Beautiful Summer's Day continued.

As the day was still cool enough to take the dog out, I took her to Willsmere Park, a lovely off-lead park, and threw her toy around for her. She loves swimming, so I threw it in the river too. Then we made our way back to the car, going from shady spot to shady spot.

There was yet another bird not really bothered by our proximity.  A magpie this time.

One of my favourite trees in the park has broken limbs. It reminded me that you should not camp under such trees, no matter the wonderful shade they give!

It seemed a good source of green eucalyptus leaves but I resisted the temptation to take any, I am not unhappy with my dyeing but I don't need any more brown fabric.
However, I AM feeling inspired by Pat Scholz who has used strips of silk she dyed to weave a small tapestry. I just love the texture of it and may have to give that a go. I have plenty of silk to try it with. That can be next on my agenda, after I finish the current quilt and TIDY UP THE ROOM - not looking forward to that!

Then I got to thinking about something I seem to remember hearing when at primary school - too long ago to tell. I have this idea that we were told that gum trees (eucalypts) turn their leaves sideways to the sun to conserve moisture. "I'll search the internet about that and find out for sure" I thought to myself. Well, I came across this article. It appears that some leaves do but not on a daily basis, just as they age on the tree - that is, if I have understood the article which is in doubt.

I was also reminded of the sessions I used to have with parents where I would give them an article to read. They could read the article aloud but most could not tell the group what it was about - context and prior knowledge being sooooo important.  Phonic knowledge lets you read the words aloud, we know how to sound them out, we know particular spelling patterns and how to say them, but that doesn't tell us what the meaning is. Well, this is one of those articles! Have a go, see if you can read it.  I must admit I only read a few paragraphs and then skipped to the conclusion - something we were always taught was a very important part of any writing you did in this vein.