Treasure Island

I'm finding it difficult to stay in the shed today with another perfect day on the island.

Can you blame me when this is a few steps outside the shed door?

I'm trying to pluck up courage to colour the inside of the "Rock Pool" bowls. It's always nerve wracking when you do something for the first time especially when it is a piece for an exhibition, but I do like to live dangerously. Ha!

The six bowls that survived the rigorous manipulation (so far) are out on the table calling to me for colour inside. I can waste hours thinking about it or avoiding it before I leap into it. That's where I am right now.

I have sanded off the lumps and bumps and wiped them down.

Courage don't desert me!

Avoidance technique #105. Write blog.

This week I found a couple of precious treasures. They were both sad finds. The first, the leftover dinner for one of the four "%#{%&#$}" cats next door. I'm always finding little piles of feathers but this one was a wing from a rainbow lorikeet.

It is so beautiful and is packed with such hope of flying fast and furious. No other feathers were found of this bird. Last night the cats were left to run wild as usual and intermittently the screeching alerts of masked lapwings punctuated the air waking us with great alarm. They must be nesting nearby and with the bright moonlight they were warning the cats who were stalking them to stay away. So with the masked lapwings and the curlews who run about like panic struck rioters shouting at each other, we didn't get a lot of sleep.

The next find was on a walk yesterday afternoon on the beach near home. I could believe what I found.

I put it back in the water hoping the was still some life left but it was well and truly dead. It had been washed up and was on the high tide mark so had been there for some time. I have only ever found fragment of anemone and always on the ocean side. So this is an amazing find for me.

Well I can't think of another avoidance technique so must take the plunge as I want to pack the kiln. Speaking of the kiln, yesterday Geoff and I got down on our knees and grunted and groaned to loosen the burners and twist them at an angle so that I could scrub them out with the brass brush. Then we vacuumed them and hopefully they will not blow bits of rusty iron throughout the kiln when firing. Keeping my fingers crossed.

If you need a burner scrubber, this little beauty was perfect. It is a b-b-q grill cleaning brush from Jim's Bait Shop on Straddie - $3. (avoidance technique #106).