Tropical Shores Week 3

Welcome to Week 3 of the Tropical Shores Blanket crochet-along (CAL) I’ve designed for King Cole – this week is all about coconuts, shells and sparkling tropical seas! 🌊

There are 3 different designs and they are smaller squares than our previous weeks, with 4 of each design to crochet… the free pattern is available over on the King Cole website here:

https://www.kingcole.com/tropical-shores-crochet-along-blanket/

And here are the YouTube tutorials from King Cole to accompany this week:

This week, here in the UK, summer weather has arrived at last! Unlike other parts of the world where crazy heatwaves have been experienced, here on the south east coast we’ve had a rather slow, cool and pretty grey start to summer. But finally some sunshine and warmth has arrived and it’s feeling positively tropical! ☀️🌊💦

Here’s a little video snippet taken at the weekend with my daughter snorkelling by. She said she spotted some big crabs and a large school of fish down there…🦀🐠

https://videopress.com/v/JOp4UMxc?preloadContent=metadata

And here’s the weekly round-up from crochet shared online during Week 2. Do keep sharing your fabulous photos… the squares don’t have to be finished, progress shots are brilliant too!

Share them over on Instagram using the hashtags #tropicalshoresblanket , #tropicalshorescal and #kingcolecal and share photos in the Facebook Groups ‘King Cole Craft Along’ and ‘Coastal Crochet’ 😍

When we visited French Polynesia 20 years ago (the next instalment from the diaries I’m sharing throughout this CAL is further down), strolling along the beach and seeing exotic sea life as well as exotic plants and coconuts in the palms was just wonderful!

Coconuts hanging high in the palm trees, beautiful shells to be found along the beach, and oh how the sea sparkles! These three different smaller squares are inspired by those tropical finds…

I wanted to photograph my coconut inspired crochet together with an actual coconut so last week I found myself adding coconuts to my weekly food shopping! That’s a first for me! And I’m happy to say they were ‘Rainforest Alliance Coconuts’ meaning they were responsibly grown and harvested…

I love the taste and smell of coconuts! I love ‘Bounty’ chocolate bars, I love coconut fragranced shampoos, I love ‘Malibu’ liqueur and I even love coconut milk but I have to admit I have never bought a whole coconut before and I really had no idea how to open it up! I found this helpful article here: https://www.culinarynutrition.com/what-to-do-with-a-whole-coconut/

And I’m so happy with the photos I managed to take once I’d opened the coconut up using a hammer and screwdriver!! 😃 🥥

The coconut water and the flesh were really delicious!

So let’s rewind 20 years, and here’s the next instalment from the diaries I kept when I visited the Pacific Island of Moorea in French Polynesia together with my husband in 2001… 🙂 I’ve kept these diaries completely original… no changing of words, no editing, just the words and photos from a 20 years younger me!! Enjoy…

Thursday 19^th April, 2001

18.45

This morning we were picked up from the reception area to go on an organised tour – ‘Photo Safari Excursion’. We were picked up in a 4 x 4 pick-up truck with seats (a bench) in the back, driven by ‘Tom’, our guide for the morning. In total there were 9 of us going on the tour – the English family we keep seeing, a New Zealand couple and an American couple. Off we went!!

It was an excellent tour and a really enjoyable morning. Tom our guide really made the tour – he was very humorous and enthusiastic. He has a Polynesian mother and a Scottish father and was explaining how he went to boarding school for 7 years in Scotland – very different to the Tahitian way of life! Riding in the truck was great fun – we often stood up as the canvas roof was rolled back and the rough terrain we drove through was unbelievable. Tom even took us on a long cut through a small river! The hike to the waterfall was a slippery one and very muddy but the reward fantastic – a beautiful waterfall. The pool beneath the waterfall was very difficult to walk into as there were many rocks on the bottom, making it awkward. I only walked in a little way and didn’t actually swim. Steve however, walked a little further, slipped a little and thought “oh well” before getting total soaked and posing for a photo at the bottom of the waterfall!!

Tom explained about a variety of trees and their fruits and uses. The Hibiscus Tree leaf is great for using as toilet paper and we were also shown how to make them into a plate. The tour took us right around the island.

After the tour when we were dropped back at our hotel, we had a quick lunch, similar to a ‘Tuna Light Lunch’, which we’d bought in the supermarket earlier in the week. We then used the bicycles again to head into the village where we did some more food shopping and I bought a souvenir bag. Here, we also enjoyed an ice cream.

(AND 20 YEARS LATER I STILL HAVE THAT BAG TODAY!) 😄

Back at the hotel we went into the sea and swam around for ages. It has been very very hot today and the water was lovely. There was no current today so we think we could’ve made it to the islet in that canoe!!

This evening we have gone to the restaurant and enjoyed another delicious meal – there is a charming Polynesian waitress there. We have arranged to go horse riding tomorrow morning which should be interesting! We’re due to be picked up from the reception area at 08.45. Tourists are very well looked after on Moorea with a lot of pick-ups easily arranged for you.

Extract from Steve’s diary: Throughout the tour, Tom made sure he took us to areas further than any of the other guides, and once confusing the locals by driving along a river, before mounting the road again!! He explained everything with great enthusiasm and had everyone laughing. At one point when we pulled up to take photos, we looked around to see Tom dancing next to his truck with his stereo pumping out a groovy reggae beat. After slipping and sliding up a dirt track (amazing what these 4 x 4’s can actually take on), and then a further 15 minute walk up a steep muddy path, we reached a spectacular waterfall where I ended up getting totally wet. However, my quick drying clothes dried quickly and Tom was on hand with plenty of fresh fruit. We had enjoyed this trip big-time!

Hope you enjoyed that… next week we go horse riding! In the meantime, Happy ‘Tropical’ Crocheting Everyone… 😃😃