She HELPED HERSELF to my coffee!!

Awesome Autumn morning!

I’m always glad when the Easter weekend is over. I know that sounds strange but the Easter weekend for me, for the last 10 years, has held poignant memories. It was on Easter Sunday 10 years ago (31 March) that my Dad passed away so unexpectedly. Easter’s a time of year when I sometimes feel overwhelmed by sadness and have an ache in my heart that can’t be filled. 

This is what happens when I've rolled in the sand!

Our Easter weekend has been full of sunshine ... the weather’s been awesome ... but the smiles and the laughter hide the ache I feel inside. It’s always worse at this time of year.


The end of the Easter weekend has other benefits too ... from my hound’s perspective that is. The first Tuesday after Easter means the end of summer restrictions for the dogs on the beach ... my hound and her buddies are allowed on the beach OFF-LEASH until 10 in the morning!

It’s so amusing to watch! I walked back along the sand with Moira and Fergus this morning after bidding farewell to Julia .... Fergus kept looking around at Moira as if expecting her to call him over and clip the leash on. He couldn’t believe his luck when she didn’t. Abi was the same when Denise arrived in the bay ... she was like a spring chicken with her little stump of a tail wagging nineteen to the dozen!

Footprints in the grass

I often wonder what the hounds think about this change in circumstance between summer and winter, and then remind myself that they’re sentient beings .... they live in the moment ... they take each and every second as it comes and live it fully!


Hmmmm .... and talking of taking each second ..... my hound took the “taking” to a new level this morning! Julia and I had grabbed our daily fix from the Co-op and were heading across the Green to Auckland Road. The grass on the green is quite long .... it needs mowing ... and with it still being so damp this morning the foot prints of others who’d walked across earlier were still visible. I put my coffee down on the grass to take a pic ..... and the hound ..... without any hesitation, HELPED HERSELF to my coffee!! Fortunately there wasn’t much left but I wasn’t amused. Needless to say, Julia WAS ... she was trying to contain the laughter without much success ... I guess if the shoe had been on the other foot, I’d have been laughing too!!

She PINCHED my coffee!!

This one wanted to join her in the waves

It’s been a muddled-up kind of day today .... a day when everything’s not quite as it should be. Carol didn’t have a good weekend away - she’s missing Sebastian dreadfully - and managed to walk out the house this morning and leave her key in the entrance hall. The only access to the house that was still open was on the third level and I didn’t think wall climbing was something she should be attempting 2 weeks before heading off to Mount Everest. We headed down to the beach and then phoned Pete who found the whole escapade immensely amusing and drove home with a key for Carol.

This is what my day is like - sometimes magical, sometimes maddening ... but all of it making up moments in time that shouldn’t be forgotten. It doesn’t have to be a magnificent sunrise or artwork in my evening sky. Sometimes it’s just the little things ... the antics of the hounds on the beach when they realise they’re unrestricted, the sodden foot prints in the grass, my hound with her nose stuffed in my coffee cup ... that make my happiness bubble over.

She's teaching Harry, a 6 month old black Lab how to retrieve balls!

They help ease the ache in my heart .... they make me aware that life carries on. My Dad’s up there watching his brood as we each make our mark in our little part of the world. He’d be proud of what his grandchildren have achieved - all 10 of them - and I KNOW he’d be PROUD of the way I kick a rugby ball!!