It was that Alfred Hitchcock's "Birds" moment!

Sometimes I need reminding that life doesn’t always have all the answers. Sometimes there’s no way of knowing why things happen ... what their purpose is ... why they’re happening to me or to those I care about. 


This quotation is a timely reminder to not waste energy trying to unfathom the unfathomable. Bad things DO happen .... and sometimes there just is no explanation for them.


Baby steps forward ... that’s all I need to take .... one step at a time. One day I’ll look back with wisdom and gratitude for the hands that have lifted me up and the strengths I’ve discovered in myself. Life ISN’T always fair but I do have so much to smile about.

The huge log she found on Ladies Bay this morning.

Always DO what you love ... and DO it often .... that very thought makes me smile! There is so much about life that I love ... it’s idiosyncracies .... it’s complexity on the one hand and it’s simplicity on the other. I LOVE making photographs - turning them into my kind of art ... it’s all about being in the right spot at the right time that the shutter was meant to be pressed.

A manic moment ....

I also LOVE words .... thousands of them. To be able to combine the beauty I capture every day through the lens with a language that is insanely crazy fulfills a passion within me that I didn’t know I had.
Writing gives my thoughts wings ... it gives them a freedom they didn’t have before. 

.... and another one!

Writing allows me to verbalise the humour and beauty I see everyday. The photograph itself says so much but the writing allows it to say more. Then again, sometimes words aren’t necessary .... the photo itself says all that needs to be said. In the words of photographer Ansel Adams “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” 

Murphy helping Chocolat with her ball on Sunday.

There’s a small problem with his thoughts on that though .... I’m seldom silent.

Amy ... who didn't know how to stop barking!

Silence never features when the hound and I are out on our rambles .... if there’s no human to talk to I talk to the hound ... or the seagulls. Sometimes, the fact that she can’t reply is an advantage, especially if I want to rant and rave. There are other moments though when a situation is so humourous that I NEED to share it with a fellow human ... the hound just won’t do! Fortunately those moments are few and far between as I seldom ramble alone .... not through choice but because there’s always someone wanting to ramble with me.

The newcomer Mondo took a shine to Barney

Barney loves the rugby ball almost as much as my hound!

The hound and I had double “B’s” join us on the sands today ... Bouncy Bella and Barney who’re both chocolat Labs. My hound loves Barney and Bella joining us in the waves ... they’re both as enthusiastic about chasing balls through the waves as she is. Bella lets go of the ball when she gets it first .... not Barney though, half the fun for him is having the other hounds chase him to get the ball back ... typical male!

I think Alex has just as much fun as the hounds!

Suzanne, like my oldest lemming, doesn’t like seagulls ... for very different reasons to Gareth though. She’s scared of them whereas, in Gareth’s words “he finds them *expletive* annoying”. Suzanne had bought pieces of cheese with her to encourage Bella to respond to her call to go on leash. It was that Alfred Hitchcock’s “Birds” moment when Suzanne pulled out the cheese.

There's something interesting in the shallows.

The seagulls swamped us ... poor Suzanne grabbed my arm for protection as they hovered around our heads ... she promptly put the cheese away. Would that I could have had a photograph ... a candid camera moment like no other!

I’m still smiling at the picture we must have made and how clever those gulls were to associate Suzanne’s plastic bag with the food I bring to the beach for them
 ... I somehow don’t think Suzanne was as amused as me.