I do like to be beside the seaside

We had a wonderful weekend at Point Lonsdale, my 4 daughters and I.

L. to R. Susie, Janet, Liz, Katie

We watched the ships squeeze through the Rip (the narrow, treacherous entry to Port Phillip Bay).

This was a huuuge container carrier

We spent hours on the beach, collected interesting 'bits' along the sands,
inspected William Buckley's cave,
Buckley was a convict who escaped from an early penal settlement at Sorrento in 1803. Making his way on foot around Port Phillip Bay, he arrived at Barwon Heads, where he was adopted by a local Aboriginal tribe, and lived with them for 30 years. He is thought to have lived at some time in this cave in the cliffs under the present light house.

We checked out the gift shops - I bought this Paul Ropp bag as inspiration for further experiments in fabric embellishment
and I just had to have this gorgeous Noro wool, a scarf for next winter I think.
On the way down, I finished crocheting this scarf, and wore it all weekend.
At night we played Scrabble and cards, and stayed up far too late. And oh, how we ate - tapas, fish'n chips, brunch, dinner, coffee and cake; we didn't cook at all! It was the best holiday ever.
Katie took hundreds of photos, which will appear on Facebook in due course, hopefully I can borrow a few for the blog.

My birthday present

The actual birthday was back at the end of August, when I received this card -
on the inside was this -
why, goodness me, that's this weekend! Woohoo!

Such wonderful daughters, are they not? From several conversations with one or another daughter in the last few days, I think they are nearly as excited as I am.
Although we see each other often for birthdays and such, this will be the first time since they were teenagers that we have spent so much time together. It really is an inspired birthday present, especially as we are going to the beach.

Not Phillip Island, though - we discovered that the Motorbike Grand Prix is happening there this weekend, far too noisy for us! So we are going to Point Lonsdale, near Geelong, instead.

We are taking Scrabble, and Georgette Heyer novels, and plan a lovely lazy weekend with the Age crosswords and lots of eating out - and walks on the beach, of course!
I'll report back next week.