Summer at Mollymook 2022

 When we see this after a 10 hour drive, we breathe a big sigh of contentment.

And when Chuck gets his first beach walk he looks like this.

My parents dog Koko gets to visit almost every day but he never tires of it.

We know we can enjoy lots of tea, wines, chats and games on the pergola looking over the parental units garden.

And every morning we are woken by king parrots, kookaburras, blackbirds and all the other birds in those trees.

Because the birds wake us so early, we pull on random clothes, grab the dogs and head down to Narrawallee Beach to give them time to run around before they have to be on leashes at 8am.

The very day we arrived the Hunga Tonga-Hunga- Ha'apai volcano erupted. 

Now whilst this is just over 3,700kms away it had an effect upon the entire eastern Australian coastline. Big waves and rough seas meant that the beaches were closed for swimming for several days.

But the weather was not so great at first anyway so we went into the nearby village of Milton to have a look-see at strange items and yummy eats.

I'm not normally a fan of dried flower displays but this was delightful and rustic against the brick in Woodstock & Co chocolate shop.

Despite the occasional rain, the weather was very warm so we grabbed some ice creams. I've never had cherry ice cream before. It was so delicious!

In the afternoons I'd take time out to work on various crochet projects. Here I have almost finished Janie Crow's Persian Tiles blanket. I bought the Eastern Jewels colourway pack last year. I only have to finish the side triangles and 4 smaller corner triangles...

On one drizzly day the parental units took us to a beautiful french inspired garden just north of Nowra called Merribee. 

Many of the fields lining Jindy Andy Lane out to the gardens were filled with corn including this field at the back of the gardens. This photo doesn't really show how tall and huge the corn was. The Mothership and I started singing a few of those lines of 'Oh what a beautiful morning' from Oklahoma. You know which ones...

In the middle of the gardens was a sort of knot/ topiary garden with this viewing platform in the middle.

We climbed up to look at all the knobby things below.

One side of the little tower was covered in passionfruit vines.

The climb down. I didn't really have the right shoes for the visit.

By the time we reached the tennis court the rain came down.

But there was a nice place to shelter.

I bloody love doorways in hedges!

Afterwards we took a short drive to the Pelican Rocks Cafe which apparently won the Best fish and chips in Australia 2019.  It was well deserved. The fish was so yum and not dry or oily and those calamari rings were really tender. The staff were friendly and the service was fast.

I have mentioned warm weather and rainy weather. These things happened together. Every day. The humidity on dads little weather screen usually declared 70-90% humidity most days.

This has the following effect...

For the entire 8 days my hair looked like that. There was no taming it. I even tried using a straightener. It helped for a grand total of 1 and a half hours.

Finally on Thursday after 5 days we were able to satisfy Sonofagun No.2s desperate need for surf and sand. The sun came out very suddenly after lunch. We piled everything into my new whizzbang super awesome beach wagon and staked our claim on a bit of beach.

The Bear thought my purchase was frivolous and extravagant. But after not having to carry all THAT to and from the car he started to grudgingly agree that it was sort of ok and might be handy...  MEN!!  He does have nicely turned calves though...

This crochet project is a stash busting corner to corner I take along on car trips for when I want something that doesn't require much attention. That way I could sit back under my little pop up beach tent and watch Sonofagun No.2 going hell for leather in the waves.

I admit I'm a bit ridiculous when packing crochet projects before a trip. I pack whatever the main project I'm working on (the Persian Tiles blanket), a car project (the stashbusting C2C) and then I always end up throwing random bright cottons into a bag in case I'm inspired.

Like TOO MUCH but I can't help it. Just as well as I started making these cute little grannies from some Scheepjes Catona. I have an idea in mind, but need to get back to it soon...

The day before we left we had two more excursions to make. The first was some beach meandering. So we went to local Rennies Beach.

One section of the beach was covered in small rocks of pumice. At first we wondered if this was from the recent volcanic explosion but it's much too soon.

There were a few interesting caves in the rocks. The Bear crawled intothis one and said he thought there was a light source further down but the tide was coming in so we decided not to explore it today.

And our second excursion was a last minute trip over to my favourite local antique shop Lakeside Vintage at Burrill Lakes where I found 2 adorable wall vases.

The first looks like a fake cuckoo clock. The 2nd I think is more of a letter holder as there is a deliberate hole inside on the bottom. The owner Donna said it might have been a holiday souvenir from Venice. There are no manufacturer markings on the bottom like you find with alot of old ceramics.

I'm not really a 'hang out on the beach all day' person but I really love Aussie beaches. We're so lucky to have them. 

Phew, that was a photo heavy post! Thanks for stopping by.🌞

Louise

Red Haired Amazona