Beach and Rock Platform, Little Bay, Sydney.

It is 6 hours by train from Young to Sydney,
I catch the 393 bus to Little Bay,  at the end of the line, past Uni of NSW at Kensington, past Maroubra.  Walk by Hoop Pines in the old Hospital grounds.

When I worked in a microbiolagy lab at a hospital our lab manager told us a story-  Little Bay Hospital once had a leper colony.  A visitor was on the beach watching an inmate in a boat fishing.  When he threw out the line, the man's arm fell off.  "Did you see that!" said the visitor.  "Yes" nodded his companion and his head fell off.

Stained glass window in Chapel overlooking the Ocean.

Magnificent clouds over the Pacific Ocean.



 

Little Bay headland.  Last time I was here was 1966, I think, as a Uni student on a Zoology field trip.

A sign along the stairway leading to the beach describes the biodiversity to be found there.

(Click on images to see them more clearly.)

A black elephant snail, Scutus antipoides was put on my foot by a fellow student,  long ago.

Seagulls.

Two shags (cormorants) on a rock

Once the rock platform was thickly clothed in Cunjevoi.
Now there are none.  Rock pools look empty.
There may be more seashore intertidal life further on, but I was alone there and what if I slipped...?..

I take a closer look.  There are limpets.

and black Nerita,  it used to be called Melanerita

Some Austrocochlea.  The common brown seaweed Hormosira looks like strings of large beads.

A nice surprise is little green seastar!  There were two of them.

Black and white Morula.  Pink weed.

No more Scutus.  Or crabs or sea urchins or green sea lettuce Ulva.
 Blue ringed Octopus is deadly poisonous.
All the juicy stuff is scavenged by collectors, to eat or sell. They say it is Asians do it.
The rock platform at Malabar Beach, just to the north, has signs "No collecting".  I plan to catch the bus back and go there but I catch the wrong bus.......
Across the way, Botany Bay, is Kurnell.  There might be more shellfish there.........

The walk up behind the headland reveals unexpected flannel flowers!  One sees them rarely now in Sydney sandstone country.  Just a nice remnant of coastal heath with its wildflowers and it is next to a huge golf course.  The country of the Australian Aboriginal peoples was beautiful once long ago.

This is a collection of empty seashells, found on the water's edge, that I took home:-

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There is more story, from 30 May 2011-  a newspaper clipping:-

Read by clicking on image and use a magnifying glass!  

40 year old former Navy medic and eco-vigilante chooses to wear camouflage gear and night vision goggles to video poachers on Long Reef rock platform.  The video is given to police.  

Whole families take a bus to Palm Beach and use crowbars and tools to prise off the molluscs etc from the rocks.  Soon there will be not much left. 

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The practice of plundering marine life was begun 200 years ago.  Kate Grenville writes in "The Secret River"  how white men pillaged the Hawkesbury River's oyster mounds and live oysters by the ton to ship away for making cement.  

We built huge stone Court Houses and Prisons and such.  I look at Sydney and tho I love it in my way I feel that so much greater Natural magnificence has been lost.  Sacred rocks made into buildings.  Sacred ancient trees cut down.  Biodiversity of a whole Continent decimated. 

 I long for and regret what has been lost.  We Europeans lost our Dreaming long ago-  war etc. 

This project of mine on crocheting seashells is just  a small reminder that we stand to lose it all, by plunder, pollution, ocean acidity, unless a miracle of conscious change might occur to Value and revere the Natural World.  

Many people feel the same-  we try to do our best in our own quiet way.

Here is Heterodontus portus jacksoni.  

Back in a post of 24/6/ 2010 called "Heterodontus does crochet"

 I crocheted a "shark egg"which is a spiral shape.  

5 chains.  Then 5 stitches in each loop makes 25.  Then 5 stitches in those 25 makes 125.  Then......  I forget....it looked like a shark egg, black.  

My plan was to visit Huskisson to find some real ones, empty, washed up on a beach, to study them.

  But I haven't been there yet.  Maybe soon.

I believe that Sydney Harbour (Port Jackson) is a marvellous Marine Park.  Poachers can't easily get down there.  There are sea horses,  all kinds of saltwater creatures.


On Facebook, Rie Tamaru had a beautiful picture of herself scuba diving-  she was holding a large live Nautilus in all its beauty.  ***18/3/2015  I checked today and yes, the photo is still there.

On You Tube you can see the Soft Corals of Port Stephens with strange sea creatures.  Even this is under threat from human carelessness- rubbish,  fishing lines-  but it was a revelation to me to see such a fabulous unfamiliar ecosystem. *** 18/3/2015  this video is shared on this blog in the next few posts.  

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*** 26/1/2015
Videos from YouTube have now been shared on this blog.
If you have the time see "Accidental Eden-  Cuba, " especially the coral reefs.
Staghorn corals survive here.  The reef is still healthy-  you know why?  Cuba was forced to grow food organically because no fertiliser was available after the fall of the Soviet Union  ~50 years ago........there is advantage in being behind.  Modernity costs us a lot.....
What will happen now that America is showing interest in Cuba?
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Information for US and UK Crocheters.**

There are differences in terminology and description between US and UK, EU, Aust for Crochet work.  Thanks to a CWA lady here are some Tables which might clear up any confusion:-

Please click on images to enlarge them.

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A Fibonacci Christmas Tree= Crocheted Cone **

In  December 2010 I posted "A Theoretical Fibonacci Christmas Tree".  Followed by Fibonacci Ripples and Cones.  Please click on image to see it better.

This year I will crochet the cone.....I will post this work  asap.
** Begin with flat "fibonacci ripples" to 89 stitches......mathematical modelling diagram will follow...

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*** the cone on the card  is 6.5 cm diameter,  height 15 cm.
Happy Christmas !









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The idea is that when a Crochet Pattern for Cones is determined,  then I can work on a Spiral Cone and this will continue on in a study of the tops (spires) of  SEASHELLS,  some of which are very pointy indeed,  even with height 9 x the base opening area.


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21/12/2014  more:-

   It is made.  Base 89 then 55 then 34 then 21 then 13  etc.

Maybe I shall decorate it with beads,  make a trunk and stand....
next year....

Pattern to follow......

I am busy fixing my caravan so that snakes can't get in after the mice!  That's why no proper posts for a while.




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27/12/2014  more:-
Click on image to see it more clearly.

Pattern for Model.

The circle underneath begins with a chain of 6 loops. 

Join with a slip stitch and then do the first crochet stitch into the same loop.

Keep a strand of different colour wool to indicate end of  each circular row. 

Next row increase to 11. (make 1 row.  ie 3 minus2)

Then increase to 21, (make 2 rows of 21. ie 5 -3)

then 34;  (4 rows;  ie 9 - 5)) 

Increase to 55;  (5 rows;  ie 14 - 9)

ie.  circumference 55 has radius 14 units,  radius 34 has 9 units;  distance between is 5 units.

(If you were to continue on this way, as the following Table shows, of increasing radii and circumferences ,  then you would make a Model of Fibonacci Ripples.)

I used single crochet stitch,  hook size 2.5,  green 4 ply equivalent cotton,

tho you might get better results with finer cotton or wool...

and you can use any stitch or size hook.

Increase to 89.  This is the base edge.

Then I did a dark green row tho you might like to differ.

make 14 rows of 89 stitches.

Decrease to 55;  then dark green and do 9 rows of 55.

Decrease to 34;  then dark green row;  6 rows of 34.

Decrease to 21; then dark green,  3 rows of 21.

Decrease to 13 which has 2 rows

Decrease to 8, then 5,   do it however way your work needs to make the pointy tip

=  not so easy-  might need to use finer hook for the tip.

You need to begin to pad the model at the end of the 21 stitch rows.

I was lucky to have some combed wool fleece.

(27/12/2014-  I have made some corrections to the above at 11:16 PM at night.)

** I forgot to say to make a cardboard circle to line the base before you put in padding.

I could make a shorter model 

eg to make a model 14 units tall 

see diagram Variations in size of Fibonacci Cones on this page. 

which is IAW the actual radius for a circle of 89 units' circumference.

***There is crochet information in the next post.  

US terms are different from UK, EU and Aust Crochet.****

Here is the Table for Fibonacci numbers.  Circumferences and corresponding radii.  

You can see that each radius is almost 1/10 of the next circumference in the Table -----

actually here are 2 Tables intertwined --- the Fibonacci Series and the 1/2 Fibonacci series.

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One can figure out any cone size,  short or tall.   Pythagoras theorem.

Important to keep all in proportion.

 Some seashells, eg augers, may have height 9 x the base width.

Diagram:  Variations in Fibonacci Cone Sizes. 

Please click on image to enlarge it.                                                                              

Please click on images to increase size.

Cardboard Model.

One of these is correct = right hand spiral.

The Cone is made.

Spiral is drawn up the sides.

This may describe the spires of seashells....

one snips along the spiral line.....

This is the kind of shape I need to achieve when crocheting the tops of seashells.

I have measured inside and outside edges, using 1 cm caliper distance.

A young silky oak tree
along Burrangong Creek, Young.
It shows classical shape.

click on image to see more clearly-  origins of
christmas tree may have been Martin Luther,  or it may have been in Riga. Latvia.....
info from Facebook news feed.












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