Reporter's Diary

Press, 22 July 1980, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Coal flowers . . .

RESPONSE to Saturday’s appeal in the “Diary” for the recipe for making coal flowers has been overwhelming. At the last count, 29 letters from readers have arrived in the office and the pile is ever increasing. The telephone calls are only just abating. One man even brought in a jar filled with coal flowers that his children had made a week or two ago. Very pretty they are, too. Who would have thought that so many people knew how to make coal flowers? We are most grateful to you all for your interest and so is the young woman at Lake Rotoroa, who sparked off the whole inquiry in the first place. She is now able to teach her children how to make them.

. . . made easy FOR THOSE of you who, like us, had never heard of coal flowers, let alone knew the recipe for making them, here it is: Mix together three tablespoons of cold water; two tablespoons of red, violet, blue or green ink; two tablespoons common salt; three tablespoons household ammonia; and one tablespoon of prussian blue (available at chemists’ and paint and wallpaper shops). Pour the mixture over five or six pieces of coal (about an inch in diameter) arranged in a-china or glass bowl. The shiner the coal, the better. Put the bowl in a warm spot, preferably on a window sill where it will catch the sun, and leave it for a week or two. Every second day, pour a mixture of a teaspoon of common salt and a tablespoon of water down the side of the bowl. After a few days, the “flowers” should grow . Their colour will depend on the colour of the ink •used, and you can make a flower garden by arranging together pieces of coal that have been covered with mixtures using different coloured inks. A

small warning, though: the Prussian blue is poisonous, and care should be taken to see that children do not suck their fingers after touching the pretty flowers. Have fun. Close match IF THE LADIES of Linwood can play rugby, rea-. soned the men from the news media, there was no reason why they should not play netball. So on Sunday, a squad with representatives of “The Press,” the “Star,” Radio Avon, and even Operation' Deep Freeze’s news media section, gathered at the netball courts to play a team of news media women. The men won, 1110, reversing the result of a similar match two weeks earlier. The news media women felt suitably disgruntled at being beaten at their own game, but, they say, they plan a comeback soon. Unused to flying THE FIRST kiwi, to. inhabit the new Kiwi Rehabilitation Centre at Orana Park arrived last Friday and is now happily ensconced in his luxurious pad. He has been named Friday for obvious reasons, and he has only one leg. The other had to he amputated after it was caught in an opossum trap in the bush. Friday was flown from Invercargill to the Rehabilitation Centre, the only centre of its kind in the South Island. Its purpose, according to Mr Philip Garland, director of Orana Park, is to help injured and ailing kiwis recuperate. with the ultimate aim of returning them to the wild when they are better. Friday will not be set .free again, because of his handicap, but it is hoped that other kiwis arriving at the centre will. His arrival is appropriate, as there will be a static display about kiwis at Orana Park during Conservation Week, which begins on. August 1. According to Mr Gar-

land, Friday is settling in to his new surroundings, although he is not yet fully recovered from the air journey up to Christchurch.

United Nations? A JAPANESE tourist looking for the Dux de Lux restaurant, in the old Student Union building at the Arts Centre, was obviously taken aback. He mistook the downstairs common room door for the restaurant entrance, and upon opening it, was surprised to see a collection of Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, .and Finns chattering away in a variety of languages and accents at the annual meeting of the Scandinavian Club. He closed the door quickly and went outside, to have another look for the restaurant. Hanging from the windows of the upstairs common room was the Dutch flag — the Netherlands Society was screening a Dutch film there. The bewildered tourist then stared in disbelief through the window at the Scandinavians. Was this really New Zealand? he wondered. Finally, one of them explained to him what was going on. Two places at once? ANYONE watching the “Mainly Mahoney” television show on Friday evening, who fondly imagined that it was being broadcast live, would have got a shock to read in “The Press” the. next morning that the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Highet) was expected to come out of hospital that day. On the Friday evening, thanks to the marvels of modern science, Mr Highet presented the $4OOO “Club of the Year” award to a North Island squash and tennis club, during the “Mainly Mahoney” television show. On Saturday, Mr Highet was discharged from hospital, where he had been since Thursday.