Day 47 - Oyster Catchers

Here I am demonstrating how you catch oysters... by sneaking up on them very quietly. Or maybe I've just had too much sun.

Just the teeshirt today is new. Another Japanese purchase. Much longer and looser than I would normally do in a teeshirt but it was a teaching tee shirt so it needed to be long enough that when I lifted up my arms I didn't show any skin. Big no no!

Underneath the bonsai type picture is this little poem.

"As for the pine that Japanese most is
                             a very famous known tree
    Various things are made of the pine
                    There will be a pine when it is planted in a place to vary and it
is protected against the dangerous thing in
                our life because it is very strong"

Hmmm - deep.                     

The photographer is keen to head out and about getting mussels and oysters etc so we piled in the car and headed just out of Havelock which itself is about 30 minutes out of Blenheim. We went to a place where he could get rock oysters. It was a beautiful stinking hot day. I decided to keep in the shade as I hadn't put any sunblock on and I spent a few hours just sitting watching the photographer navigate the Havelock estuary mud in jandals.

I never sit down and do nothing. Even when I do sit down to relax there is always TV on or a book in my hands or a list in my head to get through. Try it - it feels weird. Just sitting, doing nothing looking at a view. You'll go through first initial pleasure of "ah, isn't this nice' but then withdrawal will kick in.You'll feel you have to "do" something. Just ride it out because then the deeper tranquility of just being will arrive.

So we've had the oysters with lemon and salt for entree. I made a paella-y risotto for our main, chock-full with salmon, prawns, chicken and mussels accompanied by an okay bottle of Pinot Gris. Then I ate some wonderful dark chocolate with almonds (while ironically watching a TV programme about chocolate) for dessert. And fruit. Mandarins, apples and mango.

Mango - I am in love with mango. It's like eating perfume!

I'm in love with everything today aren't I?! Perhaps all this clean Marlborough Sounds air has gone to my head after all! Or the heat... so warm. Will have to sleep with the fan on tonight I think!