Australia Day, Back to School, painting on the beach....

Niamh hasn’t been at school since November and Monday is her first day at her new school ….so I thought I would make her something to celebrate going back to school, starting a new school in Australia and Australia day all in one…..so ta-da….here it is an Aussie flag pencil case! Niamh chose the pink zip (I probably would have gone for blue….but I’m not the one who’s going to be using it!) She was far more excited about it than I thought she’d be….whilst I was sewing, she was sharpening as many pencils as she could, ready to go inside!

We had a whole day at home and inside today (even though it was a really lovely day). So when it got to late afternoon, and after Ezra had been on the naughty chair 3 times in one hour, we thought it best to go out. Of course, we went to the beach. Just before we left, Niamh had the great idea of taking our painting things with us. She’d already planned what she wanted to paint – One Mile Beach. So off we went.

It was a lovely evening, and it was really quiet on the beach (we were arriving just as everyone else was leaving). Niamh and I got stuck in with the painting. Ezra hijacked my canvas, and managed to mix a perfect “sand” colour (I think it was by accident, but even with a few years of paint mixing experience, I had trouble mixing the same colour again!) At first I was a bit irritated that he was painting his “sand” colour all over the sky and sea, but he’d had a tough day today, so I let him get on with it. I carried on painting (on the same canvas too) and actually his brush strokes were adding a kind of unpredictable energy. His sandy strokes were the sea-bed to the painting. Like the unpredictable waves I was trying to paint, this little person is determined to be who he is going to be, and I don’t think any of us can even guess who that will turn out to be. The foundations laid, Ezra was satisfied that his painting was done and went to use a bigger canvas – the sandy beach (which he painted on with a big stick). I carried on painting until it was finished. It’s a painting of the sand, sea and sky, but it’s also a painting about Ezra and Me.

All the while, Niamh was beautifully painting her interpretation of the same scene. The waves are in straighter lines, the sky is bluer than mine, there is a sun and even clouds. Hers is a much calmer scene…. and we all left the beach feeling much calmer too.