Last week was HOT.   And the airconditioning in our part of the building at work died... in fact, it is so dead that apparently it has 10 broken parts which need to be ordered in and may take a century to get here.  And of course the windows are not openable.

So, after work on Friday we took off to 90 mile beach to cool down*.  We had a little smoke haze, but it was lovely and cool and just what I needed.  And Reuben too.  Isn't he just adorable :-))  Luckily I didn't give you the other view where the 'red rocket' is clearly on display (how uncomfortable to have sand stuck there!!)

He even went into the water a bit deeper than normal, he gets scared when it gets much above his kneecaps.  A word of experience... never listen to advice to throw your pup into a river and expect he will love the experience.  That should be in How Not to Train Your Dog 101, the whole thing still gives me heart palpitations.

I noticed when I was in East Gippsland just prior to Christmas (and during the height of the fire crisis) that the tide was washing up lots of ash and charcoal.  I was interested to see that it is still happening.  It actually makes quite interesting shapes and lines in the sand where the waves have washed up and left the particles behind.  There must be shitloads of it still floating around out there.

I was speaking to a colleague who is currently holidaying in Lakes Entrance, he said that on Saturday he was kayaking in Cunninghame Arm and it was raining burnt eucalypt leaves all over his kayak.

*  Just in case you were wondering what happened to our camping trip to Snake Island.  We postponed due to poor weather and even worse preparation...

Given that we were grounded for the weekend, I knitted on the yoke jumper.  I have finished the body and both sleeves and I'm just about to join them all up and start the colourwork yoke.  I'm very excited... BUT I'm going to quilt the Jar piece first, I've gotta stop procrastination on the quilting!

AND I also baked some bread (from scratch!):

My second batch of bread made from scratch

Ash residue left by the tide

Reuben at the beach