Discovery

Walking along the beach at Cape Woolamai is always full of majesty and beauty. Sometimes though, it's the small things you find that are the most delightful.

Hooded Plovers are endangered but there is a concerted effort to protect them. It's such a privalege to see these very cute birds as they skip over the sand. They're very skittish and we have to keep our distance.

This lovely little sea anemone in one of the rock pools. It's a very rough beach and you don't tend to see these. 

However, on the rocks at the end of the beach is the mass of mussels and limpits.

Oh My!

I know I haven't told you about Harrietville yet. So much to process, so much to do and not enough photographs. It will happen, but we have been a little overwhelmed by our building works.

On being told that our services were to be cut off for a good couple of days, we decided to head down to Phillip Island.

Having only a limited time together, Peter and I decided we would do the walk up to Cape Woolamai. Basically, we walk along the beach right to the quarry. With the tide right out, this is much easier than usual. Then up we go to the highest point on Phillip Island. It's called Snapper Head and is a whopping 112 metres above sea level.

The views are spectacular all over the island to French Island and the rest of the bay and then all along the coast to Wonthaggi.

On a crowded Easter Weekend, most people are there for the beaches, which are spectacular, the sites, Penguin Parade, Churchill Island, etc and the amusements. The walk to this point is quiet, so much so that we were rewarded with an echidna at the side of the path. Crazy little creatures!

At the top is a beacon which is now automatic and solar powered, but in earlier times the local farmer, a, I think the first name is James, Cleeland, after whom the bay and streets are named after, would ride his horse, daily to the top to light the beacon on the southern most point of the island. The ocean passage being a particularly hazardous one.

The whole area used to be a farm, but they've been revegetating, getting rid of feral animals, and, whilst this is an ongoing problem, the vegetation and mutton bird nests attest to the success.

We finally got back home to find:

We had expected the front wall to come off, but not so quickly! Unfortunately, they've hit rock, so the process has slowed for the moment.

Anyway, more on Harrietville soon.

PS. Saturday I'm giving a Colour Theory and Design Workshop at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild. I hope I'm prepared and it turns out fun!

Melbourne Cup weekend at the beach

Images from Phillip Island

A lovely weekend was had by all. We travelled down in the rain, blessed rain! and then the rest of the weekend was fine. Phillip Island is like that, the only certainty is the wind.

We did finish the weekend by going to 'Chill Island', a concert on Churchill Island which headlined Clare Boeditch, Paul Kelly and Gotye. There were four support bands, we only missed one. There was Tin Pan Orange, who I liked, Tumburumba, who are a very energetic and fun drum band playing music such as the Samba, and a band called Hot Little Hands who hadn't got a CD yet and 16yr old boy thought that they were really good, which is actually a pretty good endorsement.

The concert didn't finish till after 9pm and it was FREEZING! Remember the wind I mentioned earlier. A very late drive back, but a lovely weekend.

Remember those moments when you go, 'is that where it is!". I had one of those, I thought I'd lost a bobbin, hardly surprising with the state of my workshop, but there it was, at the beach with some fabulous tops on it that I'd won at the Experimental Birthday party.

I've been wrapping it around a fine cotton core, after very, well nearly very carefully, splitting up the colours. I think it's a great success, though I did have problems deciding what to do when plying. I'm not, I think I'll just set it.

I also managed to finish all the wire work and clean up for the Woven Memories series. So a good weekend for textiles.

AND, we did have a flutter and a win on the Cup!