Rumi, you ROCK my boat!

"This silence - this moment - every moment

 ... if it's genuinely inside you - brings what you need.” 

~ Rumi

Rumi, you rock my boat.

My morning has been MAGICAL. 

A cloud-free chilly sunrise shared with the hound and the middle lemming was a magnificent start to a day that has been icily cold!  For the first time this winter there was FROST on the ground, courtesy of the clear skies and south-westerly winds.  

I wouldn’t want to be living in Christchurch!

It was a chilly 1 degree when we clambered over the rocks below the middle lemming’s abode to watch the world wake up.  Despite the early hour of the morning the ferries were already criss-crossing the waves ... even the car-ferry put in an appearance.  

A lone kayaker followed them across the shipping lane.

I could have done with a shot of caffeine!

The hound couldn’t understand why we were sitting on the rocks with a blanket over our knees.  We were on the beach ... there were waves ... why weren’t we in them?

So she barked.  Loudly.

In the quiet of the morning in a secluded bay, sound carries.  

Even she looked round in confusion, unsure as to where the loud noise had come from.

Silence is NOT something she understands.

Reflections are everywhere, in all guises.  They AREN’T just in my mind.  From the reflections at the boat club we found reflections on the beach.  Low tide and clear skies make for awesome mirror images of the hound and Sam and Zak as they race through the shallows. 

It isn’t just Sam who comes racing over to say Hi when I hit the beach now.  Panda does the same.  I nearly got caught off-guard this morning by Panda.  I was busy packing the lead away in the backpack when this great big brown and white hound came charging up the steps and nuzzled me.  I should have guessed it was Panda but he was gone as quickly as he arrived. 

He made me smile.  He’s just as enthusiastic a hound as Sam!

Sam the Man racing to greet me this morning!

Those of you who read my blog will know how very much I love my hound.  I am a firm advocate for animal rights and abhor the decision made by the New Zealand Govt last week to allow for the testing of legal high drugs on animals.  It’s an absolute farce and I’m shocked that the country I now call home HASN’T seen fit to ban this kind of testing.

Zak and Sam making BIG splashes!

Parliament resumes on July 30th and several marches have been planned around the country to co-incide with the re-sitting of Parliament.  The hound and I intend marching at the Auckland one.

“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way it’s animals are treated.” 

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Love our moon .... looks like lace etched in the sky!

This morning's YUM breakfast at the new french cafe
French brioche with caramelised banana, bacon and mascarpone cheese 

It was that Alfred Hitchcock's "Birds" moment!

Sometimes I need reminding that life doesn’t always have all the answers. Sometimes there’s no way of knowing why things happen ... what their purpose is ... why they’re happening to me or to those I care about. 


This quotation is a timely reminder to not waste energy trying to unfathom the unfathomable. Bad things DO happen .... and sometimes there just is no explanation for them.


Baby steps forward ... that’s all I need to take .... one step at a time. One day I’ll look back with wisdom and gratitude for the hands that have lifted me up and the strengths I’ve discovered in myself. Life ISN’T always fair but I do have so much to smile about.

The huge log she found on Ladies Bay this morning.

Always DO what you love ... and DO it often .... that very thought makes me smile! There is so much about life that I love ... it’s idiosyncracies .... it’s complexity on the one hand and it’s simplicity on the other. I LOVE making photographs - turning them into my kind of art ... it’s all about being in the right spot at the right time that the shutter was meant to be pressed.

A manic moment ....

I also LOVE words .... thousands of them. To be able to combine the beauty I capture every day through the lens with a language that is insanely crazy fulfills a passion within me that I didn’t know I had.
Writing gives my thoughts wings ... it gives them a freedom they didn’t have before. 

.... and another one!

Writing allows me to verbalise the humour and beauty I see everyday. The photograph itself says so much but the writing allows it to say more. Then again, sometimes words aren’t necessary .... the photo itself says all that needs to be said. In the words of photographer Ansel Adams “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” 

Murphy helping Chocolat with her ball on Sunday.

There’s a small problem with his thoughts on that though .... I’m seldom silent.

Amy ... who didn't know how to stop barking!

Silence never features when the hound and I are out on our rambles .... if there’s no human to talk to I talk to the hound ... or the seagulls. Sometimes, the fact that she can’t reply is an advantage, especially if I want to rant and rave. There are other moments though when a situation is so humourous that I NEED to share it with a fellow human ... the hound just won’t do! Fortunately those moments are few and far between as I seldom ramble alone .... not through choice but because there’s always someone wanting to ramble with me.

The newcomer Mondo took a shine to Barney

Barney loves the rugby ball almost as much as my hound!

The hound and I had double “B’s” join us on the sands today ... Bouncy Bella and Barney who’re both chocolat Labs. My hound loves Barney and Bella joining us in the waves ... they’re both as enthusiastic about chasing balls through the waves as she is. Bella lets go of the ball when she gets it first .... not Barney though, half the fun for him is having the other hounds chase him to get the ball back ... typical male!

I think Alex has just as much fun as the hounds!

Suzanne, like my oldest lemming, doesn’t like seagulls ... for very different reasons to Gareth though. She’s scared of them whereas, in Gareth’s words “he finds them *expletive* annoying”. Suzanne had bought pieces of cheese with her to encourage Bella to respond to her call to go on leash. It was that Alfred Hitchcock’s “Birds” moment when Suzanne pulled out the cheese.

There's something interesting in the shallows.

The seagulls swamped us ... poor Suzanne grabbed my arm for protection as they hovered around our heads ... she promptly put the cheese away. Would that I could have had a photograph ... a candid camera moment like no other!

I’m still smiling at the picture we must have made and how clever those gulls were to associate Suzanne’s plastic bag with the food I bring to the beach for them
 ... I somehow don’t think Suzanne was as amused as me.