I love Fridays ... and so does Julia!

What a magnificent sunrise we saw this morning - red and gold and orange painted across my sky ... the view from Achilles Point was stupendous. I often wish that every sunrise could be quite as magnificent but then it would become mundane and ordinary, and take away from the breath-taking beauty of these few exceptional ones.

There was a cruise ship leaving the harbour and I can only imagine the vista they must have had from the ship as they headed away from Auckland .... what I could see from my vantage point was awe-inspiring .... theirs must have been even more so.

It’s Friday and Julia’s weekend starts today. She loves Fridays and so do I ... I get to ramble LONGER with my OTHER favourite hound and his human. We get to share the wet grass ... the rugby ball ... the secret pathways needing to be explored! 

Indy the Explorer lived up to his name ... we found a secret and unexplored path and stairs leading down to who knows where - probably the beach!  We followed it down quite a way but weren’t too sure where it was going to take us and how much steeper it would get ... more exploration will take place on another day.

Carol’s always waiting by the time the ‘Chocolat Express’ - and co. today .... hits her house.  She knows better than to text and tell me she doesn’t feel up to a ramble ... the hound and I would probably ignore the text. Not rambling down the hill with us is no longer an option - disability or extremely inclement weather are the only escape clauses ... and our weather has been anything BUT inclement this week!

We had an unexpected surprise when we ordered our caffeine fix this morning .... someone, a “secret admirer” according to the girls at the Co-op,  had already paid for our coffee! We’ve been racking our brains trying to work out who it is but haven’t come up with an answer .... to whoever it was though, we offer our thanks ... a random act of kindness that touched our

hearts ... and satisfied our addiction!


Julia and I are participating in another market on Sunday ... a new one for us,  the Devonport Craft Market ... it’s in Devonport, who would have guessed ... and involves a “trek” across the Harbour Bridge! LOVE that word and I love “trekking” across the Harbour Bridge!  It’s those Nippon clip-ons ... they really do it for me!

I’m looking forward to it. It’s a market I’ve been wanting to participate in for a while but they haven’t had space as it’s quite popular with stall holders. They didn’t have space this month either but we, Julia and I that is, decided to bite the bullet and have an outside stall ... for some reason there always seems to be space outside. It’s a good job we purchased a gazebo

for the Mission Bay Market in January - it can start earning it’s keep!


I’m sitting here, 6.50 in my evening, watching the sun starting to drop over my city ... there’s a bit of a haze around right now ... no rain ... but it’s definitely hazy. This time next week the sun will be setting so much earlier. Whilst I know I’m going to enjoy it being lighter when I head out on my rambles, I also know I’m going to miss these lovely light evenings.

“A smile is the light in the window of your face which tells the world that your heart is at home.” - anon.

Indy bought some toys round for Chocolat ... they were having a great time trying to tear them apart!

The definition of INSANITY is repeating the same behaviour over and over again ..

I found it ... I found it ... the perfect quotation to describe my blog!!!

“The definition of insanity is repeating the same behaviour over and over again and expecting a different outcome!”  

The view site at 6.45 this morning

There’s no consensus on-line as to who originally penned this quotation ... it’s been variously attributed to Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and even Confucious ... but even Google, that purveyor of all things inane, couldn’t provide me with clarity as to its origins.

Its irrelevant though ... I like the quotation and I think it’s pertinent to what my blog is all about .... my DAILY rambles with the hound and musings on the world in general from my sometimes irrational perspective. Going beyond the realms of insanity in my musings on the world is a wicked thought!

A ghostly hound!

Trying to find the author of it bought up more quotes from Albert Einstein ... even one about first love!

“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological 

phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity”

I love it ... I think he had relativity sussed .... in more ways than one!!!

The tide's way out this morning and the beach is huge!

I’ve been learning so much about my little village alately ... whenever I meet someone new and they discover I’ve only been here 2 years they feel compelled to fill me in on the history of the area ... I love it and I love that they want to share their memories with me.

I had a lovely chat to a chap

hmmmmm ..... sand everywhere!

at the view site this morning ... I bumped into him yesterday too and he admitted he’d felt a bit naff standing chatting to me yesterday because he had an umbrella as it was raining ..... I got the feeling he thought REAL men shouldn’t use umbrellas!  

He told me that the original viewing platform had been longer than what it is now ... and had the WOW factor as it jutted out over the cliff. As far as he could recall Cliff Road started subsiding in 2008 and Council provided funds for extensive roadworks and for the viewsite to be upgraded. 

The original platform at the viewsite had been longer and

much more flimsy ... the existing one is bedded in tons and tons of concrete. The cost of these roadworks and the extensive upgrade to the viewing platform and site were in the region of $8000000!! I can remember when I arrived here in 2009 that Cliff Road had still been closed to all, except residents ... I hadn’t realised the existing viewing platform and site were constructed so recently.

Normally the tide is washing over all those rocks ... it's so far out today.

Fortunately we only bumped into him towards the end of our walk and the hound was tired ... she doesn’t do “sitting still whilst I chat" very well.  I can remember Carol telling me what Sebastian would do when he was younger and they were out walking ... if he felt she’d been standing too long chatting to someone he’d plant himself in front of her and bark ... until she got the message! They’re clever, these hounds of ours.

I’ve just had a phone call from Carol to say Sebastian had a stroke this morning .... a mild one ... but nevertheless a stroke. Our vet has said he should recover fully from it but it sure gave Pete and Carol a fright! Why do we do this to ourselves ... why do we allow these furry 4-legged friends to infiltrate our hearts to the extent that we’d be lost without them?  I’ve just read a post on a friends wall on FB and it says it all ... this is why and apologies to the author (a vet) for condensing it ... it’s called “A Dog’s Purpose (from a 6 year old)” .... the comments in red are mine!

I was performing euthanasia on a 10 year old Irish Wolfhound for it’s owners who wanted their young son to be present when they bade farewell to the dog. We sat quietly together for a while after the dog’s death discussing aloud why animals lives are so much

shorter than humans. Their 6 year old son, who’d taken the dog’s death so calmly, and had been sitting quietly listening,  piped up “I know why”.  What came out of his mouth stunned me - I’ve never heard a more comforting explanation. He said “People are born so they can learn how to live a good life ... like loving everybody all the time and being nice - right? Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”  

The tidés coming in and she's surrounded by water .... so funny ... quite happy to stay there.

Our hounds can teach us so many things ..... there’s a list of lessons we’d learn from hounds on this post too, but I’ve picked out a few pertinent ones that I know my hound has taught me!

When loved ones come home, always run and greet them .... enthusiasm counts! 

Run, romp, and play daily ... it’s vital for both my hound's and my well-being.  

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass ... oh yeah ... I LOVE this one!

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body ... my hound has this down pat, I’m still learning!

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk ... my very favourite ... life would simply not be the same without my daily rambles.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it .... yep .... all those logs on the beach!

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

I’ve seen something similar before but it just seemed so pertinent today in light of what’s happened with Sebastian. I love my furry 4-legged friend to pieces ... I couldn’t envisage not having her in my life. 

Ha ..... Sebastian ... with an 'a' .... reads my blog!

My bay yesterday .... awesome weather!

Sebastian reads my blog .... yep ..... 14 year old Sebastian, the Labrador Retriever, reads my blog and he told me I’ve been spelling his name incorrectly ... it’s Sebastian with an ‘a’ ... not an ‘o’ .... I will definitely correct that Sebastian!  ... whoops ... nearly spelt it wrong there again!!!

Leaping off the rocks yesterday

The weather this morning was magnificent  .. a follow on from yesterday ..... azure blue skies and gorgeous sunshine.  If  this is a foretaste of what our Summer’s going to be like, then it’s going to be a hot one!  Even the hound felt the heat this morning .... and she doesn’t normally as she spends so much time in the waves!   I’m feeling a need to participate more fully in her morning swim!  To be honest though, I did stop and chat to Carol and Sebastian ... with an ’a’ ... ...  for a while, and hound beach times were over by the time we finished catching up on the weekend ... that meant no more wallowing in the waves for the hound!  I would have headed down to Ladies Bay but the brilliant weather pretty much guaranteed that the nudists would be out in force ... and I wasn’t in  the mood for a spectacle like that so early in the morning ... so we headed on up to the view site.

Leaping off the stairs this morning ... the tides in and the waves are glorious!

The view site at Achilles Point and the view site at Glover Park are two of my most favourite places .... I love looking out at the ocean ... watching the way the waves break over the rocks as the tide does it’s thing.  That’s what’s so awesome about this view ... it’s ever-changing .. no view on any two days is the same ....... the tides, the weather, the shipping movements, the fishermen .... the nudists ... yep, even them  ..... the tourists, the locals ... all play their part on an irregular basis in creating the vision I look at and regularly photograph.  Even on the darkest of days .... or in the wettest of weather .... the view never fails to touch me.

It’s my sanctuary when I need to escape from the world.  Standing on the platform at Achilles Point or sitting on the benches in Glover Park .. with my world spread out before me ... is just so therapeutic .... it recharges my positive energy!  How can I remain anxious ... angry .... disillusioned .... hurt .... when I see all this magic laid out before my eyes.  The waves talk to me of freedom ... liberty ... an insatiable desire to explore our world .... the ocean is my soul .... I’m at one with it.  Seeing all this never fails to instil in me an appreciation for the freedom I have to ramble with the hound each and every day ... to walk in the waves and feel complete as the ocean wraps itself around my legs ... I am just so very lucky!

The sunshine took me out into the garden this weekend too  ... our little patch of lawn has been spawning all sorts of growth other than grass.  There’s a tremendous sense of satisfaction ... well, for me there is .... in sitting for an hour or two and removing the creeper type weed that invades my lawn .... I can see the progress I’ve made ... I can see what I’ve achieved.  So often ... and it’s especially true of parenting .... we think we’re not making any progress whatsoever with our kids .... it’s not tangible .. you can’t see the effect all the hard work you put in has on them.  But, with weeding ... it’s instantaneous ... I can see the effect an hour of weeding has on my lawn ......... big bare  patches ..... !! That particular weed has an insidious manner of infiltrating the lawn and suffocating the grass ..... and in its removal it plays its trump card .... bare patches with no weed OR grass .... my poor lawn!!

The hound finds this behaviour of mine quite bizarre ... whilst she’s delighted that I’m in the garden with her she cannot understand why I’m pulling out what in her eyes is ‘grass’ .. and yet when she tries to help me I chastise her!  Those big brown eyes look sadly at me as she lowers herself down onto the exact patch of lawn I’m trying to weed!!

She's a charmer of note .... one look from her big brown eyes and I'm smitten .... and she knows it.  I had no idea when I got her that she would become such a close confidante .... my ‘partner-in-crime’ on our daily rambles ... but she has ..... and my world is so much the better for it!

“Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them .... filling the emptiness we didn’t even know we had.”