guardian the 2 WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014 Briefly Knitted poppies Crafty Tarts and the RSA Women’s Section have combined forces, and they’d welcome other community groups to join them in poppy making. “Early next year the poppy display will be set up all round town –at the library, the museum and many other places. It’ll be a good run up to the World War One commemorations,” said Bernee Fransen, RSA manager. “The RSA is happy to photocopy patterns, and supply red wool, needles and crotchet hooks. And if anyone has any spare wool etc the RSA would gratefully receive them. We want poppies everywhere.” Take a kid fishing The RSA’s Motueka Fishing Club hosts Take a Kid Fishing Saturday 22nd November at the Talley’s fishing platform beside the factory. Children need to take a parent or caregiver and their own fishing gear, but the club will supply the bait. It’s on between 9.00am and 11.30am. There’ll be free sausages, icecream and drinks and around 11.30am a special spot prize will be given away. Sounds like fun! Awareness of other’s cultures Community House is the venue for an all day Intercultural Awareness seminar. It’s on Wednesday 19th November from 9 o’clock, and its open to all but will prove especially suitable to those working in the frontline, in NGO’s, and in the volunteer and community sectors. The aim is to better communicate across cultural boundaries. To register please email [email protected]. “40 years of work gone in 40 minutes” Continued from page 1... “It would be the worst. I haven’t seen it that bad for that long before,” Pete says. “You can lose your whole income in 10 minutes”. At the other side of town, Lower Moutere grower Barry Wratten, of Wratten Orchards is counting his blessings. He believes there will be a ten percent loss from his orchards, though the same can’t be said for the neighbouring Tyrella and Inwood orchards, which have been left worse off. Barry’s crops stretch 10km from Whakarewa Street all the way to Drummond Road, and he believes the fact that they are so stretched out is the reason they weren’t all badly damaged. He estimates around $400k-500k of income will be lost, and it will be another 20 months before any cash flow will start to come in again, which will be the same for other orchards too. “Ching Road and Edwards Road were affected the worst. There’s a couple of bad blocks, but the work load we are going to need to do to get up to speed is huge,” he says. “40 years of work can be gone in 40 minutes. “It’s going to flow through the whole economy. Mot’s going to really feel it”. West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O’Connor visited Barry’s orchard on Friday, and others in the area. He said he will be organising with the Rural Support Trust, an organisation offering assistance during adverse events, to see what recovery and aid can be given. “You can lose your whole income in 10 minutes” - Pete Cederman T.P.P.A. being challenged? There are very real concerns about the trade deal America is pushing for - hence the nationwide protest marches Saturday. But help may be at hand from an unexpected quarter – China. Beijing has proposed an even bigger trade pact – FTAAP. TPPA masterminded by the U.S.A. is supposedly to counteract China’s might. So with two options maybe neither will come to pass! Nevertheless Rachel Boyer warned at Saturday’s rally “You need to know about the TPPA agreement. It will have a profound affect upon our lives! It’s hyper – globalisation which will leave workers out in the cold and their rights in the dust. Democracy will be flushed away. The TPPA is a toxic deal. If people knew what was going on they’d try and stop it!” The rally of around 450 people started small, but many onlookers joined in as it wound through Nelson’s streets. Concert for Ngatimoti Acclaimed French pianist Claire Rouault is bringing her concert grand piano to the Ngatimoti St James Church at the end of the month where she will play a selection of Mozart, Chopin and Bach. The concert will take place in the 130 year old church on Saturday 29th November at 7.30pm and tickets can be purchased from Floral Affaire or the Ngatimoti School. There will be a supper following Claire’s recital. Local artists invited As part of the Ruby Coast Arts Festival, local artists and art groups have been invited to showcase and run their own community-focused art exhibition at the Mapua Community Hall. The exhibition will give local artists and creative community groups such as the Mapua Art Group (MAG), Pastel Artists of New Zealand (PANZ), and Mapua Creative Fibre, the opportunity to showcase their talents to the public. People will be able to enjoy seeing a broad range of artworks all in one place. The exhibition will be held in the Mapua Community Hall, on Saturday and Sunday, 15–16 November, from 10.00am-4.00pm. Tea, coffee and cakes will be available. The hail covered orchards in Riwaka on Wednesday morning. #LoveMotueka Since its launch two months ago, the #LoveMotueka social media campaign has proven to be a success, after gaining over 3,000 likes on Facebook last week. The campaign, developed by Motueka’s online business expert Johny O’Donnell, has assisted in encouraging people both locally, nationally and globally to engage in positive conversations about the town. In response, people have shared their own photos or experiences of Motueka with the page, which generates further interest and conversation. "Tens of thousands of people from all over the world have seen our posts and engaged in a conversation about #LoveMotueka,” Johny posted on the page last week, as a thank you to all the supporters. "The impact from such promotion on our slice of heaven is impossible to measure but it's at least got us talking about how lucky we are". For people who are Facebook users and haven’t already liked the page, search “Love Motueka” to join in the conversation about what Motueka means to you.