Ineptness ...

I DON'T have enough hands.

I'm inept at juggling a backpack, car keys, a laptop and a coat 

... especially when it’s raining and more especially when I’m tired.

Yes.  I should have been wearing the coat.

It was raining after all.

Yes.  The backpack should have been on my back

But I wasn’t and it wasn’t.

Sprawling on the sidewalk when it’s raining is a tad inelegant.

Everything goes flying.

Everything but the laptop that is.

There’s a survival instinct that comes into play when carrying the laptop or camera.

Protect it at all costs.

Bugger any damage to oneself.

How could I be so clumsy?

It didn’t help that I’d been trying to get the car keys out of the backpack.

The contents of the pocket that was open were strewn all over the sidewalk.

Yes.  In the rain.

No wonder I lost the shop keys.

It was ridiculous in the extreme.

Despite the sore shoulder AND the rain, all I could do was laugh.

At least the hound wasn’t there to leap on me as is her wont when I fall.

It was reminiscent of the weekend when the flatmate and I were at Cornwall Park.

We BOTH slipped down a bank and fell.

In slow motion.

The camera survived.

Not so our dignity.

This falling malarky is becoming a bit of a habit.

And No.

It’s NOT because of all the bubbly I consume with Yvonne.

Slippery sidewalks and muddy embankments are the norm at this time of year.

Courtesy of all that rain.

Even the hound slips on the boardwalks and she has FOUR feet.

I tiptoe along behind her, testing my footing before moving forward.

A slip slide on the boardwalk COULD land me in the water.

THAT would make for an amusing morning ramble!

“I get up every morning determined to both change the world 

and have one hell of a good time.  

Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.”

~  E.B. White

Ripples of kindness radiate EVERYwhere!

No matter who you are, 

what your agenda is, 

what your thoughts on life are, 

kindness touches you too. 

One act of kindness prompts another which in turn grows another.  

What would life be without these touches of kindness radiating out like ripples in a pond.

The rain at Churchill Park was quite prophetic this morning.

Ripples  everywhere!

Raindrops on roses.

On fence posts.

On grass stalks.

Even on the cows ears.

I love rambling in the rain.

As does the hound.

Even when the rain stops, 

the trees still shower you with drops as you walk beneath them.

It’s magical.

The river provided a smorgasbord of reflections

enhanced by the ripples of the raindrops.

Stopping to take it all in is a tonic in itself.

A time for reflection.

I am a part of everything and everything is a part of me.

As the endless spiral of words goes round and round in my brain

I choose to focus on the moment I’m in right now.

It’s splendiferous.

In that silence I can find myself.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Nothing more.

Just feel that silence.

Except it’s not really silent.

White noise is everywhere.

Birds call as the wind rustles through the trees.

The rain drip-drops off the leaves.

In the distance, the hum of a lawnmower ... 

They’re comfortable sounds though

after a more than hectic week.

Finding paperwork in boxes and having it certified has been a time-consuming task.

A productive one though.

I lodge the SO’s deportation appeal on Monday.

Fingers crossed for a positive outcome.

The tractor has been trashing our trenches.

I know some people don't like them, but I LOVE them!

It’s all about the raindrops!

... and the number of them on each tree branch.  Rambling in the rain takes on new meaning when you shake the branch of each tree you walk under .... not on yourself of course, but on the person or persons rambling with you!

Instant HEAVY shower.

One of us ... namely ME ... forgot that.

Trench digging in action.

The other half had reservations about rambling with me when he woke today.  
It was raining and he doesn’t DO rain ... unless he’s in the car.

“Some people FEEL the rain, others just get wet.” 

~ Bob Marley

I’m one of those who FEEL the rain ... and dance in it!  
I get wet too and not just when it’s raining ... I get wet just walking on the beach.

The rain stopped though so he joined us and caught me out in my very own prank.  Fortunately there weren’t TOO many raindrops on the branches I walked under.  
Fortunately for HIM that is.  Revenge can be sweet.

Hmmmm .... should have written it upside down.

That sun of mine is rising just a little too early ... too early for me to witness it’s rising, that is.  Either my ramble’s going to have to start a little earlier or I’m going to have to resign myself to not seeing it cresting the horizon until it starts it’s journey back to the northern hemisphere.

I get to the viewsite about 10 minutes TOO late at the moment.  Just 10 minutes.

The hound of course couldn’t care less about the state or otherwise of the sun.  She just wants to hit the waves and look for the perfect log  

... which is non-existent.

The hugest of wolfhounds ... this guy was TALLER than
a Shetland Pony!

Logs have been few and far between this week.  It must have something to do with the tractor having trashed our trenches and removed our tree-size logs.  The hound can’t understand why anyone would fill in her trenches and take away her logs.  It takes hours of digging to perfect those trenches and in a few brief minutes, the tractor’s filled them all in!

The hound's and my artwork!

We’ve been choosing to dig trenches down the far end of the beach over the last few days.  She’s dug her trenches whilst the other half has snoozed in the sun.  I’ve been practising putting my words down on the sand and the waves have been perfecting the art of washing them away!

The waves washing mine away .... the tide's supposed to be going OUT not coming IN!!

It’s 2 - 0 to the waves at the moment.

Yep ... it's almost that time of the month again!

The wind can rattle my bones.

“Always find beauty in things that are odd - imperfect 

- they are much more interesting.” 

~ Marc Jacobs

Any interest I MIGHT have had in the Americas Cup has long gone. It’s impact on the immediate economy has been dismal.  It’s affected productivity AND sales.  The number of people letting of steam about the sailing ... and the inability or otherwise of Team NZ to pull of a win ... is phenomenal.  Everyone ... and I mean EVERYONE .... is talking about it.

In the words of an individual called Sandy Abbott who wrote an open letter to Emirates Team New Zealand “No other country does this like we do. This is who we are. This is why we win. When you take on Team New Zealand, you take on the whole country.” 

I’d be lynched if I even for a moment suggested that Oracle deserve to win as they’ve come from a 7-1 deficit to an 8 all tie ... but I know nothing about sailing.

It’ll all be over tomorrow and the country COULD be in mourning. I hope I’m wrong.

Yachting aside, the hound and I have thoroughly enjoyed our rather wet and windy rambles the last two days. They’ve been so therapeutic.  There’s something about the wildness of the weather that’s appealed to my mood. That low pressure front engulfing the country has bought copious amounts of rain and Wellywood wind with it.  

It has been blowing .... HARD.

Standing at the viewsite this morning with the wind rattling my bones was unreal.  I spoke to the hound and the words whistled off into the ether.  She looked as confused as I did.  My mouth was moving but neither of us could hear what was coming out of it. 

Somewhere someone down on the beach must have heard me laughing.

I hope it made them smile.

The gulls were performing their usual aerial acrobatics.  Wind propulsion enables them to perform the MOST incredible manoeuvrers .... all quite unintentional.  I lost count of the number of times they overshot their landing and had to circle round and try again.  It was like watching jets landing at an airport.

The sparrows don’t appear to struggle as much with the wind as the gulls do. The cheeky little blighters flit from branch to ground and back again totally unperturbed by it all.  In the meantime I’m struggling to keep my hair out of my mouth and to propel the rugby ball in any direction but BACK at me!

Our time in the waves ... and the wind ... is over FAR too quickly on the days that I work. Caffeine fix to hand, the hound and I take the back road home. Life goes on.

“The only way of finding the limits of the possible 

is by going beyond them into the impossible.” 

~ Arthur C Clarke