. . . and so is little Georgie (short for Georgia).
I met my new favorite friend on Naples Beach today. She was especially excited about what we were making and offered her help. Georgie is a very articulate 3 year old who charmed me no end with excesses of personality.
As those of us who play with clay know, compression is a big deal if your work is to succeed. . . . but it may be an even bigger thing in sand. (except you achieve “sand compression” with the Arch Enemy of Clay . . . Water). The secret to building big on the beach is making the basic form from really wet sand. . . . mixing it as you go, even. We started with the big pile of wrecked sandcastle from yesterday – filling the hole and spreading many buckets of water over it. More sand, more water, more sand . . more water. And so it went until we had the general lump of the turtle formed. Then, it is pretty easy going to just carve away . . . sculpting the shape with whatever tools you’ve got.
Later, when my biological help had faded off to ride the surf . . . and check out boys at the Pier . . . Georgie wandered over and offered her talent. She found seashells and put them on the turtle’s legs. But the most exciting moment was witnessing the miracle of compression when Georgie sat her little 30 lb body on his head . . (to ride the turtle) . . .and it actually held!
Then, she chopped off his tail. . . . I hope I get the pleasure of seeing more of Georgie this week.
0 Responses to “Compression is My Friend”