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Speaker 1: Mary Blaine is a local farmer turned author. She's put

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Speaker 1: together this wonderful new kid's book, Explore with Me Mid Canterbury.

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Speaker 1: I sat down to ask the inspiration that fuels this project.

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Speaker 2: So this is kind of my love letter to mid Canterbury.

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Speaker 2: It's a district that has been wonderful for me for

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Speaker 2: the last nearly ten years, and I just wanted to

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Speaker 2: share it with the world.

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Speaker 1: Really, what brought you to mid Canterbury.

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Speaker 2: I came down here for a six week teaching placement

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Speaker 2: and that six week just didn't end. I mean, my

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Speaker 2: meet my now husband, Steve, and now we've got two

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Speaker 2: beautiful boys here. We're on his family cropping farm and

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Speaker 2: we'll be here for life.

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Speaker 1: Where were you teaching?

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Speaker 2: Did we teaching placement at Hines School? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: And are you still teaching?

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Speaker 2: No? No, I haven't been teaching for a ree while,

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Speaker 2: although I recently got back into relief teaching, but I'm

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Speaker 2: not a full.

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Speaker 1: Time I'm sure thankful for you to be on the

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Speaker 1: boster for that, especially with all the winter bargs that

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Speaker 1: have been rolling around right. Yeah, yeah, So the book,

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Speaker 1: what's it all about?

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Speaker 2: So it is told through the eyes of a playful

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Speaker 2: courtuty and it basically the courtutty flies around the district

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Speaker 2: checking out the places. Yeah, it just describes all the

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Speaker 2: unique landscapes and attractions from mid Canterbury.

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Speaker 1: What's a court study?

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Speaker 2: Our Cortadi is a Kingfisher.

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Speaker 1: Why'd you choose a king I wouldn't immediately go Mid

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Speaker 1: Canterbury Kingfisher where they're come from?

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Speaker 2: Fair enough? We have one that sits outside the power

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Speaker 2: lines outside our house. He's very elusive. I don't often

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Speaker 2: see him, but when I do, I always have a

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Speaker 2: good day and I just feel like he is a

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Speaker 2: good luck charm.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's so neat.

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Speaker 2: I really like the look of They're beautiful.

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Speaker 1: Does he or she have a name?

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Speaker 2: I call her Maya, but she's not named in the book,

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Speaker 2: but Maya means brave right on. She's an adventurous court tuty.

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Speaker 1: Very much so well, that's why you don't see much

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Speaker 1: of it, because she's getting around all corners of the district.

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Speaker 1: Is documented in this book. I can't believe how much

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Speaker 1: you've managed to pack in there. He's has so many

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Speaker 1: of our local hotspots, from Mount Sunday to the Stable.

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Speaker 1: The ice skating rink is lake Hood and there two,

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Speaker 1: I think, yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the tricky part. Actually. Obviously there's a

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Speaker 2: lot more that I could have put in, but it

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Speaker 2: would have turned into a novel rather than a children's book.

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Speaker 1: So your your two boys, Bingi and Chester a ray?

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Speaker 2: Yes?

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Speaker 1: How old are they?

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Speaker 2: Chester is three? In Beni is five?

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Speaker 1: Sometimes you find kids can be the harshest critics.

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Speaker 2: Though I expected that, especially from my five year old,

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Speaker 2: but he has been so kind about it. Often when

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Speaker 2: we're heading out, I'll say, now you can bring two

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Speaker 2: books along with you and the car, and he usually

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Speaker 2: chooses mine. He's really sweet. Yeah, he's not sick of

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Speaker 2: it yet, he knows it off by heart.

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Speaker 1: How much of the book can he lay claim too?

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Speaker 1: How many of the ideas? How much of the narrative

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Speaker 1: do they help with?

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Speaker 2: Mainly the pictures? So when I was creating the images

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Speaker 2: that it's like, oh I like that one. Oh no,

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Speaker 2: not that one.

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Speaker 1: With a bit of modern help.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I did attempt to do it the traditional way.

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Speaker 1: What's the traditional way?

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Speaker 2: By using paint and paintbrushes and pencils and creating the

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Speaker 2: artwork myself.

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Speaker 1: How it actually be an artist?

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Speaker 2: I dabble? Okay, I haven't for a long time since

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Speaker 2: I've become a mum. Obviously not a lot of time

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Speaker 2: on my hands, but I did try, and I realized

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Speaker 2: I wouldn't have a book on the shelves until like

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Speaker 2: twenty fifty five.

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Speaker 1: So, yes, so, so I.

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Speaker 2: Taught myself how to use AI. I used a program

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Speaker 2: called mid Journey. Yeah, fumbled my way through that until

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Speaker 2: I got images that I was happy with.

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Speaker 1: Incredible the technology because you look at some of them,

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Speaker 1: like for instance, the Cortadi at the meff And hot

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Speaker 1: pools and you can see the ripple in the water

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Speaker 1: and that we feet under the water. I think that's

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Speaker 1: got to be real.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's quinde amazing real.

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Speaker 1: Were you were you amazed by what it was able

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Speaker 1: to pump out once.

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Speaker 2: I figured it out? Yes, Yeah, it was often quite

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Speaker 2: funny what it sped out. Some just hilarious images with yeah,

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Speaker 2: turned the Courtudi into objects and then to just be

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Speaker 2: a wing sticking out of something or a beak over here.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, if you look there might be some inconsistencies

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Speaker 2: with the Kortuti.

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Speaker 1: It was very tricky or is that a bit of

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Speaker 1: an added spot the difference.

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Speaker 2: Mutations, the ten differences.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so it wasn't all easy. Oh well, you got

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Speaker 1: there in the end. So the process of actually bringing

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Speaker 1: the book together, how did that unfold?

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Speaker 2: It took a long time. So I started this project

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Speaker 2: at the start of the year. I've been wanting to

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Speaker 2: do it for five years. You finally got around to it.

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Speaker 2: The words. Took a long time to actually writing the story. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I wanted it to be fun yet educational. I wanted

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Speaker 2: it to do justice to the region it was. It

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Speaker 2: was really tricky. Yeah, but at some point along the

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Speaker 2: way it actually turned from an idea into a project

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Speaker 2: into reality. And yeah, I'm actually really really pleased it.

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Speaker 2: I finally finished it.

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Speaker 1: So is the book currently at the printers? What's the

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Speaker 1: next step here?

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Speaker 2: So I've had it. I've had some of the copies

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Speaker 2: back from the printers. It's available from Paper Plush, Eshburnen

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Speaker 2: as well as the Ashburnen act.

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Speaker 1: It's ready to go.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I took pre orders on my website,

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Speaker 2: but it's actually in Yeah. The Art Color and Museum

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Speaker 2: have it in their beautiful gift shop and Paper plus Ashburnen,

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Speaker 2: and I've got a few more stockers lined up.

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Speaker 1: Have you had some feedback already?

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Speaker 2: Yes, I keep getting beautiful emails, phone calls, messages, photos

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Speaker 2: of people reading it to their kids, lots of wonderful.

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Speaker 1: Feed that must be so rewarding. Some of those messages

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Speaker 1: that have been coming through a lot.

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Speaker 2: Lots of kids have been going on to write their

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Speaker 2: own stories. They're kind of inspired by it and they

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Speaker 2: want to. Yeah, it's been.

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Speaker 1: Really cool, and the book is also a wonderful opportunity

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Speaker 1: to pay it forward to a dear friend.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, so my neighbor Joe Taylor obviously studyed neighbors.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, so she started Kaifa Kids, and I've wondered

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Speaker 2: for the last few years how I could get involved

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Speaker 2: and help out. And this is this is my way

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Speaker 2: of contributing. So I got some sponsors on board for

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Speaker 2: the book. I've had fifteen local businesses and a family

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Speaker 2: trust get on board to sponsor the book, and all

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Speaker 2: of their sponsorship money has gone straight to Kaifa Kids.

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Speaker 2: I've got I've raised three thy five hundred for them

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Speaker 2: so far.

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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, rre are the gates bolting.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Always blown away by the numbers that Joe rattles off

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Speaker 1: to me. It's over eight hundred local kids a day.

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Speaker 2: Incredibly yeah, now amazing.

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Speaker 1: And they don't have the world's biggest team either, but

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Speaker 1: they certainly have one of the world's most passionate. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's so cool. Is there a copy of this book

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Speaker 1: in the Long Beach Library yet?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Not yet? No, I need to get onto that.

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Speaker 1: We certainly do. Yeah, it would be a wonderful addition

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Speaker 1: to every school library around at Canary, I would think.

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Speaker 2: So.

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Speaker 1: Again, we can find them paper plus, yes.

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Speaker 2: Paper plus the Ashburn Gallery and Museum via my website.

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Speaker 2: I am available for public meetup at the libraries. I

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Speaker 2: take my weep boy Chester on Mondays. So happy to

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Speaker 2: have copies with me.

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Speaker 1: Then public meetup yeah.

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Speaker 2: You know, I sell them online and then meet people

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Speaker 2: at the library on Mondays to deliver it so they

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Speaker 2: don't have to pay for postage.

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Speaker 1: How was that for local service? That is neat Wow.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming and sharing in that

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Speaker 1: and certainly looking forward to spotting these on bookshelves around

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Speaker 1: mid Canary. Such a wonderful edition a Mary Blaine.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Luke