New life, growth and strength

By Chris Valli

A 100-year-old pepper tree has been given a new life at Marlborough Family Chiropractic.

Owned by Chris and Karen Jennison, the Henry Street practice was established in 1996. Karen says a number of the pepper trees in the area developed a virus 1015 years ago.

“Some were removed at the time but we couldn’t bear to part with it,” she says. “We had it pruned a couple of times which revived it a bit the first time but when it started dropping large branches it was time to take it down. We miss the tree but thought we would have the stump carved to maintain some life for it.”

Cue Arborist Jakob Stadler.

Originally from Switzerland, Jakob has been in Blenheim for 10 years and has qualifications as a forestry worker for 20 years in the Swiss forests.

“That’s when we contacted Jakob but after cutting it to size, we found it was rotten in the trunk,” says Karen. “One of our patients had Jakob carve a tree stump in their yard and showed us the pictures - I knew that was what we needed.”

“Karen had the idea of a koru design representing a family so we worked on some designs. I decided to create the sculpture out of the big branches and join them together on a base in my

NEW LEASE OF LIFE:

workshop,” Jakob says.

Jakob says the design process took many hours and a ‘lot of brain power’ to visualise each koru in the branches.

“Using the chainsaw to cut away all the wood not wanted in the design. You only get one chance because if you cut too much off you can’t really reattach it. It took several weeks to complete carving, sanding and finishing,” he says.

Karen says many of her clients were sad that the tree was removed yet were happy to see new life. The feedback had been positive.

Jakob has done many large and small chainsaw carvings over his career.

“This was a lovely carving to work on as being a pepper tree it had amazing patterns in the grain.

I really enjoyed the whole process from cutting the tree down to creating it into a carving.”

Karen says choosing the koru design as it symbolises new life, strength and peace which works well with the business’ philosophy of health.

“As a family orientated clinic, the family group of Koru works well and has now become our (business) logo.”

BEFORE: Karen says they had the tree pruned a couple of times which revived it a bit the first time but when it started dropping large branches it was time to take it down.

Dear Ed,

So our Prime Minister, having performed the kind of duty and unflinching service not really typical of so many of her predecessors, has stepped down.

S h e is the recipient of the undying – literally unspoken gratitude – of the silent majority, and will no longer be the target of truly disgusting and shameful abuse from a largely anonymous petty minority, people so unsure in their masculinity that they obviously belong, not to New Zealand but a theocracy like Iran are kept in their rightful place – as 19th century Prussians said, restricted to “Kinder, Kuche, Kirche”.

I have used firearms since the early 1950’s, but when I saw a bunch of gun lovers, protesting at PM Ardern’s opening of a new school, displaying a placard calling her a “F…ing C…” I began to wonder where our society’s sense of honour and dignity had gone. Certainly since we subjected ourselves to Rogernomics and Ruthanasia and let democracy be replaced by an inefficient inflated that proud creed of the Fair Go.

Never mind; come October we will get the government we have been slouching toward, one headed by a male, someone who entered the multi-millionaire class while heading our taxpayer-subsidised airline in which he was paid a fraction over one hundred times the wage of his lowest-ranked fellow workers.

That I have lived so long, only to see this the luckiest, truly most fortunate country on Earth, come to such a pass.

Onward,

We noted a letter you published in your Letters to the Editor column on page 6 of last week’s issue (18 January 2023) from John Bloy (copy attached). Our response.

Our team at Trustpower have been in touch with Mr Bloy to talk through his questions and explore options.

We are always happy to help if customers wish to contact us directly - Trustpower customer services can be reached on 0800 878787.

Andrew Young Communications Advisor Trustpower

Marlborough Sounds Future Access Study survey launched

An online survey for the Marlborough Sounds Future Access Study is now open. Council embarked on the study to support the case for funding safe and resilient long-term access solutions for the stormaffected areas of the Sounds.

People are encouraged to fill out the online survey, which closes at 5.00 pm on Wednesday 22 February. The survey is aimed at Sounds’ residents, homeowners and businesses to help inform future transport options in and out of the Sounds.

Mayor Nadine Taylor said she encourages the Sounds’ community to provide their views through the survey.

“Over the coming weeks, the project team will gather the community’s views collated from the survey and public meetings, before analysing them.”

“While there will be another opportunity to provide feedback later in the study, this survey will help set the foundation for