Bribie island day trip

Hello! Went to Bribie Island, just north of Brisbane today, for a bit of beach and a bit of forest.

My favourite painter , Ian Fairweather, lived on Bribie island, and the local museum has a small feature wall about him as he lived out there. He chose to live very simply, in a small cottage/shack in the forest. This image comes from the Ian Fairweather project site, and shows him in his house/studio painting.

The forest on Bribie is pretty special, I can see why he was so inspired and felt so attached to the place.

'I came like water and like the wind I go' Omar Khayyam.

The beaches, especially Red Beach, are pretty special too. I have a confession to make though-despite living in the so-called sunshine state- I am no summer person. I am sure this is frustrating to people enduring those bleak European winters...I am sure because I have been told off by many over the years for my lack of 'Aussie beach life appreciation'

By the time I have gathered all the togs, towels, hats, sun cream, etc and gotten us to the beach I am generally irritable-sweaty, hot and bothered, then it is so glare-y and the sand sticks to my suncream, which washes off my skin in about .5 seconds in the water ensuring sunburn will occur, then my (by this stage) totally annoying kids jump all over me and splash water in my eyes and; oh, I could go on but I am sure you get the picture! I'd rather take photos, read a book but there's never much shade...winter, please come now!

Anyway, whiney-ness aside-I loved the shapes of these deeply embedded driftwood tree trunks-just looking at them conjures so many different ideas and forms...

The Casuarina trees which sprawl all over the sand are lovely trees too...apparently the name comes from the Malay word for the cassowary bird, Kasuari, because of the similarities between the trees slender drooping foliage and Cassowary feathers. I wouldn't know, I haven't been north past Townsville and I think they only live much further up into Queensland, maybe the Daintree? In any case I think I'd tend to give a bird like that a wide berth so I will take their word for it!

And I better go and get dinner into my not so annoying anymore kids,

xKate

school holidays

The lads are on school holidays so we've spent lots of time down at the beach.

It's so wonderful to feel a sense of disappearing, wandering far off out at sea or hiding high up along the cliffs...

We're ignoring the seemingly new unwritten rules of 'children should never do slightly risky things' and 'children should never be outdoors in the rain'

The birds and wiggly wormy bugs seem to find our presence unremarkable.

Mind you the sea anemones might find it irritating being very gently poked with a stick..it's so hard to resist though as they curl up and unfold again, like a bud opening into a flower.

On the home front we've been crafting, reading, sewing, watching sponge bob+ and erky & perky, drawing, etc.
I am working on some new 'i love tea' brooches (after my last one sold on Sunday.)

Some amigurumi experiments have begun too... check in again later this week and we'll see how things progress!
xKate