"Global Warming" rocks

 
“You have witchcraft in your lips”

~ William Shakespeare

Takapuna Beach in the glorious sunshine this morning.

Another GLORIOUS Friday!

It might be the start of Spring in the Northern hemisphere 

but that there sun hasn’t discarded us yet  in the Southern hemisphere.

Days like today are BLISSFUL!

The person who penned this next line has it in one. 

“I have a therapist, her name is NATURE” 

In my case, nature is aided and abetted by the hound.

The hound and Sam that is.

Wading knee deep in the waves with your shoes and socks on ISN’T everyone’s idea of therapy but it sure is MINE.  

Some swear by retail therapy, others chocolate therapy, 

still others adopt alcohol as their crutch of choice and 

some just bury their heads in the sand.  

My mate Carol chooses exercise

.. EXTREME exercise ... as her drug of choice.  

Yes, she’s whacky but it’s her only vice.

AmAZing  reflections!

My crutch of choice is simple ... HOUND therapy. 

Add sunshine and blue skies to the mix and I’m invincible.

For this moment in time, life is just DELICIOUS!

"Global Warming"

Adding to the deliciousness of my day has been my “Global Warming”  photo  (so named by Paul Averes)

being chosen as the cover photo for Forest and Bird’s Facebook Page. 

They’re running a competition which closes on 24th March. 

I’ve entered 3 photos in it and, of the 250 photos submitted to date, 

they selected my crazy Pukekos to grace their page.

We even got to see Panda and his mom on the beach this morning!

It’s a Happiness meter overload moment.

My world rocks in so many ways.

No matter the difficulties to be faced,

no matter the enormous chasms still to cross,

there is magic to be found in the littlest of things.

“Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and thinkers, but most of all, surround yourself with those who see the greatness within you,
 even when you don’t see it yourself.”

~ Edmund Lee

Panda pinched the ball and Lorraine had to persuade him to give it back.
Just look at those reflections though!!

Another MANIC Monday!

Oh boy ... another MANIC Monday!

... and let’s NOT forget about Sunday.  Or Saturday for that matter.

“Colours are the smiles of nature.” 

~ Leigh Hunt

Manic Monday started with a CRACKER of a rainbow and ended with a giggle.  

The hound got mail!

Yep, there was a present in the letterbox for the hound today

 ... and no, it’s NOT her birthday.

Her buddy Panda, he of the big brown spot over the eye, sent her a new rugby ball!

I wasn’t home when it was taken out of the letterbox but the youngest lemming was.  He loved the message on the ball and read it to the hound.  

“To Chocolat

Love from Panda”

She gets so excited when she gets a new ball.  The eyes light up.  She stands expectantly, waiting for it to be thrown.  We’ve let a little air out so she’s able to grip it and she’s been parading around the house with the new ball firmly grasped in her mouth.

Last time I looked, she was lying in the lounge with her head on the ball.

I think she likes it.

Thank you Panda ... and Lorraine .... you have no idea how HAPPY you’ve made her.

It will be interesting to see what happens when we go to the beach in the morning.  Her usual course of action when Sam arrives is to swop balls with him.  I wonder if she’ll swop her new ball with his now “OLD” Chiefs one tomorrow?

Watch this space.

It’s been a whirlwind of a weekend.  A market on Saturday, dinner out ... courtesy of the oldest lemming and the noise .... on Saturday night, another market on Sunday and lots and lots of tennis and rugby to watch in-between.  Thank goodness for My Sky.

Matakana Country Fair on Sunday

I did of course get text updates on the tennis from Carol ... fortunately WITHOUT the bad language that she probably expressed at home.  She would have been on the edge of her seat during the Djokovich/Wawrinka match.

The final tomorrow should be a GOOD one!

“Sometimes it is the quiet observer who sees the most.” 

~ Kathryn L. Nelson

Love the water being sprayed up by her tail!

I NEED a new rugby ball!

“You transform ALL who are TOUCHED by you.” 

~ Rumi

Rumi expresses in words what I feel in my heart.  I’m transformed in one way or another by each and every person I encounter in this journey that’s my life.  

Rumi .... you rock.

I’m having a distracting morning ... all the fault of the US Open. 

 I should be working, putting pen to paper .... figuratively not literally ... but instead I’m watching tennis.  Yes, Nadal’s playing - I could be here for a while.  

I switched on just as Federer lost in straight sets to Robredo.  

When the phone rang I guessed it would be Carol.

Pete hadn’t wanted to listen to her sob story about Federer’s loss so she cried on my shoulder instead.  She’s even more besotted with rugby and tennis than what I am!

If it had been Djokovich who’d been dismissed she would have been cheering, not crying.

Tennis aside, it’s been the MOST magical of mornings.  

Sunshine, clear skies and an abundance of hounds to run amok with on the beach.

Paradise just doesn’t come better than this.

The hound’s rugby ball has finally breathed it’s last.  The innards have dropped out and it now resembles a pancake .... a leathery one.  Kicking it is no longer an option, it HAS to be thrown. Fortunately it still floats or Sam would be out there still searching for the ball .... well, what’s left of it.

A new rugby ball will have to be found.

Between Panda and Bandit, and Bella and Zak and Sam, and of course my hound, I have tossed rugby ball after rugby ball into the waves.  They just never tire of it.  Panda pinches whoever’s ball he can and Bandit tries to herd them all in and out of the waves.  Zak and Bella just race after the ball with our hounds, fully aware that their chances of holding onto the ball are remote.  

The fun is in the chase!

It’s a ball and water frenzy and whoever’s left holding the ball is the winner.

Carol’s worked out her role in all this morning activity.  Her duty is to bring Sam to the beach - and the Chiefs rugby ball of course.   Once he’s here, she’s superfluous to requirement .... in Sam’s eyes, that is .... and could quite easily go home.

Sam might not mind if she’s on the beach or not, but I do.  I enjoy our morning natters.

I even managed to stalk the heron AND the kingfishers this morning.  Mr. Heron was sourcing his morning tea and quite oblivious to my stealthy approach until he’d caught his fish.  He quite obviously thought I had designs on his tea so he stalked off into the waves.

The Kingfishers on the other hand teased me mercilessly.  Just as I hold my breath and raise the camera to my eye, there’s a flash of iridescent blue and they’re off, flitting up and down to the next rock.  I’m sure they’re secretly laughing at me.  I did get close ... but NOT close enough.

And as for the tennis ..... Nadal won, of course.

She does the BUM hover ...

"Wake up every morning with the thought that something wonderful is going to happen." 

~ anon.

Sunshine + clear skies = bitterly cold!!

It was icy out there this morning.  Even the hound felt it.  Her bum hovered just above the ground every time we stopped to cross a road.  That can only mean one thing .... the cold weather's made the road icy and she DOESN’T want to freeze her butt off!

We needed our ramble this morning. 

It’s been a busy weekend and I NEEDED to catch my breath and touch base with myself.  

I love busy weekends but they sure take it out of you.  The reality is though that as we head further into the second half of the year, it’s only going to get busier.  

More markets and more sales means I’ll need more stock than ever before.

What’s interesting is how much of a presence the hound and I create without being aware of it. 

“You’re the blonde with the chocolate dog and the camera.  

So this is what you do with all the photos you take.  They’re really good.”

That was the greeting from a customer at my stall at the market on Saturday and it’s one of the reasons why I LOVE local markets.  I get to meet some of the other ramblers and lycra clad loonies who’re out and about at the same daft time of the day as we are.

All the lemmings came to visit me at the market on Saturday too ... and so did the hound.  It’s not often they’re all in the same place at the same time but they were on Saturday and they were again yesterday ..... because it was FATHERS DAY here in NZ.

There weren’t many folk out and about freezing their tootsies off this morning though.  The English Bull Terrier that’s taken quite a fancy to the hound was up at the viewsite.  He’s a character.  You can see in the way he behaves how smitten he is with my girl.  His short little tail nearly wags itself off when he catches sight of her.  He stands next to her, gently bumping her with a look of absolute adoration in his eyes.  It’s too funny for words.

His owners walk him early and always on lead as Bull Terriers have such a bad reputation.  It’s so sad as there’s NOTHING unloveable about this little guy.

There’s nothing unloveable about Panda either.  He was delighted to see us on the beach and decided the hound needed help with her log.  She didn’t, but he wasn’t taking NO for an answer.  They tugged and pulled and growled and barked their way along the beach behind Lorraine and I ... log firmly held in BOTH their mouths.  

Panda wasn’t giving an inch but neither was the hound.  

This was HER log and there was no way this upstart was going to take it off her.

It was a delightful end to an awesomely sunshiny morning.

"Dance first.  Think later.  It's the natural order."

~ Samuel Beckett