Misadventure

The weekend weather hasn't been as good as could be expected for this time of year.  Friday it rained most of the day with big swells, and Saturday was forecast to be pretty grim with all sorts of weather warnings, including snow - snow??  What's going on?  Various parts of the east coast did cop some nasty floods, storms and winds, but we escaped largely unscathed.  Sunday dawned bright a sparkly.

This was the view from my table as I had my morning coffee.  The white splash in the centre, helpfully highlighted - is actually a whale slapping its tail about - but you needed the binoculars to see that level of detail.  With a day this lovely, we decided to go kayaking.

Off we went down to the local lake - it is very local, only five minutes away - lots of boat trailers in the car park - many fishermen off fishing.  And a few enjoying non-motorised sailing activity.

Flushed with the success of my shakedown cruise last week, I merrily launched into the lake - and - my kayak drifted off, without me in it!  Oh dear, that wasn't supposed to happen.  I stood, rooted to the spot with my feet stuck in the mud watching it drift away out into the centre.  I finally yelled to Karl who was busy unloading his kayak and he jumped in his and pedalled off to recover mine.  Lesson learned - always have the kayak between you and the shore when attempting to board!

After that misadventure, I went off paddling in some quiet spots and he kitted his out for fishing and ventured off to somewhere he hoped the flathead were lurking.

I got tired and decided to come in before he was ready so I got the camera and wandered around the shore taking snaps of textures that caught my eye.



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)