"Just tell yourself Duckie ...

Grrrrr .... I need some soul-soothing .... BIG time!

Another cloudy morning ramble .... come out earlier please sunshine!

I’m making Rice Pudding and the timer on the oven has just beeped. I go through to check it, reset the timer and walk back through to my office to carry on working. As I sit down, the phone rings. The phone’s in the kitchen. I get up, walk back to the kitchen and answer the phone. It’s the oldest lemming ... who, just by the way, is DOWNSTAIRS in the SAME house .... SUPPOSEDLY working! I can hear the laughter in his voice as he tells me NOT to forget his rice pudding. I am NOT AMUSED.

Indy at the viewsite this morning

Just to put this in perspective, when the phone rings and I’m sitting at my desk, it takes 10 rings of the phone for me to walk through from my desk to the kitchen to answer it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to answer it and there’s no-one there cause they’ve hung up. 

Julia's neighbour Nigel who's hound Bonnie goes to work with him
each day.

All this has happened just as I’ve finished cleaning up where the hound was ill last night. SOMEONE, no names mentioned but it could just be the aforementioned lemming, gave the hound a piece of avocado yesterday with the skin on. Typical Labrador, she ate the lot, skin and all ... and regurgitated it all during the night. 

SENSE OF HUMOUR FAILURE!!  .... and I’ve already HAD my ramble!

Breathe Carol ... just breathe ....

The Swan family scheduled an unexpected photo shoot again this morning. There they were as I headed down the hill to the wetland, stretching and preening next to the water. The youngsters are quite inquisitive but Daddy Swan doesn’t let them get too close. He got a little aggro when I crossed what he considered to be the boundary line. He reminded me of an elephant doing a mock charge ....  ears flapping, head shaking and loud trumpeting, the elephant that is .... it’s all bravado but you don’t want to hang around to prove your point. Daddy Swan came racing towards me in the same fashion ... hissing and spitting and fluffing up his gorgeous tail feathers. I got the message and retreated to a more acceptable vantage point ... from his perspective, that is.

One of the babies getting up close and personal

It’s not just the Swans that have young at the moment ... the Ducks do too. Mommy Duck is ever vigilant when her babies are tiny and wouldn’t hang around to be photographed. She had a little flotilla bobbing along behind her ... there must have been 8 or 9 little ducklings. One wonders how many will still be around next week. Of all our feathered friends in the reserve, the ducks are the most vulnerable. The Harrier Hawk, the Pukeko and the Magpies, will all feast on the ducklings given the opportunity. 

I know it’s nature’s way of ensuring a status quo in the species but it’s heart-breaking to think of those little fluffy ducklings becoming some other bird’s evening meal.

Hmmmm .... Duck on the menu doesn’t sound quite as appealing anymore.

Daddy Swan giving me the hairy eyeball

Sam gets very concerned when I head off in another direction to him .... he keeps coming to LOOK for me. MY hound couldn’t give a toss. She’s impatient to get to the waterholes and continues on her way, ball in mouth, not even glancing behind. She doesn’t mind WHO’S there to kick her ball as LONG as it gets KICKED .... into the water preferably.

Yep ... Sam's been in the mud!

She’s contentment personified today as she’s had the BEST of both worlds ... beach AND reserve!

“Just tell yourself Duckie, you’re really quite lucky!”

~ Dr. Seuss ~  from the book ‘Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?’

Sam, killing his rugby ball

What is it with these BOY dogs?

“Life is an emotional journey. It’s all about how it FEELS.” 

~ anon

A CLEAN Sam .... an UNUSUAL sight.

.... and some days feel worse than others and then some weeks just top it all off. 

It’s been one of those weeks.

.... and already he's starting to turn brown.

We’re moving next week ..... again. It’s the lowest of the low on my list of things I dislike doing ... as low down as visiting the dentist and I HATE visiting the dentist. 

The weather hasn’t helped. It’s been WINDY ... a FIERCE and UNSETTLING wind, with rain .... heaps of it. Our rambles have been rather damp and, because of having to help out at the shop on Friday mornings this month, rambles have been shorter than they usually are.

.... and it’s a Sunday morning and I’m up at 4am.

I was asked by one of my fellow stall-holders at the market yesterday why I don’t just record the rugby and watch it at a more acceptable time ... but I CAN’T. No matter how hard I try NOT to HEAR the score, or SEE a result, somehow, someone will blurt it out.

I thought we had it sussed but the SA/Puma match in Argentina a few weeks ago proved me wrong. We walk into the Co-op for our usual Sunday morning caffeine boost after a long ramble only to have Pete say “your guys didn’t play great this morning” .... thanks Pete!  

We’d recorded THAT match.

Oprah’s words come to mind 

“Breathe. Let go .... and remind yourself that this VERY moment is the only one you know you have for sure."

The wind DOES have ONE redeeming feature ... but ONLY one .... it forces the clouds to depart my air space more rapidly than what they might usually. That’s why we’ve had brief encounters with  the sun over the last few days. 

It’s not just me that the wind’s left feeling unsettled ... it’s affected the hounds too ... well, the other hounds, the male ones. Indy and Sam were DELINQUENTS DELUXE at Waiatarua on Friday afternoon. The canine teenager in Sam came to the fore and as Indy wandered off where he shouldn’t, Sam trotted right on behind him. They both went visiting houses outside the reserve .... sans humans. 

Julia and Carol hot-footed it off after them whilst the hound and I shook our heads in despair.

What is it with these boy dogs?

Despite my ever-vocal support my Bokke were just NOT able to take down the mighty Flightless Fowls. I’m going to go sulk .... and ramble.

“Gratitude is the art of painting adversity into a lovely picture” 

~ Kak Sri

Just to prove that the dogs CAN read!