Hope is solid.

 Courage is in the little things.

It’s the soft light within you that flickers and glows even on the dark days.

It’s the quiet strength that you find when there are mountains to conquer.

Real or otherwise.

Mountains that is.

The Kapira Coastline

It’s knowing that you are strong.

Knowing you are growing.

Knowing there is hope.

Cosmo ... totally addicted to sticks

Hope is solid.

Kinda like the hound.

Whilst life might not be perfect ... whose is ... it sure is exhilarating.

There is SO much in the pipeline, 

SO many possibilities, 

SO much in the world that is changing.

Choosing a path, when so many are available, is mind boggling.

Oodles of courage and belief in self are crucial.

Doodle-bug .... the manic one

I know I’m at my best though when I’m at one with what I do.

Sunrise at Point England Reserve

In the midst of all this decision making and excitement 

there’s been an abundance of reasons to smile.  

One in particular had the flatmate and I beaming from ear to ear.

Tiger, the  wanderlust fur-ball in the family, went missing when we moved to Mt. Wellington.  

He’d been making a regular habit of returning to Polygon Road when we moved to the Flat @ No. 14 in 2014.  We’d fetch him back and two weeks later he’d have once again returned to Polygon Road.

Last year, when we moved to Mt. Wellington, 

he made himself scarce and, despite our best efforts, was unable to be found.

View from Te Atatu Peninsula

In a strange twist of fate we purchanced to be driving along Polygon Road this last week.  

Sitting at the top of the driveway at 48 Polygon Road was a grey and white striped tabby that was instantly recognisable.  

Tiger.

We stopped and called him.

Initially he kept his distance, fearful maybe that we’d uplift him once again and he’d have to find his way back to what he obviously considers ‘home’.  He’s always been a vocal fur-ball and proceeded to deafen us with a long monologue whilst deciding if he should come for a cuddle.  

The cuddle eventually won out.

It was SO special to see him after all this time and know that he’s well.

Neither the flatmate nor I could contain our smiles on the way home.

The Rock Star and Alice .... we just love being loved.

Accepting change means that you’re  changing YOUR world.

Just like Tiger did.

You’re lighting your fire.

Living your truth.

Being who you are.

The blonde and the brunette

Who pissed off Mother Nature?

Oh wow .... who pissed off Mother Nature?

The Sacred Kingfisher on the beach on Sunday last week

Geonet tells us there have been 1300 earthquakes in the Cook Strait since Friday.  That’s a whole HEAP of seismic activity and no clear indicator of why it’s happening. Scary kind of stuff ... particularly for those living in the regions most affected by these current quakes.

Sam has a new Chiefs rugby ball ... only it's never HIS when he get to the beach.  It becomes the HOUND's

Makes me kinda glad to be living up here in Aux.

We just have unexplained fog that lasts for hours on end and makes photography impossible.  Even the hound was perturbed.  She likes to SEE where she’s swimming and that just wasn’t happening on Monday. 

Shadow joined us on the beach on Friday.

Today, that’s Wednesday, has been a funny old day. 

 It feels like the world ... well, my part of it anyway ... is holding it’s breath

.... as if it’s waiting for something to happen.

And no, I don’t mean an earthquake.  We fortunately don’t get many of those in Aux and certainly NOT big ones.

.... and Sam got RATHER dirty!

Maybe it’s just the weather.  It’s indecisive, unsure of itself 

and that  pretty much describes how I’m feeling at the moment. 

 I don’t like grey cloudy dismal days.  

There’s a heaviness to them that’s oppressive.  

She has the NEW ball ....

If it’s going to rain, I’d rather it just rain.  Rain I can handle!

.... and Sam has the OLD one.

Kea, waiting for a treat

Too many things on my mind and too much to do is the cause of my indecisiveness. There just aren’t enough hours in my day and yet, here I am ‘penning’ a blog when my time could best be spent editing photos and selecting ones to be mounted. I have journals to make, page clips to cut, cards to print and markets to apply to. 

 It’s all doing my head in ... and then I saw this on FB.  

Yes, I was wasting precious minutes on FB. 

Niko's girlfriend, who was having a sleepover at Niko's house

“Don’t take your thoughts too seriously ... they are just news flashes!” 

It made me smile.  

I am the Number One culprit of OVER-THINKING things.

Thank you Marlene Neumann.

Anything that makes you smile should NEVER be seen as a waste of time. 

Posts like that on FB make me smile and writing my blog makes me smile.

Sam found himself a shovel, to help dig all those trenches.

There are always SMILES aplenty when we’re on the beach in the morning, despite the earliness of the hour OR the greyness of the skies. Even the mist on Monday morning made me smile.  I could see NOTHING when I stood on the viewing platform looking towards Rangitoto, but I could HEAR the foghorns of vessels leaving the harbour.

She just found herself a log.

It’s an eerie sensation standing in the middle of nothingness ... alone, but for the hound

 ... with the melancholy wailing of a foghorn echoing out through the mist. 

 It’s an aloneness of a different kind.

In the midst of all the chaos that’s my life at the moment I chance upon the most pertinent of quotations. This one’s just SO relevant and once again, it’s from my favourite philosopher, Rumi.

2 of the 3 Kingfishers that were on the beach.

“Don’t worry that your life is turning upside down. 

How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come.”

Yep ... Rumi definitely rocks!

They were FABULOUS and beyond!

The SIX Fabulous Ladies!

FABULOUS!

adjective: Barely believable; astonishing; legendary 

The term “fabulous” has been so continuously overused by people trying to be ‘au courant’ that the meaning’s not as strong as it once was.  The word comes from Latin ... fabulosus or “celebrated in fable.”  Other “words of the moment” that fit the fabulous mode would be words like awesome, groovy, swell, tubular, super, cool, sweet and wicked.

ANY of those words could be applied to the group of ladies we chanced upon this morning

 .... they were FABULOUS and beyond!

We’d seen them arrive at the memorial at the bottom of St. Heliers Bay Rd.

 Six of them.  Impossible to miss.  

All dressed in BRIGHT pink .... different attire, all suitable for walking ... and all PINK!

So I asked them WHY?

They walk together on a regular basis and, once a month, one of them gets to choose a theme and they ALL have to dress accordingly.  This month they were celebrating PINK. 

Powerful PINK PUNK.

These girls rocked.  I love their approach to life.  

They were flirty, funny and FABULOUS!

They were celebrating everything BEAUTIFUL about life!

It was a great day for their FABULOUS fun and, even if the sun hadn’t been shining, they were spreading enough sunshine and smiles of their own.  

The hounds added their own bit of sunshine to the beach as well.  Sam the Man was back in the groove, home from his holidays.  He bought THAT Chiefs ball with him which my hound promptly stole.  She’d been carting a small log along the sand but quickly disposed of that in favour of Sam’s ball. 

I would usually be at work on a Wednesday but had the opportunity to take another day in lieu today.  All those Public Holidays I work definitely have an upside.  We’ve had a magical day in the waves and on the sand with our favourite beach buddies. 

The water container that Sam decided to chew.

Life is FANTABULOUS ... most of the time.  Even on the days when it’s not, there’s always something magical to focus on ... no matter how small or how insignificant it might seem. It just takes a little bit of practise! 

Half-price breakfasts at Nosh make for fantabulous mornings too
- particularly when you get mobbed by a hound!

“The useless days will add up to something. The shitty jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people’s diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not. 

These things are your becoming.” 

~ Excerpt from Dear Sugar #64, The Rumpus.

Yep ... Sam's about to go but I managed to get a shot of them both first!