Rugby season kicks off

Eastbourne Rugby Club is fizzing for the start of the 2023 season.

Under 85 Kg

• Under 85kg Senior rugby preseason training underway, 6.30pm Thursdays at HW Shortt Park. If you are thinking of playing head down to find out what it’s all about.

• Pre season game against MSP 25th March

• Season starts 15th April

Junior Club

• Registrations for 2023 are now OPEN. We would love to see some new faces joining our club this year. Everyone is welcome!!

• Friday night Pre-school Gold in the community centre starts 5th May

• Saturday morning Rippa and tackle starts 29th April

For more info on ages/grades check out ERFC on sporty.co.nz

Any queries contact us at: junioreastbournerugby@gmail.com

We have some exciting club events for the 2023 season and we will keep members updated during the season.

- Willie Davis, ERFC

Rona Bay Books

Rare books, quality used books bought & sold. See our stock at: www.tinakoribooks.com Books for a special present 26 Totara Street 562 7376 027 316 4066 tinakoribooks@xtra.co.nz

Aj Wilkins Ltd

EASTBOURNE MASTER PAINTERS

~ Servicing the Wellington Region ~

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• Exterior painting: All aspects including scaffold access

• Interior painting & plastering: + Colour advice

• Maintenance: Programmed detergent wash downs, carpentry & modified epoxy repairs.

We draw on a combined 80 years of painting experience and use the latest technologies to deliver a quality finish that’s environmentally friendly.

CALL US TODAY - phone: 0274 453 524email: ajwilkins@xtra.co.nz website: www.ajwilkins.com

Garden Stuff with Sandy Lang

GOOD FOOD, PRETTY FLOWERS slang@xtra.co.nz

February/March: Late summer/early autumn. Warm still. Lots of free tree chip. A mulch blanket helps keep soil water in, and soil temperature constant.

Angiosperms: The flowering/fruiting plants emerged between 300 and 150 million years ago (late Carboniferous, early Cretaceous). They soon underwent rapid genome downsizing, so, smaller nuclei, smaller cells, faster cell division. So, faster growth, shorter life cycles. So, faster evolution. The Angiosperms spread rapidly, outcompeting and displacing the previously dominant ferns and conifers of the Carboniferous (many extinctions). Today, with 416 Angiosperm families, 13,000 genera and 300,000 species, they are 90% of all land plants.

Co-opt 1: Another key to Angiosperm success was they co-opted animals. They grew bright flowers and fruits (max visibility) and offered sugary nectar, juice (max attraction) to get animals to disperse their pollen (mostly insects) and seeds (mostly vertebrates). So, dispersion was much further/faster.

Co-opt 2: About 10,000 years ago, animal co-option became very specialised. A tiny minority of Angiosperms entered a special relationship with a single vertebrate species (Homo sapiens). Our ancestors became farmers. They chose only plants that were easy to grow, produced good food and looked pretty. So, farming greatly increased the populations of a tiny proportion of land plants. Only 7 of the 416 Angiosperm families. All the rest became weeds (many extinctions).

The lucky families were: •Poaceae (grasses) - cereals and pasture grasses - so our bread, meat, milk, wool, leather; •Leguminosae (beans); •Solanaceae (potatoes); •Cucurbitaceae (pumpkins); •Brassicaceae (cabbages); •Rutaceae (oranges) and •Rosaceae (apples). A small number of other plants provide our fibres (cotton); medicines (aspirin) and drinks (coffee, wine). The only exception to Angiosperm dominance is the Pinales (the conifers). They provide our timber and paper.

Technology: About 200 years ago, new farming methods allowed huge increases in food production and so in human population (1 billion in 1800, 8 billion today). So, we now farm/ afforest huge areas of land, destroy huge areas of habitat. So, mass extinction.