It's been a quiet day ...

Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness.

Margaret Millar


My husband has gone away for one of his business trips. We have phoned him twice tonight already. The weather is cold, I thought the roof was going to blow off last night and the walls cave in, and I'm sure there's snow on the Rimutaka ranges.

The beach was calm and the stone piles were in a different spot on the beach tonight, at the southern end. Funny how the beach changes. No stones, all stones, no seaweed, all seaweed, no jellyfish and then lots of jellyfish. No buttons and then lots of buttons. BUTTONS? Yup, my beach has buttons, lots of them. They are my little mystery. I don't think anyone else looks that closely at the beach but they are there. I always find them. I think perhaps that someone emptied their button stash just to keep me happy as I stroll along finding each little treasure. I wonder who they belonged to??? This is tonights collection.

These pic's remind me of my son's EyeSpy books, where you have to find things.

Two spectacle, three pieces of old glass, a blue shoe, a hand, a small fimo ring, a Shell envelope, a man's torso (very cool), a marble, and a rusted metallic piece of plastic!

These are my funny little treasures from todays walk along the beach.

I have this idea: I am going to try and sew those pieces of seaweed onto fabric. Why? No particular reason except I am doing a lot of photoshop images for screenprinting later this week, and I am becoming accustomed to black and white high contrast images. I thought why screen it on, i can stick it straight on. So how about a little fabric book with some of these pieces sewn in, and some fabulous poetry about well, weeds.
New Zealand paua shell. I like these ones, from large to teeny tiny. Because their are lots of rocks where I live, we have a lot of paua shells on the beach.
I am in a contemplative space at the moment. Maybe I am tired, it was one big weekend, and I have a few challenging little things occurring at the moment. My kids were great today. Big up's. They are so settled and I am calm. I am quite focused at the moment too.

My prayer life is quietly there, a non-stop quiet dialogue with God throughout the day. Although in the past it was mainly a monologue from me to Him. But I am excited these days, to wait on Him and wait on His solutions to different things. So very different for me. I was always fixing things. Trying to make things happen in my own strength. So glad I have a big God, because life is full of blind corners that catch me out, but I know He has my back. I seriously wonder how people of no faith survive. It is essential for me. It is my number one security. I remember the argument that my aetheist neighbour used to throw at people of faith, saying they were using religion as a crutch. Well, it's true, I do, because I need to lean on something bigger than me.

Here are some of my photoshop images for my screen this week. They include the flower from the New Zealand flax plant and a few small fern branches from a tree outside the art dept. I can feel my need to stitch on these beauty's.

Aren't they beautiful? I do love photoshop. I can't wait to print these beauties ... T-shirt anyone? I am going op shopping later this week to find some neat clothes to print these onto.