I had it all planned. I was going to be spring ready and hit the season with seed sowing, a lot of blogging and a bit of You Tube. It was going to be awesome, a new season of gardening all wrapped up with a social media bow. It was going to be great. But it has to wait, maybe next week, hopefully not the week after or I will be leaning towards spring starting with the equinox, but to be honest I don’t have the patience for a delayed season change.
So what got in the way of my spring extravaganza? Something way better! I spent all week preparing for the most fabulous book launch I have ever been to. I’ve only been to four – two for Hubby the Un-Gardener, but his are a bit businessy so while classy… well I’d better stop before I get into trouble. And my one for my first book The Good Life, which was a lovely garden party enjoyed by all our friends and family.
But this one had to be the best by far. My new book Play in the Garden is a kids book – well more accurately a family book and so what better way to launch it than with our local school. It was such an amazing night. The students greeted us and all our guests from the community with a moving powhiri. For those who don’t know what this is, it is a part of Māori protocol, is a ceremony of welcome involving speeches, dancing, singing and hongi. If you want to see a similar one, done by a different school for someone way more important than me, check out this You Tube link…. Our school is smaller – a lot smaller and the waiata (song) was different. But you get the feeling. It is such a wonderful part of our culture and we are blessed to have our kids raised to embrace Kiwi culture in its entirety.
Then we had games and prizes – awesome prizes donated by great companies and speeches and food and it was all fabulous. I am still buzzing with how incredibly wonderful the evening was.
Our school is a small rural school and would love a few extra kids to join the wonderful learning environment they have there. So as well as launching the book, we used it as an opportunity to let the wider community know what a great school there is in the corner of our local area. So what better way to do this than with national television!
We had a camera crew come and film me in my garden to talk about the book and my journey to get there, and then we went down to the school to film the kids doing some of the projects from the book. It was so cool to see everyone get behind the book. We have had a lot of rain recently and as our community is based on former swamp land it was quite muddy. But these are country kids and they were out there planting beans to grow up their bean teepees in bare feet with mud squelching up between their toes and they loved every minute of it. The cameraman from the city was mocked quite mercilessly as his gumboots had no mud on them at all.
If you are in New Zealand you should see the interview on Seven Sharp either this Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday (8th, 9th or 10th September) – depending on what happens in the news, and as we are weeks away from an election… who knows.
So now the book has been launched in style and is available in all good bookstores in NZ and if you’re not then you can find it on Fishpond or .au.com for our Aussie friends, I can spend some well earned time in the garden….. well until the next camera crew….
Come again soon – we are in danger of starving – I must garden!
Sarah the Gardener : o )
Fantastic Sarah. Just bought your new book. WOW Tulips are lovely so this year I planted 10/ 2 failed but now have 3 in flower and more buds coming up. They are in 2 pots on my deck and look stunning
Thanks Carol. I have tulips popping up all over the place because I bought some without thinking about where I’d put them so I bunged them in where ever and now they are coming up in all sorts of places. They look lovely.
Cheers Sarah : o )
What fun 🙂 Can’t wait to hear what the boys said to the reporter …….. you will be telling us none NZ residents via the blog, won’t you? 😉
Hi Elaine. It was a really great article and the boys didn’t disgrace me at all! Joey excitedly talked about his favourite project cooking bananas and chocolate in cut grass and the reporter asked Tim (my shy one) ‘Who would have thought to do that?’ and he said “mum!” It was really funny! They did a great job with the whole story. It was really cool. Cheers Sarah : o )
awesome and thank you for sharing have a blessed evening
Thanks Linda.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Reblogged this on Linda's wildlife garden and commented:
awesome and thank you for sharing have a blessed evening
Congratulations Sarah. How very exciting. Best of luck with your book. You’ll get that garden cracking for sure! 🙂
Hi Julie. With everything going on it has been a bit tricky to find the time for the garden, but I have managed to sow my seeds. Phew. Exciting times though!
Cheers Sarah : o )
I am gobsmacked! What an amazing integration of school and garden education and culture and everything Ms Sarah! Looks like your book is going to broach all of those territories and so many more. Everyone wants their kids to grow up socially responsible and care for their environment but your book takes it a step further and shows them how they can make positive changes in their own and other people’s lives as kids…often we forget that kids are people too. That they have likes and dislikes (that is unless you are trying to feed your kids broccoli…you certainly know about “likes” and “dislikes” then! 😉 ) and ideas and hopes and dreams all of their own. Giving kids a way to express themselves in the garden is positivity, creativity and hope all tied up with a bit red bow. You rock Ms Sarah and congratulations on your new book, your camera crew, your whirlwind of a life and on STILL being able to focus on those veggies! You are a true star 🙂
Hi Fran. We were on the telly tonight and it was awesome. All the country kids with their muddy hands and muddy toes! It was pretty cool.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Why didn’t WE get it on our telly eh? That is just the sort of news story that we NEED to be getting to balance out all of that tripe from overseas…well done Ms Sarah 🙂
What a great day for you and the kids! Fabulous! 🙂
Hi Virginia. It has all been a pretty special time, if not a little chaotic. It is great for the kids too.
Cheers Sarah : o )
That is very exciting and I will be looking out for you on tv!! As luck would have it (being a shift worker who usually works afternoons so doesn’t see a lot of telly) I have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as my days off this week. Yay!
Congratulations on your achievements – the garden and the book.
Hi Lynne. Thank you so much for your kind words. It was supposed to be on the telly on Tuesday but the Royal family announced they were having a baby so we had to wait until tonight. It was pretty cool to see it!
Cheers Sarah : o )
Congratulations! What a momentous achievement!
Thanks. It has all been a bit of a whirl wind lately.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Sarah, this is so exciting! I’m happy for you, your school, your family and for all the gardeners to come. I pre-ordered two copies…can’t wait to see the package on my doorstep. Cheers!
Hi Alys. It was on TV tonight. It was so cool. They did a lovely job. Although it is a little weird seeing yourself on the telly! I hope you love the books when they arrive. Cheers Sarah : o )
Sarah, I know I will. Do you have a link to the video or the news site? Would love to see it. Or…perhaps you’ll share it on your blog. I’ll keep an eye out.
Congratulations once again.
PS I just noticed your gorgeous new picture. You look young, healthy, spirited and full of life. The perfect addition to your blog. xox
Thanks Alys, you are so kind.
Cheers Sarah : o )