Saturday, January 26, 2008

A full week!

We've had a big week in Puppy-ville. MatildaLily is growing like a weed and has shot up at least a couple of inches lately. She's all legs and big paws and no attention span = clumsy! She's now at 8.7kgs so it won't be long before she's too heavy to be carted around in my arms. They grow so fast!

She's made progress in making friends with the kitties and Harry will now sit in the same general area with her without his dissolving into a hissing, spitting mess.

The other morning Harry was watching the world go by outside the front door and Tilly behaved herself and approached gently, finally sitting down very close. Harry has decided that ignoring her is the way to go.

Tilly feels totally rejected...

Tilly's been so revved up that even cavorting all over the backyard and jetting through the house for hours on end has not drained enough energy off, so we headed to the beach at low tide. She wasn't immediately excited about it and we walked on the lead for a few minutes until her sister Dora helped her find her confidence.

Then she happily zoomed all over the sand and had a great time romping through the water.

We met up with our friends Ross, Mary & Digger. Tilly is learning how to play nicely with other dogs, though Dig doesn't make it that easy for her, preferring to concentrate on his frisbee!


On the way back another friend and his dog joined us for a bit of playtime. Tilly thought it was great coz she'd run and play chasey - Tilly's energy level hadn't decreased at all! Dora kept a watchful eye on her sister to make sure the new dog was playing nicely


and Dig decided that there were too many girl dogs for his liking and he went and sat in the car!

Tilly was so full of energy that getting a not blurry shot was almost impossible! Mary kept her eye on the prize, though, and took advantage of a moment between bursts of speed!

It didn't last long, of course...

But as the sun went down there was at least one more break!

On Friday afternoon I got a call out of the blue from a development company wanting some aerial views of a property just south of the new marina. This isn't something I've done before but I figured, why not?! I have shot out of the plane before, but always for fun, not for someone else's needs so I was a little concerned, but confident. This was a hurry up job and we hit the sky this morning.

The airstrip is very close to our property so as we were climbing the pilot, our friend Rollo, took us over it so I could grab a few frames. Forgive the angles on these - as we were working I had to grab what I could with little regard for art!

Ours is the one with the big rectangle and the roads down the sides mark our boundaries. The beach is the white strip and you can also see the reef in front of us.

Again looking towards the West you can see our property and that bit of blue in the upper left corner is the Indian Ocean on the other side of the Cape. The path you see between the beach and our property is the walking trail that goes for miles in both directions.

You can see our property near the middle of the frame here and we are now looking south out of our town and along the Gulf. This property is about an 8 minute drive from our current house that is in town. It's going to be so luxurious to live "out bush" but with all the amenities of town that close when we want them!

This is the view along the Gulf looking north towards the townsite and the top of the Cape.

I'm revamping my photography business web site and working with some designers to choose a logo. I expect to spend a good deal of time this week concentrating on building more business and finalizing some current projects.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

A relaxing weekend

I was able to dive Saturday, Sunday and Monday for a total of six dives. It was awesome to get out and not think about anything for a while. Been a long time since I've had that luxury. Of course, that meant that I've spent most of today in front of the computer catching up on all the work that wasn't urgent for the past three days!

Here are some underwater shots to start off - there was a ton of marine life, and in particular nudibranchs yesterday, on all of the dives so even though the conditions weren't picture postcard perfect under the surface, I couldn't have asked for more!
Blenny

Blue or semi-circular angelfish

Found another flounder...he kept an eye, pretty literally, on me

then decided he was way past bored with it all and gave me a big yawn!

Flabellina rubrolineata

I haven't had a chance to go through all of my shots yet, so hopefully I'll get some more up later this week.

Puppy news can't be neglected! Dora continues to amaze us with her tolerance and her leadership. MatildaLily doesn't have a slow-mo speed - she's either bouncing all over the place or running full tilt up and down the house...likely pouncing on Dora or any other semi-stationary being or object along the way!

Kapowie!

Tilly's new favourite place is right on top of Dora and Dora will let her stay there for ages before they start playing again.

Boof is becoming much more relaxed with the little dog and will even keep snoozing in the same place with her. Tilly can even lay her paw over him or give him a little kiss without negative consequences...the other two cats aren't quite there yet!


Dora and Tilly have decided that my office is the place to be during the day when I'm home - the door stays shut when I'm not here. I like to think it's because they love me, but it could be the air conditioning and the comfy pillow...

She's just too cute!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

January is half over already!

The year is already flying by and MatildaLily is growing a mile a minute, it seems! She and Dora continue to create new playtime activities and Tilly is even able to amuse herself in the mornings before Dora decides it's time to get up. Til has unearthed a truckload of toys that were considered lost forever from Dora's young puppyhood - sad to say that Gekko had to be binned today after Tilly pulled all of his little white beads out!

Of course I'm not pulling the grass up!

Maybe one leaf...

What? I'm so cute and good dog!

Inside playing gets a bit rambunctious and we often come home to find the furniture out of whack and the rug all smushed up against the door. Tilly hasn't quite figured out that she isn't allowed to chew on everything - even Dad's feet as he watched tv!

Dora will watch for a few minutes, but gets jealous and has to get in on the action - or maybe she's just helping remind Tilly of the rules...

They even work together as a mighty fine demolition team, with Dora the foreman...

Tilly gets impatient for the work to begin...

Pleeeeaaaasseee can I start now?

OK, you can have a little practice...

It'll go much faster if we both do it...

Well done, kid...

It must be time for a little kip...

Good idea.

Best we rest up for the next adventure!

It's not all puppies in our house. Dave is working hard on Concord, trying to get the boat ready for season so she's up on the hard and it's a dirty, hot job! I'm doing my usual office thing trying to get clients and agents organized as they prepare to make the long haul to visit our beautiful area.

Today I finally got to go out for a couple of dives with my friends, Ross & Mary. These were my first dives of the year and boy did it feel great to be back in the water - despite still having a terrible head cold and feeling really yucky. The conditions were just too nice and the lure of the ocean couldn't be ignored. I figured the worst that could happen was that I had to laze in the sun on the boat for a few hours!

Happily, I was able to do both dives. We visited one of our favourite spots and it was teeming with life! Shooting conditions were a little tough as there is some big chunky food in the water at the moment, but that just means more action! Here are few photos from the day:

Bright Margined coralfish dart here and there as they search for snacks on the reef:

Flabellina exoptata nudibranchs were abundant today and came in all sizes from smaller than the length of a pinky nail to a good inch and a half long:

This flounder was skipping along the bottom as I was descending:

I always love to try to catch a triplefin relaxing on a favourite perch:

These blennies make me smile, what with the little poofy tufts on their heads and the way they sit up so perkily...for .5 seconds!:

What would a dive here be without some mating nudibranchs? Looks like we'll have another bumper crop of Glossodoris atromarginatas!

It's not often you get to see these crabs out in the open...you have to wait 'til they are empty!