Cleaning

I loath cleaning.
There are a million other things I could be doing with my time. But since I own my own house, and it's all on me, my responsibility, I feel that I should clean. Because let's face it it's maintenance, right? I just really dislike it. But today was a good day for it.
It was a beautiful day. Sunny and perfect temperature. It started with wanting to "pick up" my bedroom. It was a disaster, which developed into a full fledged cleaning operation; mops, vacuums, and bucket of water for wiping dirt down. I took out the air conditioners and have beautiful windows again. All of my floors are sparkling clean, all carpets are freshly vacuumed, dirt cleaned up, dust in the dustbin, stray leaves swept, etc. It's all good. It's supposed to be grey all weekend, so hopefully a beautifully clean house will help my mood.

One of the privileges of teaching...

One of the privileges of teaching is that you get to meet very special people. People who set an example for how you should live your life. This week I picked up fabric from Rachel L. Rachel, a textile major, took my class last spring. She's a fantastic student and it came as no surprise that she won one of the fellowships that Moore offers their students. She traveled to Ghana to help set up a textile studio and teach women in a tiny village how to print fabric. Despite catching typhoid and coming home with four different parasites (two of which she is still battling), she had a fantastic experience. She showed me pictures of all of the amazing people she met and worked with. She lived in a tiny grass hut next to the beach. I gave her money for fabric and what she brought back is beautiful! I love it. These are some of the pieces she and her students made. I love them all! It seems it was a life changing experience for her. Her major culture shock is dealing with the over abundance of our consumer culture. She told me that she changed her cell phone plan to a simpler plan, saving enough money to support ten of the girls she met in Ghana so that they can continue in school.
You can read more about her experience on her blog www.loveoneanothertoday.blogspot.com. It's sparse because, let's face it - it's hard to get Internet in a village that doesn't have electricity.
Hopefully now that she's back she'll post a "summing up" blog. Her photographs are spectacular.
Like I said, a privilege.

Ceiling fans, knitting, yard work, more knitting etc.

Thanks to all of you who have been so sympathetic about my moldy basement. Yes. It's a hassle. I've had many conversation and lots of good advice and information. Thanks so much. The bad new is: Jennifer says she has a dehumidifier in her basement that runs all the time and it sucks the electricity. The good new is: Lee says he can hook my dehumidifier up directly with the drain so I don't have to empty it every 8 hours.
Ah yes Lee -
Lee came during the week to check on the wiring for the third floor and to install two ceiling fans. Now, I could have done these myself but it was easier just to pay him. Besides, he said he could do it where the fan box is mounted to a joist rather than putting in a hanger (which is a pain in the neck!). So fine.
There are two unfortunately's:
1. Lee called to say, the fan for the bedroom is missing a bracket. I keep forgetting to take the box, and etc. back to Home Depot to say, I need this bracket! It's the thing that holds the blade to the motor. Kinda vital.
2. I put the wrong fan in the bedroom (sigh). Lee called me to tell me about the problem, and then asked if I wanted the wood side or the black side showing. I said, "oh I thought I had gotten white for the bedroom. He said, "No - this one is wood or black, which do you want." I didn't think much more about it, especially since it had been almost two months since I'd bought the fans and I figured I was having a massive brain cramp. "Wood," I said.
I came home to find this in the bedroom: And this in the living room:
Fer cryin' out loud! If I didn't put the wrong fan in the wrong room - darn it all!!! And of course they are already installed. GRRR. How irritating! But when I called Lee - he laughed and said, "Well, after your tenants destroy everything, you can fix it." Oh well. I can't worry about this.
We also talked about him coming and dealing with the new dehumidifier and hooking it up to my sewer line. That way I don't have to empty the bucket all the time. It is working though, which is great!
Jennifer also loaned me her (oh I can't remember the exact vocabulary) I think it's called a swiff and winder. This amazing contraption allows the avid (read crazed) knitter to wind balls of yarn, without the proverbial, two-arms-of-someone-else:
You take the skein, plop it onto the swiff and then use the winder to wind beautiful little balls of whatever you are using. (Daddy - hint hint - perfect Christmas/birthday gift!)
Like this: (before and after all in one shot).
I had a few skeins from Australia that needed winding, a few from ancient times and so it was great to spend an afternoon just winding stuff. Very satisfying. Thanks for the loan Jennifer!

My farms share was very rewarding this weekend. I got the biggest head of broccoli I've ever seen, can't wait for that, two squash, three bell peppers, cheese, eggs, ground beef, and ? Can't remember. But the squash - well...
I don't think I've ever had squash like this before. It's beautiful and really yummy! I roasted the other one for almost an hour. Had it for dinner with a little bit of pork loin, quinoa, and the squash with sauce. Yum Yum. The squash was really sweet! I mixed it with the quinoa, and drowned it with the "gravy." I had cooked the pork loin in onions, tarragon, lime and water. Talk about yummy. This morning I roasted the squash seeds. I really hope they are not poisoness, because I've pretty much eaten all of them.
And I was very unproductive this weekend. I still don't feel like I've caught my breath from returning, and hoping to get back into life. Maybe finally this weekend.
I spent some time knitting:
Don't be impressed, those are size 11 needles. I had to re knit the right side twice - I did that yesterday. Then I finished and I discovered that I dropped a stitch on the back, and I didn't really pay attention to the whole, right -side, wrong-side issues when knitting the front. I'm not doing it again.
I did get a chance to watch the rest of Season Two of my new favorite show EVER!
I hope you are all watching "The Big Bang Theory". Oh it's so wonderful! Four physics geeks are friends, and such dorks, and one of them is in love with the "normal" girl next door. Oh, these are people after my own heart. I think one of them has been nominated for an Emmy. I hope he gets it, he's wonderful. If you haven't seen this show, it's on CBS after "How I met your mother", but of course - since I'm a dork and don't have TV - it's available on Netflix.
And I did do one productive thing this weekend - I tackled the poke weed forest in my back yard.

Sorry - I stole this pictures from someone else, that's why it's so little. If you google Poke Weed, there are some interesting entries. Including this one from Wikipedia:

"Pokeweed berries yield a red ink or dye, which was once used by aboriginal Americans to decorate their horses. The United States Declaration of Independence was written in fermented pokeberry juice (hence the common name 'inkberry'). Many letters written home during the American Civil War were written in pokeberry ink; the writing in these surviving letters appears brown. The red juice has also been used to symbolize blood, as in the anti-slavery protest of Benjamin Lay. A rich brown dye can be made by soaking fabrics in fermenting berries in a hollowed-out pumpkin."

So, does the dye have to be made in hollowed out pumpkin? or will and old non-food pot work just as well.
And now I'm wishing more and more that I had harvested the berries. The problem is, that the birds really like the berries and then I find purple poops everywhere in the garden.

I had actually planned to only fill up one bag of garden stuff. But by the time I was done, it was, four bags, and four bundles. Oh well. The guys that pick up my garbage must think something crazy about me.

Moldy Basement, Sunflowers, Runaway Bus, Artwork, and stuff, oh My!

Well, where to begin?
It's been a strange week in my little house. Rainy and gray. Completely unheard of for September. The annual UArts BookArts party came around and for the first time I can every remember it was not sweltering. Today we finally had a beautiful day of sun. Jacques and I both took advantage of that. But before that there was a lot of other stuff to deal with.
Firstly, my moldy basement. Yes - while I was gone - I don't know what happened, but everything is covered with mildew - ew. I trotted off to my favorite store, Home Depot and purchased the necessaries: dehumidifier, trash bags, neoprene gloves, bleach, and spray bottle. The smell in the basement is overpowering and I don't want it to spread to the rest of the place.
This is the main culprit - what in the heck is that anyway?
This is a pile of wood that is original to the house but that sadly is now in the trash. It grew this interesting ecosystem that I am not interested in cultivating any further. I sprayed it with bleach, scooped up the wood and the mold and set up the dehumidifier in that space. The dehumidifier filled up in one night. I talked with Lee the electrician this afternoon for something else, and he says there is a way to have it drain directly into the drain in the basement. THAT would be simply fabulous. He also thinks my moisture problem is due to bad gutters. After some thought, I think so too. This is really too bad because I've just gotten the hang of placing some buckets under the eve where the water really gushes off. But I think it's time to break down, get a rain barrel and get the gutters hooked up correctly. Ah, the joys of living on the east coast!

I did have time for some artwork:
Not sure what I think yet.

And besides the awful weather it was a little bit of emotional stress this week. On Wednesday night just after midnight, I woke up to sirens, screaming and Jacques very upset. I got out of bed to see what was going on, it was Wednesday night after all. I looked out the front window to see a bus on the side walk almost directly across the street from my house. I still don't know what happened, but the feeling was one of an altered universe. It appeared that the bus had driven straight down the sidewalk. I couldn't see up the street to the left because of the way the neighbor has "altered" the house but I could see flashing lights. Then I heard someone coming from the bus shouting, "He had a heart attack!" But I don't think so, they eventually walked the driver out of the bus and got onto a stretcher by himself. Something happened though, maybe he had a seizure? The bus had hit two other cars it seemed and I couldn't tell anything more than that. By morning, only the damaged shrubbery was left from what happened. But I have to keep thinking, what if he had swerved the other way? He would have hit my neighbors house and I don't know what kind of damage that would have caused since we are essentially one building, or he could have ended up in my yard, or ? something worse. At any rate it was a freaky thing to see and a freaky feeling which left me wondering...

Then of course there was the greyness to contend with. And before the greyness went away we had some of the weirdest weather. Friday was really bad. I pretty much stayed in bed and watched a marathon of my new favorite TVshow, The Big Bang Theory, from Netflix. If you haven't seen it - these are my people and I love them.

It rained almost all day on Friday and in the morning it was so windy, it blew all of my sunflowers over. Most of them recovered once I propped them back up (under the watchful eye of The Inspector), but a few of them didn't really make it.


And look what else I spied in the garden...
Some friskiness!

I painted the kitchen door

Now it's turquoise. It matches the inside of the pantry. This is in honor of Anne-Maree. I'm not sure I like it yet. Jeff took the door down when he was redoing the bathroom and I've been meaning to put it back up. I think I will like it once I get used to it - but it's a bit much. Well, if it doesn't grow on me I can always paint it back to white - OR another color . . . I don't have anything magenta yet....
It was a beautiful day here - sunny in the morning and then cool and cloudy this afternoon. I think every mosquito in Philadelphia is residing in my back yard. I'm being attacked by them. It's kindof awful. Tomorrow I'm going to do the yard - stay tuned for my beautiful sunflowers.

The Container Store

Before I get to the Container Store - I just wanted to post about the handful of tomatoes I picked this morning. I braved the mosquitoes (or as they say in Australia - the Mozzys) and picked a handful. I think I'll be getting a handful everyday. I'm saving yard work until Monday - so I'll be taking a much better look then - slathered in Buzz-off of course.
Had a fantastic afternoon with Mary and Katie. We went to the Container Store and I told them it would change my life. And I still think this.
First I got a contraption to organize my spices. They weren't too bad, but I couldn't see what I had or where it was:
I bought this marvelous contraption:
Which elevated all of my spices:
The only problem now is that I still can't see what I have! I think I will bring a sharpie up stairs and start labeling the caps. Then I can tell what is what.
I also bought things that will help me economize on space:
Whoohoo - lookit! Twice as much space, and nothing is going to fall off of something else when I pull it out of the cabinet.
And the place which really needed help was my pots and pans cabinet. Look at this disaster!
I sort of gave up pretty quickly on getting this to function well. But now:
Look at that! Whew - all of the over flow utensils are taken care of, sieves are stowed well in pull out drawers, and there is still plenty of room for pots and pans and ... ah, dare I say it - ceramic bowls!
Thanks to Ann for introducing me to this amazing store. My only reservation is that they must have a corner on the plexiglas market. I would say that over 75% of their stuff is plexiglas or lucite (same thing). Easy people - we've only got one planet. Let's use sustainable and biodegradable stuff, shall we? (All the stuff I bought today is wire and glass.)

Home again

It's good to be home.
I had an amazing experience - unforgettable moments - but it's still good to be back in my own four walls, my own HSP drama, my own Moore drama, and a cat who loves me.
HSP is business as usual, the building is still standing, I still have a job, and the basement only flooded once while I was gone. The good news about being gone for a month and having someone else look at the temperatures and humidities around the building is that some other people jump into action. There are now two de-humidifiers in two rooms which I've been sending emails out about for months. Cool. (ha-no pun intended!)
Moore - well, that's another story. I found out two hours before I was supposed to teach that there is a new online system. And I decided, I think wisely, instead of trying to figure out how to print out my class lists on my own, to call the IT guy and cry him a river. It worked, I got my courses "made available" and got the lists printed out. Only one person missed class - hope she dropped - because I don't want to have to do double duty next week and of course I had one walk in 1/2hour late with a bajillion excuses I wasn't interested in. I'm such a mean teacher!
And yes, Jacques still loves me. But not until after dinner with wet food and a new toy. I bought him a catnip toy with bright green feathers on it. This morning after my shower I found him and toy in the middle of my bed. He was sending me those looks that said he knew exactly that I was leaving him again and how could I do such a thing! - and look, he even brought the new toy to play with! Ugh - how do they know how to do that?
Now he's curled up on the couch and I'm sipping a lime and bitters (with a "cheers!" for Anne-Maree who introduced them to me), and I decided I should blog.
First, a last few glimpses of Australia:
This is the first view of the ocean on the tour of mysteries with Julie and Christine. Sorry for the very wonky image - I still can't get the hang of doing a complete 180° image. You'll have to use your imagination. Look at the color of the water!

And the last view of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge.
Anne-Maree and family have plans to climb to the top of the bridge. If you double click on the image it blows up and you might see some of the people who did climb to the top of it this evening. It must be an incredible view.

It was sad to leave Australia - but I know this won't be my only trip. I already have an installation in mind that I want to do in Anne-Maree's lagoon, even though it may have to wait a few years. It involves the paper shells I made a few years ago, that have l-e-d lights in them - if I made them out of tyvek they would float . . . . for a while. . . stay tuned. . . .
Thank goodness I had an empty seat next to me again on the flight home. It was much harder flying into the day, than flying into the night. I arrived in LA at 6:30 in the morning, wired! I spent the day with my dad and Ann getting used to a very dry heat in Pasadena and trying not to breath in too much smoke. Ann and I did some very energetic shoe shopping to go with the fabulous dress for the wedding. We weren't successful until we decided to go to David's bridal and just get some and have them dyed the color I wanted. Guess which color? Green. :) Thanks to Ann for running all over the place with me while I tried on one pair of ridiculously high shoes after another.
My dad and I had some quality time together too - which was great. He has kept a trunk of all of his childhood treasures - things he had as a child. He'd found a boat that had beached itself that was full of cork. So he and a friend dragged a bunch of cork home and made some smaller boats. They are pretty cool - we should try them out sometime. The trunk was full of other great stuff too - drawings he'd done as a child, scrap books, model airplanes, airplane trading cards, an old milk bottle, and a box of junior high school pictures of his classmates:Also a sign he'd had up in his dorm room:
He said he and his friends thought it was pretty funny - and you know what? I think it's pretty funny too because I can just imagine a bunch of 20-year-old cross-country runners thinking this kind of thing is funny. Hee-hee Daddy - you're pretty funny!

Then it was up to San Francisco for Rachael and Ben's wedding. Sorry - I didn't take my camera. :( I know - bad me. It's too bad, because it was a beautiful wedding! Outdoors, in front of a small pond, with Willow trees all around. And so much laughter - good laughter, happiness everywhere. They look so good together, so right and so happy. It's great to be at a wedding where you know this one is for keeps. Congrats again Ben and Rachael - I hope you have many long years of joy together!
And yes, the date. Yes, for those of you who don't know - I asked Rachael if she had a nice single friend who would want to be my date for the wedding. She set me up with her friend Dan. Who is very tall (6'6"!) and really nice. I had a great time talking with him - too bad he lives in Las Vegas. (sigh)

When I got home I found a package from Judy, Marsha and Linda - the ladies who visited me last fall. It contained these:
Aren't they sweet? Thanks Linda, Marsha and Judy! I love them.

Goodbye Australia

My last day here. It was a good one. This evening after the day's events, I went down to the harbor and watched the Opera House change color with the sun set. This image is a bit blurry, but the color is most beautiful. What a view.



To sum up the last few days of Oz:

Anne-Maree and I did a collaboration. :)

Have you ever met one of those people that just jazzed you up and the two of you are so excited about something you are bouncing off the walls? That's what Anne-Marie and I do about our stuff. We gave ourselves an our to make a book each, then the plan was to switch them and work on them for another hour.
Well, our two our plan turned into about six. But look what we did!
Anne-Maree's book (she made two!):

"Everywhere..."

... you go ...

... always take the weather with you."

She made the book out of a one-page structure and some of her prints and I added the stitching.

These are the only photos I have of my book at the moment. I'll have to post more with what Anne-Maree added. I really wanted to use the PaperBark Tree (Melaleuca) for a book. And I was thinking about all that I'd learned about Australian Bush. It really needs fire to flourish. I find this amazing. So to me it became like a phoenix.

Anne-Maree added some really gorgeous stuff. Wait 'till you see. :) I think if we could have had our way, we could have played in the studio for the entire three week period. But now we will have to do the mailing thing.

It was sad to leave Anne-Maree's beautiful house and her three sweet kitties and three great boys. This is Jasper - she's a sharp little kitty. There's no petting her until she's had a very good sniff at you.

My last morning in Newcastle I did what I should have done every morning. My hotel was on a bluff overlooking the ocean. The first morning I did get up and went down to the beach, but didn't look anywhere because I was collecting shells. An entire bucket full!

The next morning I slept in, and then the last morning I went down to the beach and banned myself from collecting any more shells. I bought coffee and a croissant at a shop, went down to the beach and watched the surfers for almost an hour.

I also got a good walk in, and took lots of photos of the tide pools. Newcastle is so quiet, the tide pools are full of life, even right on the beach. I found a starfish and I think I saw some abalone in one pool. Hard to tell when they are alive.

Barnacle Central:

Anne-Maree drove me down to Sydney on Sunday. We feasted on dim sum in China Town, in Australia it's called Yum Cha, perhaps a little more appropriate? Then we headed of to the Powerhouse Museum. What a coooooool place. I couldn't quite get the gist of their collecting scope, but I think it's "human-made" objects. There is an entire train on one floor. We saw a fabulous design show, a show about Macedonian Aprons, and this cool thing:

It's a "globe" for the blind. Every continent has been hammered out in metal with Braille writing on it. All of the main shipping lanes have also been laid in and are labeled in the same way. It's a really beautiful thing!
But our main reason for going to the museum was to see the Hyperbolic Coral Reef. This is a coral reef made entirely out of crochet. Sounds hokey, right? Nope. This things was way cool. First of all it was huge. Second of all, it's to bring attention to the plight of coral reefs. And thirdly it's all done in crochet based on a way that two women mathematicians came up of illustrating a mathematical theorem that Euclidean geometry couldn't. How cool is that! I bought the book - you can all read it because that's about all I can explain about it off the top of my head.

The next morning I spent the day at the Australian Museum. It's a natural history museum with lots of dinosaur skeletons, and stuff critters from Australia. There is a fantastic hands on section, mostly for kids, but I still loved it. There was an aquarium full of stick insects. They were so cool. Then there was this wacky crayfish looking thing called a basher. The guy showing it to me was trying to explain what it did (it was in a plastic bag on the desk), and as he put his finger near the bag she whacked at his finger so hard I couldn't believe it didn't break the bag. She made contact too - and he stood there shaking is finger in pain. He then told us that you don't see many in captivity because once they reach a certain size they can break the glass of the aquarium!

The two things I really loved though, were the minerals, which really reminded me of the coral reef the day before:

And the second thing I really loved was the section giving voice to the aboriginal people. It was a very respectful and comprehensive exhibit which especially talked about spirituality. I keep coming back to it in my head.

I had dinner in The Rocks neighborhood, and worked out a book I want to do when I get home. Among other things.

Anne-Maree came back down to Sydney today so that we could visit Monica Oppen's collection of Australian artist books. We looked for three hours. Here's one of Tim Mosley's books. It's a one page book with a beautiful paper cover. Perfect example of what's possible for my students!

I also became more familiar with Peter Lissiotis's work. I really like his things too. He reminds me of Buzz Spector a bit - working with photography.

So yes, went down to the harbor, one last time. Watched millions of people all taking pictures of the same thing. Saw some crazy people walking over the bridge as well. And then I went in search of another Works Burger. Found one - and yes, it was amazing, definitely will give In 'n Out a run for their money.

last day in Alstonville, Cabbage Tree Island, Tide Pools, Cedar

Alright everyone - I'm so excited to post I'm just going to post. Check back soon for more editorial comments.
Alrighty! (posted on Sunday, for about an hour and a half - so not much editing): So much has happened since these pictures, but I'll have to save that for a post for tomorrow!
I left Alstonville (sadly) on Wednesday morning. The evening before there was a beautiful rainbow. It's sad to go because I had such an amazing time up here. It's a small quaint town, but has so much to offer. On my way out of town, Julie took me to Cabbage Tree Island.
This is an island in a river which is home to Aborigines. The other gallery Julie works for, had an exhibition of their fabrics, clothes, and paintings. A film maker saw the show and wanted to make a documentary about it including interviews with Julie.
When we arrived, there was no one around. It seems that things move along at a different pace. Even though appointments had been made, everyone had gone shopping. Which frustrated the heck out of the film maker. Finally two women came up and let us into the workshop. Slowly things started getting set in motion. You have to imagine this place: a large tin structure with huge sliding doors right in the middle of sugar cane fields. It is so quiet.
And their fabrics and designs and screen prints are... well, they are just mind blowing. So beautifully considered. The use of color is amazing.

I bought two dresses because I couldn't help myself! But that was epic as well. No one new the prices, the artist set her own price, no one could contact her, I didn't have enough cash, had to go get some, no one seemed in a hurry to help me out, Julie was trying to impress on them that I need to get on the road because I had a huge drive ahead of me.... and of course, there was filming to be done, and on and on. But, as these things do, it all worked out. When I came back with cash, another lady had shown up, and prices were found. Once the prices were set, the artist showed up:(sorry, I don't know why there are two pictures up, and I can't seem to erase either of them)

Leeanne Anderson explained the prints to me, one is a grub and the other is a spirit sign. And the red dress she is holding in her hand has fantastic flowers on it.

As we were waiting for things to finalize, and for the film maker to re-set up his set, we stood around and talked. The ladies were very reserved at first. Here are the sisters, Priscilla and Vivienne:

We had a fortunate miscommunication: We were talking about the clothes which fit amazingly well, and I asked if they had patters for the clothes. Vivienne misunderstood and thought I was talking about the patterns they silk screened onto the fabric. Priscilla pulled out that brown envelope she is holding and look what came out! These are all silkscreen templates, designed by the women, cut freehand!

Look at the Echidnae and the Kangaroo!

Here Priscilla is showing Julie a peacock pattern she designed for her daughter's curtains. She described them to us: A bright blue bird printed on yellow tie-dyed fabric. It must be really beautiful. We ask if she has some to show us. No - she just made it for her daughter, that's all. She won't make any more. Too bad.

The other fortunate part of the mistake was that we actually go the women really excited to be talking about their work. While they had been stiff and reserved for the film maker, they were smiling and relaxed and excited to be showing us the designs. The film maker knew a good thing when he saw it and grabbed a hand held camera. I hope it's good footage.

Said a quick farewell to Julie... and hopped on the road. My plan had been to go to Nundle to a Woolen Mill and get some Aussie wool, but I think the experience on Cabbage Tree Island was far better. By the way, a cabbage tree is a palm tree, that's what the aboriginals call it.

Then it was a 6 hour drive back down to Newcastle (and that is the correct spelling of it!).

I checked into a hotel that practically overlooks the beach, and zonked out.

Thursday I met up with Anne-Maree again.

We decided to do a collaboration. We were going to give ourselves a set time to make a book in her studio, then switch them and work the same amount of time. Well, our plans got a little fuzzy but we did work, and I can't wait to post our books. I'll have to figure out the card reader situation tomorrow. I think Anne-Maree and I work really well together. We like similar colors, have similar ideas about books... and have similar needs of down time and space. And we had so much we wanted to do, so after our first part of our collaboration, Anne-Maree made lunch.

Every thing's bigger in Australia. This is a BLT.

And it was delicious!

Then we went down to the tide pools for shell collecting and wildlife looking. I've never seen anything like it. This is what Laguna Beach must have been like. There was so much life in the pools!

This is the first find: A brittle star. It was not interested in being on our hands and pretty darn quickly for all those tangly legs scooted itself off of her hand back into the pool.

We turned over another rock and found a ton of little critters that we weren't sure what they were:

Every little bowl held it's own world. This one is about the size of a soup bowl.

From far away, Anne-Maree spotted this bright red thing. It's something laying it's eggs. that shell is as long as my hand, and those egg sacks were so bright they looked like extruded plastic. Shell Highway:

What I did not get pictures of was when we thought we'd found the mother load of a certain shell I was keen for. Anne-Maree stepped into a pool and stated handing me tons of shells - faster than I could put them in the bucket. I don't' know how I discovered it, but I picked up one from the ledge it was sitting on, and felt a tiny jerking snap within the shell. I turned it over to see if there was a rock clattering around inside of it, and I saw two green little legs peeping over the edge. The mother load had already been claimed by a herd of hermit crabs. So we went through the pile on top and put all of the ones that had the little movement, back in the water. I still ended up with three stow-aways. Two I discovered in time, but sadly one was too clever at hiding and we found him two mornings later. I still feel guilty about that.

After the tide pools, Anne-Maree had parenting duties. We picked her younger son, Cedar up at school, then she was off to meet with her holder son Heath's teachers.

Cedar and I were on our own for the afternoon. Cedar patiently waited for me to organize all of the shells I had collected - by size. Talked my ear off, proceeded to show me banana flowers and how they worked, pulled two of the petals off for us to use as boats in the creek. He also caught a little pigeon in the hen house and showed it to me. Before we went inside to play a couple of games of pocket tanks. A riveting game - let me tell you!

Here are the boats. Look at 'em go! There is no current in the stream. When Cedar went down the next day to see how the race was progressing they had just spread apart a bit.
Just another shot of the beautiful poppies Anne-Maree has growing in her garden:

Think I'll have to plant some of these next year as well.