Beach Hares

Bless this weather! I took some sewing to do on the beach after the school run this morning - here is a new 'Pocho' Provence lavender hare under construction. The tiny hares are popular just now and I'm busy restocking the Etsy shop and making extra bunnies for the weekend markets, so that nests around the King Edward's Bay area must be stuffed with little scraps and threads of Nani Iro cotton.

The Bay is peaceful early mornings: a few swimmers, sometimes a treasure-hunter with a metal detector, and this morning a fishing boat close to the shore:

It's almost high tide, very still, and the only surfer in sight yet is a child's blue inflatable ring:

Sea Lavender, Mist

Mist and cloud have descended this a.m. and there's an excuse to desert the beach and make preparations for the Fish Quay Fair, North Shields, this weekend.

I haven't found sea lavender (also known as sea rosemary) growing on this part of the coast, so have decided to grow some from seed for the garden. The beautiful white sea lavender above is from the Yorkshire coast.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/156132441/sea-lavender-botanical-glass-bottle

Heritage Skills at Tynemouth Station

We had a wonderful time at this year's Heritage Skills Festival - new this year were these wonderful coracles:

We also enjoyed meeting again some of last year's exhibitors, trying green woodworking, raku glazing and stone masonry,  as well as learning more about ancient pottery and boat-building techniques, and took away a hand-carved gypsy rose, our own raku fairy door, and a sun plaque to shine on the Sea Witch garden:

Today as I passed by the station again I saw this:

- a peony skillfully self-seeded onto the rubble left from the station refurbishments.