Bassets have a a high intellect with a low boredom threshold. This means that they lose interest in some of the most exciting things quickly.
Walks become mundane. You can just hear the thoughts – ‘done that sniffing what else is there we can do?’. Last week we were taking one of our regular walks in the regional park and they decided it would be fun to detour from the usual walking path. Here they are plotting their escape.
It’s been a stretch today. The second day in a row when I’ve had to be up and out; suited and booted ready to work. I can tell you it’s been a bit of a shock to the system. I may now have a grain more sympathy for MT every morning.
I caused quite a stir on the station platform at our local country commuter stop. The regulars were intrigued to know about the role reversal and what I did for a living that meant most days I scooted off in the car with a cheery wave but this morning I was stuck on the platform waiting like them.
I felt welcomed into the commuting community. Despite the warm welcome I don’t see myself a long term member. For one thing I might cramp MTs style on the train.
Leading the workshop for the last two days has been a challenge and fun. There is no doubt I was very happy to be trundling home this evening to pick up the bassets from day care. To see their tails doing their wide helicopter wag. A sure sign that they’re pleased to see me.
In days gone by I would have simply flopped in the chair after a day like I’d had. But tonight I was pleased to be catching up with chores in the garden whilst it was still light. It was a gentle detox from the city adventures.
As there was no time for me to take any snaps today so here’s another favourite of mine from the Kaitoke regional park. An outstretched tree branch over the river. Not that you’d know this from photograph. The depth of field is very short. I like the detail that the camera has picked up. The branch looks sort of alive and yet sort of not.
It looks slightly surreal. But what can you expect of trees from Middle Earth.
Today I feel like I’ve been living in a surreal world. I’m leading a two day strategy and team building event for a Government communications department and whilst I’ve lived and breathed public sector communications most of my working life I feel very detached from the reality of it all.
On one hand it feels like I’ve never been away from this environment but on the other it feels like a whole different world. I’ve only been out of it for just over a year but already it feels like a place I never was. I can’t tell yet whether it’s just that the working world has moved on or whether I have.
This picture taken at Kaitoke Regional Park is where they filmed the Lord of the Rings movies. There are always lots of tours of the key sights. I thought it was representative of another world. Also, it’s a thoroughly nice place to go and we took the dogs there tonight whilst I cleared my head from the chit chat, chit chat of the day!
There are lots of excellent photographic opportunities there but forgive me for shortchanging my blog for today. But work is work so no luxury of blogging in depth today. Sorry about that. I’ll be back tomorrow and then the day after. Watch out for the hobbits in the meantime!
Amongst the native hedgerow there are often ornamental flowers. Agapanthus are one of those. They can be seen in drifts all over New Zealand – blue and white – making a cheerful change to what can be otherwise a pretty green outlook.
The downside of having agapanthus is that they can take over though. They multiple and proliferate in vast numbers if you let them. There are worse things to have proliferating on your land though. Gorse, thistles, brambles. Hmm, who has lots of those but no agapanthus?
Planting in our garden follows a plan from our landscape designer. Some say we took the easy route paying for someone to do this for us. And that’s true but the thought of trying to create a garden from a hilly field was one step too far for my limited gardening capabilities.
There are times in life when you know you need an expert opinion. And this was one of those times.
There are few times in my life I have felt quite so rough as I did three years ago today.This was the day I arrived in New Zealand.
I hot footed off a plane where I’d languished for 26 hours with a bad back, sleep deprivation and the woes and stresses of packing a life up in the UK. I compounded this with the effects of black eyed flu carefully coordinated with a bout of delightful norovirus I’d suffered in the previous 10 days. It’s fair to say I didn’t look great.
But I was here. In the land of the long white cloud. Ready and eager to begin my new life.
The kitchen has been at the heart of my relationship with my in-laws almost from the start. Of course my, now, husband was a common bond but we truly bonded over cooking together.
In the days when I commuted the 200 miles between Sunderland and Bedworth to spend weekends at my in-laws where MT was living whilst working in Coventry, we’d invariably spend time together in the kitchen cooking together or just chatting together whilst cooking was going on. The first Christmas I spent at my in-laws I wanted to contribute to the feast we were going to eat and arrived armed with recipes which we duly cooked up together.
It’s fair to say that it hasn’t always been a harmonious relationship. My grievances range from when my mother-in-law threw the gravy stock down the sink to disposing of courgettes carefully shaved ready for cooking. But I don’t hold grudges and can see the funny side of it after the event. Now we rub along quite nicely in the kitchen even if my mother-in-law won’t so much as sneeze without permission in case she makes a cooking faux pas!
During their last visit we started to share cooking again and as a result committed to cooking together 12,000 miles apart. To do this we’ve agreed to swap a recipe each week. Something that we’ve never previously cooked before but think is worth giving a go. The idea is that we’ll try some new things. Be able to compare cooking challenges and most of all be able to cook the same thing but do it our own way, in our own space, with no pressure to comply to anyone else’s techniques. Today is the day of the first recipe swap.
Guess what I cooked up this week?
For the last 24 hours we’ve been having what I can only describe as packamac weather. The sort of weather that it might rain, might not rain but when it ranges from a misty drizzle to a deluge. Whatever the type of rain there is one thing you can be sure of. You’re going to get wet without a waterproofing device of some description.
The rainfall monitor for Kaitoke seems to have stopped recording so I can’t tell you for definite the rainfall we’ve had in the last 24 hours but it will be something in the range of 50-60mm. That’s a lot of rain.
Light is obviously a key component in photography. Understanding exposure is one of those topics I’ve not yet mastered but will one day.
So in the meantime I thought I’d just experiment and see what snapshots I could take. These are pictures taken a couple of days ago when I goofed off with the bassets for a long walk in Tunnel Gully.
There was plenty of light inspiration in the bush walk. Even the track sign was basked in dappled light.
Yesterday I adored my basset hounds. But there was a moment today I wasn’t so sure. Or to be more specific it was Mason I started to have doubts about.
The reason? His hunting instincts had come to the fore.
