Tuesdays are mine.

Reflections of reflections!

Magic is when life doesn’t go as planned but works out well anyway.

Having a foot missing doesn't hinder this little girl.

Contentment is a much maligned word.  It doesn’t come from having everything you want in life, but from being content with one’s situation, whatever that might be.  

I have moments when contentment settles over me like a second skin.  

I love those moments.

I also LOVE my day off.

Tuesday doesn’t come round soon enough

It’s always filled to the brim with fun and fabulousness.

THIS Tuesday saw the hound and I up bright and early.

Yes.

Early.

5.30am early.

Even on my day off.

We hit the viewsite to catch a sunrise.

Sunrises though don’t always happen according to plan.

The low pressure system ridging in over North Island has bought clouds aplenty.

Clouds for the sun to hide behind.

The skies WERE a beautiful pink though and the glow over the city as the sun raised it’s head was breathtaking.

The hound and I BOTH wallowed in the waves when we hit the beach.

She retrieved logs whilst I threw them.

One particular log was even carried back up the hill to the landy.

Not by me.

Our brief interlude at Animates to wash the hound turned out to be anything but brief.

The landy, as is it’s wont at inopportune times, wouldn’t start when the time came to head home.  

Patience is becoming a strength.

Taking the flatmate to collect his scooter from the motorbike man was next on the agenda.  

A repaired scooter means no more midnight pick-ups from work. 

Yay for NOT having to drive into St. Heliers in my pj’s anymore.

The afternoon just kept getting better.

Lunch and shopping with my buddy.

Spa.

Bubbles.

Need I say more.

Time isn’t important on a day off.  

There will ALWAYS be a zillion and one things to do, 

but Tuesday’s are mine and therefore time IS irrelevant.

It’s a choice I’m happy to make.

Downtime is necessary.

I more than realise that now.

“Don’t explain your philosophy.  Embody it.” 

~ Epictetus

Navigationally challenged.

"To practice any art,

no matter how well or badly,

is a way to make your soul grow.

So do it.

~ Kurt Vonnegut

It's all that sunshine and Vitamin D!

Oh yes.

A little Kingfisher greeting the morning

The best possible way to start a day though a lot of my friends might disagree on that one.  

Particularly when it entails leaving home before the sun's up.  

What's the point in leaving home before the sun's up

 if it's the sunshine that's so good for you, I can hear them say.

Philistines.

It's the very BEST part of my day.

Even when it's raining.

There was no sun rise to watch on Tuesday morning though, 

just raindrops through the lens.  

Whatever the sun WAS doing wasn't visible to those of us below the clouds.  

There wasn't even a glimmer of the sunlight that was supposedly 

beaming down on the rest of the world.

This is supposedly so that the cyclists don't BOWL us over on their morning commue.

Some mornings are like that.

Tuesday morning's ramble was a long one.  

Our first long one in over a month.  

From Panmure Bridge to Farm Cove and back, 

all along the Tamaki Estuary.

My navigationally challenged tendencies though 

ensured that it was even longer than what it should have been.  

Somehow I managed to get us lost.

Yes.

One wouldn't think that you could get lost along the Tamaki Estuary but you can.

More so if you're me.

No built-in navigational skills to speak of, you see.

Thank goodness I only had to be at work in the afternoon!

It was a VERY tired hound that returned to the car. I could sense the quickening in her step and see the relief in her eyes as she espied the car. 

I think she thought we'd be lost forever.

She spent the rest of the day asleep on her bed
whilst I went to work.
Damn.

Monty, one of the regulars we see on the boardwalk

View of my city from Te Aroha Peninsula

Facing the fears

A sprinkling of frozen dewdrops on the Proteas

I took a big step forward this weekend.

For me that is.

Frost on the boardwalk .... 2 degrees on our early morning ramble

I attended a party.

On my own.

Not much you might think in the grander scheme of things.

But it was for me.

I’m accustomed to being one half of a couple.

Invitations and acceptances to functions were generally for both of us.

The SO and I.

That’s how it’s been for the last 30 odd years.

Warming up on the street lights

Going to functions with a girlfriend is easy.

Choosing to attend on my own is a little daunting.

Especially when it’s in the city.

But I did.

Even drove myself there.

And felt so brave for having taken that step.

The Panmure Bridge.  I walk over it to reach the Rotary Walkway.

My world is changing and I’m embracing it.

The other change I’m delighting in are my rambles along the estuary.

Another living, moving body of water to explore.

And photograph of course.

NOTHING is ever static about it, even when the tide’s retreating.  

It lives.

Abundantly so.

There are SO many Kingfishers

all JUST out of reach of my lens.

Catching the sunrise over the estuary as its colours light up the sky

and wake up the world is beyond magical.

The warmth creeps along the water and sidles up the ever-present masts.

EVERYthing in view is bathed in glittering gold.

This world, and the chaos in it, is forgotten in the warmth and glory of the moment.

I would be lost without this daily dose of magic.

Even on the wet and woeful days there’s a glow in the sky as the sun makes it’s presence felt.  NOTHING stops it.

I want to be like that.

Unstoppable.

“One day she finally grasped that unexpected things were always going to happen in life.  

And with that she realised the only control she had was how she chose to handle them.  

So she made the decision to survive using courage, humour and grace.  

She was the queen of her own life and the choice was hers.”

~ Lupytha Hermin

Another view of the Panmure Bridge