My walks in the morning are refreshing. There’s something cool about being the first one on the beach (not many people live in Kennedy Bay, and there are so many other bays and beaches, I think around six people a day walk on this beach, so if I get out there around 8am, I still might be the first one). I love seeing what the tide brought in. Sea urchins by the dozen, tiny sand dollars, and multicolored trough shells. I love how the sun hits the mountains and shines on the water and the view is never the same.
Raewyn and her husband (who passed away around 7 years ago) used to own a mussel farm. There are extra bathrooms for the helpers that used to stay and work for them. We were cleaning these bathrooms for what seemed like the first time in a while (there was a dead baby bird, a live frisky baby lizard, and about 6,000 spiders in their webs).
Raewyn said, “I have this toilet paper dispenser I got from work but I need to call a handyman to install it.”
“Oh, cool,” I said. Then there was a pause…
“We could try to do it if you’d like?” I said with a reasonable amount of doubt.
“Jolly good!” And she ran off to get the drill, bits, and other things that I don’t have much experience with. Kasey and I tackled the job and are proud to say the dispenser is on the wall and it dispenses toilet paper. One hole might’ve been drilled too large and a screw might’ve fallen through the wall, true, but Raewyn seemed happy with us and we laughed a lot and learned a bit as well. Successful day. She brought us fresh snapper from her neighbor and brought us rice flour and butter for us to fry it up tonight before the big Guy Fawkes firework celebration* (yeah…Nov. 5th, 1605, Failed Gunpowder Plot, England…) in Coromandel Town.
*Raewyn about the Guy Fawkes fireworks: “There were three cops
there. How? I don’t know. The town only has two.”
Also, we got to light all of our hard work on fire, after Raewyn said, “Don’t fall in. Sometimes farmers never come home for dinner. Because they fell in their fire hole.”
beth of fresh air 