Love and best wishes for the festive season
Sam and Bundy
xxx
PS: He is smiling on the inside
christmas
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 9th 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 15th 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
Keep your dog safe at Christmas
Our dogs have always been part of the fun at Christmas, presents from Santa and a special meal on Christmas Day. Everything from a chunky bone to roast chicken or beef, not to mention a few treats such as pigs ears or kangaroo chews. There are however, many ‘people foods’ that dogs shouldn’t be given at Christmas time and if you’ve got a puppy then there are also inedible objects that should be kept out of reach like Christmas tree decorations and pine cones. Below is a handy checklist from PuppySpot and it provides basic advice on how to keep your safe pet although I would add ham or ham bones to the list of things you shouldn’t feed your dog.
Merry Christmas and stay safe!
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
When it wasn’t raining
The end of the year has been a mix of muggy, high temperatures, fierce storms and heavy rain. Christmas was no different. The day started off with a peaceful walk and a swim in a nearby creek and ended with me and my Dad sitting on their front balcony in the dark listening to the rain and enjoying the cool breeze. I took many walks during the time at my parents’ house, being in the country is so refreshing for me and seeing all the different wildlife makes me happy even if I couldn’t capture them all with my camera. A trip to the beach was on the cards for boxing day regardless of whether it was raining or not, the thinking was that if we’re going to get wet we may as well go for a swim in the surf.
Best spot at the swimming hole
Cousins Bella and Zoe
Lighthouse beach
Lighthouse beach
Alplacas
Frangipani flowers
Cousin Soxy in her favourite spot on Christmas Day
Horses and ponies all get a bath
Christmas lady bug
Maxi and Bundy’s fur cousins Zoe and Moscow
Yellow wildflowers (weeds?)
Raindrops
Local swimming hole
Local swimming hole
Local swimming hole
Wallaby
Bago Mountain on rainy morning
Golden sunrise
Dew on spider web
Alpacas in the fog
Golden web
Foggy morn
Wallabies
Big green frog
Cousin Zac begging for a chippy
Wordless Wednesday: festive lights
Dogs in antlers
It’s not Christmas without a portrait of our two black doggies wearing some sort of Christmas paraphernalia 🙂
Merry Christmas from Maxi and Bundy!
Christmas in pictures
Our quiet, but colourful Christmas in pictures. As you can see, the dogs had great fun and I love having lots of candles around.
Solar lanterns hanging in our Poinciana tree
Making Tiramisu for Christmas Eve
The finished product – Tiramisu, it was delish!
Oh Christmas tree
Tealight candles
The Geckos love the lights
Christmas candles on Christmas Eve
Our German Christmas light that we bought in Rothenburg ob de Tauber
Paper lanterns hanging from the roof
Paper lanterns and lights for decoration
Candles for table decoration
Can never have too many Christmas candles and lanterns
A little more lighting with Paper lanterns and string lights
Maxi with her Santa stocking
Bundy with his Santa stocking
Bundy is over Christmas Day already
Maxi with her eyes shut, and smiling. I call this her ‘funny one Dad’ look.
Can you see Bundy?
There he is!
Paper diving, Bundy style
Hard work this paper diving
I got Smurf lollies! Yum
Maxi looking pretty with tinsel
Heliconia flower in neighbours garden
Bundy chilling by the neighbour’s pool on Christmas day
Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!
Only three more sleeps until Christmas, our decorations have been hung, the yard shines brightly thanks to hundreds of solar fairy lights and all the presents are wrapped and under the tree. The only thing left to do is the shopping for fresh food items so that a small, non-OTT feast for two can be prepared, not to mention finding something yummy for Maxi and Bundy to eat, brining the total number of creatures celebrating Christmas at our house to four (visiting wildlife does not count).
This year we decided to stay home and relax for the Christmas holidays, normally we load the car up and head south to spend the holidays with our extended families, it is wonderful fun and we enjoy spending time with family but this year we’re making it about us. 2013 has been a hell of a year, plenty of ups and downs and far too many sleepless night, time at home to rejuvenate our body and souls as well as do some work around the house, is exactly what we (especially me) need because I don’t think 2014 is going to be any less hectic. Christmas morning we’ll both head to the local animal shelter to help clean pens, feed and walk doggies that are unlucky enough to be in a shelter at Christmas and then it is home to our own dogs for a day of doing whatever we like, we may even take them to the beach for a swim and a stroll along the breakwall. What are you doing to celebrate Christmas this year?
To all of you wonderful people following, liking and reading my posts, Two Black Dogs and I would like to say a huge thank you and to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May you and your families be happy, safe and enjoying life wherever you are.
Best wishes for the holiday season!
Melbourne by iPhone
With only a couple of days in Melbourne and very little free time to explore I focused on a couple of activities that could be squeezed in around attending a conference and the associated functions. Being in Melbourne makes my heart happy, here I can experience the true four seasons and make good use of my black coats, the quality and variety of wonderful places to eat makes dining out an experience and the shopping offers up products quite different to what is available on the coast. This was only my second visit to Melbourne, and I was travelling with two food focused colleagues so you can pretty much guess that we ate well when not provided with meals at the conference, lunching at Guy Grossi’s Grossi Florentino Cellar Bar and dining at the French restaurant Bistro Vue one evening.
The conference provided us with the opportunity to explore the lane ways of Melbourne though a guided walking tour of the city’s street art, the guide from Melbourne Walks was extremely knowledgeable and I would happily sign up for another walking tour. The conference dinner was held at Zinc in Federation Square, a finger food affair with plenty of alcohol flowing and the ambience created by RMIT’s (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) talented art students. When not at conference sessions and events I was making the most of my time to visit Queen Victoria Markets where the taste testing and purchasing of Koko Black chocolates was conducted, these tiny little chocolates in the form of champagne truffles, salted caramel and Raspberry Ganache were absolutely delicious, one small chocolate enough to satisfy any cravings but to ensure that later cravings were catered for, I bought half a dozen different flavours. The nearby Christmas shop is a must for visitors at this time of year, elves of all shapes and sizes plus the shop in set up so that each room has a particular colour and/or theme, for a white Christmas the room filled with silver and white decorations is perfect and the traditional red, green and gold room is filled to the brim with delightful ornaments and nativity scenes.
Architecture in Melbourne is quite different to the coast, here buildings are knocked down without alot of thought for their heritage and iconic value because our council loves the look of a skyline filled with highrise buildings towering over the beach and if a house stands still long enough, eventually it will be rendered with concrete and made to look like so many other homes – apologies for the rant, I’ll stop now. Melbourne is a mix of the old and the new, beautiful old buildings such as Flinders Street Station stand opposite the funky and modern Federation Square. RMIT buildings also throw modern architecture into the mix, several of their buildings being quite unusual and whether you love them or hate them, they definitely capture your attention. Walking along busy streets and through narrow lane ways leads to some delightful finds, paper shops and English style pubs, a book shop where everything is $10, the Hopetoun Tea Rooms and Chokolait among my favourite finds.
Next year I’ll be heading back to Melbourne, with a little bit more time on my hands I plan on exploring other parts of Melbourne however I will return to a couple of my favourite places even if it is only to browse the menu or purchase a chocolate (or two).
Grossi Florentino Restaurant and Cellar Bar
Street posters, Melbourne laneways
Finger food at the Myer Christmas shopping evening, Melbourne
Confit Duck, Bistro Vue Melbourne
Creme Brulee, Bistro Vue Melbourne
RMIT Building 80, Melbourne
RMIT Building 22, known as ‘the Green Brain’
Christmas elf
Australiana Christmas decorations
Koko Chocolate Shop, Queen Victoria Markets
Hopetoun Teahouse window display
Umbrella installation in a Melbourne shopping centre
Federation Square
The Young and Jackson Hotel, Melbourne
Federation Square
Federation Square
Table decorations
Melbourne, by RMIT Students
Melbourne cityscape, artwork by RMIT students
Federation Square at night
Flinders station at night
Jesus died for our sins
Dog sculpture
More funky architecture at RMIT
The other side of the Green Brain building, RMIT
Two Black Dogs 