Exploring Again

I said I’d be back here with chatty general posts and here I am 😊. For the first time in months we have been out exploring again and boy…does it feel fabulous!

Sunday was so lovely and sunny, a stark contrast to the new week so far! We decided to get out of the house on Sunday and go to the beach for a walk. We are within 30 minutes of numerous beaches and the drive to get there is as beautiful as the destination. 

When we arrived at Thurstaston Beach the tide was way out and you could see for miles. I feel so blessed that we have this right on our doorstep and I am sure that we will be visiting this place a lot more now that things are opening up again.

Now doesn’t this picture make your eyes swim! The boat in the background looks like it is floating and don’t you love how the man is right at the top of the mast doing whatever repairs it is you do up there.

As you walk onto the beach there are signs that say you are not to go out onto the mud-flats…clearly, someone didn’t read the sign. It must have been quite heartbreaking to have to call a cab to take you home! On that note actually, there was a long jetty type thing that stretched out across the seabed. I gather it’s for launching boats, some cars were out there which I’m assuming belong to the man up the mast and others in the near vicinity. My darling husband stepped off to grab a shell my daughter wanted and before he knew it he was knee-deep in thick, sticky, smelly mud! It took a bit of effort to get unstuck! And that’s why you take note of the signs!

It was so lovely to see how much wildlife there was. crabs galore, shrimps, and tiny fish.

The sunshine was so warm, hardly a breath of wind, we felt like we were on holiday. I could feel the cares of the week just slip away. 

We came across a stranded jellyfish. We picked it up and popped it into a pool of water but it seemed we were too late. The poor thing had already expired. The shrimps and small fish almost instantly began feeding on it. The circle of life I suppose.

We were blessed to watch this kestrel hover above the grassed dunes looking for something to snack. They are just so beautiful!

The landscape of beach, rock, sand dune and cloud scattered sky…stunning! I find nature just so therapeutic and marvel at the wonder of God’s creation.

And look at what is on the very edge of the beach… a whitewashed house. My dear friend was just telling me about this house and how she would love it. She grew up on the Wirral and I think it wouldn’t take much to entice her from her Manchester home to here. Who wouldn’t want to live right on the estuary far from the maddening crowd!

The colours of the beach, ocean, and boats are quite inspirational. This boat reminded me of a photograph I have of my youngest when she was about 3. She was sitting at the base of a small lighthouse in Kalk Bay Cape Town. It was the traditionally painted red and white and she was wearing a blue and red striped jumper – I don’t know why this image brought that to mind but I’m inspired to stitch something beachy. I’ll get my eldest to work on an illustration that we can turn into an embroidery project I think.

The beach just holds so much inspiration. Let me tell you if I could have popped this sea-weathered log into my car I would have taken it home. I love how bleached it is.  

As we left the beach and made out way back up to the car butterflies flittered by. This peacock landed picture perfectly on a weathered boulder with a gorgeous bit of bright green moss…I feel a new yarn colourway beginning to brew 😄. Inspiration is everywhere. It seems to have brought back a little inspiration for my eldest illustrator daughter too. She has been struggling with ‘illustrator block’, is there such a thing? Well, there’s writer’s block so why not a creative block for artists?

We had a lovely chat about how she sees her illustration style developing and what sort of job she hopes to do once she has finished her degree. Like me, she wants to work for herself so we chatted about what to do and how to implement it. Behind us youngest daughter and dad were chatting about uni and future plans – this I only found out later at home. It struck me how important it is for us to do things together that relax us all enough to be able to have these conversations. It reminded me so much of our homeschooling days.

Once home we pottered about in the garden and then our vicar and his family popped by for a visit which was just lovely. He had good news…our church is opening up again from this Sunday! Of course, there will be no singing and no communion but how lovely to just be with our church family again, to walk into our lovely stone church and hear God’s Word.

Have a blessed week everyone…