What do you hope to achieve this year?

Wendy | Te Tai Poutini

Wendy is preparing for retirement by shifting focus from shop work to cultivating a community garden.

“I just knew that we needed one because I think that all communities need a bookshop – a second-hand bookshop – and I think it’s really important.

I’ve got a year and a half before I retire. I have five volunteers who come in and help me in the shop, and I’m looking to step back a bit so that I can start to think about doing maybe fewer hours in the shop and more hours outside.

I have a large market garden where I grow flowers and food. A lot of it we exchange or give away, and some is sold in the shop – potatoes, garlic, dahlias, and whatever else. I’d like to do more of that, bringing some people from here to join me in doing so, so that I can have a bit of a different flavour in my life. It would involve more physical work, which I’m used to but don’t get so much of here.

We’ve got a lot of land that we’ve just broken in, and I would like it to be a community garden where food is grown and shared amongst the people who work on it. It’s not organic, but it’s an organic idea – a place where people can come, work, share ideas, and fit into the ethos of this kind of bookshop. It’s outside of mainstream, where we can work together and share.”