Endearing Lighthouse and Introducing The Mending Club
It was my birthday yesterday which was the second day I had spent in bed hoping I didn't have covid, and apparently I don't, so happy birthday to me:)
Now I am eating birthday chocolate for breakfast and drinking tea, plus my sore throat/headache/aching limbs seem to have resolved themselves so really, everything is looking up.
Last week Paul and I went to a funeral on a rainy day at Devonport on the north coast and afterwards we walked on the beach in the cold and the wind, and it was wonderful. This has been the home of the Tommeginne nation for thousands of years, a beautiful, fertile gathering place at the mouth of the paranaple river. I love the patchwork of different species of plants spilling over the bluff. I have a small collection of native correa plants at home which are flowering now and attracting tiny native birds, and I said to Paul a few weeks ago that I would love to find some correas growing in the wild. Well, here they are, correa alba, a grey-leafed form with white, starry flowers, cascading down the cliff.
And here they are in my garden, much smaller, with me attempting to clip them into round ball shapes. I love the contrast of the silver and the green foliage here.
The green foliage is another type of correa, with beautiful crimson bells that the wattle birds and eastern spinebills love to feast on. Also the small, but dedicated cohort of bees which are still flying about in the cold weather like to stuff their whole stripey little bodies into the bells to get at the nectar. Adorable.
It is walnut season here in Tasmania. There are a number of walnut trees that I keep an eye on during dog walks, and they have been dropping walnuts all over the footpaths in the last couple of weeks. I seem to be the only person picking them up. In the summer I spied a large walnut tree hanging over the dentist car park, so when I took Red to the dentist last week I foraged me up a whole heap of walnuts and put them in the side pocket of the driver's seat door. I keep forgetting to take them out, so every time I drive the car now it is to the percussive rattle of walnut shells.
I will shell these and chop them up to put on my morning porridge.
I have not touched my mending basket since the last post, when I was so proud of myself for doing the mending. Today I am wearing my deliciously warm bamboo socks with bright orange darns on the toes. They make me so happy! I am thinking of starting a Mending Club because I need the motivation of peer pressure. I'll do a Mending Club post next Tuesday with photos of my mending, and anyone else who wants to join in can link to their blog/instagram in the comments with their own mending photos, or email a photo and I'll add it to the post, or tell us all about your mending in the comments. Who's in? Let's mend a thing!
I will leave you with another photo of the adorable Mersey Bluff lighthouse. Lighthouses are so endearing.
Comments
I have a favourite cardigan with fabric covered buttons. This is the fifth year I've worn it and the fabric on the button (at the height I lean on the bench) had worn though. The base is silver coloured metal and very obvious. Coloured it in with a Sharpie pen as I noticed as I was going out, then later, used a fine needle and cotton to carefully join the edges using tiny stitches. Looks perfect again. Love a bit of mending.
I grew upon a farm well out of town with three generations of family living together. Everything got mended, fixed, repaired, reused. No rubbish removal, rubbish had to be buried, so there wasn't much! I'm a long way from that ideal approach to consumerism, but do try hard to avoid waste.
Very interested in your mending plans.
Deborah
I love the beach in wild windy cold weather.
Mending…..hmmm I def need some accountability. I did just mend my possum fur gloves with bright red embroidery thread. Pretty shoddy job but it will stop the hole getting bigger and that’s all that matters. I blame the craftsmanship (or lack of) on my deteriorating eye sight and my new glasses aren’t any help.
Cheers Kate.
Ps chocolate for breakfast, we can definitely be friends
My mending is not picture worthy but I think a mending club for support and accountability is great! I will get inspired by all of you!
Have a wonderful week!
Patricia
Native plants are amazing. We have several non-native invasives around our property that threaten to crowd out some of the natives. Mostly they were brought over for ornamentals and escaped. The best we can hope for is to control them a little bit.
Your method for collecting walnuts is the same one I used to collect pecans when I lived in town. The trees are everywhere and often by sidewalks so I could just fill my pockets as I walked the dogs.I told myself I was making the sidewalks safer for other pedestrians.
I would like to be part of your Mending Club. I could use a little accountability to get a grip on the piles of things around my house that need a little mending.
I love hearing stories of the kind of family you grew up in. It takes another kind of skill to live very carefully and treasure every material possession. That is what I am aiming for over here at Chez Blueday, and it means going against the grain of society at large. I am with you in wanting to emulate that lifestyle.
Patricia, yay let's do all the mending, aesthetic mending portraits completely optional. Non-aesthetic mending portraits welcome.
Mary, I would love to find a pecan tree on my walks, but we tend to get European plantings here rather than American ones, who knows why, because everything else American has emigrated here, why not pecan trees??
Goody, re the mending. Looking forward to seeing/hearing about everyone's mending trials and triumphs.
Anna, you are so right. It's like a candy cane!
Sustainable Mum, let's mend all the things:)