I know it’s obvious, but sea stars are some of my favourite animals.

So while Luna was after as many green lipped mussels she could cram into her hat, I was oooh-ing and aaaah-ing about some stunning sea stars.

Look how many they are?  They were just amazing, lots of little (and *cough* big) getting up close with these babies.  Each was unique, their colours so varied.  They felt like jeweled reptiles to touch, and I remembered what a deadly predator they are, exuding their stomachs onto their victim, then slowly digesting them…  I’m glad I’m not a mollusc.

This one was mauve!

So many, oozing and squeezing into the rocks.

Really, there is so much to explore and see at the beach.  A good day at Piha is completely exhausting for us all, clean water and life in and around the rocks.

A bit too wild for swimming in the sea for the little ones, though we found a perfect tidal pool, complete with tiny fish.

Luna is really keen on green lipped mussels just now, and she was bagging any she could find.  After a converstation about only taking empties with us, and remembering that there was an animal inside the shells, we reduced the risk of finding smelly shells in the back yard.

And limpets!  Luna found these ones.

Beautiful day.

Watching the waves.

Sand and space.

From the playing field behind our house, an experiment in secret diversity.

Walking with the kids means I stop and see the little low down things I might have missed… and as they both enjoy picking flowers, it’s the tiniest ones that I as looking for today…

I was planning to photograph every different one we found, no matter how small, but as it happened, the battery did not last, and there were at least two others that were not accounted for.

It’s so easy to think it’s just all daisies and buttercups out there…

Happy new year!

You might have been following what has been called our worst maritime disaster, the container ship MV Rena ran aground in October, resutling in oil slicks, damage to marine life debris washing up on beaches..

A couple of days ago the ship broke apart, and there were reports of containers washing up on Waihi Beach.  We were staying not far off so it was something to see.  See that pile up there ^ bits of wood, a sack of milk powder and sachets of instant rice, gross!  The sack of milk powder is covered in oil, on such a pristine beach, brought me to tears.  The scale of pollution was overwhelming.

The next day we were heading home so stopped off to see how things were going..  I was very impressed to see the clean up was thorough.  The thing is, I wanted to help, with two littlees in tow, it was not practical, nor did I have any gloves, or somewhere to put the stuff!  It went from this:

to this

and this

to this

Hard to believe it was so long ago now, and we are seeing wash up and pollution as far north as Waihi Beach, and dissapointing to hear that the ship is still leaking oil.

Had a few early starts this week with Blake, I’m cool with post 6 am but anything before then feels too much like night time has been lost too soon… but on the other hand I always enjoy opening the curtains on those mornings.  I had some extra special treats, check these out…

A massive rainbow, we seem to get some real stunners out here, and many double rainbows, the intensity of the small slice at the base was incredible, and was what first caught my eye.

So beautiful, what else have I been missing?

You might have heard about this recent marine disaster in New Zealand, a ship, Rena ran aground and has leaked oil in to our the waters on our beautiful east coast.

Most heart breaking is the toll it is taking on marine wildlife.

There are a number of volunteers helping in the clean up, and our government has been slow to act, disappointing, but not surprising.

On the up side, people have rallied from across New Zealand to support where they can and I was delighted to be able to give in a small way to provide support to people giving their time to help in the clean up.

There is a Facebook page, Rena-Fundraising-Auction you can visit, and you can look at the goodies up for auction on their trademe page…

Mermaid’s Purse has donated a Rock Star Pincushion and a Sea Horse Needle book…  Seeing as I love marine animals like these little babies, I figured some of you other cats might too!

Everything was all fresh green and white yesterday morning.  And a little bit of pink.

Watching as these pretty pink buds slowly burst, then… what on earth will they become?  I think there are two stone fruit trees in our backyard, but we will soon find out what is what.

Winter days on the west coast a lovely, we had a crisp clear day, after an icy start!

Spirula shell with tiny goose barnacles.

Looking up towards the dunes reminded me of some vast (yet miniature) archaeological site.

Watch out!

Beautiful.

Luna’s really into organising sticks.

I found this tattered copy of A A Milne‘s When we were very young at an op shop a little while back, 50 cents even!  And I LOVE it, so do Luna and Blake.  I have been looking out for some books with poetry to read with the kids for a while, and I have a copy of The House at Pooh Corner from when I was a kid, and I still enjoy it.  Childhood so different to the business of kids these days.

We have three favourite poems, here are two of them…

Puppy and I

I met a Man as I went walking:

For a day that started out like this

It was a great day for a winter beach wander.  One of the best things about Waterview is being minutes from Pt Chev, and the BEACH.  Not my pick for a swim, but plenty of shells and sand to get into and on you.

How lovely is this?  I left the washing in the machine and we took off, grabbed some sushi and got in the sand.

The water was so still.

Luna is into shells and wanted to make a sand castle, sand was collected from along the beach until we found the spot for the sand castle, then it was a long slow walk back collecting scallop shells…

Cool thing is she remembers many more shell names, and we’re able to do more with these finds, washing and learning about the animals.

I’m looking forward to spending more time investigating with her, we got out one of my shell books, and found pictures of what we found today.  Mostly scallops!

Such a fun excursion.

Maybe you read my previous posts about my big new venture, Bella Luna, making skin care products from local ingredients, lovely local ingredients, with no nasty petrochemicals, good for people and good for our planet..

Big news is I have applied for an AMP Do Your Thing Scholarship, I’m so excited, if I can get some extra $$ it will make it all happen faster, I have been working on it over the last couple of years, and I’d love to get it out there for people to use.

So watch this space, and if you like, you could even vote for me in the people’s choice award!  Oh and swing by my Facebook page, I’ll be looking for peeps to try some samples…