After taking a few more classes, I know know quite a bit about the Plant kingdom and the naming of plants. I'm even learning a bit of Latin. Jeepers.
Gingko Biloba a confier? Apparently so - I would never have thought it.
The way you can tell is that if you put the leaf up to the light you can see that there are needles which have fused together. The Biloba part of the name means that there are 2 parts to the leaves.... bi-loba. It totally makes sense. Because I now know this fact, I have no more excuses to pronounce Biloba as 'Bliblah blahs'. Yes I am weird.
I have only been going for three weeks but I am getting an enormous amount of knowledge out of this class. I have a very passionate German teacher (Martin Zierholz) - the class hangs off his every word. Seriously he is a freak - I don't think there is anything that he doesn't know about horticulture. This 4 hour classes fly by!
My pracs to date are:
- um, so far nothing, just a whole heap of listening and asking questions.
Implement a propagation plan - So far it all seems very familiar because of the previous course I have done - this doesn't stop me from enjoying it though! I still feel incredibly at home in the greenhouses and are enjoying watching my specimens grow into plants.
I am keeping a record of my pracs to date:
Sowing Annual Seed
Semi- Hardwood Cuttings
Leaf Cuttings
Pricking out seedlings
So I commenced my first class - woop woop!! This semester I am studying a couple of subjects. So far I am loving it and would much prefer to be in class than at work .....My brain is so thirsty for all this new knowledge - it makes such a difference when you are interested in what you are learning.
I'd love to write down everything I have learnt so far but it would take a heap of time and effort, when really the little time I have to myself now is precious so instead I will just keep my Prac's on other pages in this blog and post when I have found something I find interesting. .
So my wonderful cousin Kate worked at the Heritage Nursery at Yarralumla and had decided to move down the coast to start a new life down there. Before she left the nursery I got in contact with her on a whim to see if the Nursery would take me on on a casual basis - she thought it was a great idea and agreed and put me in contact with the owner - Bruno. This is not something that I would do normally - I am the kind of person to look for an advertised job, not go out approaching people - what was I thinking!!
I met with Bruno and gave him a spiel about what I wanted to do etc. I don't know whether it is because Kate had given me a good wrap or that he saw something in me, but I got offered a job on the spot to work casually all day, every second weekend. He also asked me to help out with a bit of social media after I told him my background. This was another holy crap moment - could I really work two jobs and study? I guess there was only one way to find out and that is to try it! I accepted the offer and started in late January, around the same time as I started at NHPA.
Massive change. I started two new jobs in one week and have also found out that I will need surgery again before we can progress with our family plans. It has taken me a while to settle down, but I am now feeling a bit calmer about it all. I love my nursery job, I have worked three weekends so far and are fitting in well. My feet are telling me another story - I haven't worked that long on my feet since my hospitality days, but my brain is like a sponge, wanting to know everything - I just need to pace myself and not rush in to fast!
Leaving my comfort zone at the NHMRC was a tough decision to make. I have built up so much knowledge and working relationships in the place that it was hard to imagine a public service job elsewhere. I hear stories of other public servants that have not much to do all day, and I was scared that l would be placed into one of these roles - I have always had insanely busy jobs, except for when I worked at the BBC, that was really cruisy ( maybe it had something to do with not caring about your long term career while you are on a working holiday in London!) and would drive myself batty being bored.
I knew I definitely needed to at least try another agency as my cheese needed moving. I decided to drop down from an EL1 and become an APS 6 again to take advantage of flex, i figured I was going to need it. I also felt like I needed to be on the tools again and doing things instead of just making the high level decisions. Strategic blah blah. Boring!
I knew I had able to work part-time to fit in my new studies, and I wanted to work somewhere that I would be valued - plus anywhere with free parking would be a bonus! I found an advert for a brand new Government agency - the National Health Performance Authority (NHPA). Brand spankers! They needed staff at quite a few levels so it seemed perfect, it would be a temporary move so I have the option of coming back to the NHMRC if I needed to.
Application created and submitted. All I had to do was sit back and wait....... And wait. ...... And wait.
I got contacted for an interview just before Christmas and had an interview with the whole of the organisation. A whopping total of three staff! I got offered the role the next day and begun my transition from NHMRC to NHPA - high fives to being able to work part time in Barton!
I said goodbye to the NHMRC at the end of Jan and started my new role in Barton. So far so good, the people are great and I am now in charge of WHS, Property and Business Continuity Management. Piece of cake - it is just very frustrating that it takes ten times longer to get anything done as there is a massive reliance on DoHA for shared services. They keep trying to give me more things to look after, being a small agency you have to suck it up sometimes - but I have been there, and burnt myself out previously so this time I am being smart and saying no for the first time in quite a while. I am now only taking on what I can comfortably do in the four days I work there and focus the rest of my energy on horticulture and my desire to start a family.
So I really want to learn horticulture and progress towards working in a nursery full time. In order to do this I need some training! I am a practical person so enrolling in competency based training suited me perfectly.
I went along to an info session in October at the CIT and I instantly knew that this was the light at the end of the tunnel for me. This was it. This was what I definitely want to do.
The info session was the turning point where it made me feel like it was really going to happen. I applied and enrolled into Cert III Horticulture, Production Nursery, Part time commencing in early 2012. It one sense I have been full of joy, and in another I am saying holy shit, I am really going to do this. Fingers crossed that I don't end up resenting it and having anything I do with horticulture feel like work. I hear JJ keep saying to me and others something along the lines of - 'lets hope she/you doesn't turn into the case of the chef, where you cook all day, but when you get home you don't want to cook, we have a large garden and it needs love and attention!' Don't worry JJ, I think we will be fine. You are good at weeding ;)
Yes it was a big scary move for me, but I have finally taken the plunge and are now all booked in. High fives all round!
