As Bella grows she is starting to copy Poppie. Whatever Poppie does, Bella does. When Poppie spends time on the back of the couch watching the world go by, so does Bella.
To Poppie it’s a distraction, to Bella it’s just being friends.
Wellingtonians are hardened to winter wind. Wind that anywhere else would be called a gale is referred to as a strong breeze in Wellington. Any wind that doesn’t physically blow you over is a mere zephyr. It takes something exceptional to get the attention of Wellingtonians.
Last night the weather had our full attention. A storm that originated at the South Pole has been sweeping up the country over the last 24 hours. For everywhere other than Wellington it meant snow but for us it meant rain -with accompanying gale force winds up to 140km/h.
At one point 25,000 people were without power partly due to trees being blown over and taking power lines with them. House rooves started to lift and outdoor signage took to the air.
Our place took to shuddering as each gust of wind arrived and the curtains bowed out from the windows as the wind found new ways to sneak into the house. The garden took on the look of a bomb site as leaves and branches and rubbish bins and patio chairs blew around settling far from where we last left them. Both Poppie and Bella simply refused to go outside and everyone decided the best place to be was in bed.
This morning the full extent of the damage became apparent. One of the olive trees we planted about 8 years ago had succumbed to the wind and lay parallel to the ground. We had talked about removing this tree over summer but couldn’t bring ourselves to do the deed – to wield the saw. It’s ironic that mother nature has done it for us.
After a week we are starting to get a routine going. The routine is Bella chewing everything while we spend huge amounts of time outside trying to get her to “go toilet”.
Already the mats are looking a little ragged around the edges and feet – any feet – are fair game for chewing and chasing.
Our slightly chewed Poppie – ears and tail mainly – has worked out that height is the answer. Bella can’t jump up on to couches or beds yet so Poppie spends a lot of time on the bed or the couch – much to Bella’s disgust.
We have a new member of the family. An 8 week old puppy called Bella. She is a Bichon Frise cross Poodle and is, according to Jean, as cute as a button.
Bella has spent two days settling into home and already our routine has been turned upside down.
Poppie the dog doesn’t quite know what to make of her but is certainly making sure Bella knows she’s second in line.
Rosie the cat has spent a lot of time outside – voluntarily – but I suspect their showdown will come soon. Curious Bella with all the innocence in the world versus smart Rosie with claws.
And, of course, Bella is already the most photographed dog in Wellington.
Summer has hit with a vengeance and the forecast for the next week is sun and lots of it. An ideal chance (in fact the only chance) to dust off the Porsche 550 replica and put some miles on the clock.
When one long, hot, dry day is followed by another, the complete lack of a roof is no longer a problem.
The more I drive it the more impressed I am with the way it handles and performs. I’m especially impressed by the way it pushes my eyeballs to the back of my head every time I accelerate on a straight and then pops them out on stalks when I brake.
Luckily it also goes around corners – but always with a slight sense of menace that next time, if I’m not careful, it could end badly – in the harbour or over a bank.
Tonight it got photographed just as the sun was setting parked outside the house.
In the last few days Wellington has been plagued by an outbreak of humming. Not your run-of-the-mill, can’t remember the words humming but rather humming on a city-wide scale. As our local newspaper put it on Tuesday:
A mysterious low-pitched humming sound has been troubling some Wellington residents for the last few days and it seems no-one has any idea what it might be. The Wellington City Council has had several calls over the past few days with the most recent being about 5am today. Spokesman Richard MacLean said the complaints had been coming in from Mt Victoria, Newtown and Mt Cook residents. “We are interested to hear if this starts to become a constant thing. We are keeping our ear to the ground.”
One Mt Victoria resident said he and his fiancee had noticed the noise on Saturday and it hadn’t stopped since. He likened it to a low to medium pitched humming sound and said it went all day and all night and was “doing his head in”.
Of course the source is a mystery but there have been many suggestions made in the local paper. Some rational and some not so:
“Maybe it is the 50Hz hum that comes from a transformer feeding electricity to the area. If the transformer is overloaded it will hum louder, or maybe something on or near its enclosure is vibrating at 50Hz.”
“The Mothership is preparing [to] leave. Because Mt Victoria is actually an ancient alien spaceship. It would be a bit annoying for the suburb’s residents, though it would make the commute between Te Aro and Hataitai substantially quicker once it left.”
But this comment is my favourite: “Why is Mt Victoria humming? Simply because she doesn’t know the words.”
Two in a basket beside the desk
Yes gentle reader, another gratuitous dog shot makes it’s way into the blog.
Our old girl Daisy (on the right) has now reached the unlikely age of 15 years and 6 months. Despite her heart condition, her deafness and her bad eyesight, she continues to battle on. In recent weeks she decided that all the old foods she used to eat and enjoy are boring and unappetising and she effectively stopped eating. Now she will only eat all the things that are bad for her. If it’s high in salt and low in vitamins and minerals, she’s into it.
That means McDonalds McNuggets, Cherrios (cocktail sausages to all non-kiwis), store bought meat pies, pretty much everything that we would have been horrified feeding her before. But after talking this through with our lovely vet Linda the general feeling was – if she’ll eat it, then that’s good. Because if she stops eating, well, that’s very bad.
Having said that, tonight, along with Jean and I, Daisy enjoyed fillet steak – medium rare – cooked in garlic butter.
Daisy spends most of her time sleeping these days, in her basket, next to my desk in the study. It’s a safe, warm place and a friendly pat is never far away.
Yesterday I came into the study to find Daisy at one end of her basket – and our other girl Poppie curled up at the other. Poppie has been watching the extra attention being lavished on Daisy and maybe this is her way to remind us not to forget her.
Mental note – fillet steak for 4 tomorrow night.
Daisy the dog had a rough night last week. Part of her heart condition means that sometime she can’t pump enough blood around her system and without enough blood to her brain she faints.
This isn’t a pleasant thing and when she faints we always wonder if she will recover and be her old self. So far she has.
Before we moved back into our home she was fainting regularly but the return to familiar surroundings and routines has meant this had become a thing of the past – until last Wednesday night. She fainted twice and we were up until 3am making sure she was comfortable, relaxed, sleeping and, most importantly, still breathing.
And that’s where looking out for each other comes in.
Poppie is Daisy’s partner in crime when barking at the gate or begging for food but not the rest of the time. That changes when Daisy is unwell and then, somehow, Poppie knows.
Like last Thursday morning when Daisy was recovering. Poppie is the one on the right.
It really did feel a little like christmas on Wednesday when we made our first trip to the storage unit we filled prior to heading overseas last year.
This was our chance to bring some of the precious (and not so precious) things we had put away last year, home.
And every box was a new and exciting experience. Our box labeling was a bit haphazard – as you’d expect when things were being packed a week before heading overseas – so boxes marked “books” contained plates and boxes marked “plates” contain pictures and boxes marked “pictures” contained books.
Hence the reason it was a bit like christmas.
The bad news was that even after removing around a dozen boxes, the storage unit still looked full to the ceiling. Yikes.
We’ve been back in our house for nearly three weeks and it’s amazing how quickly the daily routines of life take over. Having said that, in the last fortnight we’ve had a family wedding, my sister staying for a few days and the arrival of painters to turn the house into temporary chaos so maybe that’s not exactly routine.
The girls have settled back in as if they’ve never been away and are back terrorising those who dare to walk past our front gate. If you have seen our dear old Daisy in the last few months you would not recognise her now. Since coming home she’s had a new lease on life – in the video she’s the wagging tail on the right.
Daisy rediscovers the delight of sleeping on our bed
On Friday we moved back into our home. It is almost a year to the day since we moved out and already that year seems like a blur. Since arriving back in New Zealand with five suitcases, two carry ons and two boxes of freighted stuff we have clearly accumulated some more as it required a small van to move us from the home of our friends to our place.
We arrived home with a little more than we left with
It was fascinating seeing the reaction of the dogs when they walked through the front gate. They knew this place – and immediately set about rediscovering everywhere they used to go and the things they used to do. Those that say dogs just live in the here and now are wrong, our girls remembered everything.
Even old Daisy with her heart condition, failing eyesight, deafness and tendency to collapse at a moments notice gained an added spring in her step and sniffed out her old haunts – immediately starting to bark at those poor passers-by who dared to walk on the pavement outside her front fence. I could almost hear them curse “those bloody barking dogs are back”.
As I write this Daisy is curled up in her basket beside me asleep, at peace with the world. And that’s a good thing.
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About ten minutes from where we are staying is the Duke of Bedford’s estate at Woburn. As with many of the stately homes of England, the abbey and surrounding grounds are open to the public and operate as tourism businesses. … Continue reading
La dolce far niente 