Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The beach and strawberry jam

A few weeks ago, we took a couple of days and went over to the beach at Ocean Grove. Being away for a large part of the summer we had missed our yearly beach fix, so sought to remedy that.

The weather was very hot, and the sky was clear when we set off. Lying on a sunny beach, reading a book, and dipping into the ocean periodically is right up my alley, and that was my plan. The last time I had been on a beach was in the Netherlands, when it was 7 degrees.

Unfortunately, this was not to be. On our arrival, we found a coffee shop overlooking the beach, and there was a gale blowing so hard that it was uncomfortable even to stand and look at the beach.

The next two days were cooler, not beach weather at all, and the smoke haze that was covering Melbourne extended to the Bellarine Pensiula, so we had to opt for some sightseeing instead of the beach.

These are the sorts of beach views I was hoping to see for myself , and for these spectacular shots, which I have used with her permission, I must give credit to my quilting friend Ramona. She is a great photographer! They were taken at Torquay and Inverloch, whilst she was holidaying.









We did a tour of thefort
at Queenscliff, which was extremely interesting. Our guide was a Scottish lady aged about seventy, and she was so enthusiastic. Each little snippet of information she gave us sounded as if she had just discovered it herself five minutes before. The views across the heads from the fort are magnificent, and if you are there at the right time, you can see the big ships sailing down the channel, and through them.


Passing a strawberry farm on our way home, we stopped to "pick our own". This led to jam making a few days later, with the help of Mum, I made four jars of extremely delicious jam. We enjoyed one jar with scones and cream for afternoon tea.














I can highly recommend picking your own strawberries, I would love to have a patch of my own sometime. I have fond memories of the one in our back garden when I was growing up.


Location:Daniell Drive,Castlemaine,Australia

3 comments:

  1. If you decide to put in strawberries, I wish you luck! The birds proved unbeatable here, even netting was not enough. Still, pretty plants to grow.

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  2. Thankyou Bronwyn. I wouldn't say 'great', but i sure get a lot a of pleasure taking photos.
    Makes one actually look at one's surroundings :-) Like you I love the beach.
    Nothing like home made jam!! Looks amazing. xxxR

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  3. debbie jordan5/3/14

    you and i must have been away at the beach for the same week! I booked a house at Sandy Point (near the Prom) and we took all the family - kids and grandkids - we too found 'sitting and dipping and reading' not to be - but instead enjoyed some walks, a sojourn to the Tarra Bulga National Park and some quiet inside days playing card games - but I did really miss the days of being able to be on the beach without the gale blowing sand everywhere. We managed to be in the surf for a couple of the days for about an hour, but it wasn't pleasant just sitting on the sand.

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