This morning young Bella quietly disappeared upstairs. Time passed and, as often happens, we suspected she was up to no good – but it turned out to be the opposite. She was curled up on the bed, on our pillows, asleep.
So not only was she rudely woken up but she then had a camera shoved in her face. What does a girl have to do for a good sleep around our place?
Bella has taken to sitting on the landing and watching what is happening below. She won’t come down or go up, she just sits – unless there’s something on offer of course. Like a treat.
It’s not often a single post can appeal to a range of different interests – but this one really hits the mark. It’s a picture of the dogs in our front yard but it offers so much more.
For dogs lovers it’s Bella taking some time out from patrolling the front gate with Poppie still on guard in the background. She’s wondering why I’m lying full length on the grass – hence the quizzical look.
For gardeners it’s a study in lawns – check out that lush green growth clipped to perfection and standing to attention – defying a hot and dry Wellington summer’s afternoon which is arguably one of the best summers anyone can remember.
For photographers the shot was achieved with the camera flat on the grass and was one of about 30 shots taken as the girls wandered around.
The camera used was my Nikon D7000 with a Nikkor 18 – 70mm zoom lens set to 50mm, the aperture at F9 to keep Bella in focus and to throw Poppie slightly out of focus, and the shutter speed at 125th of a second to freeze any rapid movement. In Photoshop I replaced the original image of Poppie with one from another shot so she was looking up, cropped the shot using the rule of thirds (Bella’s head is about 1/3 of the way down the shot and 1/3 of the way in from the right), removed the distracting bright round hole in the gate, sharpened around Bella’s face and generally corrected the colour. Simple.
I’ve included the original shot for comparison.
In order from left to right – Georgie, Bella, Macey, and Poppie.
We had a “house full” of people for Christmas day – and briefly during the afternoon a “couch full” of dogs. Thanks to my dog wranglers for organising this shot.
It was a fun old year at our place. As always there seemed to be a lot happening but when I look back at the photos we’ve taken, our trip in August and those puppies – well Bella mainly – seem to dominate.
Last weekend was a big one for Poppie and Bella – they had two friends sleepover.
Macey and Georgie came to stay and for two days our house was a sea of moving Bichons. Wherever you looked there was a pair, or three, or four dogs playing, eating, sleeping or barking at the gate.
It was great fun for all involved and Sunday night our girls slept well, completely exhausted.
Two weeks ago my iMac’s hard drive “spat the dummy” and required replacing. Apple were fantastic and covered the cost of the replacement drive and I was left to restore my files from backup.
Yes, as I’ve said before – always back stuff up because every hard drive will fail at some point and it would be tragic to lose photos and movies and all the other stuff that we accumulate on computers these days.
As I was looking through my restored movie files I came across one of Bella as a very young puppy making her first journey down the stairs at home – just to get to Poppie and jump all over her.
I’ve posted this movie before but I think it deserves another airing.
One of the great things about being home is time with our girls – even when they both want to be on Jean’s lap at once.
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After an incredibly mild start to winter we were brought back to reality as a southerly front straight from Antarctica arrived in Wellington. Think six degrees, biting wind, hail and driving rain. The only place for any sane person (or dog) … Continue reading
Little Bella has never really been fascinated with our bath – up until this evening when she jumped in. Luckily the bath was empty but even then she discovered that jumping in the bath is a lot less scary than jumping out.
So she sat there, and sat there, and sat there until she was finally rescued. But not before the obligatory photo had been taken.
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Young Bella is taking a bit of time to get used to being at home alone with Poppie all day. She continues to surprise us every couple of days with some new level of destruction.
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For the first time in years both Jean and I are working full time. This means Poppie and Bella have to spend days at home on the bed by themselves. For Poppie, this is an old routine but for Bella … Continue reading
Let me start with an apology. Sorry, it’s yet another cute dog shot. Yesterday Bella the puppy discovered a green Cicada in the back yard. Every time she went to sniff it, the Cicada flew a few inches away, which for Bella was captivating.
A footnote for the animal lovers among you – both Bella and the Cicada survived the encounter unscathed.
I’ve mentioned a few times that our place loses the sun for a couple of months every winter. This means we all make the most of any chance to enjoy a sunny day in autumn.
So when Rosie the 19 year old cat, Poppie the 8 year old Bichon and Bella the nutcase puppy had a chance to lie in the sun last weekend, they took it.
Bella has that ability to look completely innocent – even when there is evidence to the contrary.
This is what happens when she goes rummaging through a wet garden looking for something to chew on – despite being taught not too.
La dolce far niente 