sharing the joy

Over the summer holidays my 4 grandchildren came to stay - tents on the front lawn, kids in the playhouse, days at the beach and ecodyeing with Skye.

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Skye went for a recce around the garden looking for leaves and flowers whose shapes she loved. We sat together on the front verandah and she laid out her icecream container of chosen plants( including a VERY spikey Mahonia leaf )on two strips of raw silk

We'd already been out to gather some last weld leaves and flowers - the dye garden has been totally overtaken by weld, and it's been giving wonderful greens all summer ( sometimes sliding to yellow when the pieces have been washed).

These are her results - all I did was help tension the fabric while she rolled, and get her started with the tie off which we did with off white commercial wool so she would have stitching material and a couple of rubber bands to hold the cans together.

What an astounding result for a first effort. Well done Skye.

swimming

Yesterday was a big tide- 4.1m - just lapping at the edge of the mown grass at Grahams Beach. The wind was Nor'east and warm, making the waves run across the beach with a good green chop. The water was so salty.

I had the beach to myself because I go down to swim at least 1/2 hour before full tide. Once it turns and I notice the mullet starting to jump and the oystercatchers wheeling back to find a spot to feed, the run for the Heads is strong.

So much water to feed out through a narrow gap, makes swimming harder and a little more dangerous.

I'm pleased with my swimming - I took lessons last winter to learn to breathe correctly and efficiently - who would think after years of scuba diving that I didn't remember how to swim.

So I cruise up and down through the rollicking waves and this morning I woke with all my bones deliciously "separated" and stretched. I'll never put my ankles behind my head like my mokopuna, but I'm relaxed and ready for the day.