It’s one day after the shortest day of the year and winter has arrived in Wellington.
The temperature today peaked at 8 degrees celsius and is currently sitting at 5 degrees celsius. There is a southerly wind straight from Antarctica hammering the front windows and the rain is showing signs of turning to sleet.
What better night to light the first fire of the season – and for Poppie to rediscover the delight of a warm hearth.
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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As we wandered through Rome we passed the Pantheon. The last time we did this was 2011 when we had the girls with us. We recalled the challenge of walking them through the streets avoiding, not only the multitude of visitors, but … Continue reading
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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
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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
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.
Which dog ate my homework?
Bella has a thing for paper. It is simply too tempting to leave alone. This is something I need to remember when I leave papers on the office floor- for obvious reasons.
Bella, the culprit, is the innocent looking one on the left.
Our little puppy who used to fit in the palm of our hands is now a gangly 18 week old teenager with a mind of her own.
We’ve had a dog trainer come in and help us to wrangle her into line. She’s much better behaved but still has those moments of total abandon when she laps the couch repeatedly at full speed with no regard for anything in her way – whether it be me or Poppie or any piece of furniture that she runs into as her turning circle increases.
In the last couple of weeks she has worked out how to jump up on our bed and Poppie’s last haven of peace and quiet is now gone. But Bella seems to know that the bed is not a place to misbehave and it’s not unusual to find them both side by side, surrounded by their toys, sound asleep.
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.
La dolce far niente 