Weekly photo challenge: Rise/Set

For the last three years we’ve gotten up early on Christmas Day to head to the beach for sunrise. It has become a ritual for us, we load the car up with towels for us and the dog, fill our takeaway cups with fresh coffee and I make sure my camera is ready to go. Leading up to Christmas is always a mad rush of last minute shopping, tying up loose ends at work and preparing for visitors. The beach is relatively peaceful and quiet at sunrise, it is a beautiful and calming way to start the day.

This is my contribution to the weekly photo challenge

Cheers!

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Weekly photo challenge: I’d rather be…

This week’s photo challenge encourages participating bloggers to think about where they would rather be at this moment. For me it is a no-brainer and although there are times when I wish I was in Paris or Venice or the highlands of Scotland, if given the choice I would rather be beside my little mate Bundy.

Travel is grand, a weekend away a delight but I hate leaving Bundy behind and wherever I go I wish I could have him with me. With Bundy I am never alone, even when he is sound asleep and seeing his happy face as he runs across the sand or grass fills my heart with joy.

Wordless Wednesday: Summer

Summer is early morning walks on the beach with Bundy

The year that was.

January

A relatively quiet month punctuated by time spent cuddling gorgeous shelter dogs waiting for their forever homes. Bundy celebrated his 9^th birthday and unbeknown to us Australia Day was the last time we took Maxi to the beach, she loved splashing around in the surf and afterwards would sleep for hours.

Bundy ready for Australia Day

Maxi girl at the beach on Australia Day

February

A python and lots of cute puppies plus a lunch date with friends by the water. A short, sweet in stinking hot month.

Puppies at the AWLQ Shelter

Python at the shelter

Lunch date with friends

March

Maxi’s 15^th birthday is celebrated, Easter fun and games with the fur kids and a new car.

Maxi girl celebrates 15 years

Me and the new car

Easter food

Easter Maxi

Easter Bundy

Burleigh Heads at Easter

April

Sadly, we said goodbye to my father in-law who had been unwell for a couple of years. Even though he had been married to my mother in-law for a few years he was entrenched in our family and is greatly missed.

May

A much anticipated trip to Scotland. Traveling with a group of artists on a paint-along with my art teacher for two weeks was an amazing experience and provided me with lots of inspiration for my art and further travel in the UK.

Rainy day in Edinburgh

The Great Hall, National Portrait Gallery Scotland

Art teacher doing a demonstration

Seaside village of Crail

Crovie at sunset

Macaroni Cheese for lunch

Unison pastels being prepared for sale

Art studio, Gardenstown

Fellow artists in Scotland

June

Always lots of dogs waiting at the Animal Welfare League, I love my Sundays with them and it is hard not to fall in love with all of them.

Mitzy

Buster

Squishy

Pig for adoption

July

Commissioned to do a portrait of Rumpole the chocolate lab in pastel, stalked by a pigeon on our morning walk and an art class focused on drawing birds. Finally winter seems to have arrived bringing with it some spectacular sunrises and the fur kids are loving their new blankets.

Rumpole, my first commission

Stalked by a pidgeon

Keeping warm in their new blankets

Glorious winter sunrise

Pastel art class – drawing birds

August

The weather starts getting warmer and Hubby celebrates his birthday with traditional fire making and drinks with family and friends. Walks with Maxi are getting shorter and she happily shares the rug with Bundy.

Two black dogs

Bundy making the most of the warmer days at the end of Winter

Birthday cake

Hubby ‘making fire’

September

Losing Maxi broke my heart, such a vibrant and happy girl. Gone but never forgotten.

Happy days

Fun at the beach

Missing you

The last photo of our beautiful girl

Our Maxi girl

October

After losing our dear old girl, time with friends was especially important.

Grand final night in the park with friends

Annual catch up with a dear friend

Bushwalking with a friend

November

The festive season started early at work, our team heading to a winery for a long lunch to celebrate a good year with good people. There are always dogs waiting to be adopted and every Sunday I take photos of them to raise awareness on social media in the hope that it will assist in finding them a family faster. I also finished another commission, Honey the cat, sibling to Rumpole.

Charlie

Lunch with my amazing team

Honey the cat illustration

December

A quick trip to Newcastle to visit my brother and his family as well as meeting my new niece. So nice that the two families live in the same city, makes it easy to fit in quality time with all of them. Christmas was perfect, good company and good food. Now I am in need of a break, some quiet time at home after a busy and emotional year.

Flight to Newcastle

My gorgeous new niece

Christmas in the park with friends

Bundy the elf

Christmas decorations

Christmas Eve with a very good friend. We have been friends since we were 7 .

Christmas Eve in Surfers

Bundy at the beach Christmas morning

Wordless Wednesday: beach time

Swell Festival 2016 – part 2

On my last post I shared some of the sculptures featured in the Swell 2016 Sculpture Festival. As promised, here is a part two of my selection of images.

Pyramid made of bread cartons

Project Bread

Currumbin Beach

View of Surfers Paradise from Currumbin Rock

Venomous Blue – Blue ringed octopus

Swell Festival 2016 – part 1

Up before the sun and with a hit of caffeine, Hubby, Bundy and I were ready to head south to Currumbin, host to the 2016 Swell Sculpture Festival. Sunrise and sunset are the best times to experience the festival, fewer crowds and better light for taking photos. Bundy loves the festival, it is his chance to run around on the sand and meet a few new faces (or sniff new butts to put it in dog terms). Alphy the turtle is the big hit this year, as are the huge deck chairs but I really love the dog walker sculpture and the timber freight boxes lying on the sand. With so many sculptures I have decided to break up the photos and share them in two lots, you will see more of the dog walker and other wonderful works of art sometime next week.

Which one is your favourite?

Wordless Wednesday: Seatown Sunset

The sun sets a little later in this part of Scotland.

Sun setting on Seatown, Banffshire Scotland

Burleigh beach walk

Easter in Australia means a 4 day weekend, we have a public holiday on Good Friday and another on Easter Monday. It is usually a time when people pack their family into their car and head off to visit extended family or head to the beach to make the most of the warm weather before Autumn kicks in. We generally stay home, relaxing and avoiding traffic the main aim. Sometimes family pop in for a visit however this year it was just the two of us with our two black doggies, a nice break after a hectic start to the year.

Even though the house was void of visitors we still fit in some quality time with family. Hubby’s sister and her family had booked into an apartment at Burleigh Heads on the southern end of the Gold Coast. It is a great spot and from their apartment it is a short walk to the beach, cafes and a variety of small, non-franchised shops. On Monday morning we set the alarm for early, left Maxi snoozing on her bed and took Bundy to the beach to see the sunrise and join Hubby’s sister K for a walk. It was a perfect morning, the predicted rain never appeared and there was wonderful cloud formations happening which made the sunrise so much more interesting.

There is a path along the esplanade that leads into Burleigh National Park, dogs aren’t allowed in the National Park so we stopped at the top of Burleigh headlands and joined many others in admiring and photographing the sunrise. Some photographers were there to take photos of the surfers out in the water, I have to say that I did feel a little lens envy when I saw the zoom on their cameras. Turning around we headed north, choosing to walk on the sand rather than continue on the footpath. Bundy loves the beach, he’s not too fond of swimming but he loves zig-zagging through the water and the sand, oblivious to everyone passing by. He is such a happy chappy when out and about and if given a chance he’ll say hello to other dogs and engage them in play for a short while, however he does prefer to hang with his two legged friends.

It was a beautiful way to spend the last morning of our long weekend, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter as well.

 

 

A Merry Queensland Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all from Two Black Dogs! In contrast to the snow and Gluhwein we enjoyed at the Christmas markets in Europe, our Christmas day began with a trip to the beach. Breakfast was baked ham and eggs on toast accompanied by a glass of Australian sparkling wine. Thankfully the weather has been good to us and it is a mild, slightly breezy day with moments of blue sky and sunshine.

Maxi and Bundy love the beach, Maxi returns to her puppy-hood and bounces across the sand and through the water. The dear old girl never looks happier than when she is at the beach. Bundy just enjoys running, sniffing and splashing around, a swimmer he is not. At home they’re sleeping soundly, recovering from an exciting morning and dreaming of their next adventure.

Wishing you a day filled with love and laughter! Be safe and be happy xox

off to the beach on Christmas morning

Bundy is a splasher not a swimmer

  

Bundy and his new stuffy

  

Maxi loves the beach

  

Santa comes to Bundy

  

Bundy and his Mama in her new Christmas shirt