The blonde in me is easily distracted ...

What’s happening with Indy? I could see the confusion in my hound’s eyes as we rambled around Waiatarua today. Her mate Indy WASN’T doing his normal ‘Dora Explorer’ routine. She couldn’t see him running here, there and everywhere with his nose to the ground and his tail in the air like a warthog. She was perturbed .... what have they done to her mate?

Indy’s been “tethered”. He’s been attached to a long rope to make him THINK he’s on lead all the time. The philosophy behind it is that if he thinks he’s on lead, he’ll respond like he does when he IS on lead. In other words, he’ll LISTEN .... which he doesn’t always do too well.

 CLOTH EARS take on new meaning with Indy.

Amazing reflections today

We rambled on ahead whilst Julia persevered with Indy. It’s exhausting to watch and I’m sure for Julia, exhausting to implement.

Water and rugby balls were beckoning for my hound, and the sooner we found them the better .... from her perspective that is.

Yep .... that's the look .... WHAT is Indy doing??

It gave me the opportunity to play around with the settings on my camera. It’s a complicated camera and requires some thought when you’re trying new things. The blonde in me is easily distracted so time alone to focus on what I’m doing is sometimes necessary. I’m delighted though .... and, as usual, amazed at how the adjustment of minor elements can affect the integrity of the photo.

“It is only in the stillness of silence that we hear how loud things are.” 

~ Laura Gates

The Pukeko in the reserve are noticeable by their silence at the moment. The noisy aggressive behaviour we’ve witnessed over the past few weeks seems to be on hold. It’s breeding season and they’re not quite as visible as they usually are ... I’m hoping they’re hatching eggs and we’ll see some youngsters in a few weeks time.

A "puddle of Labradors" at the dog pond!

.... and maybe some SUNSHINE?

2 of the other Labradors that were at the dog pond.

Did I mention it’s another blustery overcast day in Aux? Brief moments of sunshine .... just enough to lull us into thinking the woeful weather’s over.  Summer’s just around the corner ... yeah right.

If anything, it’s got MORE blustery and MORE overcast as the day’s progressed. 

I’ve headed down to the village TWICE today and, quite literally, been BLOWN up the hill back home, arriving at the door looking dishevelled and wind-swept .... not a GOOD LOOK on anyone. Both occasions were pleasurable despite one being business related .... the second trip down was pure decadence - butterscotch ice-cream from Joshua’s .... big YUM!

I’m prepared to take on any weather for Joshua’s ice-cream .... especially Orange Marmalade ice-cream .... it’s beyond YUMMY. They didn’t have any today though so had to make do with the butterscotch.

Sitting on the beachfront in Wellytown-force winds eating ice-cream is a sure-fire way of eating LESS ice-cream. The majority of it gets blown onto passing pedestrians and seagulls and pigeons as you hurry to try and lick your cone clean. The hound even caught a few drops. Sitting in the shelter of the new building helped a little but not much. I hope that whoever got to share my ice-cream enjoyed it as much as I did!