Tropical Shores Week 4

It’s Week 4 of the Tropical Shores Blanket crochet-along I’ve designed for King Cole and this week is all about those tropical views!

We’re crocheting 4 squares inspired by those stunning views… 💙 The free pattern is available over on the King Cole website here:

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

And here’s the YouTube tutorial from King Cole to accompany this week:

When we visited French Polynesia 20 years ago we visited various viewpoints around the island and I particularly liked seeing those oversea bungalows! We didn’t stay in them ourselves (we were on a budget! 😉 ) but what a joy to look at them and dream…

I loved creating this square! The very centre is the same as one from my Beachcombing Blanket – this time it’s inspired by those beautiful tropical views and little rocks scattered on the beach…

Standing on higher ground at a viewpoint, it’s clearer to see that line between turquoise lagoon and deep blue ocean…

And here’s the weekly round-up! 😄🌴🏝🏝 Thank you to all who have shared beautiful photos this week. Lots of people are only just starting out this week, so do keep sharing photos, no matter where you are in the crochet-along.

The first grid is from photos shared on Instagram, the second grid is from photos shared over in the Facebook Group ‘King Cole Craft Along’ and the third grid is from photos shared in my ‘Coastal Crochet’ Facebook Group. I’m feeling positively tropical looking at these! 🙂

And this week has continued to feel tropical here in the UK… gloriously warm summer sunshine, combined with clear and calm seas, has meant there’s been plenty of sea swims…

Even Salty has been getting braver and going in deeper than she ever has… she knows how to cool down! 🐾💦

But the weather is set to change this week and you can see that in this photo I took yesterday… rain clouds approaching that gave a clear difference in the reflections on the water… 💙🌊

Now it’s time to 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…

Friday 20^th April, 2001

18.20

As planned we were picked up this morning and taken to the ‘Tiahura’ ranch to go horse-riding. We met our guide Caroline and then Opal, Steve’s horse and Keshi, mine! Steve was quite nervous but Caroline, in broken English, explained what to do. We rode for about an hour and 45 minutes up a track inland and up to a height of 200 metres. The track was obviously the usual route taken as the horses were very familiar with the ground – it was quite rocky with fairly steep climbs at points. There was only Steve, myself and Caroline our guide – she explained things along the way but it was generally a very peaceful and slow ride into the mountains. The horses were generally well behaved apart from the occasional stubborn movement, especially when trying to pick at shrubs along the track! I really enjoyed it and the view from the top was lovely and Caroline took phots of Steve and I together on the horses. I think Steve was just glad to get back to the ranch in one piece! He was a good sport for coming along with me.

When it came to paying the ‘boss’ who was also driving us back he said it was 4500 CFP each, whereas at the hotel reception it says 3000 CFP – quite a difference! We said that it was advertised as 3000 and he said, luckily, not to worry. He drove us back but after dropping us off, he did not appear to go and change the price quoted on the advert!

Back at our bungalow we had lunch and relaxed for a while before swimming in the lovely warm sea and lying on the beach.

We came back and had showers, then went to the jetty to watch sunset. We have seen the sun set every evening – it sets behind the motu. Yesterday was the best one so far – the sky turned many beautiful shades of orange. The air feels so warm and many beautiful marine fish come out and can easily be seen through the clear water – lots of the fish are the kinds that you see in fish tanks back home and we’re seeing them in the wild!

2021: Talking of tropical fish tanks… coincidentally, my daughter has started setting up a tropical aquarium in her room this week! They really are very beautiful and mesmerising to watch…

Extract from Steve’s diary: A local man with a wheelbarrow saw me astride Opal with my sun hat on, which he thought looked like a cowboy hat, and in broken English pointed over to me and said “you cowboy”, followed by some firing gun actions! I responded with my John Wayne wave, and having not shaved this morning, all I needed was a piece of straw in my mouth to complete the picture…. We went for a little trot which bounced me all over the place, while hanging on to whatever I could find to hang onto for dear life. I realised my John Wayne coolness had disappeared when Caroline said we would now stop trotting to avoid my body parts being damaged!

Happy Tropical Crocheting Everyone! 😄🌴