yesterday for the unit on botanic nomenclature and the plant identification unit which will be balanced with our own video and slide shows.Speaking of which i will be travelling to Wanaka not this weekend but the following which will be a fun time because Pip(good bud and wife of Nige Vege Garden) is meeting us at her place there and we can catch up and do a working bee in her garden.On that monday i have arranged to meet Wayne at the cromwell campus and shoot some vid that will become resources for the weed units.This is a video of Wayne mulching all the grape prunings when we were there last.

I will also continue to upload vid to blip.tv as there is still some pruning stuff I have not uploaded.I am really looking forward to seeing the video Sunshine shot and she is going to do some DVDs of the stuff shot for machinery,chainsaw safety,and fruit tree pruning!!So exciting.Having said that we are now out of budget for filming but Leigh reckons the stuff i shoot is fit for porpoises or maybe he said purpose(it’s Terry’ saying)so I will fly with that.
Jeeez it has gone all cold and breezy again but the spring rain is a bonus for all our gardens.I can literally see things growing-I think my raselberrys are going to be delicious.Ok so time to light the fire,grab my coffee and put in some concentrated hours.

I have left this big gap because I have been embedding lots of vid into my blog and that is where they should be appearing???Must ask Leigh about this although I think it is something to do with something and I bet they come up if i check my blog tomorrow at work.
Great news!One of the collection curators at the Dunedin Botanic Garden is going to contribute to resources for plant ID and botanic nomenclature.I guess the thing I like about this is that our resources will include many experts with reliable information which adds kudos to the entire project.In a world where information is abundant and accessible it is good to cross reference and cross reference and cross reference using reliable experts , books , web sites , well generally all forms of information available.

Ok so onwards and forwards with flexible delivery!On Friday Leigh uploaded the machinery videos which had to be tweaked a little due to a few minor things like correct titles and audio sync so as my wee niece would say,I must apogoolize for the now you see them now you don’t action.

I am also looking forward to seeing the video that Sunshine shot in Central Otago of fruit tree pruning.I also took some vid of fruit tree pruning and tried to upload more onto blip.tv on the weekend but was repeatedly frustrated by my innernet dropping out,As Leigh would say,”I can’t work under these conditions!”I did manage to get this one uploaded though

And now I will power out and add the others that I think are ok and I will also spend the day tweaking learning activities.