A ceramic pot from Margaret River W.A. artist, Helen Foster.

This beautiful sandy surface texture could be coastal or inland salt pan inspired, most of us have experienced and relate to at least one of those. (well most Aussies have, anyway)

A ceramic pot from Margaret River W.A. artist, Helen Foster.

This beautiful sandy surface texture could be coastal or inland salt pan inspired, most of us have experienced and relate to at least one of those. (well most Aussies have, anyway)

This pic is of a vine we have always loved as it climbs around several houses in this area – and just this week planted one in our garden.

No, DH didn’t mangle it in the car while bringing it home, (as happened with a beautiful bougainvillea once when the car door blew shut on the top third of the plant!…it has now recoverd from the shock) The woman at the nursery picked a sample for him to look at more closely as they talked about it.

This one piece shows all the main stages of flowering:- the row of green bobbly things are actually the unopened flowers, next up, green tinged with yellow is young flowers,, which change colour to orange/mature after a while, and then finally the little cup things drop off – as per lower right corner. It is a vine, not a bottle brush, nor is it a eucalpyt, but reminds us of both. We are replacing a very uncooperative maracuya/passionfruit with this vine , and have resigned ourselves to buying passionfruit in the supermarket. NO, I’m not going floral in my quiltmaking, just including this on the basis of a thing of beauty being a joy for ever…

I didn’t really mean to cut off the face of this consumate artist, but it is the best one I have showing his nimble hands at work.

While all the families were here we rented a holiday cottage at Piriapolis, west of Montevideo but not so far as Punta del Este and far less crowded and, of course, quieter. For the various grandkids nephew and niece present it was wonderful to be an easy block’s walk from the safe beach which offered plenty of space for the patient digging of large holes to sit in, castles surrounded by moats, and the usual beach contructions that kids will engage in day after day, up to a certain age anyway. There was a lot of swimming and kicking around of the soccer ball. Some walked and gathered shells and stones of note…. and we spent many hours each day out in the well equipped parrilla area – perfect for a large number to breakfast together and cook bbq meals at other times. Cooler, too, than being inside the house until late most evenings.

On a particularly hot day we withdrew from the beach around 12.30 to a shady table on the sidewalk where we had lunch and many cool drinks, and, as it turned out, caught the very few breezes around on a day which we later learned had topped over 41C in the shade. It was so hot I slept out on the upstairs deck of the house that night until a cool change blew in with a rush around 3 am. We later learned that in one of our friend’s family a couple of people were treated for heatstroke and dehydration.

Anyway, weaver-sculptor Fernando here was one of the passing parade that day (which included a not-very-good-palm reader and some ladies selling kitchen knives, for some reason) Here he is shown making a spear fish from palm fronds – other creations he did were a turtle, several different flowers and fans. A couple of the kids and I were particularly fascinated and bought several of them.

I seem to have a reasonably regular reader who occasionally posts anonymous comments, which I don’t mind at all, but her comments always address me as “Judy” which of course is not my name , not even my middle name. What I think is, she is a blogger, named Judy, with an account but choosing to go Anoymous when commenting – but having to log in to publish her computer names her, anyway. I don’t know if there is a way round this but surely Judy has noticed and cares enough to not address me with her name, somehow? I just can’t believe that with the various ways my blog is named etc that she has me mixed up with another”Judy” quilter from Aus living in Montevideo….