6th Wedding Anniversary

At the end of June my wonderful husband and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary, although we have been together many years longer than this. We like to make each other a gift based on the traditional gift guide, the 6th anniversary is... IRON!!.

For a very long time I had no idea what to make, iron seemed so hard and unyielding but then it struck me, an idea which should have presented itself sooner considering that I had studied geology for my degree... haematite is an iron ore and is available in many forms even beads! I had been looking at it so literally before and now it was so obvious.

I have made a leather macrame bracelet for my husband before and he loved it but it has got quite worn, so I thought I would make another one with haematite beads woven in. I have used six beads, one for each year of our marriage and each bead is hexagonal and magnetically drawn to each other.

In case you are wondering, my husband made me the most wonderful gift it was a wind chime made with iron nails all hand twisted and it makes the most beautiful sound. Follow this link if you would like to check it out.

I had the idea for my gift at the last minute so I was a little late finishing it, especially with all that was going on. It is the extremely busy time of year when we have four birthdays, three of those requiring parties, a wedding anniversary, father's day. We also sadly we lost two of our older chickens. Combine this with a rush to get the day trips and theme park visits out of the way before the schools broke up for summer and the '30 days wild' quest we were on and you have a very busy few weeks. I was very overwhelmed and nearly didn't make it through the last birthday but we have been having a rest and slowly starting to feel a little more relaxed now. Hopefully I will be able to get back on track with the blogging too.

Beach Love

How I do love the earth. I feel it thrill under my feet. I feel somehow as if it were conscious of my love, as if something passed into my dancing blood from it. --James Russell Lowell

A couple of days ago we visited the beach, an Autumn visit, to compare the difference in the things washed ashore by the sea at different times of year. We visited earlier in the year too, in spring, and went beach combing, the things we found this time were a lot different to the spring visit. It was wonderful to get to the beach again and we chose a really sunny day, even though we went to a beach with a town attached it was so quiet, hardly a soul to be seen strolling on the sand.

Spring

On the spring visit we found mostly young cuttlefish bones and some shark and ray egg cases. The photographs show a small sample of our finds. On our Autumn visit, there were no cuttlefish bones, there were a few egg cases (or 'mermaids purses' ) but this time we mostly found a few different kinds of shells. Mussel shells, dog whelk shells, some limpets and slipper limpets. Also much driftwood.

Autumn

We have decided to make some things from our finds to remind us of the times we spent on the seashore. I will post about the things we make at a later time but we have decided to use some of the small perfect whelk shells as jewellery charms for bracelets and to make some beach wind chimes with some of the other things.

Before leaving the seashore , while the children were playing, I took a little time to myself to feel at one with nature. Just for a second between the beach combing and playing I looked far out to sea and took a deep breath... with the wind in my hair and the sand between my toes, then as the breath left my lips I felt a kind of peace, a calmness spread over me... just for a second, I felt the freedom of the gulls and the wildness of the seals... then the call came to leave.

After our beach adventures, we decided to visit the sea life centre, which again we mostly had to ourselves. The children had the the touch pool all to themselves and the staff still gave them the educational talks. They got to touch a large crab, stroke a starfish and be cleaned by a sea anemone. There were some very happy children that day! We absolutely adore the seashore, my children especially, and often speculate what it would be like to live by the sea.

I wonder... does the seashore still hold it's magical quality if you see it everyday?

photographs numbered 1,4 and 5 were taken by my lovely husband.found here.