Life can be absurd!

A photo from the weekend as the weather today was too dismal for photos

The weather this morning!

I got told today that ATTiTuDE is contagious and that my attitude was a good one to catch! I love that! It comes courtesy of one of the customers in the shop this morning. Her and I were having a good old chin-wag and laughing at the absurdness of people ... and life in general. Those were her parting words to me.

Taking cover in the bus shelter to drink our first fix of the day!

What is it that makes for a GOOD attitude? Is it my approach to life that she found so refreshing ... a positive attitude and a ready smile? I’m not sure BUT it did get me thinking .... and PEOPLE watching! 

My favourite piece of real estate lit up by the struggling sunrise.

The hound this morning ... wind and rain don't deter her.

People are FASCINATING!! I watch them as they scuttle along the sidewalk. Some are in such a hurry - places to be, people to meet .... no time for window shopping, no time for smiles. Others stroll along, waving and smiling at faces they know .... stopping to chat to acquaintances ... admiring something they see as they’re passing by.

More photos from Saturday

Ike, one of my previous neighbour's dogs

You pick up the most arbitrary snippets of conversation too. Listening to them reminds me of when Gav and I were last in New York .... sans children .... sitting on a bench in Central Park indulging in my favourite activity - people watching. We could have written the most humorous novel from the snippets of conversation we overheard .... it would have included murder, mayhem, office gossip and the inevitable love and romance!

Maggie, their other dog.

The idiosyncrasies of my fellow homo sapiens never cease to intrigue me. Walking along the beach at 6.45 this morning Julia and I see a car parked on the boat ramp .... the BOTTOM of the boat ramp .... where the WAVES are. The windows are all tinted so we can’t see if anyone’s in it though the front passenger window is down just a fraction.

It’s a wild wet morning and must have been icy during the night but the car looks like it might have spent the night there .... with or without an occupant ... who knows?

Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum

The waves meanwhile are starting to wash around the wheels. Julia knocks on the window ... no response .... so she knocks again. Harder. Still no response.

We both walk away from the car wondering what we should do. As we’re debating our next step the passenger window’s wound down and a very sleepy looking individual pokes his head out. We point to the waves and suggest he should move the car. He thanks us and winds the window back up.

Love the Oyster Catchers

Duty done, we move on down the beach with the hounds. There are a thousand questions we would have loved to ask him but we’ll just have to let our imagination run riot .... we’re both GOOD at that!
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions”. ~ Albert Einstein

Hmmmm .... Gareth and Defenders!

I'm not normal ....

When I say I’m NOT normal, I really mean it ... I’m not.

It’s NOT normal to venture out into the wild, windy, wet and woeful weather ... with a hound and a lemming .... AND still be laughing when you come home wet. I think that particular lemming’s NOT normal either ... nor is the hound.

The wind was so vile we tried walking BACKWARDS along the beach. There was no worry about bumping into anyone ... there WASN’T anyone ON the beach to bump into. Just the dog to trip over .... or the lemming’s BIG feet when you’re playing soccer with a rugby ball. I’d forgotten how big his feet are and how difficult it is to get back on your feet whilst trying to retain possession of a rugby ball, and NOT wet your pants laughing.

Wet, windy and Wild!

The hound loves it. The wilder the weather the stronger the waves and the larger the logs on the beach. Caffeine was a necessity and not just to satisfy a fix .... I needed it to warm my hands too!

Sunday morning's cloud formation

Why is it that when the weather’s wet and windy, some people persist in using umbrellas? They get blown inside out and have more rain on the inside than the outside. Candid camera moments aplenty IF I didn’t mind my camera getting wet! 

Give me a raincoat with a hood any day!

Sam the Man has the Lahood household taped ... wrapped round the smallest part of his very large paws! Carol and Pete have just got back from participating in a half-marathon on the Gold Coast this weekend. Sam, on arriving home from the kennels, immediately claimed ownership of the couch ... a battle he’s been waging with Carol since he became part of their family.

Kingfishers on my beach

I think today he won that battle .... the couch is HIS!

Heron foraging in front of my favourite piece of real estate

The cat that lives WITH us has a cold ... he’s sneezing all the time. If you’ve never seen a cat sneeze, it’s actually quite funny .... for us that is, not him. The first thing the vet asked was if he’d been in the cattery recently. He has ... he spent two days there while we moved. 

There are so many birds in the shallows when the tide's far out.

The vet has seen 3 kitties this week with the same symptoms and they’ve all spent time at the same cattery. It’s not a virus they’ve caught at the cattery though. He believes they’ve been bullied by another cat whilst there and it’s stressed them out. When they get stressed it affects their immune system making them susceptible to viruses.

He also gave us a copy of his latest newsletter as there’s an article in there about ‘the cat who lived’ and her amazing recovery. He’s still in awe that she survived and that she’s recovered so well. So are we.

I’m trying to get some work done today and this is supposed to be a QUIET household with fewer bodies in it. Strange then that there are 4 lemmings sitting around the playstation ... 2 of whom don’t live here anymore. They’ve been raiding the fridge and freezer and are eating ice-cream when it’s so icy outside .... brrrrrr!

“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.” ~ William Arthur

The full moon this evening.

Sam the Man has arrived!

The new “boy on the block” has arrived and he’s all of 9 months old and GORGEOUS! He also likes coffee ... so much so that he pinched Keith’s ‘coffee-to-go’ BEFORE Keith finished drinking it!!
We might have taught him a new “bad habit” too soon.

Carol and I were doubled over with laughter  .... I don’t know how we managed to stay upright. There was this large golden Labrador gently picking up the ‘coffee-to-go’ by the lid and sneaking across the sand with it hoping we wouldn’t notice! We were laughing so hard it made it difficult retrieving the coffee from Sam ... by which time he’d spilled half of it on the sand! Carol dusted off the sand and hound drool from the lid and nonchalantly handed it back to Keith ... thank goodness he has a sense of humour and a hound of his own!!

Sam’s first foray onto the sand and ALREADY he’s made a name for himself!

He’s a character ... a big gentle giant ... who’ll lick you to death given half the chance. He had a whale of a time on the sand and in the waves with my hound this morning. He was amazingly well-behaved for it being his first outing with Carol. Whenever he chose to be deaf, I’d kick the rugby ball into the water for Chocolat and he’d come racing back to help her retrieve it.  He’s a water-loving, stick-fetching Labrador .... everything a Labrador should be .... and he couldn’t have come to a better home!

We’ve all had a good chuckle this morning .... laughing is good for the soul and the antics of the various hounds on the beach this morning created so much soul food. The sun’s shining, the tide’s out and the hounds have been in heaven.
Mornings like this are magical!

Nico ... the miniature Schnauzer

We’ve all in the past been accustomed to seeing Carol first, and then her hound .... Sebastian would always bring up the rear, walking along at his own pace. Even the cars slowed down for him when he crossed the road .... well .... MOST of them. It’s quite the reverse with Sam the Man. We get to see him first and then Carol flying along behind him. She’s only a slight thing so Sam definitely has the strength and weight advantage!

He got to meet several of the Labradors that make up the ‘Chocolat Express’ today.  Julia was taking Indy for his follow-up blood tests so they popped onto the beach to meet Sam, before heading off to the vet. Suzanne and Bella also joined us in the waves as did Keith and Bessie. At one point this morning we had all 3 Labradors, Chocolat, Bessie and Sam charging out of the water gripping the same stick in their mouths. Sam, typical Aussie, broke the stick! Sadly, I don’t have a photo of that as the camera chose to have one of it’s moments then.

I did manage to get some great pics of Bella, Vi and Wally’s Poodle and some more pics of Nico, Brian’s Miniature Schnauzer ... more canine celebrities  for my Hounds of St. Heliers range.

Bella, Vi and Wally's poodle

Sam wanted to go home with each and every new hound that he met and he particularly liked Coco Chanel ... the Bichon Frise! She WASN’T disinterested in him either and they made a cute picutre ... tiny little Coco and big Sam the Man ... another photo opportunity missed by a malfunctioning camera. Yep ... I think it’s time to make a decision about a new camera and get this one some TLC.

Love the reflection in Carol's glasses ... I've got a double!