Those SHEEP are so pathetically cute!

“Being creative is not a hobby, it is a way of life.” 

~ Stephanie Ackerman

The hound at the Memorial on the boardwalk

I DON’T have ENOUGH time in my day!  

That is a light bulb moment.  

I have SO many ideas, so many things I want to TRY, so many things I want to MAKE but I’m always running out of minutes to make them in!

The start of my reflection fetish this morning.

This morning for instance, I found a knitting pattern for some cute fluffy sheep.  
I don’t NEED any cute fluffy sheep but I so WANT to make some.  No, let’s change  that 
“I HAVE to make some!”  
I have NO idea what I’m going to do with them but I just know I have to make some.

In the words of the oldest lemming “Those sheep are SO pathetically cute!”

Photo courtesy of Flutterby Patch

I’m my own worst enemy.

All those baby spiders have eaten their way out of the nest.

Take my photography for instance.  I’m as bad at snapping away with my camera as I am at using a multitude of unnecessary words. I take way TOO many photos and then have to spend hours and hours editing and deleting them.  Wouldn’t it just be easier to take FEWER photos?

Such an awesome reflection!

This morning is a case in point.  I went to Waiatarua for the first time in several weeks.  The hound and I have been keeping our distance from Waiatarua as the vet felt it could be the grasses and pollens there that were causing an allergic skin reaction she’s suffering from. Five weeks later and she’s still erupting in these little hives DESPITE not having been to Waiatarua.  I guess the grasses and pollens are NOT the culprit after all.

Savvy, the Bernaise Mountain Dog we met at the reserve today

I digress though ... back to photography and my penchant for taking too many photos.  The reflections were STUNNING this morning and I just couldn’t help myself.  It’s like an addiction .... I just HAVE to keep clicking away.  One more photo is just not enough.

Not too sure why she's looking so guilty

Same thing when we happened upon the Black Swan.  I’d just been saying to Julia that we hadn’t seen the swans at Waiatarua recently when out of nowhere up popped the head of one of the swans.  He was all on his lonesome and I’m sure it’s one of the babies I was photographing towards the end of last year.

The Black Swan, popping up from the grass!

He must have got used to photo shoots though because he swanned over ....yes, that’s what swans do .... and posed beautifully for us.  He is absolutely gorgeous .... the light was perfect, the setting was perfect and HE is perfect!

Once again I took WAY too many photos.

This is me though.  This is the way I express my insane inner self.  My words, my photography, my inability to know when to stop trying to fit too many things into too few hours.  This is MY way of life and I LOVE it.  I love the chaos I create.  I love the humour in the madness that is this life.  

I wouldn’t have it any other way ...

.... even though there aren’t ENOUGH minutes in my day yet to make those pathetically cute little sheep!

Indy, having a good swim!

.... and men complain about women!

I know seagulls freak some people out but I really like these little guys. They’re persistent ... opportunistic .... brave, despite being scared .... and they have amazing recollect.


I’d always thought one seagull was pretty much like the next .... but they’re not. They’re the same - but different - pretty much like they’d define humans I guess ..... or dogs. They have such expression on their faces and a very definite leader of the pack ... or colony, as in their case.

The beach this morning - it's not raining but it's sure windy!

I could sit for hours on the beach photographing them ... they’re such comical characters with their posturing and posing. As for the noise .... gosh .... they’re noisier than my 16 year old and I didn’t think that was possible. He’s the MASTER of white noise ... you know the kind I mean ... a continuous drone that eventually fades into the background because it just doesn’t stop. 

I’ve compared him to a flock of sheep before ... and it’s very apt. If you’ve never heard the sound a large flock of sheep make, do yourself a favour and go and listen. You’ll be surprised at the din they create. They just don’t stop communicating .... and men complain about women! We are QUIET in comparison to a flock of sheep - or colony of gulls! 

Sam just LOVES helping her carry the logs!

My interlude with the gulls is short-lived when Sam arrives on the beach. He gambols across the sand, his mind fixed on one thing and one thing only .... getting a hello cuddle and pat from me. The gulls head skywards ... they know when their time’s up! Even the hound only gets a passing nod as he races past her.

She's not so keen on his help though.

He’s such a gentle giant but gosh, he sure has a hard head. I’m obviously not throwing logs quite as quickly as he’d like so today he decided to help me. Unfortunately his timing’s a bit out of kilter and, as I threw the log, our heads collided and I was left staggering across the sand. He’d sure make a good rugby player!

Help ... it's gone too far!

The weather the last few days has reminded me of Wellytown. It’s been WILD and WET ... and very WINDY. Julia and I nearly got blown away yesterday and we got soaked ... EVEN Indy was wet when he got home. Carol, sensible soul that she is, decided NOT to join me in the waves. I think she had the right idea ... it was NOT 

The hound to the rescue

pleasant out. The camera remained firmly packed in my backback .... safe and warm in it’s watertight hole.


It didn’t even improve during the day. We participated in the Moreton Miles again last night and battled driving rain and a strong headwind as we bustled our way around to Mission Bay and back.. The highlight of the fun run/walk 

... and she hands it over  and runs back to her log

for me were the huge puddles the rain left behind ... I LOVE jumping in puddles .... it brings out the child in me ... and in my lemmings! Hot Chocolate .... as opposed to cider .... was the order of the day as we trickled, quite literally, back into Moretons. 

It's just too cute the way she fetches the ball for him ... but only when there's no logs of course!

Never take life for granted. It is better to live trying to treat each moment as if it was your last chance to make a difference.

Waiatarua on Friday

Just love the Pukeko!

.... would that he came with an "OFF" switch!

Today is officially the first day of summer ... a time of sunshine ... hot weather and ocean waves ... sand between my toes .... so where is the sun????  The waves are here ... I get wet in them and so does my hound .... I get the sand between my toes and she covers herself in it ... but the sun ... that’s noticeable by it’s absence during my morning rambles and I’m getting a little put out!  I get the occasional glimpse of it .... tantalisingly brief .... before it disappears behind the clouds again ... I get the feeling it’s laughing at me ....

It’s out there now .... 6 in the evening ..... the time when I’m feeding the army, sorting the laundry, supervising the housework .... writing my blog .... you know, doing all those things a mother’s supposed to do.   Hmmmm .... I guess writing my blog shouldn’t REALLY be included there ..... but you get my drift ..... the sun is here when I can’t be there ..... and it BUGS me ... big time!

As we head further into summer ...... yes ... summer ...... our evenings are getting longer and longer .... the sun’s not setting much before 8.30 at the moment and the longer evenings are lovely .... but they definitely interfere with my body clock!  It’s difficult to think of making the evening meal when the sun’s bright in the sky .... thank goodness school’s out for the summer!


Gav and I went for an impromptu tea at Cornwall Park this afternoon ..... and just happened to be there as the sheep that are farmed there ... about 500 of them ... were being driven ... as in “by dogs” ..... across the road from one paddock to another.  Just as a bit of history Cornwall Park was gifted to the people of Auckland by a Sir John
Logan Campbell in 1901 and is administered by a trust.  This Trust runs the park and the 81 hectare farm which, unusually for a farm, is located in the middle of an urban area.

The dogs were unbelievably good ... just by barking at the sheep ... no nipping at their heels ... they manoeuvered all the sheep down one paddock .. through a gate ... across the road ... through another gate .. and into the paddock where they graze for the night.  It was fascinating ... the Farm Manager sat in his car ... whistling and shouting one word instructions to the dogs which they immediately understood and obeyed ..... it left me wondering if he’d consider offering  ‘human’ obedience classes.

But boy .... were those sheep noisy!!!  It was on a par with what I’m exposed to every day by my number 2 son!  It’s “white noise”   ..... definition ...... a noise that is used to drown out other noises.  For example if three people are talking simultaneously, your brain can probably still pick out one voice. However if 1000 people are talking simultaneously, there is no way that your brain can pick out one voice -  it becomes a hum .... well, maybe more than a hum!  Essentially, what it means is that you

can’t hear what’s being said because there are too many voices so your brain pushes it all into the background ... you can still hear it but you’re not attempting to decipher it.  That’s what the sheep sounded like ... and that’s what my number 2 son sounds like .... he’s a flock of sheep all on his own!!
Click here to hear the sheep!

I sometimes invite him to join me on my morning rambles ...... and then remember why I don’t do it more frequently.  He doesn’t understand the meaning of ‘quiet’ ..... ‘peaceful’ .... ‘tranquil’ ....  even his voice is deep and loud .... he has an answer for everything - and anything you didn’t ask either!  Logic tells me it’s because he’s the youngest of 3 and had to learn to make himself heard from a very young age ... would that he came with an ‘off’ switch!!