Do Not Feel Sorry For Me I am A Very Greedy Little Dog

Two weeks ago we stayed at a friends bach in Haast, which was a brilliant, relaxing weekend. Well, mostly… As we were packing to leave, The Spaniel chopped down a blue block of “something”, because The Spaniel is a very very greedy little dog who likes to eat ANYTHING.

Haast is on the Haast-Makarora highway which has a dangerous slip on it. As a result, the road by the slip closes at 4pm. As a result, we had to hoof it along the highway, to make sure we could get home and possibly visit a vet. Needless to say, we got through the gates before the slip closed and as we got home we checked said dodgy substance with a neighbour who was pretty sure it was suspiciously like rat poison. We hoofed it off to the vets who agreed it was rat poison and said we got to him just in time before the poison was digested. The Spaniel was made to be sick and given Vitamin K tablets, and felt very sorry for herself for a few hours afterwards. However, as the sign says in the photo below, “Do not feel sorry…” for The Spaniel, she is a very very greedy little dog.

 

Fortunately, two week’s later, she is fine and dandy and back to her usual, mad spaniel tricks. And we are now wise, and watch out for rat poison wherever we go!

 

The dodgy-looking stuff The Spaniel chomped on

 

The Spaniel, post-vomiting at the vets…

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Random Daily Blogging

This blog post has been neglected somewhat of late. Mainly due to Mrs. E and I being incredibly busy setting up our company,  Bellbird Medical Communications.  We have also had a trip to the UK. I will blog about both of these at a later date. In the meantime, let’s get on with some random, daily blogging…!

I am in training for The Great Naseby Water Race. I am doing the 50K option, and we are going down to Naseby with some friends to chill out and enjoy the atmosphere of the race, as well as to check out Naseby which is supposed to be lovely in winter.  As part of my training I am trying to finish work a few hours earlier on a Friday afternoon to clock up some miles on my weekly long runs. Last Friday was one of those long runs in which I covered 30K. The run itself was hard work in parts, but the blue skies kept me chipper. It was a lovely cold otago day with snow on the tops (not shown), and there was no-one around other than another runner wearing a santa hat???

That is all.

Bertha The 29-er

November 15th was Mrs. E’s birthday, and we just had a quiet evening in <—course we didn’t, it was Mrs. E’s 40th birthday so I thought I would do the one thing she would never expect…. a SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY!

It was a covert operation involving sending secret emails, and discrete conversations…. Fortunately, our lovely friends Katie and Paul helped me get everything together for the big day, for which I was very thankful!

When it came to the big day Mrs. E had a lovely time, and she was particularly chuffed to receive Bertha, a 29-er (a mountain bike with 29-inch wheels) from her mother. And, oh boy, does she love Bertha! Mrs. E never really cycled in the UK, it just didn’t happen for various reasons, but she is now a speed demon on her bike! The photos below show Liz cycling in Mt. Aspiring National Park. Can you see the big grin on her face? That’s how much she loves her new bike! Since her birthday, we have had lots of bike rides, and we even did a 50 km return trip from Hawea to Wanaka!

I digress… back to the birthday surprise. We were house-sitting for our friends Jonathan and Nikki in Hawea flat, so I arranged for everyone to meet at our house in Hawea for 6pm. I told Mrs. E we were going out for a Mexican meal with a few friends, but instead of turning left to Wanaka I turned right as I had “forgotten another present that was being delivered for her birthday and we had better go pick it up”. At the house, everyone hid upstairs, and as Liz opened the door to the sitting room where I said her present was. At the moment everyone jumped out from behind the furniture and shouted “SURPRISE!”. We had a great evening, lots of lovely friends turned up to wish Mrs. E all the best, and Katie and another friend made a fabulous Chocolate cake.

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If you have a bucket list, add “Surprise Birthday Party for a loved one” to your list, as you will never forget the smile on their face… precious

The Great Kiwi Summer – It’s here!

A couple of weeks ago, the weather totally changed from being wintery and wet (October is always wet apparently), to hot hot hot and dry (27 degrees centigrade). Over the past two weeks, we have had one brief rain shower, and that is it! Fortunately the wetness from October has made everything green and pretty, but as we move into Summer that will change and the green colours will be replaced with coppers and browns.  But for now, we are enjoying the greenery…

Oh, and the lake has warmed up! I have had two swims so far Mrs. E has not been in yet, and well – The Spaniel is ALWAYS in the water. The lake (Lake Hawea), is lovely and clear although it geta deep very quickly (it’s OK mum, I don’t go out of my depth).

And as a teaser, there is a photo from Mrs. E’s new hammock (one of her birthday presents). A blog post about her birthday will follow (it was fun).

Thank you and goodnight.

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It’s a Prickly One

We found this little cutie stuck in a pipe earlier, breathing heavily and baking in the sun. It took a bit of an operation and manipulation with a wooden spoon and spatulas, but we got the little blighter out. We gave her some water and some dog food, and she is now having a little afternoon nap. Once she has woken up, we will set her off on her own free way…

Cute eh?

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Cloud Appreciation Evening

A while back I observed some really funky looking clouds. Well, we got some more the other night, which lit up at sunset.

The clouds looked so good, they almost looked edible.

As the sun set, I snapped away with my camera, but I’ve chosen just one photo for today’s post, so you could take your time and perhaps appreciate it like I did.

Enjoy

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Fun – let’s ‘av it

We may be cracking on a bit (Mrs. E hits the big 4.0 this week), but we still manage to have fun. This is Mrs. E car surfing in Hawea earlier. Photo 1 shows her when I was driving slowly, Photo 2 was when I was driving a little more quickly) on Mrs. E’s request I hasten to add. There are a few photos inbetween which I have promised not to share…

Life’s too short not to have fun…

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Central Otago, A Stargazer’s Delight

The low humidity and uncontaminated atmosphere create exceptionally clear skies in Central Otago. After a few stormy weeks and cloudy skies, the weather has become more settled, and the skies again have become a star gazer’s delight. I snapped these two photos last night, used a very cheap lumix camera, which I hope gives a sense of what we can see down here. Does anyone know what the large star is directly above the moon?

There are 3 photos in the slideshow below.

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Action Shots

It seems to be ALL about The Spaniel today. She wanted me to upload these actions shots for y’all.

Dawg Tired

The Spaniel has had a busy day, she is dawg tired. She just wanted to let you know.

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