Sophie Ashdown

I was in Australia for over two weeks and thought that I would take a break from coursework but I couldn’t stop my eyes being drawn to interesting shapes and patterns.

We spent a long weekend on the Mornington Peninsula, about 1.5 hours east along the coast from Melbourne. We stayed at a huge beautiful old house on the beach with 16 friends, visiting wineries and enjoying our many purchases from those wineries!

On one day we walked along the deserted beach (this is winter in Australia) and I was fascinated by all of the various things washed up on the beach. Such a variety of colours and shapes. I don’t know what they all were but I’m happy to have captured some of them.

I loves these ivory coloured shapes with spidery vein-like branches. They were quite soft to the touch but held their shape.

This one was a bit more spiky but still soft. There were tons of them in varous sizes.

I love this monochrome leaf. The white leaf with the black veins suits my colour palette!

There were loads of these sponges everywhere, in all shapes and sizes. They were very squishy, springy, and light to the touch.

This plant has these long husks similar in size to corn husks but in a tree rather than a stalk. The younger ones were orange/yellow in colour and the older ones turn brown. I’m not sure what they are called but I imagine that there are some creative interior decorators out there who have incorporated these into their designs.

There was an enormous variety of colours and shapes across the beach.

These were very dark and appeared as though there were shells attached to the sides but we think these are some kind of seed pod. I like the haphazard but somehow uniform placement of the shell-like pods.

This one is probably my favourite. It is almost perfectly spherical with well spaced tufts of soft spikes come out all the way around. The contrast of the black spikiness with the soft cream under layer is pleasing to the eye.

Another interesting plant with these many long segmented leaves(?) coming down. One on its own is interesting enough, but the high volume of them hanging together adds more depth and interest, creating a whole additional pattern. They look uninviting to touch but are actually quite soft and tactile.

A couple of other large examples of ocean life to consider.

Overall it was a lovely day walking along the beach and discovering so many different interesting objects.

If you go to the Mornington Peninsula and you’re looking for an amazing lunch or dinner with incredible food, wine, and views the I recommend Port Philip Estate.

And if you like great white wine, I also recommend the Paringa Estate Viognier. It was delicious!