I should come with a WARNING!

Always kick with intent .... each ball is eagerly awaited by a hound ... or two ... or three!

That kicking with intent maimed my friend today! One kick to the rugby ball was all it took and Carol was limping along the beach with blood dripping down her leg. It didn’t help that it was cold and wet this morning ... it just accentuated the pain.


Ouch .... BIG ouch! I think she’s going to have a rather bruised and painful leg and all because I don’t check behind me before kicking the ball .... very careless of me. 

The hound and I should come with a WARNING .... being a friend of the Chocolat Express can be HAZARDOUS for your health.

Summer has arrived .... well .... at the shop it has! We have summer dresses in ABUNDANCE  ... beautiful colours ... feminine ... flowing .... elegant. It’s just a pity the weather hasn’t seen fit to join the party. 


It has rained the last few days .... lots ..... and lots ...... AND lots of rain.

Our early morning rambles have been so wet that it isn’t ONLY the hound that’s arriving home looking like a drowned rate ... I do too. She’s a much better looking drowned rat than me though.


Rain adds such a different dimension to our rambles ... from a visual and an auditory perspective. Wearing a raincoat dulls my hearing and interferes with peripheral vision but when the rain’s heavy, it’s necessary. There are also fewer hounds on the beach but the ones that are there .... like our hounds and Bessie .... LOVE the waves!

We babysat .... make that DOG-sat .... Sam for Carol and Pete on Sunday morning. They were participating in an off-road half-marathon and hadn’t wanted to leave Sam on his own at home for a prolonged period of time .... who knows what he might have got up to ... he is, after all, only 10 months old. Sam joined us for our long ramble up to Glover Park and then down to the beach. 

We weren’t accompanied by a ginger kitty this week but that could have been because it was raining .... cats don’t seem to DO rain as well as hounds do.


Bessie joined the two of them in the waves when we hit the beach. She’s as avid a swimmer as my hound and loves retrieving balls ... especially tennis balls. Keith throws the ball way out into the waves and, luckily for him, Bessie fetches it. I’d hate to be him the day she decides she’s not swimming out that far to fetch the ball .... especially if it’s a cold winter’s day!

The persistent rain puts paid to any morning photography. It’s so frustrating! We were joined in the waves by Bella and Bonnie today and there were numerous moments when I could see in my mind’s eye how good the image would look through the lens. Cameras and rain DON’T mix too well though so the camera stayed safe and dry in the backpack .... ho-hum.