more stormy weather

The weather at the beach has been wild and rough.

 

On Wednesday we arrived at Beechwood to find the tide has been right up to the steps of the beach deck, dislodging the tinnie and ripping up the heavy fishing net David put down to stabilise the sand. Sand has been scoured out - ironical considering the front-end loader trundled so much away.

 

 

 

However, further along the beach at both McEwens places things were much more dramatic with half their beach front and all the seawall being removed out to sea - their planks are at our beach.

 

Truckload after truckload during the next three days has been ferrying in loads of soil and rocks in an effort to stabilise the front and prevent further erosion.

 

Pat and David examine the reclaimed front yard

box broccoli

Things do grow at the beach in boxes and we harvested our first broccoli.

open house

 

Sunday was Open House for everyone to inspect the renovations.
Lots of people turned up and I was so busy running tours that I forgot to take any photos, barely had time to grab a cup of tea and one of Barbara L's delicious scones.
The weather was perfect, warm and no wind so we didn't need the fire David had going in the shelter shed until around 4pm when the cold set in.

 

Jan P. arrived with a seaside quilt which she gave me for Beechwood.
It is made from Kaffe Fasset fabrics in the most gorgeous glowing colours and I'm honoured to have it.

 

Jan's quilt hanging over the stair rail in the Lookout Room

 

 

It was terrific to get some feedback on the renovations, all positive, and show people what we have been obsessed with for the last six months. Janelle 's comment was great: 'I don't know how Helen has done it but it looks both light and.bright and.warm and cosy.' The few things that aren't finished don't show but we're hopeful of getting them fixed soon.

 

The house feels different now - well and truly warmed.

 

 

Monday was a public holiday - much colder - which gave us extra time and David a chance to go fishing off our beach where once more he caught 14 lovely garfish. The story is that the big tuna that are being caught way off the coast are full of garfish and those that evade the tuna jaws swim into Cape Douglas Bay (where David catches them.)

 

Willow and I watch David fishing from the warmth of the Lookout Room.
He came in for lunch frozen.

 



shelter shed gets new floor

Last week while we were at David's tennis wind-up at Middleton,  the concreter laid a new floor in the shelter shed and fish hut. It did have a rough stone and concrete floor which we got the footie boys to jack-hammer out and it's been sand till now. The old beach shelter roof makes a decking bridge between the bush hut and shelter shed with lawn laid by David on Thursday... Have I lost everyone with all these outbuildings?

 

You're looking at the shelter shed, virtually untouched, with the wood heater from inside the house in its rusty and rustic glory.

Taken from the bush hut

The Sprat had another outing and David caught 13 garfish.

 

the launching of The Sprat

Mother's Day was a magical day at Beechwood. The sun shone brightly if not warmly and David was lured into launching his tinnie The Sprat for the first time. It was harder than he expected to haul it down to the water so now he's planning some wheels to help.

 

 

Once it was 50 metres out on the sea some bailing was required  in between coaxing the garfish to bite  - but he was far too busy and happy to come ashore to greet Alison and Christopher who arrived with pink iced buns for morning tea. At the turn of the tide the fish stopped biting and he returned with seven nice garfish.

 

 

 

Meanwhile Daisy and I  were at work on our net at the top of the stairs where we will hang objets trouves from the beach (all found objects except for the little sea pictures which Rachel and Ben gave us.)

Very soon a problem appeared: Willow thought the net was for her to climb on and all the dangly objects were her playthings. So we had to hang most things up high.

 

a stormy weekend

At one stage I thought the house might blow away as the wind howled and the rain belted down horizontally. The new back door is leaking profusely - not up to the stormy conditions but the new sliding door and upstairs window are performing well. The good news is that the two new large rainwater tanks are almost full. 

It's fascinating to sit in the Lookout Room and watch the many birds fly by: seagulls seem to love the rough weather as they float and swoop like bits of dirty tissue paper,  pacific gulls and blue herons are more determined as they fight against it while flights of chestnut teal flap madly to get wherever they're going. And then they come back again. One stately pelican has sailed by, not many little birds - too much for them - except for the blue wrens who dart around in the comparative shelter of Henrietta"s Hill. The musk duck seem to swim, not fly. Willow has taken refuge inside David's jumper, he's even better than a hot water bottle.

Only inside jobs can be done today including hanging David's photos of orange-bellied parrots. This is the sitting room which used to be a bedroom - can't call it a lounge because it's impossible to lounge in these chairs. 

princess of Beechwood

We have our new kitten - Willow,  aged 11 weeks and a female  lilac Burmese. She is having to cope with two different houses and two different positions for the all-important litter tray but so far so good.

Warmth is also important so I kept her kittycave supplied with hotwater  bottles during the day - strange how hard hotwater bottles are to find these days and I had to order them from a pharmacy. Nights are a different story and she took to the Burmese birthright  of sleeping in a human bed.

Willow on her lookout in the Lookout Room

Fishing update: very little has been done since we came back from our cruise.
The weather has been windy but mostly David has been too busy doing things around the house and garden - even though he has bought a tinnie called The Sprat with oars only which he plans to row 50 metres out for some fishing.
But last Sunday he and Rory in waders went gar fishing  off Rory's house and caught six each.

House update: all has gone quiet since before Easter as the builder is working on another project. We're nearly finished, probably 90% finished, but I'm not publishing any pictures yet as every view has something in it not completed. The main thing is we can now sleep there: we have beds, hot water, plumbing and electricity, still no rainwater - it will be nice if it rains this week and fills the two big tanks then maybe we can stop carrying down cask water for cups of tea.