Two girls on their own

Dave and MatildaLily are on the road to Perth this morning after a big day packing up to leave yesterday. Dave took a huge load of stuff down to Perth...hopefully not all of it is coming back (just the tanks & the puppy,please!)

Both dogs were very concerned yesterday afternoon. They knew something was up, but weren't just sure what was going on.


Dora and I have enjoyed the short time we've had to ourselves already. We went for a nice walk down to the shops and she was so pleased and proud to have her lead on - she carried it herself, head high, tail waggin happily. We walked back with a friend and his dog and I was able to let go of Dora so she could snuffle around at her leisure coz I know SHE won't run away or be naughty off the lead.

I've also managed to get Kelly, Ryan & Kirra's photo shoot up in the blog already so you can see a few more of their images at Kristin Anderson Photography blog. Here's another shot from right after being out on the boat...messy face and all! Enjoy!

The Great 3 Kilo Challenge - Part I

Dora & MatildaLily had their annual check-up on Wednesday and the news was not good.   Both are overweight (not really news!) so we have all decided to drop some excess poundage.  OK, so they didn't decide and they aren't that thrilled with the new portions, but we humans have decided to make a game of it for ourselves and so the puppies are playing along.

First one of us to drop 3kgs (6.5 pounds) wins a prize! I know 3kgs seems like an awkward amount but we have reasons:
1 - it will be just over half of what MatildaLily needs to drop
2 - it will take Dora back down to under the 50kg mark
3 - it's more or less what the humans have managed to stack on in the past 6-9 months
4 - it's not THAT much to lose so it shouldn't take forever, which is good coz our interest level in the contest is likely to wane if we don't see some results fast!

The kitties have chosen not to participate, though two of them could stand to join us...I found this on LOL cats and thought it appropriate.


In other vet news, Til seems to have a heart murmur so she's off to Perth with Dave tomorrow so she can get an ultrasound and we can find out exactly what is going on. If this sort of thing can be said to have good timing, it does as Dave was heading down this weekend anyway to do some dive shop things and to take the oral exams for his Master Class V Skipper's Ticket that he wasn't able to do while he was there last month thanks to the DOTs lovely scheduling and procedures. Dave expects to be back home Wednesday - we're both glad it's only a short trip!

Ry, Kel & Kirra catch fish!

We had family up for a few days earlier this week and Dave was able to get out with them every day during their stay.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to go out on the boat with them, but we had a couple of dinners and a couple of photo shoots together so that was nice.

Kellie brought in the biggest catch of the trip...Ryan was a little jealous. It was almost too heavy to hold - especially with Kirra on her hip!



None of them can complain really as they all did pretty well and both of our families have a bit of fish socked away in the freezer now.


The cats were in heaven, but waited patiently for scraps as the men prepared to fillet





We were meant to do the photo session in the late afternoon one day, but the fishing trip went a little long and it turned out to be a really overcast, blah sky day so we only did a few shots. Kirra wasn't that interested in the whole thing, but did surprisingly well for having been out on the boat all day! I met them at Tantabiddi before we headed for the beach under the lighthouse.

Rebel sea gull

Returning from a big day out swimming with whale sharks & fishing

A couple quick shots at the boat ramp while they unloaded


And one from the beach by the lighthouse

There are lots more family shots, but you'll have to check KJA Photos blog for a full blog post on them soon!

Yummiest fish in the world!

Dave, Ry & Kel went out fishing yesterday and brought home a huge dolphinfish (also known as mahi-mahi) for dinner.  I've always liked mahi-mahi, but last night's fish was hands down the BEST fish I have ever eaten.  Dave rocked this fish - it's scrumptious...this morning I'm happily noming my way through the leftovers and expect to snarf it all before lunchtime!  It's even excellent cold.

The cats thought it was pretty awesome, too











I headed to the beach before sunrise this morning so the Girls and I got to see the first rays pop into the cloudy sky. It was intense and very beautiful to start with but once the sun came over the horizon it was pretty much hidden behind a solid bank of clouds and the colours disappeared.


Even looking north away from the sun itself was very pretty, if more subdued

Dora & MatildaLily played hard today - in and out of the water, up and down the dunes, snuffling everything in sight, digging in the sand - I got tired just watching them!


Yucky swampy stinky mud? Nope, I don't see any of that, Mom.

There was some sort of big bird hanging out in the swampy area...I wasn't able to get a very good shot of him so hopefully he'll be there again on another morning. I have no idea what he is.

I can't believe how well he blends in to the background

He wasn't overly impressed with the dogs running around like maniacs so would fly off, then swing around and land further away, then fly off again. As we headed back to the car I saw him tuck in to his original spot so at least he wasn't totally freaked out.

Kitties at 6400

Last night we had some friends and family around for a bbq and while we were waiting for them to arrive I decided to have a bit of a play with the Canon 1DIII and high ISO.  For those who aren't geeky like I am, here's some info in a nutshell: high ISO shooting is one of those Holy Grail type things for photographers.  It allows us to shoot in unreasonably dark conditions with no flash and still get images that are relatively clean and totally useable - by this we mean no terrible noise (looks like sparkles of red usually) or grain, especially in the shadow areas, and the photo is still crisp and sharp with lots of detail. 

Many dslr cameras are pretty good up to ISO 800, but only a few are any good beyond that and the list gets even shorter when we start talking about ISO 1600, then shorter again for ISO 3200 and positively brief for ISO 6400.  The 1DIII is a great option for this type of shooting and its high ISO capability is one of the main reasons I ended up buying it.

Enough geek for now, let's see some photos from my playing!

Lobo was moderately cooperative




Harry was not, but I still liked this one. He's starting to go just a little grey and those strands of fur add a cool texture, I think.


Dora wasn't that interested either, really



The Girls and I got up early early to sort some dive shop things out before hitting the beach for a big walk. It was a lovely morning, nothing spectacular, just warm, clear, bright...perfect for walking. Even though it wasn't one of those WOW mornings we still had neat light changes and there were lots of birds wandering around the shore - at least until Tilly noticed them and took off chasing them out to sea!



I'm in my office for most of the day again today, but am pretty sure that if I try hard I can knock over most everything that's still on my plate so I should be able to sneak out for some fun time tomorrow or Wednesday. I sure hope so as our skipper just rang and said the viz is 30m where he is today!!