Yesterday and this morning

Thank you to all who left lovely messages about our Anniversary.
This was the view from our table at The Flying Fish at Pt Elliott, you couldnt have had a better view and the food and wine were great too. (Should get a free something for that plug!!)
This morning we walked along the Bay early and the scenery was a little unreal, another low tide but so calm and still, look at the reflections of the Bluff in the water.
Oh I forgot the birds, we used to call these spur winged plover but they have had a name change and they are some sort of Lapwing, but we still call them plover I am afraid. They were lined up beautifully when I first saw them but by the time John had gone around the round about and tried to get into position they had moved, still it was nice to see the family.
A horrid day today, back to this sultry thundery weather which produces no rain but was 37 degrees by the back door, about I dont know well over a 102 in the old money I think.
I hate this weather and try to exist and that is about all.

Fifty first Wedding Anniversary

Gosh we were young! I was 19 and he was just 21.
Our whole life ahead of us, but what a wonderful life, full of ups and downs but I wouldnt have missed a minute of it.
Who was to know that we would adopt the most wonderful son and then go on to have three beautiful babies of our own.
We have survived living on next to no money, to overseas trips and back to next to no money but are more able to cope and living in the best place in the world.
Droughts and good years. My ponies, his fishing.
Who could be so lucky.
Four children, eleven grand children and one great grand child.
A lovely lunch today by the sea at one of the best places to eat I know, and now I am going to have a short "nanny nap" to celebrate.

Encounter Bay this morning

It was a glorious morning this morning and we had an appointment in at the Bay so left a bit early so we could walk. The tide was way out, I havent been in when it was so low for a long time.
I live in an incredible bit of the world and on mornings like this nothing can make the bay look wrong.
so two views of Wright Island and The Bluff and then one of Seal rock and the break exposed as I have never seen it before. Then Granite Island with the sand bars and weed beds.
Finally on the way home the evening primrose on the side of the road I have been meaning to take photos of for ages.
This must be a really good year for them as they are in flower all along the road, but they were terribly hard to take a decent photo of, this is the best one they glow when the sun shines through them.
Click on all the photos for a better look.

This came in the mail today

My little piece for The Thread Studio's connections challenge came home today, I saw it in Melbourne and again in London but it had been further afield than that.
It was great to get it home again and John was most impressed as he had forgotten about it.
Still very muggy but cooler today, a tiny bit of drizzle is falling as I write.
I thought I would have a wander around with the camera outside as I watered today and here a few more corners.
Pots under the verandah, mostly my special ones I love the nodding blue violet, which isnt a violet at all but I think a streptocarpus, and my special balsam, (and I dont think that is its name these days either, but to me that is what it is called) in its bright red and white.
I keep bringing bits of these crucifix orchids back from Queensland in various colours but the ones that survive outside the best are these very common orange ones, but I still love them, thought you might like a close up.
I have been painting odd things, a doll, a tiny bird house and an owl, I have been to the physio and hope to keep away for a while now, I have washed clothes but not ironed! I have painted something I rather like and you may see translated into a textile, its on my other blog, hoses have been put on and moved, there are some terribly dry bits in the garden but at least I have some water, this time last year we had run out, and the year before.
I had better go, I am trying out a new recipe, let you know how it turns out.
Thank you to all those who write nice things about my blog, you dont know how much it means to me, sorry if I dont reply personally all the time, I am a bit hopeless when it comes to that.

Corners and collections

It is far too hot and humid to do much today, although John is painting the bathroom, just one coat on walls and ceiling, not a big job but the paint stinks.
So I wandered around the house again and here are a few bits and pieces.
The dresser in the kitchen, full of odds and ends, then in my work room a plastic crate full of Indian wooden stamps, I dont have a big collection but am terribly pleased when I find one. I love the peacock.
Another tiny wall between doors in a hall, one of my dolls, s print of a river boat at Goolwa, a piece by my friend Glenys Mann and another small piece I bought at the Ballarat Fibre forum last year, these were fund raisers to pay for students to attend the classes, this was a very clever piece by Marita Hanigan, she and I did a basketry workshop together under Gwen Egg a few years ago.
Finally a few things that reside on top of my cupboard in my work room. Feathers, porcupine quills, my favorite bear, and the wooden saki cups we used on our first visit to Japan at a very important banquet I was so pleased when they were presented to me as a momento.

The house elf and other things

I have this small cloth elf in my sitting room, he guards and watches and I am very fond of him. I cant remember when I made him but quite a long time ago.
He is surrounded by people from another age and paintings that are also from another time.
The small ducks came from the north Island of Japan when we were there a few years ago. They have been arranged and re arranged by grand children countless times.
Once there was one and now there are three funky chickens, so easy to do, they are I hope heading for new homes soon.
Things from the sea, things from overseas, wonderful plates in celadon made by a potter friend.
Fragments of Chiton shells and pieces of stone I picked up the other day on the beach, a lovely soap wrapped in a palm frond.
Small things in small corners, all part of me.

Collections

What do you do with lots of bags that you have been given or collected over time? Hang them on a spare wall in the hall
I was sorry I didnt get a bag in Paris, John offered to get me one, but I didnt think we could afford it.
I have over the years been the recipient of things from several of my mothers houses, here is a little piece of furniture which has bits and pieces that I have collected over the years, odd plates, birds, horses, cloth dolls I have made. Presents from friends and the plates I collected for a while. Some are my mothers as well.
On a wall in the bedroom are these small bits and pieces, the door was in the way and I couldnt get straight on to photograph them, Japanese prints I collected in Japan, some little kimonos I have made, a Susie McMahon painted face for a doll, a gift from a very dear Japanese friend.
Is it any wonder I have not much wall space left and the house is slowly buckling at its knees.