Heathcote Valley Online

[Editor: Eleven years old Rata Ingram writes about skiing the Big Mama run at Porters Heights on the recent Heathcote Valley School ski trip for Years Seven and Eight. Her mum, Gail, has sent it in for us and says Big Mama is a double black diamond (super advanced!) and yes, she enjoyed it too.]

"I'm not so sure about this mum" I think as I glide across the soft powder. Mum has disappeared into the fog. I push my poles into the powder as I slow on the thick cornflour-like surface to catch up. She sees me and quickly warns me of the rocks on the ground. Only just managing to avoid them, I ski in mum's tracks across the icy patch and into a snowdrift.

It's a few suburbs over from the Heathcote Valley, but I bet we've all been there. Sumner beach is a great place for a sunny day out. The surf, seagulls and sand must have given a lot of fun to Heathcote people over many years. Trouble is, it's also a place that faces a lot of issues. The Christchurch City Council know this, and they've done what they usually do for this type of thing, written a hefty report. The difference this time is that it comes with an absolutely fantastic graphic. It makes what's on the mind of Sumner, Clifton and Monck's Bay residents really clear for us. It's also beautiful too, so take a look!

[Editor: We have just received, amazingly, an article from Ferrymead's steam locomotive W192! Don't know who W192 is? You can read all about him here. Thanks to Nigel Hogg of the Canterbury Railway Society for getting him to write it. Here it is...]

First of all I must say thank you to everybody who has come to visit me at my home at Ferrymead Heritage Park in the Heathcote Valley. I enjoy your company so much because you always seem so happy to see me. You must forgive me for not writing earlier, but I am getting very forgetful now I am so old. I was made in 1889, which makes me 119 years old!

Call them Solanum tuberosum, papa, pomme de terre, patata, riwai, de aardappel, pratie, ziemniak, kartoffel, potatis, the humble spud or tatie, 2008 has been declared "The Year of the Potato" by the United Nations.

As broccoli romps up the trendy, must eat, life saving popularity list the humble spud has been relegated, by the cognoscenti of such things, to the lower rungs of the evil ladder along with sugar, butter, pork crackling and pink icing. Thank goodness, on this occasion, the United Nations has taken a sensible lead in lauding this amazing food source. Christchurch Botanic Gardens had a wonderful trial plot of organic potatoes during the summer, nearly a dozen varieties. Alison and Simon Holst were invited down to cook them on the spot. So, this summer season why not try to grow a few potatoes of your own?