November 4, 2021
Celebrating Community at Koha Coffee
The next Koha Coffee will be this Saturday morning November 6 from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm at the Community Hall. Andrew is hosting. You are welcome to come to chat, bring food offerings to share.
There are two special things happening at this Koha Coffee. Firstly you can meet the Seeds-to-Feeds planning team and let them know your ideas about what would make the event special for you. They are open to offers of help – any small thing that you might like to be involved with, either beforehand or on the day. We will also do some planning around what needs to be done at the community garden over the next month, to help get the garden beds ready for the summer growing season. There may also be some seeds and seedlings for you to take home and grow for the community dinner. Secondly, bouncing off what happened last time, Koha Coffee is going to become a creative community catch-up time, where you can find out about what is happening in the community and brainstorm and share creative ideas for what we could do in Houghton Valley over the next 6 months to 100 years.
Enchanted Art in a Garden Exhibition
Enchanted – Art in a Garden is back on Sunday 21 November: 11 am – 3 pm. If you missed it last time, here is another chance to check out some beautiful (and quirky) affordable artwork (paintings, ceramics, prints, cards, textiles, mixed media) from local artists, all in the gorgeous setting of Te Kawakawa Commons. The Commons is a community garden in Hornsey Road with vege beds, bush tracks and lots and lots of birds. Come along for a dose of community connection and creativity.
Local artists include Sadie Coe, Sandy Heffernan, Miranda Munro, Sue Quigley, Jenny Rattenbury and Shar Young. Cash or phone banking only.
The Seeds to Feeds Journey
Last weekend we had a planning hui with Sarah Mills and Sacha Horton, who are the Seeds-to-Feeds co-ordinators for this season’s Festival. We have a keen local cook, Leone, who has already drafted up a great vegetarian/vegan menu. We also have a calendar of events leading up to the dinner, which is planned for Sunday March 6. Here are the first couple:
Community Gardens Working Bee, Saturday November 20, 1 pm – 4 pm
Come and help prepare our community gardens for summer vegetable planting. Wear sturdy shoes, bring gardening gloves and your favourite gardening tools, and a contribution to afternoon tea. Please RSVP (and check the date nearer the time) to hello@seedstofeeds.nz
Fruit Tree Walking Bee, Sunday December 5, 9 am – 10.30 am
Come on a tour of Houghton Valley’s wild fruit trees and help give a little back to them with a bit of weed clearing and seaweed mulching. We will start at the white gate on the Southern Walkway across the field just south of Houghton Valley School (see map)and finish at the Community Hall to join Koha Coffee. Wear sturdy walking shoes, bring gardening gloves, a weeding tool and/or hedge clippers for clearing around the trees. Please RSVP to hello@seedstofeeds.nz
HVPA and WCC News
The Houghton Valley Progressive Association held a quick Zoom meeting in October, mainly to discuss hall business. They are planning to use Zoom for the more prosaic committee business and keep the community meetings at the hall more focussed on community issues and events. They are planning a community meeting at the hall for December, if you have any ideas to you would like to discuss or a project presentation you would like to give, please email Ken.
The District Plan: there is a lot of discussion in media about consultation on the District Plan. This is particularly important as Central Government Urban Planning Guidelines have over-ridden what’s in the plan. Briefly, the default position is that three dwellings up to three stories can now be built on a standard section UNLESS there are exceptions in the District Plan: the current definition of heritage zones is no longer valid. Although the Plan being consulted on is now out-of-date, this is a chance to signal to Council where exceptions to this intensity of development should be made OR to indicate where more density is needed. The main reason for the changes is to speed up the creation of more housing.
If you are interested in making a submission, and a good range of viewpoints is valuable, Ken has prepared a DP2022 document with a range of avenues of how to take part in DP consultation, including some feedback from other Residents’ Associations.
Spring is here!
The shining cuckoo, or pīpīwharauroa, has just started singing in the valley, and its distinctive, whistling call is known to be the herald of spring and the beginning of the warmer months. If you aren’t sure what it sounds like, have a listen to the recording courtesy of nzbirds online (and where the photo comes from as well).
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