Dogs in the dark and other good things.

The other night I was a bit late getting to give the dogs their evening constitutional.

The sky wasn't quite dark but it was very black under the trees.

Tuppy doesn't care, though. As long as she can see or hear the ball she is on for a game.

"Throw it!  Throw it!"

Here she comes back, almost as fast as she goes out. It's a shame I've never got up enough enthusiasm to take her to retrieving trials.  She is truly a fiend for retrieving.  She was bred to be, from some very good working lines,  so no surprises there.

While Tuppy shoots out and back over and over, madly hunting for the ball if it goes into long grass or lands out of her hearing, Rosie waits patiently for me to have time for her in between throws.

 With her I do little games and we practice and learn tricks.  She'll go get the ball at a tittuppy canter if I tell Tuppy to wait and she knows she doesn't have to compete.  It's in her mouth there somewhere!  You can just see Tuppy's impatient head there beside me, bottom left.  She doesn't like Rosie's turns!

       
Between the two of them, it's not exactly a peaceful stroll!

Ah well, in the morning we just walk and that is peaceful.  This morning out on our bush walk we were lucky enough to see one of these little guys, our local version of a Robin Redbreast, and his duller-coloured family, flitting back and forth from the track in front of us to a low bush hunting insects.

The pic came from here, and there is plenty of info on them there too. Apparently they are actually called Scarlet Robins.  It is always amazing to see a flash of that bright red amongst the blue/green/grey of our local forest.  They are cheery little characters, chirping away together.  It was lovely to ask my dogs to wait beside me (good girls!) and to stand there quietly and enjoy them until they moved on in their foraging.

Then when we got home, smoke from next door's newly-stoked potbelly was drifting over our place, and the sun was slanting through it most magically.

Between the moving light and the moving smoke, the scene changed in seconds.

 

Very cool.  It felt all foresty and mythological.

Noticing little moments of wonder; it is one of the ways I got through the years of lyme disease, and it is a good way to stay happy even if you are busy and healthy.

According to Tuppence, the way to be really happy is to wait till the fire is super hot, then bask by it till her shiny black coat feels almost too hot to touch!

On this day, may you bask just as happily in the heat of a good fire, or the warmth of a gentle sun, and may you see many little moments of wonder.