Frozen fingers.

Early morning reflections as we head across to Birkenhead

“What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs.” 

~ Rumi

So much frost on the grass!

I am a living breathing ice-block!

It has been freezing today.  

Well, as freezing as my little city can be.  

Which is not normally THIS cold.

Even the oldest lemming

 ... he who LOVES winter weather, found it unusually cold.

Highbury House where the Birkenhead Artisans Market is held

Frozen fingers were the order of the day.

Particulary at the market we participated in at Birkenhead.

I so enjoy this little market!

It’s in a lovely spot and has a magical feel to it.

I had to remind myself today though that these markets are also about exposure and not JUST about sales.

Plenty of positive feed-back but no sales.

“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” 

~ anon

It’s been an unusually cold week.  

Clear skies and snow in the south have made for bitterly cold days and even colder evenings.

Electric blankets have been necessary.

A cuddly blanket even more so.

It was so cold today that the hound borrowed my scarf.
Red is SO her colour!

The hound likes my cuddly blanket almost as much as I do and has crept

 .... as silently as a large Chocolate Brown Labrador can creep ....

into my bedroom and onto my bed in the middle of the night.

He's feeding her our delicious roasted nuts

The long drawn-out sigh as she settles down on the blanket is reason enough to leave her there.

My bed has become her podium of choice when left home on her lonesome.

A short sharp bark is her greeting when I return home from work or a ramble.

She doesn’t jump of the bed to greet me ... just barks.

The kind of bark that says “I’m here!”

I know just where she’s going to be

and I KNOW she’ll have eaten the kitties’ food.

Payback for NOT taking her on a ramble.

SOME things just don’t change.

My beach on Friday ... glorious blue skies and sunshine.

Aerial warfare between the Yellow billed Gulls and the Red billed Gulls.

After yesterday's excitement, things returned to normal ...

So after the excitement of yesterday's impromptu television appearance, things returned to normal this morning.  Just the hound and us on the beach .... no film truck, no film crew and no Weatherman.

Just water and waves and logs and a ball.

I need to remember that the hound is NEVER too tired to carry a log home.  That’s just an act to get US ... the lemmings and me that is .... to play tug-of-war with her.  

Kind soul that I am, I picked up the log she was carrying when she dropped it.  She looked at me with those soulful eyes .... and yes, they’re irresistible.  So I picked up the log.  Picking up the log triggers an instantaneous energy boost in her and she grabs the other end.

The oldest lemming thought he had a good idea.  You take one end Mom and I’ll take the other and the hound can carry the middle .... yeah right.

As we’re trying to walk up the hill each carrying an end of the log, she’s in the middle trying to drag the log back down to the beach!  It just DOESN’T work.

As hard as we pulled UP the hill, she pulled just as hard DOWN the hill.  It was TWO against ONE but she’s SO strong!  I suppose it DIDN’T help that we were almost doubled over with laughter.  

It was an hilarious end to a rather dark morning ramble.

There aren’t many photo opportunities in the mornings at the moment.  It’s too dark when we exit the house at 6.30am.  That sun of mine isn’t rising till 7.30 or later so most of our ramble happens in the dark on the days that I’m working.  Whilst I don’t mind the cold and the winter weather, I DO mind the darkness.

Not that it bothers the hound.  She doesn’t take the photographs though.

I missed an amazing photo opportunity this evening.  Walking home from a Pilates class I see the New Moon setting over my city.  It’s huge and it looks amazing.  I race home, as fast as my Pilates weary limbs can carry me .... grab the camera ... and race back down to where I’d seen the moon.

It was gone.  It had rapidly dropped over the horizon in the time it had taken me to get the camera. That’ll teach me to leave the camera at home.

“There is a morning inside you waiting to burst forth into light.” 

~ Rumi

Yum! White chocolate and plum brioche!

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

My favourite bit of real estate!

Yum! White chocolate and plum brioche .... YUMMY! I look at that from the perspective of how delicious it is, not from how bad it is for me .... and then I really REALLY enjoy eating it!

I NEEDED it today ..... it is ICY cold on the beach. I have 4 layers of clothes on ... yes, with my shorts .... and I’m STILL cold. My shoes and socks have been soaked in the puddles and the mud and I can’t feel my toes any longer. I think that’s a good thing as I can’t feel how cold they are.

Despite how cold I am .... despite how numb my feet are .... I love being on the sand and in the waves ... and yes, I WAS in the waves. The tide’s coming back in and when you’re attention is focused on what you’re seeing through the lens .... ie , hound and ball and birds and reflections .... the waves have a way of creeping up and swamping your shoes with icy cold water. Brrrrrrr!

That quotation got me thinking about how my attitude has changed when facing obstacles life throws in my path. I choose to look at them differently now. What I once saw as an obstacle I now see as an opportunity. Too often in the past I’ve bemoaned the impact difficulties have had on my life instead of rejoicing in the changes they’ve wrought in me.

All it took was seeing it with different eyes ... an ‘attitude adjustment’.

I still miss my family and friends in SA but I’ve been blessed with new friendships here. My business has gone in a completely different direction ... no more corporate work ..... it’s more creative and brings out the artist in me and I like that it does that.
Life is special .... we could be here one minute and gone the next. I’m choosing to not let one minute of any day go by without me being really IN it.

Being IN it means walking in the waves every day regardless of the weather. Being IN it means doing the things I LOVE not just the things that are necessary. Being IN it means savouring those quiet moments when I’m sitting on the floor in the warmth of the sun’s rays. No wonder the hound and the cat hog the warm spots on the carpet .... I could feel the contentment they feel when I sat there today.

There’s a walk-in pantry in the house we’ve just moved into and I love it. I’ve missed having one since we’ve been in NZ. It lends itself to practical jokes and Gareth and I have been having a ball catching out other members of the family. I’ve become the ‘chef in the pantry’. The family seldom call Gareth’s bluff when he nonchalantly asks one of them to pass him something from the pantry. Ask for an onion and, as the door opens, a hand’s stuck out with the onion on it ..... keeping a straight face is NOT an option!

Yes .... this IS an insane household ... enter at your peril.