It's a soap opera ... with feathers!

“Your mind is vast. 

Your heart is wide, your soul is deep.  

Do not let anyone make you feel small so they can feel big.  

Your power is within you.  You are extraordinary.” 

~ unknown

I’m one of the luckiest people in the world.  

I get to ramble with the hound each and every day regardless of the weather. 

 I get to commune with nature ... touch base with my soul

 ... witness the world waking up.  

Kick that ball .....

BREATHE in, BREATHE out .... exhale negativity, inhale peace.  Happiness is a choice and I CHOOSE it regardless of the difficulties life keeps throwing our way.  They’re just ANOTHER hill to climb.

She's so gorgeous when she's dry!

Early morning sounds intrigue me.  One would think that at a time of the day when most of the world is still waking, that it would be peaceful .... silent .... STILL even.  

Not so.  

As spring approaches the decibel level of the Dawn Chorus rises.  

I feel a smidgeon of sympathy for those still trying to sleep as we hike to the view-site
 .... but only a smidgeon.  

Sleeping when the sun’s up is sacrilege ... at least in my eyes that is.

Those feathered friends I like to photograph sure know how to make a racket though.

 In my part of the world it’s the Tui and the Bellbird that wake first and initiate the chorus.  

They’re the birds with the largest eyes and large eyes are the most light-sensitive.  

As the sun rises more and more join in until you have a veritable cacophony assaulting your ears.

The little girl Kingfisher was BACK on the beach this morning!

It’s NOT always very musical.

... and sat there as I got closer

Despite calling it a chorus, it isn’t really a chorus at all ..... but a COMPETITION.  

It’s full of intrigue and weighted with consequence.

... and still closer!

Sexual consequence ... particularly in Spring.

Birdsong is all about territory ... ownership .... making a statement 

.... attracting AND keeping a female.

So what’s a male to do when he’s got his female and doesn’t want to lose her?  

He has to rise before the sun's up and woo his mate with song. 

He needs to be ready, eager and willing for copulation the minute she leaves the nest.  

Any delay on his part, any flaw in his song and she’ll be off looking for a more
robust male to father her offspring. 

He who sings LOUDEST and LONGEST and floods his mate’s consciousness with HIS song from the moment she wakes is less likely to be CUCKOLDED.

That early morning spring air is rife with hidden and deceitful liaisons!

It’s a SOAP OPERA .... with feathers!

But back to the present .... and our ramble.

A TRIO of chocolate mousse!

The Labrador Gang was out in force, joined this morning by a whole heap of hounds
 ... big, small, smaller, round, skinny, old, young ... you name it, it was there.  

Balls changed paws, teeth were bared.  

Bandit got nipped on his ear, not that he even noticed.  

As is his wont he was determinedly trying to herd Sam along the shoreline but Sam WON’T be herded.  

Bandit even took to grabbing Sam’s tail as he swam out to retrieve his ball.

Our Labs have one-track minds though and despite all the distractions and interference, the rugby ball was priority number ONE.  I lost count of the number of times Keith and Sarah and I tossed rugby ball after rugby ball after yellow ball into the waves.  

The yellow ball was Bessie’s but she was monopolising one of the rugby balls so the yellow ball got left in the waves ... temporarily.

A rather TIRED Bessie!

Eventually after much to-ing and fro-ing Sam fetched the yellow ball and dropped it on the sand .... luckily for Keith.  He might have had to wade out and save it, not something he would have wanted to do on his day off!

“Whatever you do mindfully is meditation.” 

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

A rather muddy Sam!

"Excuse me whilst I kiss the sky!"

A quote from the song "Purple Haze" by Jim Hendrix.

It’s supposedly based on the dreams he had when falling in love with a girl. 

There are other definitions of what he meant when he wrote it but I like that one.  

I love the quote ... imagine feeling so good that you want to kiss the sky!

The sunshine in my world makes me feel like that.  

One of these fine days, I'm GOING to master this!

It’s in short supply today though.  That mammoth window cleaning session we had yesterday has bought the clouds scurrying across the sky. We need rain desperately but I hadn’t expected my well-thought-out rain plan to work quite so speedily.

This is a good view of the house from the road below.  It's 3 units on one site and we live in the bottom
two levels ... the level covered by all the trees and shrubbery at the bottom and the level above that. 

Last night was supposed to be a fish and chips on the beach evening ... a small reward for a job well done by the lemmings and others ... but the weather changed so dramatically that fish and chips couldn’t be eaten on the beach.  Not unless you wanted bucket-loads of sand with your fish and chips.

Look at those clean windows!

The fish and chips were still yummy ... even though they were eaten from the comfort of the couch, in front of an episode of Sherlock Holmes.  I guess we wouldn’t have been able to watch THAT on the beach.

Haha .... I can just picture the hound doing this!

This long extended summer of ours is having repercussions no-one could have expected.  It’s turning some of my friends quite mental.  We met up with another member of the Labrador Gang on the beach after our long walk this morning.  Bessie had been running with her human Keith and both of them were taking a dip in the waves to cool down after their run.

More summer activities ... and more paddle boarders in the background!

That’s all well and good.  I swim in the waves with my hound so there’s nothing 

unusual about Keith swimming in the waves with Bessie. 

In fact, he probably swims with her more frequently than what I swim with my hound.

It’s when it came to retrieving the rugby ball that things went a little topsy-turvy.  It’s supposed to be the HOUNDS retrieving the rugby ball but the hound had found that humungous log on the beach again and her and Bessie were agreeing to disagree over whose log it was.  Nothing and no-one was going to convince EITHER of them that the rugby ball needed to be rescued.

So Keith swam out to rescue it.  Nothing too untoward about that either as I’ve been 

known to rescue other hounds balls when the situation calls for it.

It’s what happened NEXT that makes me think the sun’s addled 

the brains of certain of my fellow humans with hounds.

Keith threw the log for the hounds

 .... and then joined them in racing into the water after it!

Talk about consternation.  The hounds didn’t know what to do.   Chocolat thought it was bad enough that Bessie wanted to share in retrieving what she considered to be HER log

 .... now Keith wanted some of the action too!

She swum this way and that way trying to avoid Bessie AND trying to avoid Keith 

AND still trying to hold onto that darn log.

We might not have had sunshine in our sky today but there sure was sunshine on the beach. 

Keith, you made for a magical moment this morning!

“You are not a drop in the ocean.  You are the entire ocean, in a drop.” 

~ Rumi

This is Molly and she's blind .... she listens for the swish of the ball and it landing in the water

We don't throw it far when Molly's playing with us!

Is it possible for a Chocolate Labrador to become even MORE chocolate??

Yep .... an even MORE chocolate Chocolate Labrador!

The vet’s getting to know Sam REALLY well and he’s learning to expect the UNEXPECTED where Sam’s concerned. He’s NOT a Labrador for nothing.

This week he ATE Carol’s hairbrush .... yep, her HAIR-BRUSH
.... he has strange tastes!

The Heron in the bay on Thursday morning

His behaviour the last two weeks lends credence to the belief that if a hound has enough stimulation in their day, they have no need to chew things and dig holes. Sam hasn’t been allowed to swim or walk off-lead since his op and his behaviour at home has been abominable. 
He’s dug holes in the garden and chewed a myriad of Carol’s things .... only Carol’s though  .... cause she SMELLS so good!

This week he’s back to his normal contented self. 

One of the Black Swan cygnets chasing a duck .... boy, did it POWER through the water!!

Phew!

That’s Carol breathing a sigh of relief, not me!

My hound is exhausted this evening. She’s had two days of full-on rambles with her favourite 
4-legged furry friends. 

Oh yeah .... I think she's a TAD muddy!

Sam and her gave the word “muddy” new meaning yesterday. It wasn’t only Sam that turned into a chocolate hound ... my ALREADY chocolate hound made herself even MORE chocolate! That MUD puddle at Waiatarua has a lot to answer for.

Double Trouble!

The Labrador Gang was out in force. The collective noun for a group of Labradors is a ‘party’ ... a very apt descriptive word for these social hounds that inhabit our lives. They definitely recognise one of their own and much tail-wagging and bum-sniffing takes place when they encounter another Lab when we’re out on a ramble. 

Today it was waves and black sand as Julia and I and the hounds headed out to Piha. Summer exposed itself in all its warmth and beauty .... no hint of any wintery weather  ... just glorious sunshine and blue skies. The hounds are allowed off-leash on the North side of Lion’s rock and we took full advantage of it.

It’s an idyllic spot .... so picturesque!

We had the beach to ourselves and spent a magical few hours walking in the waves ... yes, we got wet .... but isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when you go to the beach.

Someone creative has painted the electricity sub-stations in Piha .... not just with a coat of paint but with a colourful mural of the birds that inhabit the area. 

Our little village of St. Heliers has gorgeous bus-shelters, 
Piha has gorgeous sub-stations.

Insane?  Yes, but beautiful!

“Insanity ... a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.” 
~ R.D. Lang

ps. This blog was meant to be posted yesterday but google, in its wisdom, decided I have too many photos stored on-line! It wouldn’t let me load any more .... boo hoo. 

I’ve had to BUY more storage space now in order to continue uploading photos for my blog ...... argh!!!