Another walk, another night. It's amazing just how different each walk can be when I take the old camera with me.
Very tired tonight and felt I needed a decent meal (been onto the take away again), so took the Ally Dawg for a wander and then headed for the shops. As I was getting ready, I realised that it was getting quite overcast and I wondered if we would get wet or not.
When I got to the park, the sky was amazing. The clouds formed a canopy over the park.
Isn't that incredible.
We wandered around for a while. I could hear the wind blowing in the trees. I could hear my mozzie stuff in my bum bag rattling away. I must take my recorder out with me one evening and record some of the sounds. Particularly the birds at this time of night.
Then of course, I spotted the rainbow hiding in the clouds.
Started to rain a bit, so we headed back across the park towards the car. As I got to the other side, I realised that the wind had blown most of the clouds away and this is what I saw.
The wind was rapidly blowing the rain and the clouds away.
We continued our walk and there on the road, we spotted:
I'm not sure I had to share this one with everyone, but hey, it's Friday and I'm in a sharing and caring mood.
As we walked back to the car, the sun was behind us and I noticed Ally's shadow. She really looked funny. She had her mouth open as dogs do, so I tried to get a photo of her shadow. This is what I ended up with. Of course, I couldn't get the photo I wanted. First I couldn't get her to stop moving and coming towards me, then she closed her mouth.
Very sore tonight. Went with a friend to do some retail therapy at Ikea. She's a work colleague as well as friend and she wanted stuff to decorate her new office.
We now have the largest Ikea on the Southern Hemisphere. Damn, it's ginormous. I think there are three stories and everything is flat packed i.e. you cart it to your car, and put it together at home. You decide what you want in the showroom, and then go and find it in the storeroom area. I don't know what you do if what you want is right at the top, cause the shelves must be a million feet high. Queues a mile long to pay for the goodies.
Also they won't let you take the trolleys into the car park so although we were parked very close, I had to go, get the car, reverse park into the proper place, while some idiot tried to go around me, silly bugger.
Finally out of there, headed off to drop the stuff off at work. On the way, we passed through some roadworks. While we were stopped at a red light, I watched while a guy in the passenger seat reach out his window and grab one of the witches hats. Then as we all started to move forward, he grabbed a second one. I had to laugh. What would you do with a witches hat??
So now I am sitting in my comfy chair, feet up, playing on Lara the Laptop, watching the Olympics, and resting my poor tired body.
Washing the dishes tonight I turned around and this is what I saw behind me.
I have to feed them on the washing machine or the Ally Dawg will eat their food. Harry sometimes tries to check hers out, and she will roust at him. For some reason, the Sunny cat always seems to sit in the sink.
Sunny is starting to get impatient.
Sunny: "Where's my food? There is still nothing there. Why are you taking my picture when I want you to feed me?"
"Okay," Sunny says, "I'll come up and be a bit more persistent."
Harry: "I can't be bothered to wait any longer. I'm going to sit somewhere warm and comfy until you make up your mind to feed me".
Sunny: "I know if I wait long enough, she will get sick of taking these stupid photographs, and feed me. Besides, I know how beautiful I am".
Sunny: "This is getting ridiculous. Where's my bloody food?"
Well, that just finished off a rather pleasant day. Wednesday I finish work at lunch time. Which in itself, tends to make it a rather pleasant day. I also like having one of my short day in the middle of the week.
I came home, had some lunch and went out again. Amongst my travels I went to the shops and while I was there, got a phone call from friends who had been shopping, saying they had bought some clothes and did I want them to come and do some modelling. I said yes, of course I would. While I was shopping, I bought some nice afternoon tea for us.
My friends arrived, and showed off their new purchases. Very nice they were too. Some slightly different styles for one, which is always great to see. We had some afternoon tea, and some chit chat and then they left.
Sitting here, checking out luggage limitations, what prescription drugs you can carry to what countries and I thought: "Damn, I didn't check my phone messages". There were 2.
One was from the house sitters to say that someone would be ringing me about staying in my house and looking after my fur kids while I'm away !! Yes !! Another plan starting to come together.
The other was from a shop I buy many of my clothes from. They have found my new black jeans in my size !!!
On top of all that I got to watch a bit of the gymnastics and some of the men's synchronised diving. Some of those guys have the greatest bods !!
We often get shopping trolley's on the footpath outside our building at work. This morning I went out for a little wander and there were 2 of them. One of them had an interesting collection inside. there was a bag of rubbish, some clothing (I joked that it was someone's jocks), and a meat pie, still in it's wrapping. I have no idea how long they had been there, but I'm sure they weren't there yesterday.
I went inside and we had a few jokes about the jocks (male underpants to those not in the know). A few hours later I went outside again. The two shopping trolley's were still there. The bag of rubbish was still there. The jocks were still there. The meat pie was missing !!
I'm going to miss her while I'm away. Here's some shots of my little girl.
This is Ally on the chair in the cat's basket. I'm not quite sure why, maybe she thought it was something special because the Sunny cat's been curled up in there since I put it back.
The next one was taken tonight. I was eating my dinner. Ally knows she's not allowed to sit and drool at me when I eating, nor is she supposed to beg. So here she is, across the room from me, just watching. This time from her own bed.
Just been on a totally fraught shopping trip. It started when I was driving to the shops. I heard a bang, a metal type bang, but not car meeting car type bang. Then the car in front hit the breaks, as did I, and the cars behind me. Everyone managed to stop and I could see a red metal tool box on the road near the front of the car ahead of me. The woman driver got out of her car and slung the tool box onto the grass. She seemed quite angry. We all took off and at the next corner, she signaled to turn left and around the corner I saw a car and a man and a trailer. I reckon the tool box had come off the trailer. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for THAT conversation.
I'm stocking up on animal food for the duration. When I got to the shops, I realised that my shopping bags were still on the door handle in the laundry. One of the reasons I like to take them with me is that I fill up the bag in the trolley, then when I get to the checkout, I don't have to bend down to pick up each individual tin, bottle etc and it saves my back a lot of stress. So this time I had to bend to pick up each individual tin, realising at the same time that the joint in my left hand had decided to play up and I couldn't use it to pick up the tins.
Bags of dog and cat food later, I'm out at my car. Lift the bag out of the trolley, and guess what happened? You're right. The bloody bag broke and the next thing I knew I had tins of dog and cat food rolling all around the car park. Where I was parked was on a bit of a slope as well. Of course they all landed on their sides which meant they rolled well. So here I am chasing tins through the car park. I must have looked quite a sight. One of them ended up under the van next to my car, right in the middle. Now I'm short. I have short arms. there is no way I was going to fit under the van, nor were my arms long enough to reach. Finally got hold of a tall skinny woman with long arms and she kindly lay down in the car park and rescued my tin from under the car.
I had to go back into the shops to get a couple of small items. When I returned to my car, there was one lonely tin of dog food, nicely stood there waiting for me. I wonder how many other tins went to another home.
Now I'm home. The woman from the house sitting agency has been for a visit. The house, of course, was a shambles. Tins all over the place, still not tidied up from my group Thursday night, a smelly dog, a litter tray that really needs cleaning cause I'd run out of litter. Oh, well. If she can find someone to sit in this house, I reckon she's doing well.
I decided to do this in two posts. The last one was getting quite long and I keep finding more things that I saw and took pictures of. The nice thing about this new program I'm using is that I can have several on the go at once and then publish them as and when I choose, or not as the case may be !! I wonder if I can put them into PDF form for keeping at a later date. Now that will be an interesting exercise.
Here are some photos:
I like the way I've caught the water coming off the paddles
Again, trying to get the water spray. Didn't turn out too badly
We even had a police boat cruising quietly down the river.
I still can't get videos to go in, so putting a link to my Photobucket spot in case you are interested. I hope it works.
This one's rather kewl. I like the way the water is splashing off his paddle. It's a bit dark but otherwise I rather like it.
We also had a wine cruise boat go past to comments from watchers about how they would rather be on that boat than the canoes that had been passing. Particularly when they thought about the wine and cheese that was being served on the boat.
These two look like they are struggling a bit.
I don't think they are struggling, but it looks like it to me. almost like the current is taking them over.
And a piece of driftwood which could have cause a problem I reckon. I watched it from a distance and tried to zoom in on it, but finally got a photo of it just before it hid behind the tree.
And last but not least, I spotted this in the grass next to where I was sitting.
Just been down to the river. The Avon Descent is on this weekend and I thought I might take the little Ally dawg for a walk and see if I could get any good photos. Had to come home though. It's lunch time. I'm starving. I dressed for the cold this morning, and suddenly I'm wearing too many clothes. It's very hard to take off long johns in a park with lots of other people. And there was no public loo.
I left home about 10 a.m. and left the park just after 12, so wasn't a bad outing for the two little girls. We went to a place I've only recently discovered. Friends took me and all the dogs there on Christmas day. That day was hot and dry. This morning was cold and although not raining, still a lot of water around underfoot.
The first thing I found when I arrived was that I needed my wellies. Well dressed, nice and warm, but everything was very soggy under foot. I had put my boots in the car before I left this time. I was not going to be caught out again. So we trudged through the water and headed for the river. I discovered later that there was a dry way to get where I was going, but still glad I wore my boots. Saved some time having to walk around the puddles rather than going right through them.
I just thought a photo of my ancient wellies would be a good thing to have !! Being as how I'm behind the camera as well as in front of it, I don't think it's a bad shot !!
The first thing the Ally dawg found was a family having a breakfast BBQ. Trust my girl to think of her stomach first. I lost her a couple of times when I was busy taking pictures and knew exactly where to find her. Back with the BBQ family. She also decided that canoes were something to chase for some reason. The first canoe that came down, Ally bolted trying to catch it. Normally she is quite and obedient dog, but today for some reason, with canoes to chase and people feeding her bacon and sausages, she was not listening to me at all.
Here she is scrounging to see what food has been dropped.
The first thing I found was a cormorant drying itself on a log as they do. It was not bothered in the slightest by people being near and a number of people, me included, took photos of it. I took a video of it as well. It's a bit long and boring, but I rather enjoyed looking at it. It's also too big to upload, so unless I work out how to make it smaller, only me gets to see it. Here's some of the photos of the cormorant.
Isn't he stunning
A helicopter came past and hovered around the area I had moved away from. I'm not sure whether it was a television helicopter, but it hovered for quite some time. I could see people in the distance photographing. Even with my good zoom, I didn't try to get photos. I think I have enough photos of helicopters. I wonder if I will be on the news tonight !!
Oh, yes. Now I know why we have these little yellow poo baggies. I sat on the bank of the river to watch. I had the Ally dawg on the lead, so she couldn't get to the BBQ family. I put my hand down, right in some dog poo. YECH !! And no, it wasn't Ally's. Then I had to lean down into the river and hope like the dickens I didn't fall in.
Ally had a bit of a swim. Only because her mother pushed her in !! She was watching a dog chase a stick in the water, desperately wanting to join in, but there was a bit of a drop into the water. Not much, just a bit. Ally won't go in the water unless she can walk right it. My knee was right behind her bottom. And suddenly, my knee came forward and ran into her bottom. I didn't do it. Really I didn't. Must admit, it was rather funny. Then she ran around like a little idiot !!
We eventually got some photos of the canoes. Only canoes at that point. There are other boats that go in the Avon Descent and I suspect the rest of the boats will come down later this p.m. But for me, I'm all photographed out.
I've decided that the canoes will have to be another post. This one keeps getting longer and longer.
On the way out, I saw something that was rather nice. The water birds had found their own personal swimming pool. Not far from the river, but not on the river.
We also saw the planes heading for the airport. Soon I will be on one of those planes, going in the other direction.
I do love watching planes, just hate being in them !!
Oh, yes, another family of ducklings.
The little suckers kept moving.
Subway for lunch. Yum. I really needed some tucker, a wash of my hands, a quick visit to the loo, and take off some of my extra clothing.
Perth has had a lot of rain over the last few weeks. Lots of flooding, storms etc. Been rather nice for a change. One of the things I noticed while I was out, was just how green everything is. But also the park where we walk is very wet.
Here's some more photos I took while I was out this afternoon.
I rather like the reflections in these two photos.
And last but not least, I reckon these two little furry kids are a bit early in the season.
I took the Ally dawg for a walk tonight. We've had a lot of rain these last couple of weeks, so we didn't go far down the path. It was totally covered with water and I didn't wear my boots. I did drag them out the other night so they were waiting for me, just forgot to take them.
At one stage a beautiful white corella decided to park itself at the top of a tree. He looks pretty disgruntled and turned his back on us.
After a while he turned around to see what was going on below him.
Then he got really, really curious and turned all the way around.
Isn't he (I assume he is a he and not a she) stunning.
This morning I've been cleaning out the pantry. I decided that much of the food in the pantry was old anyway, and 6 months from now would be really, really old. I was right. I threw out two jars of vegemite — don't ask me why I had vegemite in my pantry, let alone two jars. Someone has wanted it, realised I didn't have any, bought me some and it's just sat there for years.
Both well and truly out of date !!
I should have taken a photo of the shelf before I started but this is what it looks like when I've done some cleaning out. It was a lot fuller before.
The next shelf is even worse. Can't even see inside.
Notice the important food groups, chips and smackos. For non-Australians, smackos are dog treats. Ally loves them
