Wordless Wednesday: Indoor Sunbathing

Sunshine Over Holes Bay

We walked Jade at Holes Bay today. The sun shone and this has been such a rare occurrence recently, I just had to share it. I have to admit that I didn’t take the photo today. In fact it is over three years old. But the views haven’t changed and a photo taken today would be much the same. Our walk was a pleasant interlude in a day spent researching and writing about care for the elderly and the new funding changes proposed by the government for 1917.

Exotic Bird Sighting

pic by Prabhatgupta at Wikimedia Commons

A few weeks ago our area was swamped with twitchers because there had been a sighting of a South African hoopoe nearby. I kept my eyes open but didn’t get a glimpse myself. But this morning when I took Jade to our deserted park, there it was strutting around under the trees and every so often dipping its head to forage for some morsel it fancied. At first Jade saw it too and moved towards it so that it flew off. I thought that was that, then we came round an evergreen and there it was again, this time in the open ground about 10 feet away, giving me a great view of its ruff and striped wings. I stood and watched it for about 5 minutes before we continued our morning stroll.

Wordless Wednesday: In Sunny Mahon

The Start of a Beautiful Friendship?

I took Jade up to London for the weekend  to see Eryn and her mum and to meet Rafi. It wasn't a resounding success. Jade turns out not to be the mothering type. Inside the house she barely tolerated the little upstart living in her second home, and with whom she had to compete for the affections of the three people she considers hers. We had a few growly and chasing incidents, though noone got hurt. It turned her right off her Science Diet nuts, so probably a good thing we were only there for two days.

When we went for walks though it was different. The dogs had a great time running around after each other, and Jade watched the puppy training with interest but turned up her nose at the puppy treats on offer.

The pictures were taken in Nonsuch Park on Sunday morning when we went for a walk in the rain, both dogs wearing their raincoats - first time for Rafi. Wonder how long before he grows out of it. The boots and the hand belong to Eryn, for whom he was performing a perfect sit.

Happy Pic, Not so Happy Incident

I was trawling Picasa looking for an idea for this blog post and, when I saw this one I thought I’d use it as an example of one of my better action shots from last summer. Have to admit I’m not very good at them.

I also thought it was a nice, happy picture. Then I remembered what happened shortly after. Some boys arrived and tried to claim the slide for themselves. At the top of it, the girls got pushed around and eventually Eryn was hit in the face. She came back down the steps crying with her friend, while the boys laughed and took possession of all four slide lanes. 

My daughter wasn’t having that. She marched the boy concerned off to find his mother and complain. The woman was partly at fault as she was supposed to be supervising her child, but was actually found at the café having a drink. However she did come over and make her boy apologise and then they left the park.

It was a shame as the girls had been so enjoying themselves, and this put a real damper on our afternoon in Exmouth. I think it was good thing we were nearby or something worse could have happened.

Footsteps in the Sand

After all the wet weather we’ve been having, our decisions about where to walk with Jade each afternoon are based on where there is less water and mud, and the choices are more limited than usual. It’s while since we did the Upton Country Park circuit or went in the woods. Hamworthy Park has a tarmacced footpath bordered by grass or the beach. Holes Bay has one too and we can choose to avoid the grassy areas we sometimes take.

First thing every morning I don my wellies and brave the local park, hoping Jade will not choose to do her business in the muddiest areas. Of course, she is blithely unaware of this and hares happily around just the same as usual. Sometimes I have to wash off her legs and belly properly when we get home. In the afternoons though, after walking we are often doing shopping and other errands, and it’s a pain having to change from boots and shoes in the car, so we try to stay out of the mud.

One of the beaches is perfect when I have trainers or my posh snowboots on, and about once a week we go to the closest one which is mainly pebbly rather than sandy. On Saturday we actually saw the sun, although we couldn’t really feel it because of the wind, but I was desperate to give Jade a really good run. So we went to Sandbanks beach. And she loved it, rushing ahead over the dunes we crossed to get there and then running around madly. I turned west towards the chain ferry that crosses the entrance to Poole Harbour because if I walked the other way the wind blew the sand up into my face.

The beach was crowded with dogs and walkers all bundled up against the icy wind. Except for one couple – a bride and groom who were posing for photographs. All right for the groom in his long sleeved suit, but the bride’s beautiful dress was strapless, leaving her shoulders and arms completely bare. Poor girl must have been freezing and in danger of contracting pneumonia on her wedding day. Of course it could have been a fashion photo shoot, but I doubt it as there was only one photographer and no sign of a support team.

Part of the way back I had to suffer the flying sand. It didn’t seem to bother Jade at all though. Once we got back to the promenade, we could walk up there and it wasn’t so bad. All in all I was walking for about half an hour and Jade spent most of that time running backwards and forwards so she had her good run. I felt good too after my 30 minutes of bracing sea air.