A "menacing" Sam!

“Your situation is never permanent.  It’s what you make it.  

Life isn’t solid .... it’s fluid and it changes.” 

~ Anon.

Wow ... NZ’s sure been rocking and rolling today!  

A rather large 6.6 quake in the Cook Strait just after 2.30 this afternoon was even felt in good ole Aux.  I’m still coming to grips with what they feel like and sometimes the sound and the movement pass before I register what it is.  It’s raining and blowing gales here as well which doesn’t help when registering if the movement one feels is coming from the ground or caused by the wind.

My world rocked ... quite literally!

I’ve been feeling a little aggrieved with Mother Nature today.  The earthquakes compound that aggrievement. She’s been leading us up the garden path as far as the arrival of spring is concerned.  We’ve been blessed with the most glorious of sunshiny days over the past 2 weeks and then suddenly winter has been flung back at us with a vengeance!

It was icy in the wind.  Even more so when standing on the edge of the waves throwing rugby-balls for our mad-as-a-hatter hounds.

Even caffeine, that elixir-fixer of all evils, wasn’t able to take the chill out of the wind.  

It was miserably cold.

Mother Nature has even fooled the doves into believing spring is in the air.  They’re doing what most of our furry and feathered friends do in spring ... pro-creating.  Collecting materials to build nests in palm trees takes on hazardous dimensions when carried out in winds of this strength.

More than once Mr. Dove was tossed backwards through the air, twigs and all, as if in a tumble-drier.  He was nothing if not persistent though and, after settling his ruffled feathers, continued with his task. 

He is a tenacious wee beastie.

... and so is Bandit.

Bandit LOVES to herd the hounds .... and they’re just not having any of it.  Lots of vocalisation takes place as Bandit runs alongside one or the other trying to force them in the direction in which he THINKS they should be heading.  Most of the vocalisation comes from Bandit as our hounds struggle to bark when they’ve got rugby balls in their mouths.  

Growls emanate instead.

I think he’s given up with my hound but Sam’s still fair game. 

It makes for many humourous snaps of an aggressive looking Sam snarling back at a teasing Bandit.  Sam doesn’t have an aggressive bone in his body but he looks absolutely menacing in the photos.  

The power of the image.

The icy wind eventually got the better of even us hardy souls so we gathered up the hounds and the balls and headed home.

For once I was grateful to reach the sanctuary of my front door.