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

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.

And there I was thinking it was just my hound that was manic ...

Early morning in my bay

Someone needs to tell “the cat who lived” that chasing other cats and defending your territory ISN’T possible with your jaw wired shut. Someone also needs to tell her that this is Tiger’s home too and it’s not really acceptable to scare the pants off him like she did today..

I can’t imagine what he must of thought she was ... the feeding tube swings around like a propellor when she walks and she has this metal gadget under her chin. She doesn’t LOOK like your average kitty ... and especially not when she’s in motion.

My favourite piece of real estate

Who's going to get the ball?

I must admit though, scaring him has had one positive outcome ... he’s come inside and not made a sound. On your average day, I can hear him coming before I see him. He has a language all of his own and the decibel level varies ... it’s not Callum’s cat for nothing. The only time either of them are quiet is when they pause for breath, when they’re eating .... or, as in Tiger’s case .... when he’s been scared witless by an evil looking kitty that shouldn’t have been outside.

And there I was thinking it was just my hound that was manic.

Some of the seagulls are manic too!

“The cat who lived” has been captured and returned to her padded cell and peace has returned to the home .... terrified Tiger is lying on the dining room table trying to convince all and sundry that he wasn’t scared at all.
Yeah right.

As for the manic hound .... she wasn’t at all happy when we reached the beach this morning. There was a tractor on the beach and it was cleaning up all the seaweed and debris ... including all the wonderful LOGS that had been washed ashore. The beach looks pristine at the moment but it’s not likely to last very long ... the tides have a way of making a mockery of all the hard work the tractor does.

The hound had to make do with the rugby ball and chasing seagulls.

It was a cold ramble today .... I didn’t take my Fagan gloves off AT ALL. Taking them off is normally an indicator of an increase in body temp and the gloves then get relegated to the backpack ... not today though ... my hands were icy! Winter can be wicked ... I really don’t like these dark mornings and dark evenings when the sun’s visiting the other end of the world. My day NEEDS sunshine in it .... 

Despite the darkness of the mornings, the sun’s rays eventually warm up my world. I love the reflections in the bay when the tide’s out ... I can’t get enough of them. Reflections appeal to my inner mind in so many ways. They're equal and opposite and when the sun’s shining, they’re vividly clear. Would that “looking within” could give me the same kind of clarity that the reflections in my bay do.

Look how clean my beach looks!

 “When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile” ~ author unknown.