Showing posts with label Coffee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coffee. Show all posts

Friday, 13 February 2015

My kind of sanctuary.

“A yawn is a silent scream for coffee”
~ anon
Our local baker has it in one.
Not only does he create the most decadent of treats but the coffee’s very MOREish too.
I yawn frequently.
He listens.
A suitably rejuvenating beverage arrives.
He’s going to MISS me on Tuesdays and Fridays.
It feels like it’s been forever that I’ve been filling in shifts at the shop for one or other of my colleagues.  
Whilst the bank account’s benefited, my sanity hasn’t.
Between the shop and markets, and my visit to SA, it’s been full on craziness.
Yay for the shop being back to its FULL staff complement this week.
Yay for having Tuesday and Friday back!
Lulu the little West Highland Terrier we met at Orakei
I’m smiling.
Or should that be grinning.
Ear to ear grinning like that famed Cheshire cat!
Onward and upward, OUT of the fog. 
Reflections can be ANYwhere!
The hound’s grinning too.
Longer rambles with no time constraints.
Longer forays through the mudflats.
MORE pointing the lens in any direction but mine.
To celebrate our newly regained freedom we’ve rambled farther this week.
Churchill Park and Orakei Basin have been our ports of call.
The Basin, unbeknown to me and many others who ramble there, 
is one of the volcanoes that make up the Auckland Volcanic Field. 
Yes, that comes courtesy of Google, the arbiter of all things intellectual and inane.
After the volcano erupted many years ago it became a fresh water lake.  
As sea levels rose, the lake was breached and its been a tidal lagoon ever since.  
And there I was thinking it was JUST a tidal lagoon.
Assumptions.
How wrong they can be!
Churchill Park and Orakei Basin have a magic of their own.
Each, in it’s own way, is a sanctuary of sorts.
Soul food is provided in abundance.
From ducks and reflections at Churchill Park
to Shags and reflections at Orakei Basin.
There's something caught in this Pied Shag's chest but I can't work out what it is.
It could be a fishing lure ...
Where there’s water there’s BOUND to be reflections, 
a hound and an abundance of birds!
As always, life is in constant flux
but to be able to revel in each moment, 
knowing it can’t be replicated, is liberating.
As it should be.

In the words of an ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus
“You can never step in the same river twice.”
Just love these raised walkways around the basin.
All we have is the PRESENT moment.
Live it.
Getting an eyeful of us.
A panaramic view of Orakei Basin
Railway line running next to one of the boardwalk and my adopted city in the background.
Love this little spot in the world.

Couldn't resist the red boat's reflection alongside theirs.

Saturday, 8 November 2014

Birthdays.

There is ALWAYS light.
Everywhere.
Even in the darkest of moments, there’s a glimmer of light.
We just need to see it.
Orakie Basin on a gorgeous spring morning!
A pink ball she found as we headed out on our ramble
Waking up on my birthday morning was a rather solitary affair.

Just the hound for company.

Only the second time in 32 years that the Significatn Other hasn’t bought me a morning cuppa on my birthday.
The last time was in 2008 when many miles of ocean separated us.
It didn't take long for her to put a tooth through it and pop it.
It’s been a while since I felt so sad.
I couldn’t help it.
The tears fell.
For a moment I felt defeated and overwhelmed by sadness.
Blessings come in many guises though.
Especially on a birthday.
Balloons on the beach that go POP.
Especially for the hound.
Pink ones of course!
My birthday balloons which she promptly popped after having the photo taken.
She LOVES balloons!
Coffee and cake delivered to the shop at 9.05.
PERFECT birthday breakfast!
See .... there really ARE unicorns!
Came upon this one at Coatesville Market
Bubbles and chocolate for morning tea.
Shhhhh .... DON’T tell the boss!
Little Elle ... all of 10 months old!
Wet and humunguos hugs from a rain-sodden oldest lemming.
He gives the very BEST of hugs!
Gorgeous flowers from a just as gorgeous girl lemming.
I miss her SO much!
Stolen moments of illicit wine imbibing at the Designer Fair.
Some things just HAVE to be done.

I didn’t have time to ponder on the sadness I’d felt at the start of the day.
Everything conspired against it.

Arriving home at 11pm to an overloaded inbox 
and messages too numerous to count left my head spinning.
  
There is SO much love out there and I feel blessed beyond measure.
Dexter and buddy at Coatesville Market
“A blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, 
heal and strengthen.” 
~ John O’Donohue
Cosmo waiting for the stick to be thrown
It's that "seeing the light" thingy again!
Indy's flop into the basin ... he DID have a helping hand!
The hound's LEAP into the basin ....
... and belly flop.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

WHY do I love where I live?


If ever I needed a reminder of why I love where I live, this weekend  HAS been it.


It’s so easy to miss the obvious because our eyes don’t always see what’s right beneath our noses!  
I love my little bay ... it’s gloriously beautiful ... both in the sunshine and in the rain.  
This little spot in the world makes my pulse race every morning as I head down to the waves.  I have no idea who or what I’m going to be exposed to each day but I know it’ll touch my soul and ignite my fire.

This little village has it all.

It’s not JUST a beautiful spot to live in but it’s filled with beautiful people too.  
Beautiful on the inside as well as the outside.  
Sure, we have GOM and his cronies in our village but every village in the world has it’s fair share of sour-minded individuals.  
It’s  the non-GOMs though that make this village such a special place to live.

It’s a community that cares.  
It’s a community that knows WHO you are.
That can have it's downside too!

They also know what time you usually ramble and are quick to notice when a Saturday morning ramble is later than usual!

The significant other remarked on our way home from rambling that it’s becoming difficult to ramble or even walk through the village WITHOUT one pause or another to pass the time of day with a familiar face. 
That’s what belonging is all about!

I love that so many faces are now recognisable.  
I love that I FEEL this sense of belonging.

For this moment in time, for however long it might last, THIS is my home.

No matter the difficulties we still face, the mountains still to clime ... they’re all made more manageable, more tolerable by the very essence of our surroundings and those that inhabit them.

Let me NEVER take it forgranted.

Whilst throwing the hound’s ball off the rocks at the end of the beach, we were approached by an Asian gentleman.  He told us that he and his wife video their rambles and post them on Vimmeo.  His latest one called “Morning in St. Heliers Bay – Auckland Summer, 2013" includes footage of the hounds retrieving their log.  The video is 11 minutes long but it’s an awesome capture of everything we see on our daily rambles.

If you have the time to watch it you’ll understand why I love this little spot in the world so much!