In the sunshine

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations" Louisa May Alcott

Hot or cold, early or late, time at the beach is always refreshing. You can enlarge the photo for a better view of a bird coasting along on the uplift breeze on the dunes.

Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party




 

Magic of light and shade

Every season brings us magic in light and shade. Iris Hesselden

Love this time of the morning, the beach is often quiet, but depending on what the tide is doing and if the fish are biting or nature is putting on a light show it can be very busy.  Love the way this photo came about a photographer out trying to get the perfect moment, fishermen trying to hit the tide and birds getting an early start on their day.

Sharing links this week with Chrisy from Living the Good North Coast life and her connecting with nature challenge and Sky Watch Friday.


Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party

Some days sparkle like crystals

Last year we travelled to the Crystal Castle in Mullumbimby.  One of those amazing places tucked away off the highway.  The sky was a bit overcast but the experience was excellent.  Lots of interesting places to explore, a rich history steeped in accepting all religious beliefs and the of course crystals.  Not the cute tiny things you pick up in a shop but a huge boulders of quartz, amethyst and more that you could not wrap your arms around.

How cool is this bamboo walk.

Sharing links this week with Chrisy from living the good north coast life with her inspiring weekly challenge of getting out and connecting with nature and Sky Watch Friday.  There is lots to be seen and appreciated in the great outdoors, blog themes are a good way of reminding ourselves to get out and enjoy them.

Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party

Reconnecting With Nature

"Most of us lead far more meaningful lives than we know. Often finding meaning is not about doing things differently; it is about seeing familiar things in new ways." Rachel Naomi Remen

Chrisy from living the good north coast life has an inspiring weekly challenge of getting out and connecting with nature. What could be better for the soul and easier thing to do, we all have an outdoors of some kind. For me the favourite kind of getting outdoors is to the beach.
  Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party
Expat Blogging Challenge

Salty Breezes

Blog linking to a few parties this week and think my expat friends will like this quote attributed to Christopher Columbus. "You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” 

For those of us who travel, it is big leap of faith and you never know where you will end up but always an adventure.  The theme for this expat blog challenge was tastes like home, for me that had to be the beach.

For Chrisy’s reconnecting with nature party, I can share this photo of nature playing a decorative arranger with these shells forming a perfect heart shape. Beach living is all about being outdoors and embracing the many moods of nature. 

Sky Watch Friday fans know most of my favourite photos are from the beach, this one is a fun shot that included all manner of flying things, folks in paragliders and birds coasting on the breezes running up the cliffs.   How is that for getting up close with nature?

Tastes of home for me will always be seafood and find it interesting that what is a tasty treat in some places is not considered suitable for humans in other places.  In the North Atlantic Sea Moss or Irish Moss and Dulse are hugely popular. 

Sea moss is harvested and sold for processing into gelatin based products including pudding. It is great to see that it is now considered a environmentally friendly sustainable crop.   

 
Dulse is a bit more flavoursome, in the Maritimes and Maine, people will chew it like tobacco, or chop it up as a spice.    Dulse is making a comeback as hip new super food and people like the Maine Seaweed Man are posting recipes to show how to sneak a bit of salty spice into your cooking.

Lots more natural and salty recipes to be found on my pinterest page and a few creative craft projects too.

Visit Catherine Scanlon’s blog to check out her give away of this very pretty stamp set.   Having a lot of fun with her floral themes. Catherine is from Maine where they are waiting patiently for the arrival of spring and inviting everyone to share cheery words about spring flowers.



Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party
Expat Blogging Challenge

Sunny Days on the Koala Coast

G'day from the Australia's koala coast.  These are the cute images that the world has of life down under, sunshine on a tropical afternoon and getting up close with nature.

Sharing this photo with Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party , seeing koalas can't help but make you smile.  Koalas always look so peaceful and relaxed.  Kind of hard to pull off when their species is under huge stress.  In a couple of remote protected islands koalas are getting a bit inbreed and over supply but for the most part their numbers are in steep decline including here on the Koala Coast. Predictions are that Koalas can be extinct in our life time.  That is a sad statement but too common when our community does not protect habitat and when choosing to live close to nature not being respectful in the little things we can do to share the space, like keeping an eye out for them on the road at night and keeping dogs locked up at night. 

 

The beach photo is Currumbin next door to a wildlife sanctuary, tucked away in the hustle of a busy city working with injured wildlife and sharing the experience of getting up close with nature.

 

For my friends with the Expat Blogging Challenge I could say that palm trees and poisonous snakes  are a big change for the foggy shores of North Atlantic, but sure are an experience to enjoy and all the more fun when sharing our adventures down under. 

Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party
Expat Blogging Challenge

 

Not all that wander are lost

"Not all that wander are lost" T.R. Tolkien

In January I travelled to California to participate in the Craft and Hobby Association international event to meet up with a activite community of crafters from all points of the globe.  It is great fun to catch up with old friends and new friends and work on collaborative projects.  I love that in this new internet era provides so many options for expats to stay connected while on the road but all the same being together is a great place to be.

Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature link party is close to my heart. Growing up my family moved around to a lot of different places but something that was always part of our world was spending time outdoors, connecting with nature in different ways.  My mother started rescuing pets and wildlife as a child so my childhood was full of little foundlings like this little sparrow. 

They call them common but their personalities are anything but.  While out enjoying the sunshine of California it was fun to watch the little sparrows darting about, some nimble and bold and others shy and careful.  In some parts of the world sparrows are very common because of their ability to adapt their diet to what ever is available.  Sadly that ability is not enough save them when some environments are so choked with pesticides or us well meaning tourists filling them up with french-fries.

The CHA mega show is a trade show event where all the new tools and products are released for the season.  This year did not disappoint with really ingenious new twists and fun new tools that inspired me to add a few new pages to my Paris creative journal.  To read more about altered books and mixed media, check this post.  I love to travel and document adventures in creative ways, sharing photos on the blog, sending altered postcards in the mail and collecting ephemera for visual diaries.

 
Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party
Expat Blogging Challenge

The tracks we leave

‎"If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting."  (Mister) Fred Rogers

Sharing a link with the reconnecting with nature party from Living the Good North Coast Life with photos from the beautiful wild places of northern NSW complete with wallaby tracks in the sand.  It was a blustery windy day and we found the wallaby around the corner resting in a sunny spot. 

And Sky Watch Friday where people from all over the world gather to share a photo of what they spy on their horizon, always entertaining to see what they have to share.  Linking as well to an ex-pat blog challenge.   Today's theme is the view from where I live.  Would love to say this in on my front door step.  It is the vision that many people have of life down under.  For those that know me as a little beach bunny entirely what they expect. Sadly life near the water is out of reach of most average folks. Instead we make do with visits as often as we can. 

Sharing an example of leaving 'tracks' on a current project I am painting on fabric.  Canvas is easy it is a firm surface that holds the paint well, silk is a whole other story. The tiny natural fibres love to bleed colour but that is what makes it a really fun and fluid process.



This little canvas has layers of misting and lifting and even a dash of salt to give it a bit of spark.  My on line workshops are listed on the My Creative Classroom website.
 

Connecting with nature

 

Chrisy Clay on the living a good north coast life blog is hosting a blog link party on the theme of connecting with nature and sharing our photos.    One photograph at time but so many new things to discover and explore.

 

This week I am sharing a link and photo of the Beluga Whales at Vancouver Aquarium.  Fun to see them at play in the water but rather dull viewing if it is night time and in their pool. Vancouver Aquarium ranks as one of my favourite outdoor adventures and getting up close with nature. 

 

And for my SkyWatch Friday friends, a couple of photos of the beautiful city of Vancouver.

 

 

We all like to stay connected when travelling, as much as all the new internet technology is fun for the instant communication, I still like a good old fashioned postcard or in this case a decorated postcard. I teach classes in mixed media and mail art on the My Creative Classroom website.

 

 Rebekah Meier released a new collection of stencils this year with the crafters workshop and I am loving the mail art themes.  

 

Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair.

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic and we’ll change the world."  Jack Layton 

A great quote from a Canadian politician who believed we all have the power to make a difference.

The bird is a Cormorant or yes in deed a shag on a rock (for my Aussie friends the name shag refers to their style of headdress).  Early in the morning is my favourite time to visit the beach while it is peaceful and quiet.  Am on the road this week, catching up with other bloggers who are becoming fast real life friends.

Am linking to an expat blogging party for the month of Feb and having great fun seeing what everyone has to share. The life of an ex-pat was not one that I would have chosen. My childhood memories are scattered across many continents but one thing that stands out for me in all our adventures, is the beach. No matter where were we have been it was not far from the beach and they have all been so different. The black sand of New Brunswick Canada, my mothers’ rocky gravel shore lines in England were hard on tender toes, foggy misty dunes of Cape Cod, and now the wild and remote beaches of Australia’s east coast. Where ever we go, where ever we wonder, and not matter how different the shore line might look the beach is always home to me.

Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party
Expat Blogging Challenge