In another of my cigar boxes I have a Cushion star and a piece of mushroom coral.  I bought these at Shell club, they are from old collections, having been carefully cleaned and dried.  The are great additions to the kids natural history box, I’m putting together a box containing bones, a birds nest, unusual rocks, fossils and so on.  I also made Luna felt cushion stars based on one of these.

See?

Nice latch.

I love this stuff, so fragile.

We have this new thing we’re doing, we will be heading out west once a month to clear our heads.  Yesterday we went out to Te Henga, north of Piha.   It’s been a while since either of us has been there, the first time for Luna and Blake.  The estuary has changed shape somewhat but it still feels the same.  I have most often headed out west when I have embarked on a change, maybe new lover, a big overseas adventure, or just needing to breathe.  Something about this coast just revitalises me, I feel like a gecko shedding my old skin, time for a serious change.

The kids love it.  Blake would not be up in the sling, no way!  He had to be down there getting into it, this let me run off with the camera for a few minutes… yippeee.

Something I’m really enjoying at the moment is Luna’s gentleness with nature.  She’s about as enthusiastic about exploring the beach and finding tiny amazing animals as I am.  I spent hours at the beach as a child, and it’s a pleasure to go to the beach with her just to run and look.

Here’s the head of a small paddle crab.

Snapper biscuits or sand dollars, are ecinoderms, and I find the fascinating, from this perspective, I wish I was small enough to wander inside.  So cool the way they break apart.

Amazing texture.

Always interesting getting down to see what’s washed up.

The Crochet Coral Reef installation is over and has been taken down…  good news is it is not over!  Glenys is keeping our Seagardens Aotearoa project alive.