Visits & Flowers
Back again after all this time. The dry season turned out to be quite different. Dry alright but overcast much of the time which made it surprisingly cold. I even for choice wore long sleeves several times.
We have had visitors staying in the house since the start of June. Johnny from Scotland for 10 weeks or so. He is here as a volunteer to help in the area of IT. A qualified and very experienced IT and electrical man he is really stirring the place up, not that the rest of the team are not good merely overworked.
Then Professor of Library and Information Systems from Dublin for three weeks, immensely valuable to our librarian, followed by visits from our benefactors in Ireland, staying nearby, having a holiday interspersed with a lot of work, advice, encouragement and a lot of fun.
Then a Visit from the National Council for Higher Education to see how we are doing, not perfect but also not too rude, as it should be. A day doing a SWOT analysis for the last year. Very valuable and supportive on the whole. This is not something organisations do as a rule so it generated considerable interest. All in all a pretty busy "holiday" period.
Now we are starting again with the new year but with several of the staff going off to study for Masters or PhD. This is essential if the University is to develop. Very good for morale, shows we are serious, and is the best way to build up the staff we need. It is so good to hear people say, as a matter of course that they wish to work for the University because of what it is doing and what they can give and that money is not so important.
This is a picture of our "Greenhouse", the best in the country outside the commercial growers. Now they want us to do research for them so that they can develop in the West where the climate is better for flowers and vegetables. Until now the transport out of the Region has been so poor it has not been possible. . Next time you see this picture it will be full of flowers!
For those interested the items dangling down are sprayers to control humidity and the "Fertigation"is done by trickle through the pipes in the troughs: fertilisation with defined chemical mixes, in time to be computer controlled, and irrigation. Great stuff if you are a rose. The plastic cover is designed to filter and diffuse the light so the flowers do not get sun burn.
We have had visitors staying in the house since the start of June. Johnny from Scotland for 10 weeks or so. He is here as a volunteer to help in the area of IT. A qualified and very experienced IT and electrical man he is really stirring the place up, not that the rest of the team are not good merely overworked.
Then Professor of Library and Information Systems from Dublin for three weeks, immensely valuable to our librarian, followed by visits from our benefactors in Ireland, staying nearby, having a holiday interspersed with a lot of work, advice, encouragement and a lot of fun.
Then a Visit from the National Council for Higher Education to see how we are doing, not perfect but also not too rude, as it should be. A day doing a SWOT analysis for the last year. Very valuable and supportive on the whole. This is not something organisations do as a rule so it generated considerable interest. All in all a pretty busy "holiday" period.
Now we are starting again with the new year but with several of the staff going off to study for Masters or PhD. This is essential if the University is to develop. Very good for morale, shows we are serious, and is the best way to build up the staff we need. It is so good to hear people say, as a matter of course that they wish to work for the University because of what it is doing and what they can give and that money is not so important.
This is a picture of our "Greenhouse", the best in the country outside the commercial growers. Now they want us to do research for them so that they can develop in the West where the climate is better for flowers and vegetables. Until now the transport out of the Region has been so poor it has not been possible. . Next time you see this picture it will be full of flowers!
For those interested the items dangling down are sprayers to control humidity and the "Fertigation"is done by trickle through the pipes in the troughs: fertilisation with defined chemical mixes, in time to be computer controlled, and irrigation. Great stuff if you are a rose. The plastic cover is designed to filter and diffuse the light so the flowers do not get sun burn.
posted by Patrick & Kathie at 11:28 AM
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