They lied!!

 

Where's my sun gone!

 They lied! They said it would be a sunny day today ..... and it isn’t!! It fooled me at first ... I had glimpses of early morning sunshine as I poked my head out of the covers but didn’t see the extended cloud cover that was lurking over the horizon. Lurking being the operative word .... it snuck across my sky and blotted out my sunshine. The weatherman lied!!

I really thought the awesome weather we had a few weeks ago was here to stay ... 5 glorious days of sunshine and blue skies .... and then it vanished. I hope it’s not gone forever. It’s Spring for goodness sake, a time of rebirth and re-awakening .... and we need SUNSHINE for that - in abundance.

Yep .... here comes ALL the mud!

We have wind though .... LOTS of it. I’m willing it to blow all this cloud down to The Coromandel or somewhere, even Wellington - there’s some rugby match or something going on there this weekend.

I don’t care where it goes though, as long as it ain’t Auckland!

We thought we’d LOST another kitty .... not ‘The kitty who lived’ but the kitty who lived WITH ‘the kitty who lived’ .... ie Tiger. He’s a bit of a wandering man. He’s been known to spend a night away from home before but is always back in the morning yelling LOUDLY for food ... obviously he’s had a busy night. 

He did more than disappear for a night this week though. He was gone for 3 days. We had a dreadful storm on Sunday night and he never came home. On Tuesday evening Callum and Jess (our visitor from Wales) went knocking on our neighbours doors to alert them to our missing kitty and then Gareth and Callum popped over to the old house to see if he’d made his way back there in confusion after the storm.

Kangaroo Sam

Callum’s sitting in the car waiting for Gareth to finish chatting to the new tenants when he sees a cat walking down the road .... head down, tail down. He looks at the cat and his mind tells him it’s Tiger but he’s not sure. He calls .... cat pauses, tail goes up ... head goes up, he gets an answering miaow! It WAS Tiger .... the silly-billy kitty cat had found his way back to the old house but hadn’t found us home. 

I know co-incidences happen but what are the odds of Callum being in that spot at the very moment his kitty walked down the road .... awesome!

One very happy kitty-cat AND one very happy youngest lemming.

After much deliberation I’ve come to the conclusion that Sam, being an Aussie hound, is part Kangaroo. Yep .... he’s not just Labrador .... he’s Kangaroo too. He reaches such heights when he jumps into the water that it’s impossible for there NOT to be Kangaroo blood in there somewhere. It’s those back legs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hound propel himself up and into the air quite like Sam does. He’d make an EXCELLENT long-jumper!

He’s not just a Labrador hound anymore .... he’s Kangaroo Sam - the rugby-ball chasing ‘wannabee’ chocolate hound.

Carol STILL hasn't learnt NOT to stand behind me when I kick a rugby ball .... MUD goes everywhere!!

.... even on her cap!!!

Breakfast at Nosh and Sam wants to take Chocolat for a walk!

She doesn't want him to take her lead though.

Help Mom!

Gareth and Jess joined us on our early morning ramble yesterday ... this is at 6.30 in the morning!

Maximus again.

There are TWO hounds living in this house ...

The Oyster Catchers LOVE the low tide

Mist causes madness and mayhem

I really live in an awesome spot in the world. No two mornings are the same despite similar weather conditions. Yesterday’s sunrise was spectacular and so was today’s but in a vastly different way. Yesterday the sky took on the hues of the rising sun but today the rays of the sun turned my world different shades of green and gold.

The mist over Rangitoto and my city added to the wonder of the early morning .... moody memories are made of moments like this. 

The melancholy cry of the fog-horn drifting through the mist only added to the atmosphere. 

For a change we couldn’t hear the ferries racing through the channel .... the mist put paid to any attempt by them to move speedily through the waves.

Sometimes when I look at my photos it’s hard to believe they’re all taken in the same spot. If I stand on the beach and take a photo looking towards Kohi I see green and gold and light and reflections .... a sparkling explosion of colour!

 If I stand in the same spot but turn 180 degrees towards Ladies Bay and the cliff, I see a dramatic contrast between light and dark, there are shadows and silhouettes and no definitive colour. It doesn’t feel real .... it’s FULL of unspoken emotions .... unfulfilled promises.

The flight of the Oyster Catchers over the waves only adds to the mystery.

What is it emerging from the depths .... 

What it is is MAGICAL and it’s all right here in my bay every morning. 

I love this little spot I live in .... I wish I could share it with all those I love and miss.

Two kayakers heading back into the bay

The hound and I had no time restraints on our ramble this morning so we wandered far and wide. The rugby ball got replaced with a log which ended up being carried half way home. I get these pleading eyes looking at me but I’m over carrying logs home for her .... if she wants it, she carries it. It was actually Bella’s log but my hound pinched it cause it was bigger than hers ...... she can be a bit of a bully at times.

Bella .... all of 14 weeks old.

It’s unusual to meet a large hound owned by an Asian family. They don’t generally like hounds and certainly not large ones but the Asian chap we met on the beach this morning had a gorgeous 14 week old German Shepherd pup. She was a confident little thing ... quite comfortable with coming up to the larger hounds then racing back and lying at his feet if she felt threatened. He told us he’d thought it was a good idea to own and train a pup before he tackled children .... I didn’t have the heart to tell him hounds are easier .... they DON’T answer back!

Maximus ... the Bernese Mountain Pup we've met on the beach before.

My hound obviously got fed up of me chatting though .... we’d stopped and passed the time of day with way too many people for her liking. She stood over her log, looked at me and barked.  Enough now, she was saying .... throw my log! The Asian chap was so amused. He thought she was really clever letting me know what she wanted. Hmmmm .... I’m not so sure, I think she was just being a typical beach bitch!

Nico, who's growing into himself beautifully.

In this house we have TWO hounds ..... one lives in a CAT’S body though. To all intents and purposes Tiger is a HOUND ... he’s just been given the wrong fur body, or so he thinks.  When I call the hound he comes running, if she has a bone, he wants one too. 

This morning, after the hound’s ramble, they both found the sun beams in the sitting room and lay down together to sleep .... little “wannabe” hound’s paws touching big hound paws. 

The 'look' I got when I came to take a photo says it all.

Go away Mom .... we're SLEEPING!

Reflections .... reflections .... reflections!

..... and still more!

I'm telling her that I can't see Rangitoto behind her because it's covered in mist
 ... she UNDERSTANDS exactly what I'm saying .... cause she's a GIRL hound!!

Time zones cause HAVOC with my sleep cycle!

Early morning frost on Sunday

The kitty that joined our walk

I’ve had such a fun day today ... but now I’m tired. I guess getting up at 1am to watch the Mens Final at Wimbledon MIGHT not have been such a good idea. Why do we have these ridiculous time zones ... they cause HAVOC with my sleep cycle!

Frost on the cars

The hound didn’t even get a ramble this morning. At the time I would normally be heading down to the beach I was climbing back into bed for an hour or two of zzzz’s before going to work. I would TAPE the sport if I could be assured of not hearing the result before I get to watch it. News and results nowadays are broadcast far and wide .... it’s virtually impossible to NOT hear or see the results somewhere before you get to watch the action.

Comfortable companionship.

Give us a kiss!

The hound had a long walk yesterday though ... with a cat for company. I don’t think she was too put out by seeing me dressed  in ‘working’ clothes today rather than ‘walking’ clothes .... and yes, she can tell the difference .... something to do with the shoes I think.

It’s been a good weekend of sport ... for my teams that is. The rugby was awesome and the tennis fantastic, despite my favourite player not being one of the finalists.

We met a gorgeous 16 week old puppy on the beach yesterday. His name describes how large he’s likely to grow ..... Maximus - the Bernese Mountain Dog. I’m not sure who got more of a surprise when he charged into the waves after my hound ... him or his owners! At least now they know he can swim! He’s very photogenic and I got some gorgeous pics of a rather wet Maximus.

On Mondays I redress the windows at the shop ... it’s such fun. So much new stock was delivered last week so there was a lot to choose from. Most of the winter stock has been put on sale too so the sale racks outside the shop are full to bursting! That’s one thing I’ll never understand about retail .... why on earth do we have a shop full of summer stock when it’s still bitterly cold outside and likely to remain that way for another 2 months yet.

Even the customers are confused and totally disinterested in trying on summer dresses ... least of all swimsuits. The only people who’ve been interested in the swimsuits are those heading to warmer climes for the holidays .... Bali, Fiji, Tahiti etc.

Carol and Sam popped in to the shop early to say hello. Carol had been one of those sensible people who’d recorded the tennis and was heading back home after her ramble to finish watching it. Sam had been digging sticks up on the beach but couldn’t understand why the chocolate brown hound wasn’t there to fetch them from the waves for him.

Back to normal tomorrow though. We’ll be up bright and early to walk with Julia and Indy and then meet Carol and Sam on the beach. I’m hoping the sun will be shining as brightly as it was today!