Mist .... MUD ..... and Mayhem!

Julia, Anna and Carol with the hounds .... at the look-out point above the dog pond

“Above all, BE the HEROINE in your life ..... NOT the victim.:" ~ Nora Ephron .... Amen to that!


MIST .... MUD .... and MAYHEM!!


Mud ... GLORIOUS mud .... and more mud .... at Waiatarua this morning! The hounds LOVED it. On a day like today you go there knowing you’re going to get wet, muddy and cold .... you don’t have a choice!

Carol and Sam were coming to the reserve with us too .... as was Julia’s niece, Anna. Carol collected the hound and I and, after picking up our VERY necessary caffeine fix - it’s cold, you know .... we headed to the reserve to meet the others.

A rather muddy Sam

Meeting up with them proved a tad more difficult than expected. Carol parks in a different car-park to where Julia normally parks. No problem we thought ... we’ll just head in the direction of where they’re parked and meet up with them. Forgot one thing though ... I’m directionally challenged. I am USELESS ... yes, capital letters USELESS .... at navigation. It is NOT one of my strengths. Getting LOST is one of my strengths. We’ve discovered many weird and wonderful places when we get lost .... but NAVIGATION isn’t.

Sasha's managed to stay a lot cleaner than Sam

We've found someone's ball

Carol’s directionally challenged too .... must be something to do with us sharing the same name. It was like the blind leading the blind .... round in circles .... quite literally. I think Julia and Anna probably traversed the entire reserve before stumbling upon us. Indy was delighted to see the hound and Sam. Julia hadn’t had time to walk him yesterday so his energy levels were at an all-time high!

Visibility WASN’T good today - the mist was thicker than I’ve ever seen it at the reserve and as for the MUD .... it was doggie heaven! It wasn’t just the hound that needed a wash-down with the COLD hosepipe when we got home ... yours truly did too.

Life is short. Live it!

Whilst I love walking on the beach and wading through the waves I so enjoy walking in the reserve too. It’s a completely different kind of ramble for the hounds .... they can be off-leash the entire time and we seldom encounter anyone who doesn’t like hounds. It’s one of the few places where the entire reserve is off-leash for dogs despite there being a bird wetland there. The hounds soon learn they can’t go in the water where the birds are and that Ducks and Pukeko are too silly to chase! 

White chocolate and milk chocolate mousse

My hound is EXHAUSTED with a capital E. I’m downstairs in the office/shop sorting out stock for the market tomorrow and she’s stretched out on the carpet FAST ASLEEP .... tongue out ..... snoring. I’ve been upstairs twice to fetch things and she hasn’t budged. Normally she’d be trotting up the stairs behind me to see where I’m going.

If my next life, I’m definitely coming back as my hound!!