To insanity and beyond ...: I'm on one knee in the wet sand ...

Raindrops and rainbows seemed to fill my day today .... rampant raindrops that sent us racing for cover during our morning ramble. It’s been one of those days when the wind has blown like it does in Wellywood and the dark clouds have deposited their heavy load over all and sundry. Wet, windy ... and NOT woeful .... because of the rainbows!

Got the whole rainbow by sticking two pics together!

I’ve realised that being silent is something my hound’s NOT good at either .... I wonder why. Her excitement at all things “logs” becomes increasingly vocal depending on the size of the log. I don’t think the residents of Cliff Road were as delighted as she was at finding her log from yesterday still on the sand at Ladies Bay. I was still heading down the stairs when the silence was shattered by barking and crying. At first I thought she was in a fight with a dog on the beach ... but nope ..... she was yelling at us that she’d FOUND her log!!

Then the rain came down and Rangitoto disappeared from view.

No photos of all this though as it’s still TOO dark at 6.45 in the morning!!

This is why we sought shelter .... it POURED!

Then the sun tried to come out ....

We managed to get coffee before the rain caught us ..... AND Julia managed to DROP her coffee all over the pavement BEFORE the rain caught us!!! Sacrilege! The girls at the Co-op are so sweet though ... Gareth went back to get her another one and they wouldn’t let him pay for it. I think Julia’s fellow staff members owe us a vote of thanks - imagine how grumpy she might have been had she gone to work not having satisfied her craving!

... but there are TOO many clouds!

We took shelter under the overhang of the Pilates Studio as the rain came thundering down ... it was insane!

Mad Dogs, Englishmen ... AND ... Seagulls!!

The song by Noel Coward comes to mind “Only mad dogs and Englishmen” but he was referring to them going out in the midday sun, not going out in pouring rain .... nevertheless, it has relevance ... I have a mad dog and I guess I’m partly English.

There were few ramblers to join us in the waves today, but plenty of logs so the hound found herself a new one and, very proudly, carried it up and down the beach. Gareth and I were left to kick the ball back and forth, in between feeding the gulls. Let me correct that ... I was feeding the gulls, Gareth was trying to annihilate them with the rugby ball ... unsuccessfully. He eventually ambled off home and left me to feed the gulls in peace .... or so I thought.

I hadn’t taken into account the hound.

With Gareth gone, she wanted ME to throw the log and I was busy making art and FEEDING the gulls .... with HER treats.

Picture this if you can .... I’m on one knee in the wet sand, one shoe slowly filling with water, one knee sinking into the sand. With one hand I’m enticing the gulls closer with the treats, the other hand is trying to hold the cameras steady .... and it’s NOT a light camera, especially with the telephoto lens on. Just as I line the shot up and am about to press the shutter the gulls scatter in all directions as a rather wet, rather brown chocolat Labrador deposits a log on my toes .... the ones in the shoe that is slowly filling with water.