Weekend on the coast

We took off Saturday morning for a 3 day weekend on the coast. We were worried about finding broken pipes knowing the temps there got pretty low while we were in freezing temps here in the valley - all was ok - phew.

It was a weekend of relaxing and walking on the beach - many small treasures to be found.....it was a big weekend for seaglass, probably 2 handfuls full, many sea snail shells which I find actually house little hermit crabs......picked up a handful of cockle shells..........although have to stop picking those up, they were on the beach by the thousands this weekend and we've already got way too many antique blue ball jars full of them.....but sometimes I just can't help myself. My goal this year is to find some fun project to use them for so I can gift them and continue to pick them up by the thousands...........

The top shell is a olive shell, this one a baetic olive shell as it's brown, I've also found olive purple shells that have a blue/purple tinge to them. These were once very valuable among the Indians to use in necklaces and to decorate clothing with. The other shell is a clam shell, I think, I couldn't narrow it down in my shell book but it looks to be some sort of clam.........it's the first I've found in these colors.

Driftwood on the beaches is very fun, from minuscule to gigantic tree trunks like this. This one caught my eye because of the incredible patterns on it....some close ups below.

Look at those swirls......

.....and these.......

.....and this neat knothole........

I did a little spinning while over there - went to the spinning group at The Wool Co and worked on some drop spindling I leave over there.....problem is that this project has been going on for so long that my spinning isn't real consistent.........too much time..........need to finish it up soon. It's some superwash merino I had dyed a while back. Not sure how many yards I'll end up with, am hoping for enough for a cowl......it's not a large amount of roving. Sad news we knew was coming - The Wool Co is closing by the end of January - from what I understand it's time for the two partners to move on after many years.......aging parents need help out of the area for one and the other is ready to retire.

I need to do some editing of pix for my festive post for tomorrow of where we went last night over on the coast....but right now back to preparing yummies for our family Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow evening.......