I'm a water-baby at heart .....

Sometimes the artwork in my sky is just so beautiful ....

I love walking at Dingle Dell ALMOST as much as I love my Bay of the Tree ... not quite as much, but almost as much. I can forget for a brief moment in time that we live in the heart of a busy metropolis ... that we’re surrounded by the paraphernalia of a modern society.  Dingle Dell is a wooded fairyland ... if

you listen carefully, you’ll hear those fairies whispering ... I’m sure that’s what the hounds can hear when we ramble there.


Rambling with the hound ... and with Julia and Indy ..... adds a semblance of balance to my life and restores my sanity ... not that there’s much of that left. I’m delighted to have found someone to ramble with who enjoys it as much as I do ... and who has a hound who’s so delightful and so FULL of character. He winds Chocolat up by pinching her logs or her ball ... there’s no malice in it ..... he just wants her to chase him .... typical male!

The gorgeous collies we met this mornig

I’m trying hard today NOT to be judgmental ... not to dislike those few individuals who’re making life on the beaches unpleasant for those of us with hounds.  Carol’s and my run in with the Dog Warden yesterday has stirred up emotions ... from those with hounds and those without.  I’m wondering if my very

visible collecting of signatures for our petition has anything to do with it ... particularly from the likes of GOM and GOB.  It shouldn’t be like this though .... we should ALL be able to use and enjoy ALL YEAR ROUND the abundance of wonderful beaches and public areas that are available to us in this country.  

Our run-in left Carol spitting mad but she wasn’t the only one ....  Julia said she’d felt the same after reading my blog yesterday ..... how can a few isolated individuals be allowed to determine when and where we walk our hounds! If anything, it makes me even more determined to get

signatures for this petition and ensure our restrictions are lifted earlier in the year. I get a huge lift when people come up to ask for petition forms .... they really care .... and they’re prepared to add to our numbers.  These are the people I have to think about when I’m exposed to the rude and unpleasant behaviour of the few GOM’s and GOB’s out there.  

Ha .... I’ve just had a thought .... the GOB really DID have a gob on her yesterday and she used it unpleasantly!  Would that a pigeon would poop on her head!


One of the things I’ve loved about NZ and where we live since I’ve been here is it’s proximity to the beach. 

Walking on the sand ... swimming in the waves ... it’s not something I was able to do on a daily basis in South Africa.  It’s bought back so many memories of the years before we had children.  We lived in Umhlanga Rocks, right on the beach .... every evening after work we’d head down to the beach for a swim and a walk.  I don’t think we realised at the time how very

lucky we were with the lifestyle we had as a young married couple .... we didn’t have much money but we lived in an awesome spot and had the ocean on our doorstep. 


Many years and several children later I’m beginning to understand at last how the ocean calls

me ... I’m a water-baby at heart ... I need to feel the sand between my toes and the waves washing over my feet. For some reason I’m in the right spot in the world at this moment in time ... walking in the waves is my therapy .... getting wet is a pre-requisite - and not just my feet ..... I have a hound that feels the same.

And to end ... a quote from TUT which is just SO applicable to my life at the moment:


“When something difficult or painful happens, always look to see what it makes possible that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible ..... like a new adventure, a closer friendship .... or icing on your chocolate cake!!”

I LOVE birthdays .....

Exploring the coastline on Saturday

I LOVE birthdays .... and especially when it’s my birthday .... and even more especially when it falls over the weekend!!!  Pressie opening often takes place in bed ..... with morning tea of course!  Thank goodness we have a big bed ... though it’s not quite big enough anymore now that a certain hound joins in all the fun!!  It used to be the kids that helped open all my presents .. yesterday morning it was the hound .... she was most intrigued by all the wrapping paper and ribbon and thought the wrapping paper was edible!  That could have something to do with her penchant for eating the cupcake wrappers from my coffee shop .... cupcake wrappers .. wrapping paper ..... same, but different .... you know what I mean.

Being a Sunday .... and because it was my birthday - I got to BOSS everyone around ... they all came along on my morning ramble. The hound loved it .... all these extra bodies to kick her ball!  Because of the opening pressie ritual we were late heading down to the beach though so walked the ‘wrong’ way round my ramble, stopping at Ladies Bay first for the hound to swim before heading down to the village for coffee.  No sunshine = no nudists ... or tourists .... or many other ramblers or hounds.  We didn’t walk as far along Ladies Bay as we did on Saturday ... it wasn’t as warm and the kids didn’t want to walk as far.  On Saturday we went quite a bit further along the coast ..... till Gav realised we were heading in the wrong direction for the coffee shop ..... DAM!  I love the solitude and wildness of the coast there .. there’s nothing man-made ..... no sand shipped in .... no mowed lawns ...... no benches to sit on .... just my ocean and the shore slip-sliding away ..... magnificent!

Wild and rugged .... my coastline on Saturday

According to Gav I sucked up all the sunshine with my camera last week ...  this weekend’s been really grey and gloomy ... with only the occasional glimpse of that huge yellow orb in the sky.  Sunday especially was wet and cold ... I think we’re feeling the tail-end of the snow that hit South Island on Saturday.

Look who's getting so tall!

Carol and Pete and Sebastian were also grabbing their daily fix when we reached the village on Sunday .... I was able to share my news about the new ‘modern’ building with Carol .... straight from the horses mouth, so to speak. On Saturday the hound got to play in the basement of the new building with her ball whilst we waited for coffee.  The friendly foreman ... he with the ditzy chocolate Labrador too .... threw her ball around for her and

filled us in on on the latest news about the building. It’s hard to believe how short-sighted some people in the village are when it comes to the old and familiar.  The Save St. Heliers Association is holding a protest next weekend outside the new building ... there is still so much animosity towards it because it doesn’t fit in with the “look” of the village.  Whilst I agree that it’s not quite in keeping with the village, one can’t stop progress .. and, ultimately, the village atmosphere is created by the people who live here .. not by the buildings they inhabit.  The Association is apparently unhappy with the awning around the building ... they want it removed ... neither Pete, Carol, Gav or I can understand why???  It provides protection from inclement weather and shade from the sun ... members of the Association quite obviously don’t walk round to my little coffee shop!  There’s been a lot of interest too in who the tenants on the ground floor will be ..... there’s provision for a coffee shop on one side but no-one was sure which coffee shop it was going to be .... I now know who holds the lease but there’s some confusion as to whether or not they’re going to take occupation ... watch this space .. it could prove interesting!

The gull's caught a fish!

This morning’s supposed to be a sunshiny day ... no rain ... that’s supposed to be coming our way over the next 3 days. I did get to see the most beautiful rainbow in my bay  .. just as the hound and I hit the beach!  As with all rainbows in my bay .. it was vividly coloured and brief in appearance .... a dazzling display of beauty in the heavy grey skies.  As expected though, rainbows herald rain ... and this one didn’t disappoint!  I managed to get a bit wetter than normal on our ramble .... almost as wet as the hound in fact!

A rainbow in my bay ....awesome!

Browns Island

I just love how different each day is ..... each and every dawn brings a new beginning that’s unlike the one before. We all, as Roald Dahl once said “need to watch with glittering eyes the world around us because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don’t believe in magic will never find them.”  Gosh .. how right he was ... there’s magic out there every day ..... we don’t even need to look for it ... it’s right there, in front of us ... if we’d only just open our eyes and see!

The magic for my birthday came in the form of 2 vouchers for a moonlit kayak to Brown’s Island ... my birthday pressie from Gav!  I’ve wanted to visit Browns Island ever since I first set eyes on it on my rambles.  Sadly the hound can’t come .... and no, not just because we have to kayak there .... Browns Island is now owned  by the Department of Conservation and hounds aren’t allowed on DoC land.  The blurb on the gift voucher goes something like this ....

“Imagine quietly paddling across a glassy calm sea with the lights of Auckland city as your backdrop .... this evening kayak trip will take you to Browns Island, a small volcanic island close to Auckland city.  You’ll enjoy a picnic supper served on the summit as you watch the sun set over Auckland city, plus the novelty of kayaking at night”

How awesome does that sound .... now I just need to decide on a date!!  Oh yes ... I will be taking my camera and hopefully it won’t get wet and, hopefully .... I’ll get some glorious pics too!!

How can anyone think this isn't MAGICAL!