L and E love Latimers! It's just a shame they didn't get to see it in the daylight yet.
Their flight arrived at 1 and we did your trick of taking them to Elephant Rock first. Swell is indeed on and after a very leisurely lunch we talk a walk up and down the exhibits, taking some photographs as we went. It was Day One, overcast and mild, and there was a fantastic turnout. There are some amazing works there - which didn't seem to include the Big Foots, nor the large spider web, which had been on display at Coolangatta Airport a few weeks back. The ingenuity of people will never cease to amaze me. That folk can conceive of these pieces, construct them and them have them delivered to the site - especially given the size of some of them - is fantastic. The biggest is probably ... well, it's hard to say, because they vary so much. There is one which is a 10ft wharf, with a figure sitting on one end, and a doorway at the other. We think we have seen work by this particular artist, except on a much smaller scale, as part of Sculpture By The Sea. The piece that we have definitely seen before is the one which looks like the rack and letters from a game of Scrabble which spells out IMAG NE. I trust the artist will understand if he or she ever sees my photograph of it where I have done exactly as they encouraged and cropped it so it now says "G NE". Both S and L said it stood for "GENE" as opposed to what I thought it stood for - "GONE". Which I suppose is what art is all about - people providing their own interpretation, to a point.
S was a bit surprised as we stood looking at one exhibit - a table at which likenesses of Mary MacKillop, the Dalai Lama, Frida Kahlo, Barack Obama and his dog Bo were seated- actually the dog was at Barack's feet - when this person rode up on a bicyle and started talking to me. Hello Natasha ... who had her youngest in a trailer behind her bike, and their dog. Older son was working the programs tent and had just handed S a program and explained about the competition - vote on your favourite artwork and be in the running to win one of the sculptures ... two of the shoes (similar to ones we have previously seen down south). S said she had wondered if was him - he was quite passionate and knowledge about Swell - and he had quite broad shoulders which reminded her of his father. They are all well and Natasha was quite impressed with the first day turn-out and the publicity they've been receiving in the media.
But looking at art up and down the boardwalk is thirsty work and as the afternoon started to draw to a close we made our way back to the surf lifesaving club for a refreshing ale - as in lemon squash, soda water, or lemon lime and bitters - and settled in for a while to watch the surfers jumping off the rocks and being carried out to the break by a rip. As the sun was setting, casting a lovely reddish hue over the clouds - providing another wonderful photo opportunity - we made our way back to Nerang and the shops to secure supplies for dinner, so S could made her wonderful lemon chicken dish again. So it was well and truly dark by the time we arrived back at Latimers ... to be greeted by a sleeping Pearl and an honour-guard of cats who thought it was definitely way past their dinner-times. We finally settled down to eat at about 8.30ish - accompanied by L's brother Stuart who is off to China on Monday but who could manage to come out to Latimers to see her. He was a bit surprised, especially since he only found out this afternoon that L and E were coming up to visit. He is a teacher on the Coast and has taught F and M's kids. Did someone say small world? The China trip - to Shanghai and Beijing - is with school and he agreed to go because all the children, except one, will be accompanied by a parent. The other one is a fluent Chinese speaker and Stuart joked that that's the one who would be acting as interpreter.
The kids were very good with the visitors and all came in at supper cookie time - except for Pearl who was in all night, mostly under the table, perhaps waiting for some morsel to fall to her (but none did).
Once the girls get up in the morning, we'll take them for a walk around Latimers so they can see just how truly wonderful it is here. Tomorrow.
