Hurry up and wait

The deck is now on - but no guard railing yet, so we didn't venture too close to the edge.  The view is spectacular.

A girl can never have enough storage.  I had these shelves and cupboards built in downstairs against the back wall - space that otherwise wouldn't be used for anything.  All my books will go here, plus any overflow from my sewing space - overflow??

Between out two last visits to the coast, they had a huge rain event that resulted in the shire being declared a natural disaster area - pretty ironic in a place where severe water restrictions are in place!  Roads, bridges and lots of other infrastructure was damaged when they got more than all of 2009's rainfall in two or three days.  The good news is that our house stayed dry -so the builder obviously got the drainage right!  Although others, on low lying ground weren't so lucky.  A huge amount of forest debris and litter was washed down the rivers and creeks into the sea, which is closed to swimming because of the health hazards.  The normally pristine waters are murky and tea-stained from all the eucalypt debris.  The usually clear, clean beaches look quite dirty and scruffy. 

It will eventually all settle down and go back too being clean and tidy - I guess its just mother nature at work, reforming and reshaping the landscape.  There is still beautiful texture to be found on my beach walks.

The title of my post refers to the frustration of waiting, when the house is so close to being finished!  The closer it gets the harder it is to wait.  There is a lot of concreting, path laying and driveway forming work to be down outside in the next two weeks - hopefully there won't be anymore 'rain events' for a while!

Texture and shape

Isn't this a great image? Karl took this a few visits ago when we found this thing, which I have forgotten what it is - sea anenome?? - on the beach.  Doesn't it just inspire embroidery ideas? There are lots of treasures on the beach with the most wonderful texture.  I love the roundy protuberences on this oyster shell, and look at that subtle colouration.

This abalone shell has even more interesting textures, and love those colours! (click for close ups)

Scrumbling along

My little bundle of pink and green scrumbles is growing - it is about the only creative thing I can do in the apartment, and it travels well, so I get lots done when we go down to the coast.  Speaking of which.......we went on the weekend to deliver our front door and have the builder install it. 

Ta da...............

Here it is.  Of course it will look better when the handle is on, the surrounds are painted and properly finished, but it is looking good already.  I don't really understand the process, but this is an ordinary (albeit large) front door made out of some sort of composite wood - with glass inserts - that has been treated, so now the surface is copper and the greeny bits are real patination.  Cool, huh!

The surround will be painted the same purpley colour that features on the other side of the house (see picture in last post).  This will then set up a triadic colour scheme, similar to the one I used in this piece.  I am looking forward to seeing this finished, as I think it will look pretty impressive! 

The next big thing to be done is adding the deck on the beach side.  I haven't given a lot of thought to HOW things are built, but apparently, building a curved deck is tricky - you need a template.  So, the sub floor had to be fabricated somewhere else, then it will be flatpacked and installed at our place.  So, where to construct it? - on the floor of our builders own house which is under construction.  He is building a huge house perched on the side of a hill with a spectacular view out to Gulaga (shown crowned in mist), across Wagonga Inlet, and the bridge into Narooma, and around to the coast, out to Montague Island and beyond.  Pretty impressive!

Anyway, Joe, the amazing carpenter has knocked up the sub frame and it will all be dismantled, flat packed and shipped a couple of kilometres down the road to be installed at our place - neat, huh?

I do like some of the idiosyncratic things I see around the place - I spied this little set up last time we were down but didn't have the camera with me - so when I say it was still there this time, couldn't resist stopping for a shot.  You can click on the image for a close up, but this is a large cactus (with a strange lean) on offer for $30.00 (a steal!), and a smaller, round one.  Not sure if the pot on the end post is also for sale, or is part of the garden decorations.  What amuses me is a) this was there two weeks ago and still hasn't sold, and b) it is just sitting out there and anyone who really wanted it could just help themselves.  Think about it - if no-one even wants to steal it, they are hardly likely to pay $30 for it, are they???

Went for a walk on the surf beach at Narooma and saw this sign on the rocks (click for bigger) - it wasn't there last time. 

There was a lot of rain the day we arrived - nearly three and a half inches, which was pretty impressive.  So we took the short drive down to Whittakers Creek, just outside Dalmeny to get a photo of it with some water actually in it.  I took photos of this place many, many years ago, when we first visited the area.  I have always had a hankering to do a textile piece capturing this scene.  I even started once or twice, but couldn't capture it in a way that I was happy with.  When we move in and I have all my 'stuff', I think I will give it another go.  I think I need to abstract it to get it to work - will have to work on my tendency to be too literal and just focus on the essence of the place.

There is lots of inspiration around - wonderful colours and textures everywhere.  This shot was taken at the other end of the surf beach from the sign.  The orange bits seem to be some sort of minerals in the rocks, while the greeny gold bits look like some sort of plant growth - a fungus perhaps?